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  • 1.  Establishing a Research Support Center

    Posted 11-08-2017 12:24

    I am looking for advice/suggestions on how best to structure and staff a Research Support Center at the Keiser University Graduate School.  Keiser started as a career college for adults about 40 years ago in Florida, but about 8 years ago began offering online graduate programs in Education, Psychology, Criminal Justice and Business Administration.  Keiser University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges (COC) of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS - 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097: Telephone 404-679-4501) to award certificates and degrees at the associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels.  


    If you have experience at your University with "free" research support services for graduate students engaged in quantitative research projects, please reply to this post, or phone/email/text me off-line.  Many students at Keiser choose QUAL research methods to parse words/themes  for their dissertation projects because, I believe, they lack the confidence/ability to analyze and interpret numeric data on their own.   Note, I am not interested in staffing a "fee for service" consultation center, but just trying to figure out what free support services can be offered to graduate students to help bolster confidence in their abilities/skills with quantitative research designs and statistical methods as they draft their dissertation proposals.

    Many thanks in advance for any comments/thoughts!

    Eugene Komaroff, Ph.D. 
    Professor of Education & Academic Advisor 
    Keiser University Graduate School 
    1900 W. Commercial Blvd. 
    Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309 
    ekomaroff@keiseruniversity.edu 
    973-900-2963  


  • 2.  RE: Establishing a Research Support Center

    Posted 11-09-2017 09:08
    Hi, Eugene. We are located in a Department of Biostatistics, and our students register for a course in Biostatistical Consulting. In this course advanced and beginner students are paired to work on unfunded or pro bono research projects brought in by graduate students, medical residents and fellows, and faculty members throughout our medical and health sciences departments/schools (funded projects or grant proposals are forwarded to faculty). Our beginners generally shadow for a project or two, after which the advanced students gradually hand over responsibilities and ultimately analytic control as the beginner students gain more experience. These student pairs officially report to the faculty member overseeing the course after the initial consultation and before final reporting, and also hold impromptu meetings with the faculty member as the needs arise. In this model, our students get academic credit, grades, feedback and experience, the faculty member gets teaching credit, and our colleagues and researchers get free collaborations. So far it has been working well, though the number of incoming projects can outpace the number of collaborators we have to offer. We also set up a webpage explaining our Laboratory and terms of use (basically disclaimers stating what we will and won't do, coauthorship policies, etc.), that includes a REDCAP application. That application includes investigator details (for tracking and use purposes), project details, expected timelines, and dissemination plans. The students in the class monitor these applications and work with the faculty member to assign projects.

    I hope this helps. Good luck!

    ------------------------------
    Roy T. Sabo
    Virginia Commonwealth University
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Establishing a Research Support Center

    Posted 11-09-2017 09:09
    One efficient way to staff such a service starts with the idea that the goal is NOT to help the student get the project done but rather to help the student learn something. If you believe the former you need a lot of staffing with folks who do a lot of work. The latter yields a sensible plan -- to wit:
    1. Require all students seeking help to write a short (1/2 page max) description of their problem and submit it to the consultant beforehand. This will shorten the line of students seeking help massively because they have to do something.
    2. The consultant can usually see what needs to be done from this description, and so takes a previously prepared, annotated bibliographry, and checks off what the student should read to get the answer to their question. This too will shorten the line, because once again, the student must do some work.
    3. Only in the case where an obvious solution is not available does the consultant actually need to meet with the student.

    This approach minimizes the need for paid expert time -- but it does not eliminiate it. Sometimes experts are needed, and expertise must be paid for.

    ------------------------------
    Howard Wainer
    Extinguished Research Scientist
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Establishing a Research Support Center

    Posted 11-10-2017 00:15
    Dear Komaroff,

    I am a Ph.D scholar in Department of Statistics, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. Our department is providing "free research support"/"data analysis consultancy" to other graduate and post-graduate students to help them in sample selection, survey design, data analysis and interpretation of their findings (from statistical point of view).

    For this purpose, students/researchers visit our department, and the visiting hours are fixed (i.e., they can meet Professors and Ph.D scholars on every Thursday from 11:00 am to 01:00 pm in their respective offices). The visiting students discuss their issues in which they are facing difficulty, and take advice from a Professor. Then Professor refer him to a Ph.D or M.Phil scholar for further deep understanding of concepts or commands in R or SPSS or Stata (whatever required). The visitors can seek help through email and can take advice from a Professor or Ph.D scholar regarding data entry, data analysis or interpretation issues. (All these are done free of cost).


    Regards,
    S. JAWAD ALI SHAH
    Ph.D Scholar,
    Department of Statistics,
    University of Peshawar, Pakistan
    +92-0306-5614776



    Original Message


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