Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41296874›Full record

ArticleCBE life sciences education2025

Unveiling Undergraduate Research: Employing Ecological Momentary Assessment to Characterize and Compare Undergraduate Research Experiences.

Yaileen C Maldonado Mendez, Benjamin S Listyg, Constanza Mardones-Segovia, Brook Bowers, Kathiana M Colón Cotto, Leighton Hilton, Isabelle Koscik, Briana Outlaw, Shelby Portner, Nazir Barekzi and 11 more

Abstract readComparative Study
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in CBE life sciences education, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

21 authors.

Yaileen C Maldonado MendezDepartment of Biology, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, San Juan, PR 00925.
Benjamin S ListygDepartment of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
Constanza Mardones-SegoviaDepartment of Educational Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
Brook BowersSchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
Kathiana M Colón CottoDepartment of Biology, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, San Juan, PR 00925.
Leighton HiltonDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
Isabelle KoscikDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
Briana OutlawDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
Shelby PortnerDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
Nazir BarekziDepartment of Biology, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA 23504.
Megan E FegleyFirst-year Research Immersion Program, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902.
Jaime MayoralDepartment of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199.
Kelly K McDonaldDepartment of Biological Sciences, California State University, Sacramento, Sacramento, CA 95819.
Kara J Helmke RogersCollege of Natural Sciences, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712.
Julia Sonnenberg-KleinSchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332.
Paul N UlrichDepartment of Biology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303.
Kyle JohnsenSchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
Shiyu WangDepartment of Educational Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
Allan S CohenDepartment of Educational Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.
Juan S Ramírez LugoDepartment of Biology, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, San Juan, PR 00925.
Erin L DolanDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Undergraduate research experiences (URE) and course-based UREs (CURE) vary in terms of what students do, and it is unclear whether CUREs can substitute as research experiences for UREs. We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA), or in-the-moment data collection, to identify and compare research tasks of CURE and URE students at nine universities. We texted surveys to two cohorts, receiving 3537 responses from 538 students in Cohort 1 and 10,862 responses from 711 students in Cohort 2. Qualitative analysis revealed that students' tasks fit 11 themes (planning, managing research, experimenting, working with data, iterating, learning, reading, writing, presenting, finalizing work, interacting with others), which mapped onto four topics (experimentation, data collection, data analysis, communication) derived using natural language processing and machine learning. CURE and URE students completed similar tasks in similar proportions and described engaging in their tasks actively and constructively, but not interactively. Our results suggest CUREs may substitute for UREs for engaging students in research tasks in university contexts and that both CURE and URE students may benefit from greater interactive engagement. Our study also demonstrates the feasibility of EMA for studying research experiences and the utility of topic modeling for analyzing large text datasets.

Indexed as

Ecological Momentary AssessmentResearchStudentsCohort StudiesFemaleHumansLearningMaleSurveys and QuestionnairesUniversities

Identifiers

PMID41296874
PMCPMC12699792

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.