Seeing the Value of Undergraduates in Undergraduate Research

Abstract

For the past 18 months, the University of North Georgia, alongside other institutions in the University System of Georgia, has been in the process of redesigning core classes to better suit the needs of students. One of the classes undergoing curricular redesign at UNG is English 1101. Last year, Dr. Rifenburg, an associate professor in the English department, asked me to be a part of this process. I helped conduct a research study to collect IRB-approved qualitative data on the experiences held by first-year students in English 1101 courses. Through semi-structured interviews with first-year English 1101 students, I gathered useful data about the pilot course and learned more about the relevance of undergraduate student participation in the curricular redesign and analysis process. In this presentation I explain samples of the qualitative data I gathered through the interviews, how we coded them to analyze them, and why it is important that an undergraduate student was involved in the curricular redesign process.