Research and Mentoring Remotely

As all of UCCS has made the transition to remote work and learning over the Spring term, research projects have also experienced significant disruptions. We at the Center for Student Research want to offer support to our research community as best as we are able and have compiled a few tips resources for faculty mentors and their graduate researchers.

Tips for Faculty Mentors

We know this is a challenging time for all of us and with the major disruptions to our schedules, the idea of navigating the end of term and thesis/dissertation defenses can seem daunting. Your graduate researchers are definitely feeling this too, so we encourage mentors to reach out to their student regularly so that, while plans might be momentarily derailed, your student can have access to your guidance and you can navigate these new waters as a team. Here are some ideas for these conversations.

1. Consider the challenges your students might be facing: Depending on how long you’ve worked with your students, you may or may not be familiar with the different ways this crisis might have impacted their lives. Do they also work as an essential employee? Are they caretakers/parents? How is their access to technology, safe housing, food? Be sure to check that your students have their basic needs met and have access to medical/mental health resources. The UCCS Wellness Center is an excellent resource for your students and you!
2. Check in with your mentees regularly: Again, depending on your relationship with your students, they might be intimidated or overwhelmed with asking anything of you. As their mentor, it is important to reach out and discuss the concerns they have regarding their research and degree progress. The brief article from Nature summarizes important points about mentoring in the age of COVID-19.
3. Be flexible with deadlines: Even carefully laid research and dissertation plans can go wrong in the best of times. Understand that there will be countless upsets to the projects you and your students have been hard at work on, so being able to lead your students in adapting to such challenges with not only lessen the burden on them, but on you as well.
4. Consider revising (or establishing!) your mentoring plan: How often will you meet? What skills does your student need to develop? What are your shared goals and expectations of each other. How will planned research be taking place with campus closed? Here is a link to a mentoring plan template you can use if you don’t already have a plan in place. This link also offers suggestions for remote defenses of theses/dissertations. More resources can be found at Remote Working: Setting Yourself and Your Teams Up for Success.

Tips for Graduate Students

Graduate school is already challenging enough without a global pandemic but UCCS and the Center for Student Research is here to help support our graduate researchers. Below is a compilation of different tips and resources to help you adapt with these changing times.

1. Adjusting to working/studying/researching from home: With so many changes happening at once, you may have felt a little disconnected from your work and studies on campus. Here are a few links for tips to help you realign you’re your work and studies remotely.
   1. Remote work courses from LinkedIn (how you and your research team can be successful remotely)
   2. Study tips from the University of Michigan
   3. Writing Techniques for the Socially Distanced Grad
   4. How to Science During a Pandemic
   5. Some overall advice for you and your mentor
2. Planning to defend soon?: Here are a few helpful tips for remote oral exams and additional tips for defending a thesis or dissertation online (share with your faculty mentor!).

Summer gives researchers much-needed time for writing and planning future projects. But what about your research mentees? Since UCCS will be remote for the most part in Summer 2020, it’s important to help make sure your students keep in touch and on track with their research. Here are a few ideas to help keep your research momentum going through summer!

• Consider hosing a few virtual journal clubs to help keep you and your students up-to-date on the latest relevant research in your area. This also helps foster the sense of community within the lab and keeps your students actively engaged with one another.
• What datasets do you have that can be worked on remotely? Upload them to a secure cloud (password-protected files give an added layer of protection). Now you and your students can work on analysis and data visualization from home!
  • This is also a great way for newer students to practice data analysis techniques on previously collected data.
• Learn new skills! Summer is a great time to brush up on old skills and pick up some new ones. Linkedin Learning has countless online trainings for important skills that can benefit you and your students including data modeling in R and analyses in SPSS and Python. And all are accessible to UCCS students and faculty!
• Have students:
  • Conduct literature searches and reviews
  • Create figures, tables, and/or charts
  • Write methodology and/or introduction sections for papers, posters, etc.
  • Research future trends and/or new product ideas
  • Develop web-based surveys on Qualtrics (for a how-to visit the Office of Research Tools and Resources Page)
  • Have an experienced grad student develop or revise an existing lab manual to help train future research assistants
• Conduct new research using Citizen Science
  • Check out some of the projects here!