University of Florence, Florence, Italy. Department of Biology. Via Madonna del Piano 6-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy.
Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, 113C Bryant Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611. USA.
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2019 Mar 1;366(6). doi: 10.1093/femsle/fnz068.
Researcher identity can be defined as the totality of traits such as confidence, logical thinking and having both the ability to design experiments, interpret results, and the desire to seek and succeed in authentic research. Therefore, the development of students' researcher identity can be supported by authentic research experiences embedded in introductory courses. Distance courses are increasingly more appealing to students and institutions, and there is a need to assess to what extent web-based education can provide opportunities to foster researcher identity. In an attempt to offer authentic research opportunities in a course with partially web-delivered content and to foster a research identity, we developed an outbreak case study-group project (OCS-GP) that is an investigation of a mock outbreak of illness. Participants were divided into groups tasked with conceiving an outbreak scenario and then identifying the cause and the source of the outbreak. The case studies were open-ended and designed to provide students with authentic learning experiences. Development of a researcher identity was evaluated in this exploratory study via reflective tests: participants in the OCS-GP demonstrated more willingness to conduct research, when compared with those who completed a similar outbreak case study but as individual assignment (OCS-IA).
研究者身份可以被定义为自信、逻辑思维等特质的总和，以及设计实验、解释结果的能力，以及在真实研究中寻求成功的愿望。因此，通过在入门课程中嵌入真实的研究经验，可以支持学生研究者身份的发展。远程课程对学生和机构越来越有吸引力，需要评估网络教育在多大程度上可以提供培养研究者身份的机会。为了在部分网络教学内容的课程中提供真实的研究机会，并培养研究身份，我们开发了一个爆发案例研究小组项目（OCS-GP），这是对模拟疾病爆发的调查。参与者被分成小组，负责构思爆发场景，然后确定爆发的原因和来源。案例研究是开放式的，旨在为学生提供真实的学习体验。在这项探索性研究中，通过反思性测试来评估研究者身份的发展：与完成类似爆发案例研究但作为个人作业的学生相比（OCS-IA），OCS-GP 的参与者表现出更愿意进行研究。
