Research Training Workshop Research Articles

Evaluation of a research training workshop for academic staff in tertiary institutions: A Kirkpatrick model approach

Evaluation of a research training workshop for academic staff in tertiary institutions: A Kirkpatrick model approach

A national program to advance dementia research in Vietnam

BackgroundAs Vietnam and other low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) experience a rapid increase in the number of people living with dementia, an acute need exists to strengthen research capacity to inform policy, improve care and support, and develop national dementia plans. We describe the development and early outcomes of an National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute on Aging (NIA)-funded national dementia research capacity building program in Vietnam.MethodsThe research capacity building program commenced in 2019 and has three components: (1) Vietnam Alzheimer’s and other dementias research Network (VAN), (2) a mentored pilot grant program, and (3) research training, networking, and dissemination activities. The pilot grant program funds Vietnamese researchers for one to two years to conduct research focusing on Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD). Grants are reviewed and scored using NIH criteria, and priority is given to pilot grants with policy relevance and potential for future funding. An international pool of high-income country (e.g., United States, Australia, and United Kingdom) mentors has been engaged and mentors paired with each funded project. Training and networking activities include workshops on AD/ADRD research topics and regular meetings in conjunction with Vietnam’s annual national dementia/geriatric conferences. Dissemination is facilitated through targeted outreach and the creation of a national network of institutions.ResultsOver four years (2019–2023), we received 62 applications, reviewed 58 applications, and funded 21 projects (4–5 per year). Funded investigators were from diverse disciplines and institutions across Vietnam with projects on a range of topics, including biomarkers, prevention, diagnosis, neuropsychological assessment, family caregiver support, dementia education, and clinical trials. A network of 12 leading academic and research institutions nationwide has been created to facilitate dissemination. Six research training workshops have been organized and included presentations from international speakers. Grantees have published or presented their studies at both national and international levels. The mentoring program has helped grantees to build their research skills and expand their research network.ConclusionThis research capacity building program is the first of its kind in Vietnam and may serve as a useful model for other LMIC.

Impact Evaluation of a Resident-Driven Research Training Workshop in Idaho: A Feasibility Study.

Engagement in research activities is a critical component of clinical residency training. It is vital to build research capacity of residents to help interpret evidence-based medicine and design quality improvement projects. A mixed methods study was conducted to assess the impact of a 1-day research training workshop conducted at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Centre, Idaho in May 2022. The workshop was targeted to improve the research knowledge of current clinical residents of Internal Medicine and Family Medicine. Workshop comprised of expert presentations, with assessment of difference in knowledge with a pretest and post-test. The sessions were organized around the core competencies of Institute of Medicine. Suggestions were also gathered from the audience. A pretest and post-test based on 13 questions was administered to the participants to assess change in research-related knowledge. Comments and suggestions of the participants were also recorded. Wilcoxon rank test was applied to determine statistical difference across each question and cumulative knowledge score. Conventional content analysis was applied to explore the comments and feedback. The mean score of participants improved across all 12 questions. Statistically significant results were observed for the questions about types of studies qualifying as qualitative research. The cumulative score of participants increased in the post-test from 8.57 to 9.35. The participants gained new knowledge (94.3%), and felt more comfortable in application of research methods (74.3%). Encouraging feedback was obtained from the audience. They stated that they had benefited from the workshop and felt more prepared and motivated to indulge in scholarly activities. The study shows improvement in research-related knowledge of clinical residents attending a 1-day training workshop. We recommend inclusion of such workshops in the curriculum of residents for skill building and enhanced indulgence in research activities in order to prepare them as future leaders in quality improvement, health policy, and hospital administration.

High school administrators' and teachers' perceptions of their educational action research skills

Educational action research has attracted significant attention from teacher-researchers and school administrators in recent years due to the method's effectiveness in teaching practices. Besides, educational action research skills are regarded as one of the essential aspects of doing action research. The present study aims to examine administrators' and teachers' perceptions of their educational action research skills; compare educational action research skills between the trained and the untrained groups and between the group that conducted the research and the group that did not. The study used the 11-item scale to survey 255 respondents (16 administrators and 239 teachers) from eleven high schools in Binh Duong province, Vietnam. The descriptive analysis was used to assess perceptions of high school administrators and teachers on their educational action research skills. Our results indicate that administrators and teachers assess their educational action research skills very good. The trained group's educational action research skills are higher than the untrained group. Educational action research skills of the group conducted research is higher than the group that did not. The present findings provide more information on educational action research among administrators and teachers in Binh Duong province. Educational action research training programs, workshops, and educational policies should be implemented to reinforce and promote educational action research skills.

Improving postgraduate students' scientific literacy and self-efficacy using international collaborative research workshops: an exploratory case study in a Chinese university

Postgraduate education in China bears the dual mission of "high-end talent supply" and "scientific and technological innovation" as delegated by the Ministry of Education of China (2017). Improve the quality of postgraduate student training and management is essential for Chinese universities to meet this requirement. This paper investigates the practical effectiveness of using a specially designed, internationally collaborative research training workshop to enhance new Chinese postgraduate students' scientific literacy and self-efficacy. The research results show that the workshop, which integrates seminar presentations and both individual and group-based student activities, is of practical significance for improving the experiences of first-year postgraduate students. The findings indicate the application of enactive mastery and vicarious learning strategies in research training workshop effectively boost students' motivation, confidence and feeling of accomplishment at their early research career, and can provide ongoing benefits to support Chinese students to further develop research skills and capabilities. The positive findings in this exploratory study can inform future research projects to examine the transferability of this research training workshop model in the broader Chinese higher education context.

The development and use of a research self-efficacy scale to assess the effectiveness of a research training program for academic librarians

Research self-efficacy – or research confidence – has been shown to be a predictor of research productivity. There is also some evidence that it is a mediating factor between the research training environment and research productivity. To explore the connection between research training and research self-efficacy, the authors developed, validated, and later expanded a scale to measure research self-efficacy among academic librarians. They used the expanded 38-item scale to measure the research self-efficacy of participants from a three-year research training workshop for academic librarians, comparing results before and after the workshop. Participants experienced significant increases in research self-efficacy across all 38-questions, within the annual cohorts and across all three years. The question-level results were used to make changes to the summer workshops in Years 2 and 3, in order to improve the effectiveness of the summer workshop to increase research self-efficacy. This study confirms that a measurement of research self-efficacy can be a useful tool in assessing the effectiveness of research training and improving that training.

A low-cost, hands-on module to characterize antimicrobial compounds using an interdisciplinary, biophysical approach.

We have developed a hands-on experimental module that combines biology experiments with a physics-based analytical model in order to characterize antimicrobial compounds. To understand antibiotic resistance, participants perform a disc diffusion assay to test the antimicrobial activity of different compounds and then apply a diffusion-based analytical model to gain insights into the behavior of the active antimicrobial component. In our experience, this module was robust, reproducible, and cost-effective, suggesting that it could be implemented in diverse settings such as undergraduate research, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) camps, school programs, and laboratory training workshops. By providing valuable interdisciplinary research experience in science outreach and education initiatives, this module addresses the paucity of structured training or education programs that integrate diverse scientific fields. Its low-cost requirements make it especially suitable for use in resource-limited settings.

Progress towards TB control in East Kwaio, Solomon Islands

[Extract] The recently published project report TB questions, East Kwaio answers: community-based participatory research in a remote area of Solomon Islands1, reported that tuberculosis (TB) remains an important issue to communities and health providers. The island of Malaita has the highest rate of TB in Solomon Islands. Many complex issues are contributors to this concerning level of disease. Factors such as remoteness, socioeconomic and sociocultural issues have been described. Massey et al particularly highlighted how cultural differences based on different worldviews had resulted in some TB patients being unable to access routine hospital based services. Since the development of a research-capacity strengthening approach with the Atoifi Adventist Hospital (AAH) in 20094, and the TB project of 20111, important initiatives and outcomes have been seen, including: * Building a new TB Ward that is culturally safer: a site for the new ward, that meets both socio-cultural and health requirements, has been agreed with mountain area Chiefs and AAH. The area has been cleared, plans drawn up and builders engaged. * Food for TB inpatients: AAH now purchases food each week for TB inpatients to enhance treatment. Currently other hospital inpatients provide their own food. * Active case finding and treatment: the AAH TB Team have conducted active case finding in distant TB ‘hotspots’ including the Kwaibaita Valley and remote mountain hamlets. Ten new cases were found during community visits and treated, including one person treated only in the community setting. * Funded Project to develop TB resources: AAH was successful in applying for a grant from the Australian Respiratory Council to develop local TB resources. This project will work with the traditional oral story-telling model of education and communication, but with modern technology. Locally made videos in local language and Pijin are being developed for community based TB education, including taking DVD players and video clips into remote hamlets and villages to stimulate discussion. * Stronger links with the National TB Program: the Provincial TB Coordinator is involved in the TB DVD project and has invited AAH to run research-training workshops in the provincial capital. * Reported TB case numbers increased: Since the commencement of the research capacity-strengthening approach and concentration on TB, annual reported cases of TB at AAH have increased from four cases in 2009 to 34 cases in 2012, increasing the case detection rate.

Negotiating a ‘Scary Gap’: Doctoral Candidates, ‘Writing Up’ Qualitative Data and the Contemporary Supervisory Relationship

The complex task of ‘writing up’ qualitative data provides difficulties and challenges for both doctoral candidates and their supervisors, which can often result in detrimental effects on the supervisory relationship. These effects can be heightened by the pressures currently felt by supervisors, not least to ensure their supervisees submit in a timely fashion. We argue here that these pressures are in part responsible for a shift in supervisory pedagogy from a relational to a processual grounding. This article addresses some of the consequences of these effects via analysis of interviews with doctoral candidates and their supervisors from a series of interdisciplinary research training workshops in the UK designed to provide help for doctoral candidates engaged in writing up qualitative data. In these workshops doctoral candidates came together briefly for a residential workshop along with peers at the same stage of the doctoral cycle who were away from their institutional homes. We discuss the relationship between process and relationality and how a workshop of this kind might impact on writing and help with timely submission.

Call for Undergraduate Student Education Research Training Workshop & AERA Grants Program: Calls for Grant Proposals

Call for Undergraduate Student Education Research Training Workshop & AERA Grants Program: Calls for Grant Proposals

AERA Holds Third Undergraduate Research Training Workshop at 2011 Annual Meeting

AERA Holds Third Undergraduate Research Training Workshop at 2011 Annual Meeting

European Training Network on (+)RNA Virus Replication and Antiviral Drug Development

Antiviral drug development requires a detailed understanding of virus replication and effective translation of this knowledge into drug discovery. Europe needs well-trained experts with multidisciplinary skills to advance this field. However, few, if any, European training institutes have the broad know-how required to provide such a comprehensive training programme. The EUVIRNA partnership aims to fill this gap with the proposed EUVIRNA training programme, which is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) funded by EC FP7 (FP7-people-2010-ITN). The EUVIRNA partnership consists of six outstanding European academic partners and four industrial partners (Tibotec-Virco, Pike Pharma GmbH, Riboxx GmbH, and Okapi Sciences NV), and an associated partner specialized in education (Virology Education). All EUVIRNA partners are recognized leaders in their field, ensuring state-of-the-art training possibilities, and their skills are highly complementary. EUVIRNA aims to introduce 17 Early Stage Researchers (PhD students) and 3 Experienced Researchers (postdoctoral researchers) to state-of-the-art knowledge and technology applied in molecular virology and antiviral therapy, with both local and network-wide training activities. Individual research projects, research training workshops and intersectoral secondments will be supplemented with complementary skills courses to improve career development and perspectives. The industrial partners are actively involved in the entire programme, and will furthermore organize a 1-week industry-oriented conference aimed at further bridging the gap between academia and industry. Thus, EUVIRNA offers talented researchers a multidisciplinary and intersectoral training programme and prepares them for a future leading role in European molecular virology research and antiviral drug development.

AERA Undergraduate Student Education Research Training Workshop Call for Applications: Deadline December 1, 2010

AERA Undergraduate Student Education Research Training Workshop Call for Applications: <i>Deadline December 1, 2010</i>

AERA Convenes Undergraduate Student Education Research Training Workshop

AERA Convenes Undergraduate Student Education Research Training Workshop

AERA Undergraduate Student Education Research Training Workshop

AERA Undergraduate Student Education Research Training Workshop

AERA Holds First Education Research Training Workshop for Undergraduate Students

AERA Holds First Education Research Training Workshop for Undergraduate Students

Effectiveness of research training workshop taught by traditional and video-teleconference methods in a developing country

The developing countries are currently facing a double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Physician-scientists, trained in patient care and research skills are crucial in performing cutting-edge clinical research in the developing countries. A major unmet challenge has been the lack of local expertise and the increasing problem of 'brain drain'. The current study was an effort to present and assess a model of research training to health-care professionals in Pakistan in order to increase the research skills. The objective of the current study was to assess the effectiveness of two different methods of research training. An epidemiologic research training workshop was offered to health-care professionals in Pakistan by face-to-face (F2F) and video-teleconferencing (VTC) methods. A total of 38 F2F and 18 VTC participants were included in the workshop which was conducted by research faculty from the University of Pittsburgh. To assess knowledge, pre- and post-test were done. Within each group, paired sample T-test showed significant improvement in scores after the completion of workshop (p<0.001 for F2F and VTC). In the F2F group, mean scores increased from 11.13 (pre-test) to 15.08 (post-test) and in the VTC group, scores increased from 10.67 (pre-test) to 13.22 (post-test). Two sample T-test was found statistically significant (p<0.001). We present a model for training physicians in public health by providing in-house research skills training which can be used to strengthen the local capacity and reduce increasing problems of brain drain.

Ways to strengthen research capacity in developing countries: effectiveness of a research training workshop in Pakistan

Developing countries are currently facing the burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Physician-scientists, trained in patient care and research skills, are crucial in performing cutting-edge clinical research in developing countries. A major, unmet challenge has been lack of local expertise and the increasing problem of 'brain drain'. The objective of this study was to present and assess a model of research training for healthcare professionals in Pakistan in order to increase research skills. A 9-day research training workshop was offered to healthcare professionals in Pakistan using face-to-face (F2F) and video-teleconferencing (VTC) methods. In total, 38 F2F and 18 VTC participants were included in the workshop, which was conducted by research faculty from the University of Pittsburgh. The study measured short- and long-term effectiveness of research training. The training included courses in basic epidemiology, biostatistics, genetic epidemiology and international health. A significant improvement in post-test scores was seen in both the F2F and VTC groups (P<0.001). In the F2F group, mean scores increased from 11.13 (pre-test) to 15.08 (post-test 1), and in the VTC group, mean scores increased from 10.67 (pre-test) to 13.22 (post-test 1). Two-sample t-tests indicated that these results were statistically significant (P<0.001). Two-way repeated measure analysis of variance in both groups showed significant changes in mean scores over time (P<0.001). This model for training physicians in public health by providing in-house research training can be used to strengthen local capacity and reduce increasing problems of 'brain drain'.

Touch Research Institutes: an interview with Dr Tiffany Field (interview by Peter Mackereth).

The following paper reports on a recent visit to the Touch Research Institutes (TRI) based at the University of Miami School of Medicine. The main purpose of making the journey was to participate in a 3-day Research Training Workshop. The paper will first provide a brief overview of the history and work of the TRI. There will then be an interview with Dr Tiffany Field, the TRI founder and Director, and finally accounts of the workshop experience itself and a visit to one of Miami's foremost schools of massage therapy: 'Educating Hands'.

The development of a training model to improve health professionals' skills, self-efficacy and outcome expectancies when communicating with cancer patients

Health professionals such as doctors and nurses are in a key position to help reduce the high prevalence of affective disorders and psychological problems experienced by cancer patients. This role, however, is inhibited by ineffective communication practices which include the use of distancing strategies and avoidance by the health professional. A number of contributory factors such as skill deficits and anxiety about negative consequences for the patient and the health professional have been identified in previous research and brief problem-focused training workshops developed to address these factors with only limited success. Researchers in applied psychology have recommended that the development of training programmes and their evaluation are based upon approaches which take into account cognitive and affective factors as well as change in skills. The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual model of communication behaviour in the cancer setting. The model aims to take account of the role that knowledge and skill deficits, self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs and perceived support plays in the ability and willingness of health professionals to assess their patients' concerns. It has been applied to guide the development of a revised approach to brief, problem-focused workshops for health professionals. It also allows a systematic and multi-dimensional evaluation of training outcomes. Preliminary results indicate this is a promising area of communications research.