Research Scholarship Course

FIU medical students are required to complete a 9-credit course known as the Research Scholarship Course (RSC). This course is designed and conducted by the Division of Medical and Population Health Sciences Education and Research, Department of Medical Education. The purpose of the RSC is the development of the student’s competencies to do research (basic, community, clinical) as a lead or co-lead investigator (PI or Co-PI). Projects conducted to obtain credit for the course are also known as curricular research.

The bullets below provide more details about the RSC.

• Objectives

  At the end of the RSC participants will be able to:

  • Apply basic theoretical concepts of scientific health research.
  • Describe the elements of a preliminary written plan to propose a research project (the pre-proposal).
  • Perform a systematic and comprehensive scientific literature search related to the research question and the relevant background.
  • Critique the scientific literature identified in the search using a systematic approach and summarize the literature in a structured review table and in a written document.
  • Develop a structured scientific research protocol.
  • Identify the requirements and elements of an Institutional Review Board (IRB) application and apply them to their project.
  • Apply the essential elements to conduct an unbiased data collection and/or data analysis activity.
  • Identify and organize the most important and relevant results obtained from the analysis in tables, figures, graphs, and written text.
  • Discuss the research results according to current knowledge in the research field to generate new information and knowledge.
  • Summarize the project in a structured abstract.
  • Create appropriate presentation tools to disseminate research findings (both an oral and a poster presentation are required)
  • Write a manuscript draft for potential publication
• Structure

  Teaching structure: The course is individually customized for each student and faculty group. The process to assemble the groups is the following:

  1. Students are assisted in establishing teams of three students, two faculty mentors (methodological and content mentors), a data analyst, and a librarian. The team remains the functioning research unit from conceptualization through implementation and completion of a research project.

  The faculty mentors provide methodological support, whereas the content mentors assist in projects with their specific research expertise. Faculty mentors track all student work, help and support team efforts, evaluate each of the requirements of the 8 Steps as completed, and file completed assignments in the course database, where all completed and approved work is accumulated.

  Instructional structure: The course covers theory and research practice in sessions.

  1. To cover the development of competencies in research practice, each group must develop research products described in the eight steps (see below); resources such as readings, videos, or tutorials are also available in CanvasMed to support students in completing each step.
  2. The groups discuss the products for each step in one-on-one or small group sessions held with the faculty mentors during each step. These sessions are scheduled along each step as needed.
  3. Each team may receive mandatory reading assignments as pertinent to their projects. Online modules may also be assigned. Additional independent learning activities are recommended when necessary and may vary by group and research project. Faculty-supported discussion sessions are provided to review the readings and requirements of each step.
  4. Teams present and discuss their progress, challenges, and questions with their faculty mentors at least twice within each of the eight steps. Each team receives guidance and feedback on their goals and strategies at these meetings so that project step assignments can be completed by the corresponding deadlines.
• Steps

  The following table describes the eight RSC steps in more detail:

  Step	Activities	Main final deliverables
  1. Research pre-proposal	Developing a research question; writing a project proposal.	1. Feasibility check (if required) 2. Pre-proposal
  2. Literature review/Theoretical framework	Conducting a literature review to develop the background and theoretical framework for the proposed study.	1. Background 2. Theoretical framework
  3. Research protocol	Writing a detailed scientific research protocol.	1. Research protocol and variable list
  4. IRB training/IRB clearance	Completing required IRB CITI training courses; Human Subject Research Determination approved/IRB approval (if required); signing data release form (if required).	1. All required CITI training certificates 2. Human Subject Research Determination/IRB approval (if required) 3. Signed data release form (if required)
  5. Data analysis	Analyzing the data (statistical analysis); developing tables of results.	1. Output of statistical analyses 2. Tables and/or Figures
  6. Results and interpretation of findings	Interpreting the results of the data analysis and contrasting them to current scientific evidence.	1. Description of results 2. Interpretation of results (discussion)
  7. Presentation - Dissemination	Developing a scientific abstract summarizing the research; oral presentation of the research project; creating a scientific poster of the research project.	1. Abstract 2. Oral presentation (PowerPoint slides) 3. Scientific poster
  8. Scientific writing	Drafting a manuscript according to the guidelines of a peer-reviewed journal; a plan on how to disseminate the research findings to a specific target group.	1. Draft manuscript 2. Dissemination plan

• Resources

  CanvasMed contains documents describing the objectives, the activities, the resources, the deliverables and the rubrics used for assessing the products for each step.

  View our Student Research Opportunities