TRSI Hub — Education
The Hub supports methods training at the undergraduate and graduate levels within the university, offers lifelong training for those outside the university, and provides learning and networking opportunities for researchers and community partners. The Hub emphasizes advanced methods, applied interdisciplinary and community-based work, and experiential learning in multiple forms.
Specifically, the Hub is working to deepen and broaden research methods education by
- the reviewing current training opportunities in social research methods at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and consulting with programs about training needs in the methods course mapping project;
- developing additional applied research opportunities to support the current offerings for more comprehensive, cutting edge, and practice-ready training;
- supporting methods training opportunities at the university by building a methods seminar, summer methods institute, and series of workshops that will support a larger applied research methods certificate.
Methods Course Mapping Project
The Hub works with Faculties, Colleges, Centres, and Institutes on course coordination at the undergraduate and graduate levels to assess the training that UofA currently offers as well as expand on these opportunities. The Hub is mapping methods curricula across departments and programs in order to coordinate information and respond to strengths and gaps. In supporting undergraduate research-based experiential learning, the Hub also works with groups within UofA to identify, support, and expand available opportunities.
Applied Research Opportunities
At the undergraduate level, addressing the need for more applied research and experiential learning opportunities for students, the Hub synthesizes and expands opportunities for undergraduate research-based experiential learning. The Hub will develop a list of all extant methods-focused experiential learning opportunities and offer additional course-linked community-based projects, developed with community organizations.
Methods Training Opportunities
The Hub supports methods training by creating new opportunities for students, faculty, and community partners to learn about research methods. To benefit many different types of learners, the Hub will expand programming around social research methods, with a particular emphasis on research for social change.
The Hub will offer regular methods seminar and a series of workshops on specific methods and pedagogical approaches, which will expand training opportunities to individuals within and outside the university. The Hub will build a scaffolded set of microcredentials through a Summer Methods Institute that can be taken on their own or combined into a Graduate Certificate in Applied Social Research, which the Hub will develop. In addition, the Hub supports graduate student training through research assistantships and applied placements with community organizations through CUP; these efforts will be coordinated with related programs on campus, such as graduate practicum opportunities offered in and the School of Public Health.
