While this might not be an ideal time for you to supervise an undergraduate student in research, there are other ways you can support undergraduate students in their exploration of research.
One starting place is to find opportunities to talk with students about research. While the question of “what is research” might seem self-evident, many students have questions about what it means to actively participate in or carry out research. Consider these opportunities to engage with undergraduate students about research:
Courses
In your courses and during office hours, discuss research and research opportunities. If you have a teaching assistant for your course, you might also invite them to talk about their research work and what they do as a graduate student.
Undergraduate Student Groups
Offer to speak with members of a student union or club about your own research journey or how to approach applying for research opportunities.
Promoting a Research Culture
Consider sharing information about research-related talks offered by your academic unit with undergraduate students in your courses (e.g., posting information on Quercus). This can help students see these opportunities as being welcoming learning spaces for them.
Workshops
Consider participating in or organizing a workshop that will help support students in research related tasks in your discipline (e.g., data analysis techniques, how to conduct a literature review, how to manage a research project).
Connections with Other Researchers
Connect students with the research community by introducing them to faculty colleagues, graduate students or other undergraduate students who share their research interests.
Research Conferences and Forums
Offer to moderate a panel at an undergraduate research conference or serve as a judge for an undergraduate research poster forum. If you participate in a conference, try to stay for any networking events to speak with students about research.
Programs
Consider engaging with a program that helps to develop undergraduate students’ research skills. For example, PRISM: Preparation for Research through Immersion, Skills and Mentorship. introduces students to the different facets of research in the field of Computer Science, while inviting upper-year undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty to share their experiences.
Offer Encouragement
If a student produces an excellent piece of research for your course, encourage them to share the research through other avenues such as publishing with an undergraduate student journal or presenting their finding at an undergraduate research conference.
Respond to Student Outreach
You might not have capacity to craft personalized responses to students who reach out to you. However, students report that not hearing back from faculty and staff they reach out to can have a demoralizing effect, leaving them feeling less motivated to seek out and apply to future opportunities. If you don’t have any research opportunities available, consider creating a template email to respond to students who reach out to you that you can quickly send in response and that links them to this website.