Undergraduate student experiences of publishing biomechanics research

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate student experiences of publishing undergraduate research in biomechanics. Twenty-nine people with experience of publishing peer-reviewed undergraduate biomechanics research completed an online survey regarding their perceived benefits and level of involvement in aspects of the research process. On average, students perceived their experiences to be ‘largely helpful’ or greater in all aspects. Areas were identified corresponding to the greatest (e.g. understanding of the research process: median extremely helpful) and least (e.g. statistical analysis skills: largely helpful) perceived benefits and the greatest (e.g. reading relevant literature: I did most of the work) and least (e.g. developing hypotheses and/or methods: myself and my supervisor/others did a roughly equal share of the work) student involvement. No significant effects of level of involvement on related perceived benefits were reported (0.319 ≤ χ2 ≤ 9.000). Common intended learning outcomes may be achieved through involvement in the research process independently of the level of staff involvement. Such teaching strategies are especially effective in achieving broad non-technical objectives.