The DoC IT: a Professional Development Tool to Support and Articulate Alignment of One’s Course with the Five Dimensions of CUREs

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) offer a powerful approach to engage students at all academic levels in the process of scientific discovery. In comparison to prescriptive laboratory exercises, CUREs have been shown to promote students’ science process skill development, positive attitudes toward scientific research, and persistence in STEM. While this is the case, descriptions of CUREs within the literature vary widely, particularly in the extent to which they explicitly address the five posited dimensions of CUREs. This can present as a challenge to both novice CURE facilitators, who may be unfamiliar with CURE terminology, as well as the CURE community as a whole, who seek to understand what facets of CUREs impact student outcomes. In response, we created the “Dimensions of CUREs Informational Template” (DoC IT), a professional development tool amenable for use with CURE designers, facilitators, and evaluators. Application of this tool is intended as a viable step in achieving a unified way to discuss CUREs in both intra- and interinstitutional contexts.