In Academically Adrift (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), Arum and Roksa utilize surveys, the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), and transcript data from college students to argue that during their time in higher ed courses students make little if any gain in such skills as writing and critical thinking. Previously, in an attempt to combat writing problems, colleges have created W/Writing-Intensive courses, and to deal with students' need for training in service, S/Service Learning courses came about.

We propose answering the dilemma posed by Arum and Roksa's work with the R/Research Course. In order to graduate, students would have to demonstrate the mastery of skills necessary for the research process, and all students in all disciplines would have to complete at least two R courses, one in their major and one outside the major. While we realize that several majors already require a heavy dose of research in a number of their classes, we see a need for select classes that target the research process as a major feature of the course, and make students metacognitive of that process.

What would be the minimal components emphasized in an R course?

• An original 20-page research paper (20 pages is the Arum-Roksa minimal standard);
• A checklist that students sign and date that demonstrates they have gone through the research process from original idea, to review of literature, to first draft, to last draft;
• A review of literature that contains book-length as well as shorter primarily literature and Internet sources;
• A clear thesis embedded in the middle of controversy; and
• Sufficient and relevant evidence that demonstrates critical thinking (i.e., an evaluation of argument).

Certainly each college and university could create its own rubric that elaborates upon and deconstructs these general requirements, but in general the R course is an idea whose time has come.

To follow up on any of these ideas, please contact me at fglazer@nyit.edu. This Weekly Teaching Note was adapted from a contribution to the Teaching and Learning Writing Consortium hosted at Western Kentucky University and organized by Seneca College and New York Institute of Technology.

Contributor:
Charlie Sweet
Hal Blythe
Rusty Carpenter
Eastern Kentucky University