A bioinformatics-driven CURE extension increases student self-efficacy and interest in biomedical research

Abstract

The biology workforce has a need for undergraduate students trained in bioinformatics. Although bioinformatics is a critical sub-discipline of biology, it is not required in all biology degree programs. In parallel, there is a need to increase student access to research experiences. To address these needs, we offer a one-credit bioinformatics-focused and computational biology course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE), here called the CB-CURE. Preliminary data suggest the CB-CURE increased student interest, knowledge, and self-efficacy, but also reveal a shortage of access to undergraduate research experiences (UREs) in faculty labs at our large institution. To provide a more URE-like experience for a class setting, we developed a one-semester extension to the CB-CURE, called CURE+. In CURE+, students execute individual bioinformatics-driven research projects and obtain additional career development and mentoring. To evaluate CURE+, we measured students' bioinformatics and research self-efficacy, interest in bioinformatics and research, and emotions toward their project. Additionally, we evaluated student mastery of the CURE+ learning outcomes to determine if the experience successfully enabled students to develop their research skills. Our data show significant increases in (i) student self-efficacy in various bioinformatics and research skills and (ii) student interest in bioinformatics-related activities and in biomedical research. Students had positive emotions toward their research project, and a majority of students mastered the CURE+ learning outcomes. Our data suggest that an intensive CURE extension can provide a potentially transformative research experience that helps fill a void in access to research at institutions with a high student-to-faculty ratio.

Keywords: Hispanic-serving institution (HSI); bioinformatics; biomedical research; career development; course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs).

Fig 1

Alignment of CURE+ Skills with three competency frameworks: (A) Vision and Change (as described in the BioSkills guide), (B) the Bioinformatics Core Competencies, and (C) the BEDE Data Skills Curriculum Map. Full descriptions of competency frameworks and skills are available in Table S1.

Fig 2

Overview of CURE+ Curriculum. The course was offered in Spring 2024, spanning 4 months with 1 week of Spring Break. Students were surveyed at three separate times throughout the semester, indicated by the colored rectangles (yellow for pre-term, green for mid-term, and blue for post-term).

Fig 3

CURE+ student responses for research self-efficacy items. Pre-survey results are indicated in the top bar for each item, while post-survey results are indicated in the bottom bar. Responses are indicated as follows: “Strongly disagree” in purple, “Somewhat disagree” in red, “Neither agree nor disagree” in yellow, “Somewhat agree” in blue, and “Strongly agree” in green. Green arrows next to each item indicate a significant increase in self-efficacy for a skill with a P value < 0.05 in a Wilcoxon signed-rank test with Benjamini-Hochberg correction. Equal signs (=) indicate no significant differences between pre-term and post-term results.

Fig 4

CURE+ student responses for bioinformatics self-efficacy items. Pre-survey results are indicated in the top bar for each item, while post-survey results are indicated in the bottom bar. Responses are indicated as follows: “Strongly disagree” in purple, “Somewhat disagree” in red, “Neither agree nor disagree” in yellow, “Somewhat agree” in blue, and “Strongly agree” in green. Green arrows next to each item indicate a significant increase in self-efficacy for a skill with a P value < 0.05 in a Wilcoxon signed-rank test with Benjamini-Hochberg correction. ^One data point was missing in the post-term data and imputed using the mean.

Fig 5

CURE+ student responses for Interest in bioinformatics- and research-related activities. Students self-reported their interest in a topic in two separate sets of questions of the post-survey, one referring to before the internship (top bar) and another for after (bottom bar). Responses are indicated as follows: “Strongly disagree” in purple, “Somewhat disagree” in red, “Neither agree nor disagree” in yellow, “Somewhat agree” in blue, and “Strongly agree” in green. Green arrows next to each item indicate a significant increase in self-efficacy for a skill with a P value < 0.05 in a Wilcoxon signed-rank test with Benjamini-Hochberg correction.

Fig 6

Emotions toward the research project. Students were asked to choose from a set of emotions how they felt about their research project. These emotions were then grouped into positive or negative emotions, colored as cyan or magenta, respectively. Green indicates results for the mid-term survey, while post-survey results are indicated in blue.

Fig 7

Evaluation of CURE+ learning outcomes. Each outcome consists of a specific number of skills indicated in parentheses. For a student to master an outcome (indicated in blue), they must have scored “Mastery” or “Mastery+” on every skill related to that learning outcome. The number of students who did not master a skill related to a specific outcome is indicated in orange.