Guidelines for Minimum Expectations of Students and Advisors for 4th Year Selectives Projects

The student and advisor should meet to discuss project outline, specific objectives, expectations and feasibility.

• The project should have a succinct hypothesis and research methods and/or clear specifications of methods and outcomes for an education and/or community intervention activity.
• The student should prepare a project timeline and a schedule for student-advisor meetings should be established for the entire project.
• IRB applications should be submitted for all research involving human subjects/records and education/health intervention programs. This should occur concurrently with submission of the proposal to the Committee. Documentation of IRB approval/exemption is required for project work to begin.

The advisor must review and sign off on the proposal prior to submission. This can be done on the proposal form itself, or by e-mailing approval to the Course Director, lewisj@nso.uchc.edu. Students doing Selectives outside the University of Connecticut School of Medicine system must have a UCONN advisor as well as a site advisor. For sample proposals and other Selectives information, please refer to our website at http://cbe.uchc.edu. This information will also be available on Blackboard. Questions should be e-mailed to the above address.

Selective Advisor’s responsibility

It is the Selective Advisor’s responsibility to:

• Be familiar with the Selectives Course guidelines and expectations.
• Review and approve the proposal.
• Help the student revise the proposal in response to Selectives Committee review when this is required.
• Complete IRB training, help student with IRB process, and ensure that student submit to UCHC IRB (required in most cases) and other institution IRBs as appropriate.
• Review the first stage of student work which should include (1) expanded rationale, (2) literature review (minimum of 20 relevant sources), and (3) project focus and methods.
• Help the student modify the specific research questions and methodology and/or educational/intervention issues and methodologies, and timeline as necessary.
• Help the student identify other resources as required for the project, e.g., educational consultation, methodological guidance, clinical or community sites. Students completing web based projects should contact UCHC Health Sciences Education Center to arrange for technical support. Statistical consultation is available through the Biostatistics Core, information is posted on Black Board.

*There are no suggested times for when these meetings should occur because it will be dependent on the nature of the project and the time frame. Some Selectives are longitudinal, some are 2 separate one-month blocks and others are a single block of two months. Meetings with the student should be established according to the nature of the project and the time allocation. This is the minimum number of student-advisor meetings, obviously more are encouraged whenever possible.

• Meet with the student to determine next steps in the research or project. Paper deadlines and an oral presentation date should be established. Appropriate venues for presentations include professional meetings, Scholars Groups, UCHC department seminars, and Selectives Symposia.
• Review a draft of the paper and provide feedback. The paper should be written in the format of a professional journal (specific journal will be dependent on the nature of the student’s project). The paper should include an abstract.
• Observe the oral presentation (when possible) and provide direct feedback to the student.
• Read and approve the final paper and provide feedback to the student.
• Submit the evaluation form and narrative about the student’s work.

Student's Responsibility

It is the student’s responsibility to:

• Review the concept of the Selective and gain the Advisor’s agreement to serve prior to submitting pre-proposal description
• Submit pre-proposal description information, topic, methods, population, advisor name, address and e-mail by due date in June.
• Submit proposal two months prior to beginning any work implementing the project.
• Ensure that all the materials are included with the proposal, advisor approval, dates and complete narrative with appropriate references in text as well as bibliography (see outline).
• Complete IRB training and submit application to UCHC and other institutions as required. Provide electronic copy of application to CBE Office. Send copy of notification of approval/exemption to CBE Office. Discuss any changes in protocol with advisor and notify IRB.
• Communicate with the Selective Advisor on a regular basis.
• Notify the Advisor of any changes, problems or new approaches.
• Provide the Advisor with timely information about scheduled presentation time.
• Submit the paper to the Advisor with sufficient time for review and to make changes in the paper prior to evaluation.
• Provide advisor with original data, review any changes from IRB protocol.
• Complete online Selective Course evaluation.

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