Involving Undergraduates into Health Informatics Research via Project-Based Learning Classes – A Case Study

Involving undergraduate students in health informatics research is crucial for fostering future researchers and practitioners in the rapidly growing field of health informatics. Various studies have explored methods to engage undergraduate students in research activities. In this study, a Project-based learning (PBL) approach was used to involve undergraduate students in health informatics research, and the final product generated by the classes was evaluated. The PBL classes were unique because they combined undergraduate and graduate level classes from different fields of study, with one class playing the role of the producer/provider group and the other serving as the user/customer group. This approach allowed the students to experience the entire research pipeline and product development lifecycle. The evaluation of the PBL class was conducted through the assessment of a web application that was jointly developed and tested by the Data Structures and Healthcare Informatics class. In conclusion, the project-based learning approach with undergraduate and graduate students provided exposure to real-world health informatics problems and the full product lifecycle, giving valuable research experience to the students.