Broadening Participation in Online Research and Learning in Materials Science and Engineering: The Impact of Recruitment Strategies

This innovative practice paper describes how recruitment strategies affect both the educational backgrounds and the research interests of applicants to an online research and learning experience in the field of materials science and engineering (MSE). Focused on students from historically underrepresented backgrounds within U.S. undergraduate science and engineering programs, our study addresses a critical gap in extending the reach of online initiatives to applicants from a broad range of universities. While undergraduate research has been shown to be an important vehicle in increasing diversity and participation of students from historically underrepresented backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers, a large fraction of educational institutions remains out of the recruitment purview of Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs. This limitation arises in part from the conventional reliance of promotion mechanisms on established higher-education consortiums, limiting outreach to eligible applicants from schools beyond these networks or those in non-research-focused universities. To address this, we implemented innovative recruitment strategies, emphasizing direct personal engagement with STEM programs at minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and scholarship networks dedicated to underrepresented groups across the nation. Over three annual application cycles involving approximately 200 applicants, we traced the evolution of our recruitment tools and evaluated their impact on the academic backgrounds (e.g., major of study, undergraduate year, university) and MSE research interests reflected in the submitted applications. Compared to traditional REU recruitment strategies, our approach was found to result in a broader range of academic backgrounds without any significant difference in application quality (e.g., score on evaluation rubric). Furthermore, our findings reveal that applicants' research interests directly reflect altruistic broader impact goals related to MSE, aligning with documented trends in undergraduates from historically underrepresented groups enrolled in other STEM programs. Importantly, the insights derived from this study extend beyond MSE programming, offering guiding principles for implementing successful recruitment strategies to foster diversity in online research and educational interventions across disciplines.