Center for Education Research & Scholarship
The Center for Education Research and Scholarship (CERS) supports research and scholarship in health professions education and supports a community of educators across the department. CERS offers mentorship, collaboration, and financial support to students, residents, fellows, and faculty.
The Department of Pediatrics has a growing community of educational scholars, and CERS serves as a hub to support and connect any interested trainees or faculty. Please join any of our offerings to engage with our community.
Pediatric Education Group (PEG)
PEG meets on the third Thursday of every month from 12-1pm to highlight educational scholarship and research projects across the department. Please click here to see the current meeting schedule and here to join our listserv to receive monthly invitations and reminders.
Works in Progress Peer Mentoring Groups (WiP)
CERS hosts two monthly WiP Peer Mentoring Groups to provide a forum for trainees and faculty to brainstorm, troubleshoot, and obtain feedback on medical education scholarship and research. Whether you have an idea for a project you have not yet started, or you have nearly completed a project but have questions about next steps, joining a WiP Peer Mentoring Group can help you gain momentum for your work, find collaborators, and allow you to contribute to your peers’ progress. We hold virtual meetings … and in-person meetings …. Please click here if you would like to join one of these groups.
Research Groups
The Department of Pediatrics has several groups of medical educators with programs of research surrounding shared interests. Please contact us here if you have interest in joining the medical education scholarship efforts in any of the following areas, or if you have ideas for additional programs of research you would like support in building:
- Behavioral and mental health education
- Pediatric specialty choice
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Simulation
- Global health education
- Coaching
- Competency-based medical education
- Longitudinal integrated clerkships
CERS is happy to provide consultation or collaboration for:
- Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods educational research
- Curriculum development
- Program evaluation projects
- COMIRB submissions
- Grant funding
To request support, please complete this form or contact Michelle Kiger at michelle.kiger@childrenscolorado.org.
Internal Funding Sources
Grant Funding
Limited intramural funds are available to members of the Department of Pediatrics for education research and scholarship projects that have been well planned. Please complete and submit this survey for consideration of internal funds.
CERS Grant Funding Request Form
Travel Awards
The Center for Educational Research and Scholarship is thrilled to provide limited travel awards to support presentation of scholarly work within the Department of Pediatrics related to medical education. To apply for the award, you must have an abstract (poster or oral presentation) related to medical education accepted for presentation at a conference. We will consider funding for student, residents, fellows, and faculty. Funding of up to $2,000 per application will be competitively awarded to rounds at least twice yearly. Priority will be given applicants who have not received travel funding from CERS in the prior 2 years. The next deadline for applicants is February 15, 2025. Please complete the travel award application using the link below:
External Funding
Sources Some extramural grant opportunities include the following:
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provides multiple grants opportunities in education and advocacy.
Academic Pediatric Association (APA) has several funding opportunities, including the APA Young Investigator Award, APA Young Investigator Award for Primary Care Strategies for the Promotion of Early Literacy and School Readiness, and the Resident Investigator Award, to name a few. Must be a member of the APA.
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) visit the “Grants and Awards” page to learn about various grant and funding opportunities.
Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) The AMEE offer several awards and has multiple grant opportunities in support of medical education research and scholarship.
Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD) The APPD awards monies for special projects as well as having grant opportunities for up to $10,000.
Edward J. Stemmler Medical Education Research Fund provides support for research or development of innovative assessment approaches that will enhance the evaluation of those preparing to, or continuing to, practice medicine.
IMAP/Macy Foundation Grant provides five awards each year for up to $25,000 for educational programs in medical professionalism. Grants are for a two-year period.
Macy Faculty Scholars Program provides up to $100,000 in salary support to five faculty each year in support of educational change innovation change projects.
National Institute of Health - search for “Medical Education Research”
Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards Program provides seed money for research by junior faculty at ORAU member institutions. These awards are intended to enrich the research and professional growth of young faculty and result in new funding opportunities.
Western Group on Educational Affairs (WGEA) is a regional group of the AAMC group on Educational Affairs which supports professional development of medical educators and the advancement of medical education research.
Tips for COMIRB
New Submissions to COMIRB Checklist
Complete required CITI Training modules. These must be completed before you gain access to eRA (InfoEd).
- Determine if you are conducting Human Subject Research. You may find the following documents to be helpful:
- Deciding if an Activity is Considered Human Subject Research
- COMIRB Decision Trees– Determining Human Subject Research
- Determine if your study should be submitted as Exempt, Expedited Review, or Full Board Review.
- If you are working with COMIRB Affiliated institutions (DHHA, CHCO, VA, etc.) you must submit for Institutional Approval at each site you are working with.
- Once you determine what kind of COMIRB review is needed for your study, create a new study in eRA (InfoEd). Access to the portal can be found on the COMIRB homepage.
- Log in using your UCD credentials.
- Select “Human Subjects from the left navigation pane
- Select “Create New”. A box will pop up with “New Human Protocol in Human Subjects Development” marked. Click on “continue”
- Follow the prompts to create a new protocol. You may wish to add a delegate who will be able to add documents, send and receive communications, etc.
- Complete the Application for Protocol Review
- Compile Required Supporting Documents
- If your study is not exempt, you must also submit through the Human Subject Research Portal.
Managing References
Many resources are available on campus for locating and managing references.
My NCBI is a service of the National Library of Medicine, available through PubMed. In My NCBI you can maintain a bibliography of your publications, save searches for PubMed, and save collections of articles you have identified through PubMed. Sign up for My NCBI.
EndNote is a reference management system available at no cost to CU Denver faculty, employees, and students.
Instructions to Access and Download EndNote
Mendeley is another reference management system and is available for free.
PubMed and many other databases are available through the Health Sciences Library, with links to full text articles if you sign in to the library with your CU Denver login.
The librarians at Children’s hospital are extremely helpful with setting up literature searches and locating references. Visit Catisha Benjamin and Marie St. Pierre in the library in the Administrative Pavilion, 1st floor, north side of the atrium (formerly the Willow conference room).
Tips for Research and Scholarship
Planning an Education Project
Worksheet for planning scholarship.pdf
Identify a project you are working on that might be considered scholarship and work through the process of laying out your project goals and methods.
APA-Educational Scholars Program: Making a Poster
How to design an effective poster.
Poster Critique
Critique the message and visual presentation of your poster to find out if it can stand alone and presents a clear message.
Platform Presentations (from PEG 2018)
Giving a Platform Presentation.pdf
Identifying problems in preparing and giving platform presentations and describing solutions to overcome these problems.
Article on Boyer's expanded definitions of scholarship
Boyer's expanded definitions of scholarship, the standards for assessing scholarship, and the elusiveness of the scholarship of teaching
Contacts
If you have any questions, please email Bernie Gerson, Program Assistant at bernard.gerson@cuanschutz.edu, or Michelle Kiger, Director of Medical Education Research and Scholarship at michelle.kiger@childrenscolorado.org.