Online Masters Degree

The project proposal is begun in the master’s research seminar class. Students are discouraged from entering the program with a final project idea in mind, as many ideas will be formed as the student progresses through the courses and undertakes a number of class projects that could potentially lead into a final project. Ultimately, students are urged to select and develop a project that meets the needs of their institution.

A copy of the final draft of the project proposal should be given to the adviser and the master’s committee. This proposal must be accepted to initiate the master’s project. Download the Project Proposal Acceptance Form here.

Most educational research projects involve human subjects. Students using human subjects in their research must obtain approval from their institution’s designated Institutional Review Board (IRB) and follow all processes and procedures required by their IRB. If a student does not have a designated IRB, it may be possible to submit the study to the University of Cincinnati’s IRB.

Additionally, students must have adequate access to resources necessary to conduct research, including a subject population.

The student’s master’s committee is chaired by the student’s faculty adviser. Additional members include Ray Baker and Kadriye Lewis. If the student’s faculty adviser is not a College of Education faculty, an additional committee member from the College of Education may be selected to sit in on the final presentation / defense.

While requirements for various projects will vary, certain elements are common to all projects. The following is an outline for a project manuscript. However, because of the uniqueness of projects, this outline is only a guideline and should be adapted as necessary and in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser and / or master’s committee.

• Introduction to the project
  Purpose of the project 
  - Scope (description) of the project 
  - Significance of the project 
  - Limitations of the project 
  - Definition of terms
• Review of related literature
• Methodology
• Recommendations / implications 
  - Summary 
  - Conclusions
• Appendices
• References

The student’s faculty adviser is particularly important in helping the candidate to complete a master’s project by providing advice on the project’s requirements, helping to define the topic and develop a research plan, reading drafts of the project to provide advice on revisions, and administering processes for approval of the project.

The following are projects conducted by program graduates. The complete list with project abstracts may be downloaded here.

• Retention of Surgical Knot-Tying Skills for Second-Year Medical Students: Performance and Timed Assessments of Skill Levels Over Time
• The Ophthalmic Clinical Evaluation Exercise: Inter-rater Reliability Determination
• Learning about Learning: Can Instruction of Expert Clinician’s Reasoning Techniques Change Resident Physicians’ Attitudes Toward Inpatient Rounds?
• Development and Implementation of a Patient Safety Curriculum in a Pediatric Emergency Department
• The Theory of Reasoned Action to Predict Preschool Vision Testing Behaviors in Primary Care Setting
• The Reliability and Validity of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter Among Physician Leaders
• Assessing Clinical Competency of Residents in Reproductive Health Interviewing
• The Effects of Age and Career Type on Continuing Medical Education in Pediatrics: Motivation, Attitudes, and Learning Strategies
• Multisource Feedback to Pediatric Residents: The Efficacy of an ACGME Competency-Based Assessment Tool
• High-fidelity Medical Simulation in the Difficult Environment of a Helicopter: Feasibility, Self-Efficacy and Cost
• Assessing Self-Directed Learning Readiness in Family Medicine Resident Physicians
• Can an Educational Video Improve Parental Understanding of Physician Trainee Roles in the Pediatric Emergency Department?
• Is Patient Feedback A Useful Adjunct to Medical Student Evaluation?
• Comparison of Team Leader Training in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Randomized, Controlled Trial Involving Simulation-Based and Traditional Training Methodologies
• Development of Preliminary Quality Measures for Juvenile Rheumatoid or Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis - A Project in Progress
• Effects of Simulation Training on Pediatrician Knowledge and Self-Efficacy in Airway Management
• Emergency Medicine Mock Oral Board Examination Simulation: Is Peer-Reviewed Simulation More Effective than Individual Simulation?
• Measuring Knowledge and Attitudes about Asthma in Pediatric Nurses in an Inpatient Setting
• West African Immigrant Families in Cincinnati: A Cultural Primer on Children’s Health
• Readiness Assessment of Medical Residents for an Online Residents-as-Teachers Curriculum
• Use of In Situ Simulations to Identify Barriers to Patient Care for Ad Hoc Multicultural and Multidisciplinary Teams in Developing Countries: A Qualitative Study to Inform the Design of Educational Interventions in Under-Resourced Settings
• Development of a Quality Improvement Knowledge Assessment Tool
• Development of a Research Curriculum in Basic Science: A Pilot Study of a Formal Curriculum in Research Training