Enhancing student research through a virtual participatory action research project: Student benefits and administrative challenges

Can graduate students in a distance learning environment gain meaningful research experience through a virtual participatory action research project? The answer is an emphatic 'yes.' The purpose of this article is twofold: to demonstrate how and to what extent graduate students can gain research experience through participation with alumni and faculty in an action research project, and to examine administrative issues arising from adhering to the democratic participatory action research process under virtual constraints. Project success is determined through documents produced by participants in the Faculty-Student Mentoring Project and from two focus group evaluations held via conference calls. The data demonstrated that the students and alumni increased their research skills, used their skills and knowledge in other courses and their dissertations, presented, and published. The university gained valuable information. The democratic participatory aspect of action research and the virtual environment created administrative challenges such as scheduling and workload issues. Recommendations include: screening volunteers to determine their levels of expertise and commitment; providing time for participants to get to know each other and the technology at the outset of the project; setting expectations for participation; sharing the project management; and anticipating more time for virtual than face-to-face research.