Hi peers,
I’m back with more advice from researchers. In case your new to this series, I’ve been speaking to a handful of folks who have contributed research to our field and asking them “what advice do you have for practitioners regarding how to stay engaged with research?”
Find new program ideas
For folks who have limited time or resources, Dr. Austin Anderson, Associate Professor of Clinical Medical & Molecular Genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine suggests using current research as a basis for creating a new program. Research journals like NIRSA’s Recreational Sports Journal can serve as a place to discover new programming ideas, and by engaging with peer-reviewed articles, you can learn about programs that have been proven to be effective. A good example is a recent article about a peer-led fitness buddy program: “Impact of a Peer-Led Campus Recreation Program to Improve Student Wellbeing: Exploring Participation Outcomes of the Fitness Buddies Program.”
Kirby, J. B., Lindsay, K. G., Visscher, L. E., Townsend, R., Stellino, M. B., & Kulakowski, E. (2024). Impact of a Peer-Led Campus Recreation Program to Improve Student Wellbeing: Exploring Participation Outcomes of the Fitness Buddies Program. Recreational Sports Journal, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/15588661241257478
If you are considering new programs and want to center students’ physical and social wellbeing, consider reading the article to learn what the researchers found in this study.
Scan the reference list
Dr. Cara Lucia, Chair, Associate Professor at Elon University and Past President of NIRSA encourages us to look at reference lists at the end of journal articles. She offered that by doing a quick scan, you may well find additional articles that support your work on campus. And not everything in the reference section is going to be a scholarly journal article; you may also find industry reports that can help you communicate to faculty, administrators, and other stakeholders across your campus.
In my own role on campus, here are a few topics I’ve scanned a reference section for to help with the non-research parts of my job: advocating for salaries, proposing the removal of dress codes, and models for flexible/hybrid work that increase employee satisfaction—to name just a few!
I’ve been connecting with collegiate recreation staff to learn more about how they have taken research and put it to practice in their day-to-day work. Next month will be the final blog of my presidential term. So be on the lookout for one last post in April that will highlight how our peers are using research in small and big ways! Yours in nerdiness,
– EP
Erin Patchett
Erin Patchett, PhD., is currently the Director, Administration & Assessment for Campus Recreation at Colorado State University and the President for the NIRSA Board of Directors; you can email her at erin.patchett@colostate.edu.
