Undergraduate Research 
Opportunities & Competencies (UROC) 
Open Educational Resource Open Access

Welcome to the University of Maryland Office of Undergraduate Research's Undergraduate Research Opportunities & Competencies (UROC) Open Educational Resource. This resource was designed to provide undergraduate students with the essential skills and tools to take on an undergraduate research opportunity.

UROC is divided into four modules: Undergraduate Research 101: Intro to Undergraduate Research, Undergraduate Research Toolkit, AI & Information Literacy in Research, and Taking Action. While we designed each module to build upon the modules before it, we understand that not all students will need to review each of UROC's pages. We encourage you to pick and choose which UROC modules and pages will be most useful to you!

	The very first section of UROC, "Intro to Undergraduate Research," will explain what undergraduate research is, provide you with an overview of a few different forms of undergraduate research, and outline the benefits of engaging in research as an undergraduate.
	The second section, “Undergraduate Research Toolkit,” provides you with an overview of many of the skills you might need before and during an undergraduate research experience.
	“AI and Information Literacy,” our third section, will help round out your toolkit by making sure you are up-to-date on artificial intelligence (AI) tools and how they can be used responsibility in research settings.
	Finally, after you have a better understanding of undergraduate research and you have fine-tuned your research skills, section four of UROC, "Taking Action," will help you reflect on what you have learned, identify what kind of research might be best for you, and help you develop a plan to find a research mentor and get involved!

About You

Please complete the 'About You' survey below by filling out the form below. The About You survey will ask you to provide some information about you, your research experience, and questions about your confidence with Undergraduate Research skills and tasks. Taking the time to answer these questions will greatly help the Office of Undergraduate Research learn who is using UROC, and will help us to continue to improve and develop UROC modules for future students. We thank you for your time and willingness to provide this information.

UROC Modules Quick Links

 Support of UROC Development

The Office of Undergraduate Research extends its gratitude to the following University of Maryland Campus Partners for their support in the development of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities & Competencies (UROC) Open Educational Resource.

The development of UROC was funded by a Teaching Innovation Grant from the University of Maryland Teaching & Learning Transformation Center.

Creative Commons Licensing and Rights for Reuse

Unless otherwise explicitly noted, all components of The University of Maryland Undergraduate Research Opportunities & Competencies (UROC) Open Educational Resource © 2024 by University of Maryland Office of Undergraduate Research, Carinna F. Ferguson, Amrina Rangar, and Kamryn P. McKenzie are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International