Getting Started
Welcome to WPI and LS&T! This page contains some information and resources to help you get started in the program. The first few weeks are always a little slow so in the meantime, here are a few ways to started and some resources to use during your time in the program!
CITI Training and IRB Protocol
During your time in the program, you will almost inevitably conduct research with human subjects. To ethically do so, please explore the WPI IRB website and then complete the necessary CITI training. The training usually takes 1-2 hours so please allot enough time to complete the training. If you have previously completed CITI training, please make sure that your credentials are up to date or complete a review course.
After you have completed the necessary training, please save the PDF of your certificate and ask your advisor where to put the certificate in a shared Google Drive folder.
Computer Programs
WPI offers most of the software programs (SPSS, Microsoft Office, etc.) that you will want to use while you are here. Visit the IT Services station in the library (inside to the right of the front door) to have a staff member install these programs for you.
We recommend getting the Pulse Secure VPN to access the WPI network off campus. Additionally, take advantage of the reference managers available! The Ottmar lab uses Mendeley to share articles.
The "T" in LS&T
Test out our learning technologies! Make an ASSISTments account and explore the tutoring system and research testbed. Play with the Graspable Math canvas and demo From Here to There. While you’re at it, read these articles to learn about the systems.
See Heffernan & Heffernan (2014) or Ostrow & Heffernan for an introduction to ASSISTments.
Check out Weitnauer, Landy, & Ottmar (2016) for an introduction to Graspable Math.
Resources at WPI
WPI offers a ton of support and resources for graduate students, take advantage! Rory Flinn, Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies, organizes graduate and postdoctoral professional development programs throughout the year. He also sends out a monthly graduate student newsletter with great opportunities, resources, and funding options.
WPI has an institutional membership with the National Center for Faculty Diversity and Development. They offer resources for graduate students, postdocs and faculty members.
Check out the WPI Theses and Dissertations digital commons to see what previous students have worked on and what a typical thesis/dissertation looks like in LS&T.
Want help with writing? Make an appointment at the Writing Center.
Helpful Resources Online
There is a plethora of resources online but here are a few that we really recommend checking out as you have time. If there are any websites or communities that you really like, please share!
CADRE provides a vast array of resources for students and early career researchers in STEM education, including dissertation tips, funding opportunities and job postings.
Websites and online communities like EdSurge and CIRCL also have great listservs to join for news on learning technologies, upcoming conferences, and funding opportunities.
Major Events
WPI hosts a few annual events that are wonderful. The Graduate Research Innovation and Exchange Day (GRIE) is a university-wide poster competition for graduate students (all students should participant each year). Touch Tomorrow is a science festival on campus each summer that welcomes ~10,000 families to explore STEM projects. Each lab usually hosts an area of the campus for Touch Tomorrow to demo our projects and learning technologies.
GRIE: February for all participants; April for finalists
See the academic calendar and course catalog for class dates and holidays each semester as well as the guidelines for class and research requirements for the program.
Open Science and Pre-Registration
Our program is incredibly supportive of the push for open science. We actively try to pre-register our studies through SREE or Open Science Framework and believe in making data publicly available.
If you haven’t pre-registered a study before, reach out and ask someone for a quick tutorial, they would be happy to show you.
If you come from a lab with great open science practices, please share! We would love to grow as a program to become more transparent with our research practices.