Newsletter October 2011 - Bow Valley College

A Profile of Dr. Aggie Legaspi
Evaluation Facilitator becomes
Bow Valley College’s Research Lead
Known to most of us as the fellow
heading the team responsible for program
evaluations and the learner experience
feedback, Dr. Aggie Legaspi oversees
program and course evaluations. He also
provides support for program accreditation
and projects upon request. Utilizing
Aggie's rich background in research will
bring BVC to the next level in its applied
research capacity development.
Aggie has a B.Sc. in Psych, a MA in Social
Psych (University of the Philippines) and a
PhD in Ecological-Community Psychology
(Michigan State University). He is no stranger
to research. Before he came to BVC he
was involved in a wide range of research
related to self-help, health service provision,
community health, and church communities.
All of these projects involved different
populations and settings including both
urban and rural settings in the Philippines,
Michigan, Alaska, and Calgary.
Aggie has taught both graduate and
undergraduate students, and conducted
research at the University of the Philippines
and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Required courses on research methods,
statistics, and measurement during his
undergrad studies ended up piquing Aggie’s
interest in the field of research. Fascinated with
knowing how we know, and how we make
sense of our world, Aggie found research a
natural niche.
“As much as I gravitate towards research, I
strongly appreciate other ways of revealing
our nature–especially the visual and
performance arts, spirituality and religion,
design, traditions, and legends/folklore,”
Aggie says.
Here at BVC, Aggie has been instrumental
in the development of the Research Ethics
Board and his participation in capacity
development activities has been paramount
to their success. His wide range of research,
evaluation, and teaching at the College
and university levels, and his work with the
not-for-profit sector, made him the ideal
candidate to be BVC’s new lead researcher.
Aggie sees his new role as increasing the
capacity of BVC employees to conduct
research at different levels.
“It is that curiosity on which research grows
and with which applied research wants to
work with you,” he says. “Let us work together
on satisfying and building on that curiosity.”
The evolution of a model for
applied research at Bow Valley College
The recognition that colleges have a vital
role to play in applied research has been
received with enthusiasm by College
executives and faculty. The adoption and
integration of applied research throughout
the colleges has been an interesting and
by no means uniform process. Unlike
universities that are founded upon
research, colleges had to “home grow”
their own visions for how research would
fit their institutions.
At Bow Valley College we started by recognizing
that a good deal of research had been
occurring for years before it was part of the
official mandate. For example, TOWES has a
decade-long record of applied research and
the successful development of an assessment
tool known nationally and internationally.
The goals of the Office of Applied Research
and Innovation (initiated three years ago
by the Vice-President, Learning, and led
by the Dean of Applied Research) were
to: enhance Bow Valley College’s applied
research capacity amongst learners, faculty,
staff and communities; expand strategic
partnerships; benefit industry, government,
and community; and enhance the reputation
of Bow Valley College as a leader in applied
research and innovation.
Work towards meeting these goals
involved: leading applied research that is
relevant to BVC’s mission and mandate;
grant development; capacity development
activities; and the development of policies
and procedures such as the amendment of
policies in compliance with the revised Tri
Council Policy, and as required for NSERC,
CIHR and SSHRC eligibility.
Capacity development activities included
workshops on a variety of topics such
as: writing a research proposal, an ethics
application, and a literature review; how to
get an article published; interviewing for
qualitative research; survey development; and
participating in classroom-based research.
Drop-in activities were also available, where
the lead researcher held regular office hours
for drop-in support to BVC staff who were at
various stages of engagement in research.
The Evolution of Applied Research
Anna Kae Todd Rena Shimoni
Vice-President, Learning Dean, Applied Research and Innovation
One of the key challenges facing BVC is
balancing our strong desire to promote and
engage in research, with our concern that our
core business remain focused on teaching
students. Further, most of our faculty lack
the experience required to be independent
researchers, yet they are in the best position
to provide insight into where the gaps are in
practice knowledge.
One of the strategies that has proven
successful in achieving this balance is to
have the research questions generated by
the frontline people, and then hire research
experts to design and either implement,
or guide the implementation of the study.
By using a collaborative model of research
between external researchers and our own
staff, we can be competitive in accessing
major research grants, develop our internal
research capacity, and still maintain our
commitment to learners.
The best way to describe the existing
model of applied research is at BVC
“centralized-decentralized.” We wanted to
make certain that engagement in applied
research remained the responsibility of each
department in the College.
Where a department had a desire for research
but not the capacity, the Dean of Applied
Research would work with the department to
develop and conduct the research, involving
the department according to its ability.
Where the department had the capacity, the
Office of Applied Research and Innovation
would provide support, but the bulk of the
work would be internal to the department.
The role of the Office of Applied Research
and Innovation became, in this case, more of
a support service and ensured that policies
related to research were being adhered to.
After three years of working in this model
we have seen an enhanced commitment to
research amongst the College leadership.
Today, each department either has
developed a research agenda, or is in the
process of doing so. Therefore, the Office
of Applied Research will continue to exist
as a support and information service for
College researchers, while the responsibility
for conducting research will be within the
various College departments. The capacity
has been developed sufficiently for this
autonomy to be successful.