199 Empowering researchers for community collaboration

Objectives/Goals: We developed an educational online module to equip researchers with knowledge, skills, and resources for conducting community-engaged research, aiming to foster meaningful collaboration between academia and communities. Methods/Study Population: A working group was formed, including three research faculty, four staff members, and four community partners who have partnered with researchers on community engaged projects. The working group first identified three objectives for the module and outlined what should be covered for each objective. The working group identified existing resources, texts, and videos that would address the objectives and worked in small groups to create additional content for the module. A smaller subgroup then took this content, organized it, and worked with the Office of Online Education to put the content into an interactive online format. Results/Anticipated Results: The three objectives identified for the online module are 1) Describe community engaged research, the purpose it serves, and why researchers do it; 2) Identify how to seek and collaboratively engage with a community partner; and 3) Identify and connect with resources for conducting community engaged research in Indiana. Each objective contains text, interactive figures and images, links to external resources or further reading, and videos of researchers and community partners talking about their own experiences and lessons learned. Each objective also includes activities and prompts for the learner to complete to apply the module content to the work they want to do. Discussion/Significance of Impact: Community engagement ensures research addresses real-world needs, builds trust, and includes diverse perspectives. Many researchers lack best practices to do this ethically. This module teaches skills needed to foster trust through transparency, respect, and by incorporating community voices.