Quantitative digital course-based undergraduate research experience in plant biology

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide authentic research while promoting student engagement, persistence in STEM, and skill development. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and growing demand for flexible, scalable educational tools in biology, we developed and implemented a digital CURE (DCURE) adapted from a live-plant manipulative experiment CURE. This DCURE engages students on research in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>, utilizing images of experimental plants and digital platforms. By eliminating the need for during-semester in-lab/course plant cultivation, this module expands equitable access to research experiences, especially for institutions or students without greenhouse or growth chamber infrastructure. Implemented across community colleges and 4-year institutions in both foundational and more advanced biology courses, the DCURE promotes transferable skills in digital literacy, data analysis, and scientific communication. Students participated in authentic scientific processes-collecting and curating data, generating and refining hypotheses, analyzing results, and contributing findings to a public research database. Formal evaluation from over 1,300 students across 5 semesters revealed significant gains in technical proficiency, confidence in data analysis, and conceptual understanding of plant biology. Faculty also reported benefits including enhanced collaboration of students within courses <i>and</i> across institutions, improving instructional design through iterative feedback, and a stronger focus on helping students connect digital methods to biological theory. The DCURE serves as a flexible, accessible, and rigorous model for integrating digital research experiences into undergraduate education. It equips students with the computational and analytical skills essential for a modern biology workforce. This model is adaptable for use in other experimental systems across the life sciences.