School of Kinesiology and Recreation

Exercise Physiology KNR 400 Independent Study: Cumulative Culminating Experience (ISCCE)

Beginning the first semester as a non-thesis master's degree student in exercise physiology, students shall demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of the research process that are essential for attainment of Exercise Physiologist status.  In order to graduate, the student must provide documentation in the form of a professional portfolio indicating that each KSA was mastered.  An exercise physiology faculty member must sign-off once the student has demonstrated mastery of the KSA. Some tasks may be completed as part of regular course work.  However, other tasks will require coordination with an Exercise Physiology faculty member outside of class.  It is the student’s responsibility to seek out opportunities throughout the course of his/her study to complete all KSAs.  All required tasks must be completed prior to the last two weeks of class during the semester in which the student plans on graduating. Although all exercise physiology students are welcome/should attend, all students planning to graduate in a given semester will attend a final class meeting in which students will make presentations to each other and exercise physiology faculty on how they met the course requirements. Students should register for the independent study during their last semester in the master's program. The student will receive academic credit for this independent study (3 cr.) when all KSAs have been completed.

Research Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

  1. Critical analysis of research - the student will analyze a research article and prepare a summary of key points. (May be completed in another class, or through research experience).
  2. Literature review - the student will perform a literature search on an exercise physiology research topic and write a review of pertinent literature. (May be completed in another class, or through research experience).
  3. Experimental design development - the student will participate in planning and designing a research experiment. Included in this KSA will be the completion of an IRB application. (May be completed in another class, or through research experience).
  4. Data collection - the student will participate in all aspects of data collection including subject recruitment and data collection. A minimum of 60 hours of data collection are required.
  5. Data reduction - the student will participate in entering data into a database for future analysis.
  6. Data analysis - the student will participate in the statistical analysis of a database.
  7. Discussion of results - the student will write a discussion of results obtained from experimental research.
  8. Dissemination of outcomes - the student will participate in the dissemination of research outcomes through such activities as professional presentations (state, regional, national, or international), the Graduate Research Symposium, or a class presentation. The dissemination of outcomes does not have to take place all in one project. All items can be performed under the guidance of any exercise physiology grad faculty, but only the mentor/advisor for each student will sign off indicating completion of the KSA.