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Use of the Café Forum concept for embracing diversity and broadening scholarship

Use of the Café Forum concept for embracing diversity and broadening scholarship. Ian Douglas PGR Lead for Medicine, Dentistry & Health. What is the PG Café Forum?. Origins - collaborative project between the Postgraduate Society and Science Brainwaves

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Use of the Café Forum concept for embracing diversity and broadening scholarship

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  1. Use of the Café Forum concept for embracing diversity and broadening scholarship Ian Douglas PGR Lead for Medicine, Dentistry & Health

  2. What is the PG Café Forum? • Origins - collaborative project between the Postgraduate Society and Science Brainwaves • The Café Forum concept offers the opportunity for students to gain experience presenting their work. • Good communication is essential in all areas of life and work • Effective communication about research to the general public is of increasing importance. • For postgraduate students, (both research and taught) • run by students • to share and discuss their research in an informal, supportive environment • to a cross-disciplinary and non-specialist audience

  3. Aims • Aims • to develop the communication skills of postgraduate research students • to encourage students to identify the broad benefits of their research • to gain an appreciation of the public understanding of science and other disciplines • to increase awareness of other postgraduate research undertaken in the university

  4. Web site information https://sites.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/progress/postgrad-cafe-forum http://www.pebblepad.co.uk/sheffield/viewasset.aspx?oid=1108&type=webfolio&pageoid=2811

  5. Presentation and evaluation • Presenters are expected to communicate the big-picture context of their research to an audience from beyond their own subject areas. • Presenters should use visual representations of research to convey their ideas but with minimal text • Each session • 2 or 3 presentations ~ 15 minutes • Followed by audience questions and lively debate • Presenters receive confidential feedback via audience participation devices

  6. Example presentation topics • Consciousness and point of view in Jane Austen’s fiction • Spatial coincidence between protected areas and mining activities • Do voices and previous experiences mediate infant attention to faces? • Nature-inspired robotics and artificial intelligence • Improving the performance of medical gloves • Lost urban rivers beneath our feet, and what to do with them • Using fluorescent fruit flies to investigate planar cell polarity • Investigating the mechanisms of oral cancer cell binding during metastasis • eGovernment: what is that all about?

  7. Peer Evaluation Audience evaluation using key pads for presentation quality, content of presentation and whether the presentation was pitched at the right level.

  8. Recording presentations • GEO • Forum presenters are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the University's Global Educational Outreach facilities. [The student has all rights over the recording.] • The GEO provides free teaching resources to schools and colleges to help inspire young learners.

  9. Is the audience diverse? • 2011-12 • 38 registered (26 as DDP module) • 2012-13 • 45 students registered (31 as DDP module) Numbers are presenters NB 3 registered but did not attend

  10. Number of participants per department 2011-2012 In 2012-13 session - 4 PGT students from Engineering attending

  11. Attendance :- Staying power and commitment

  12. Feedback from participants on PG Café Forum • An online survey sent out to all attendees • Opportunity to feedback/ comment on each session via a comment box

  13. Feedback from participants on PG Café Forum

  14. Feedback from participants on PG Café Forum

  15. Future goals • Expand awareness throughout the University • Improve venue and AV technology • Investigate video recording for podcasts • Improve adherence of presenters to guidelines for delivery to a general audience • Invite guest speakers • e.g. PG Alumni - to address the employability agenda • Dr Andrew Madden: Did a PhD help prepare me for setting up a business? • Dr Gavin Boyce: Applying research skills to business • Encourage more PGT students to attend

  16. Discussion • Would such a forum concept add value to the PGT experience? • If so, how would it work best/be rolled out? • Faculty level? • Groups of cognate departments? • Would it encourage PGT to PGR transition? • As well as broadening scholarship, should aspects relevant to employability be included? • "Experience in a specific research field must be complemented by effective communication skills …” (Andersen Consulting) • "Postgraduate students tend to become focused on their subject area and don't emphasise their transferable skills which actually make them more employable." (Esso-Exxon)

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