Course Title: Research Communications

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Research Communications

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

OENG1161

City Campus

Research

172H School of Engineering

Face-to-Face

 Sem 2 2017

Flexible Terms

Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

OENG1161

City Campus

Research

172H School of Engineering

Face-to-Face

 RSCHYr2019 (RC91),

RSCHYr2019 (RC93)

OENG1161

City Campus

Research

172H School of Engineering

Face-to-Face or Internet

 RSCHYr2020 (RC03),

RSCHYr2020 (RC04),

RSCHYr2020 (All)

OENG1161

City Campus

Research

172H School of Engineering

Internet

 RSCHYr2021 (RC11)

Course Coordinator: Associate Professor Kate Fox

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 4296

Course Coordinator Email: kate.fox@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: City Campus

Course Coordinator Availability: by appointment


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

The HDR candidates should have:

  • completed OENG1085 Research Methods for Engineering and Related Disciplines
  • completed their Confirmation of Candidature milestone


Course Description

Talking confidently, succinctly, and contextually about the research you are undertaking would be crucial to your career. Your HDR program is about research training, and the soft skills you develop alongside your technical expertise can transform your career.

OENG1161 Research Communications will develop your skills in distilling complex ideas and concepts into accessible language. This will influence your writing and speaking skills in order to explain your ideas to a diverse audiences.

As a part of this course you will:

  1. Learn to explain your research in a couple of sentences.
  2. Prepare a three minute pitch on the context, content, and impact of your research.
  3. Prepare an effective abstract for a journal article.
  4. Prepare a short presentation and poster on your research.
  5. Learn about promoting your work through media and social media.

The course activities are structured around lectures, workshops, and small-group tutorials.


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

You will demonstrate:

  • communication skills to explain and critique theoretical propositions, methodologies and conclusions
  • communication skills to present cogently a complex investigation of originality or original research to peers and the community
  • expert skills to analyse, theorise and communicate research that makes a significant and original contribution to knowledge and/or professional practice


Upon the successful completion of this course, students will have:

  1. Expert communication skills which allow them to explain complex research to expert and lay audiences
  2. Advanced skills in structuring information efficiently and effectively for short oral presentations
  3. Clear understanding the key factors in formulating content to match context and audience
  4. Advanced academic writing skills

By the end of this course HDR candidates will be able to further develop their research communication skills in:

  1. How to write a marketing pitch for their research project
  2. How to communicate their research outcomes to media and general public (including writing a media release)
  3. How to prepare for conference (oral and poster) presentation
  4. How to write a good, high impact journal papers
  5. How to prepare a high impact thesis and grant/award applications


Overview of Learning Activities

A detailed weekly course delivery plan will be provided.

During this course HDR candidates will take part in the following activities: lectures, workshops, tutorials and online exercises.

HDR candidates will be introduced to a range of literature in this course and will be expected to read and find other materials as necessary to complete assignments.

 

Total study hours
Fourteen (14) lecturer-guided hours for one semester. The course activities are structured around lectures, workshops and tutorials.


Overview of Learning Resources

There is no set text for this course.  The course is made up of separate but research-related topics.  Each topic identifies the required reading resources.  List of references will be provided by lecturers offering different topics of this course.  All materials as well as recorded lectures will be provided.


Overview of Assessment

ASSESSMENTS:

  • Formative Assessments (In-class participation)
  • Summative Assessments (Assignments)
  • The final grade for this course is a PASS only (PX) or a FAIL (NN)
  • HDR candidates will be required to participate in all timetabled sessions and secure a pass in all assignments.

Assessment tasks

Assignment 1 (25%), week 5
This assessment task supports CLO1 and CLO2

Assignment 2 (25%), Week 7
This assessment task supports CLO2 and CLO2

Assignment 3 (25%), Week 9
This assessment task supports CLO3 and CLO4

Assignment 4 (25%) Week 11
This assessment task supports CLO3 and CL04