Maximizing students' discovery in research presentation: The development of a student research showcase and an e-learning website

Abstract

Undertaking and communicating research are unquestionably two of the major tasks of university learners. However, whilst there are multiple resources directed to the teaching and learning of research writing, little attention has been devoted to our students' advancement in research presentation. Consequently, our students' capacity in communicating their findings within and outside classroom has been underdeveloped. This project aims to help our students extend their potential in research presentation by organizing a student research showcase, in which the students will innovatively transform their research writings into posters, and discover the communicative strategies to effectively present their research findings to heterogeneous audience beyond the walls of the classroom. The performance and posters of the student presenters will then be digitalized and transformed into discovery-enriched educational resources on an e-learning website, where our students will be directed to numerous analytical activities and guiding questions to sequentially explore various skills in research presentation, as well as analyze the semiotic, structural, sentential, lexical and rhetorical features of the poster presentations documented in the showcase event. Consequently, the e-learning website will not only prepare our students to be proficient research presenters in future, but will also lead them to discover the specific features of poster presentation, which is an important spoken academic genre unnoticed by most undergraduates. Meanwhile, the mobile friendliness of the e-learning website will facilitate its accessibility and thus turn it into a powerful teaching and learning tool for both teachers and students at any time in anywhere.