Let’s get this out of the way first. Yes, it’s a free course. Yes, you get access to all the lessons on Youtube. And yes, the workbook (for students) and teacher manual (for educators) is also included. No catch, no payments.
So, let’s have a look at what this is and why this course exists!
In the height of the pandemic, Creators For Climate got the opportunity to become a partner in a bigger European project around digitizing education. This project was funded by Erasmus+ and had the goal to focus on “Rethinking Active Learning and Distance Education”, in short, RALDE. As creative partner, Creators For Climate got to turn the scientific content into digital media.
One of the outcomes of the RALDE project was the creation of a course around scientific presenting. Almost all scientists will have to give an academic presentation at some point in their career. Wether it’s to present a student project, or to pitch your research in a conference. But there is one constant we think is still undervalued: the teaching of presentation skills, and the lack thereof in science programs.
With this course we got to sit down with students and teachers, to understand the needs and pains when it comes to presenting your research to the scientific community. For some those pains represent in overcrowded slides, others might feel a bit too stressed to present comfortably. We went back to the basics and created an online course that would get you started, wherever you are in your presenting journey. So let’s see what you can expect from these lessons.
We designed this online course with every facet of academic presenting in mind. Even the steps some of us skip, or that might feel redundant. To give a great presentation, is to understand all the parts of the process. For example: did you ever pause to think about what you want to get out of this presentation, instead of just parroting what you prepared by heart?
Below are the main lessons and what we will go over in this course:
Each lesson is a step towards becoming not just a good presenter, but a great storyteller, where you can share your research through narrative. And storytelling is something that is close to the core goal of Creators For Climate.
We created this course with both teachers and students in mind. Because of this we went for a multimodal approach and created different materials that helps students with the active learning of these presentation skills.
For Teachers: We designed a teacher manual with learning tasks and guided exercises. We build the course with learning objectives in mind, so educators can integrate this course, fully or in part, into their own classes. We also provide the playlist to the Youtube Channel so you have an idea of the course content. Feel free to use these video lessons, or use them as a basis for your own curriculum.
For Students: Besides the videos, we created a student workbook which will guide students through the learning tasks & lessons, and implement what they learn with integrated exercises. By the end of the workbook students should have the capability to create a live presentation or poster presentation, with all the skills explored in the course.