Research communication skills
Get support and training for professional development, career planning, time management, communications and more.
My GradSkills endorsed workshops
As a grad student, you have a wealth of opportunity to supplement your graduate programming with workshops on everything from time management to communication skills, career readiness and more.
With so many workshops on offer, how do you know which ones to take, and when? We're here to help.
While there are many great workshops available to you as a grad student, My GradSkills endorses a core set of workshops with clear learning objectives giving you a strong foundation to build on.
- Endorsed workshops are offered free for grad students.
- Bookmark our page and check often to find out which My GradSkills workshops are coming up.
- Make sure to read GRADpost to stay on top of upcoming workshops.
Workshops for Students Participating in the 3MT Competition
As 3 –5-minute presentation timeframes become the norm across workplaces, conferences, and community settings, being able to quickly but also concisely talk about your research becomes an essential skill. This workshop explores short format also known as micro-presentations. Here, we discuss micro-presentation structure, including objective, openings and closings. Participants are introduced to commonly used strategies for maximum audience engagement such as storytelling with special attention to inclusion and accessibility. This workshop will also direct participants to useful resources around accessibility and best practices.
This workshop (generally delivered as two parts) will provide a review of the internationally recognized 3MT competition. Part 1 focuses on how you can approach openings, closings, and your presentation's overall structure for the 3-minute format. You will have time to apply your learning through individual and group exercises such as analysis of winning 3MT talks and crafting an outline using the COMPASS Message Box (compassscicomm.org/). Part 2 provides participants with an introduction to basic design principles that will help you craft a 3MT slide with impact that enhances your presentation instead of being a distraction.
Offered in collaboration with Julia Guy from Library and Cultural Resources.
This workshop will guide participants through three main steps for crafting effective knowledge translation media or presentations. The first part of the workshops provides information on how to clarify and understand the audience for your video, the second focuses on clearly identifying your objectives and what you hope to accomplish, and the last section provides strategies for achieving these desired outcomes. Throughout the session participants will be provided with tools, exercises, and considerations to help them effectively hone their message and craft a communication strategy. The workshop will also direct participants to useful resources around accessibility, best practices, and media creation.
This workshop will guide participants through four story formats applicable to research communications. First, participants will be introduced to the strategy of research storytelling as a highly effective way to share information, and then experience examples of graduate student stories (drawn from past 3 Minute Thesis competitions). Second, participants will be invited into a discussion about technical language and cognitive bias as potential audience barriers. This workshop will promote ways to mitigate these and other barriers, while providing useful resources and tools as take aways.
Workshop and Feedback Sessions Facilitator
Felicia Glatz is a learning and design specialist with the Faculty of Graduate Studies. A two-time alumna of UCalgary, Felicia has worked in both healthcare and arts festival programming. Her specialties, which include workplace learning, inclusive education, and career development, inform the design and delivery of research communications skills training, along with the novel Transformative Talent Internships offered through FGS. Contact Felicia to sign up.
Feedback Sessions
Get one-on-one feedback about your research presentation or communications skills
My GradSkills is piloting general research communications feedback sessions for graduate students. Sign up for an in-person or online meeting with a My GradSkills facilitator to share your research and get feedback on your oral and visual communication skills.
The Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) is constantly working to enhance the experiences of graduate students. That’s why FGS hosts competitions like Images of Research, and 3 Minute Thesis. Through these competitions students can participate in workshops, resources, and opportunities for one-on-one feedback about research communications. FGS would like to expand on these services by opening research communications training and feedback sessions to all graduate students.
Additionally, it is important that students find the best possible support for their needs. Your participation in these sessions will help FGS to develop and create high quality materials and resources that are relevant to different student contexts (thesis-based and course-based, STEM, social sciences, humanities, creative fields, etc.).
Graduate students from any faculty can participate.
- You will have the opportunity to share elements of your research presentation and get immediate feedback about communications and presentation
- Your participation will help My GradSkills to develop more robust programming
General workshops by request on the topic of research communications:
Micro-presentations: a guide to short format research communications.
Your time starts now: 3MT Talks and Visuals.
3 Steps to Persuasive Knowledge Translation (offered in collaboration with Julia Guy from Library and Cultural Resources).
Crafting a Compelling Narrative: Presenting your research with storytelling.
- If this is something you would like to participate in, please contact: Felicia Glatz, Learning Instruction Designer with My GradSkills.
- Sessions are open daily (Mon-Fri) from 8:30-4:30. Contact Felicia Glatz to sign-up for a session
- In-person or through Zoom