A presentation from the STEM Annual Conference 2014.
In this presentation we will outline a framework for undergraduate research dissemination. We argue that undergraduate research is a ‘high impact’ activity and that dissemination of research findings should be an integral part of the student research experience. We use a broad and inclusive definition of undergraduate research. We will outline the benefits of engaging students in activities to communicate their undergraduate research findings and identify how this completes the research cycle (examples include curricular activities which involve informal ‘publication’ via websites wiki’s and through in class poster sessions as well as activities outside the curriculum such as publishing in dedicated undergraduate research journals and presenting at undergraduate research conferences). We will then go on to explore the idea that research dissemination is something which all undergraduate students can engage in. The framework that we propose focuses upon differing degrees of student autonomy in the research process and the differing levels of ‘publicness’ or exposure which can be adopted so that each student can achieve research communication at a level appropriate to their personal learning goals. For academic staff the framework can be used to plan and support the increasing exposure of undergraduate research work into the public domain.
