STUDENT’S SELF-STUDY
Theoretical introduction
An important element of the education cycle is to provide students with practical knowledge in the area of self-study, both as part of supplementing knowledge and completing individual tasks. The ability to organize one’s own work properly turns out to be an extremely useful and desirable competence not only in the process of implementing the curriculum but usually after its completion – in the search of one’s own professional path. Due to a significant role of independent thinking and acting during the course, it is worth dedicating some time to exercises which will help students to learn about how to use tools that will facilitate and improve their research work, allow for an initial automatic analysis of the collected data, or enable an attractive presentation of one’s own research results. It may also be valuable to support the presentation of information search methods by online tools, due to which students will be prepared for independent and critical thinking, acquisition of knowledge, and creative problem-solving.
Exercise I: PLANNING ONE'S OWN RESEARCH PROJECT
MS Teams/ZOOM and Padlet
During any (thematic) classes
Online
Synchronous
Developing the ability to plan one’s own work; paying attention to the role of conscious formulation of individual stages of work in achieving set goals; making participants aware of the importance of proper division of their project (not only a research project) into smaller tasks and the proper determination of the relationship between individual activities and results.
STEP I
The class is divided into teams composed of several students in which they reflect on the individual stages of work on a research project (each project relates to one of the topics previously covered in class, e.g. it is a development of that topic). Students agree on the stages and their duration. The teacher monitors the students’ work and indicates the key stages of the project.
STEP II
Then, in the Padlet tool, using the “timeline” option (selecting the “Timeline” Padlet layout option), the groups post their ideas. Each idea is signed with the name of the team and has a different color assigned to it. Students work simultaneously.
STEP III
After the ideas have been posted, a discussion takes place regarding the students’ observations relating to the timeline elements and their correct placement. Students comment on the posts of their mates from other groups and confront the results of their work with the work of others. The role of the teacher is to supplement information on the individual stages, if necessary.
- using the “snowball” method, students have the opportunity to learn how to plan their work on a research project by confronting their own methods of creating a work-schedule with other possible solutions
- students have the opportunity to freely discuss how to plan their research work
- group-work and group task-solving together are developed
- the exercise makes it possible to show how to plan a project schedule effectively (not only for a research project)
- the exercise introduces students to the methodology of project management in a practical way.
– using the “snowball” method can be time-consuming
+ the exercise can be done as homework
Exercise II: COLLECTING AND EVALUATING SCIENTIFIC SOURCES
Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com)
At any (thematic) class – as a sum-up or continuation; during a diploma seminar
Online
Synchronous
Developing information-related competencies, especially in the area of the independent research of scientific resources, critical evaluation, and selection in terms of suitability for one’s own research.
STEP I
Students are asked to use the Google Scholar or Researchgate or Academia.edu search engine to find scientific publications on a specific topic and add the search results to their library. It is possible to narrow the search results by showing students the possibility of filtering the results, e.g. by the date of publication.
STEP II
Students are also asked to use the “Related Articles” option to add other articles selected by them to the search results, considering the subject of their initial search.
STEP III
The final task for the students is to collect all the obtained results in the form of an alphabetical bibliography. For this purpose, it is worth using the “Cite” option and choosing one of the options – it is also an opportunity to discuss citation styles in scientific papers.
STEP IV
Students upload the results of their work to e.g., Google Drive in the form of thematically divided documents.
- students have the opportunity to learn how to search for scientific articles by using global search engines and query language
- students learn the standards of citing scientific works
- students notice the network of links between scientific articles and acquire the ability to search scientific resources thoroughly and to critically evaluate and select them
- students learn about the methods of creating a scientific bibliography in an easy and accessible way
- a sense of access to knowledge and scientific resources is built.
– A small number of search results for specific topics or issues. No related articles in search results
+ Teachers should check in advance whether there is a large number of scientific texts for the selected research topic.
– Students might consider “collecting data” for the sake of “collecting data” to be quite boring.
+ Teachers should explain that this exercise could be Step 1 to another activity enabling students to use all gathered information.
Exercise III: CRITICAL EVALUATION OF COLLECTED QUANTITATIVE DATA
Tool for creating and co-creating text corpora e.g., Sketch Engine (https://www.sketchengine.eu/)
At the diploma seminar/at any class in the cycle as preparation for students’ own research
Online/blended/face-to-face (in a computer room)
Synchronous
Developing the skills of critical evaluation of source material for research.
The students must be trained in corpus searching, corpus analysis and corpus building with Sketch Engine or another tool for creating and co-creating text corpora.
STEP I
The teacher and students determine the current research topic which can be verified based on corpus research, e.g. the approach to vaccines in internet comments or the impact of the pandemic on the public mood. Students set a research topic based on narrow criteria e.g., attitudes to immunization between September 2021 and October 2021 on the Ministry of Health’s Facebook profile.
STEP II
The teacher and students determine the specific criteria for text selection, e.g. sociolinguistic parameters, time range, stylistic features. Any content sharing tool, e.g., Padlet, can be used to jointly determine the specifics of the corpus data.
STEP III
The teacher encourages students to create a corpus – for this purpose, it will be helpful to use the option of sharing a given resource with the possibility of editing (in the case of the Sketch Engine platform, choose MANAGE CORPUS and SHARE with the option of editing the corpus for each person who has a link).
STEP IV
Each student’s task is to add the largest possible number of examples to the corpus. Students should divide the examples among themselves, e.g., by establishing a division based on time range.
STEP V
After collecting examples in the corpus, students perform quantitative analyses (including tools for frequency analysis or concordance analysis) and discuss the results together. They also evaluate the created corpus resources in terms of their diversity and usefulness for the research topic that was selected at the beginning.
- students learn the principles of creating a corpus as a tool for conducting quantitative and qualitative research in the area of humanities and social sciences.
- the participants of the course learn about the principles of cooperation as part of a joint task, which is a preparation for work in research teams.
- the students acquire the skills of selection as well as critical evaluation and interpretation of the collected data
- the students learn about the methods of linguistic analysis
- students practice research work with the use of digital tools
- students learn how to use corpus data for self-study, including language learning
– The skill level of using the corpus building tool may vary depending on the student.
+ In this case, before starting the exercise, it is should be recommended to the students to read the instructions for using the tool.
Exercise IV: SYNTHESISING SCIENTIFIC AND POPULAR SCIENTIFIC CONTENT
Resoomer https://resoomer.com/
At any class or during a diploma seminar
Online
Synchronous
Shaping the skills of summarizing scientific content; critical assessment of the correctness of automatic text analysis; developing the ability to analyze argumentative content.
STEP I
The task of each student is to prepare a longer argumentative text on a topic specified by the tutor (at least 5000 characters). Students work individually.
STEP II
Then the students are asked to exchange texts with one another – each student receives another student’s text and reads it.
STEP III
The students receive original texts from their peers and then they put them in Resoomer (https://resoomer.com/). The tool enables processing of content in different languages, see the language selection in the menu next to the login).
STEP IV
The results of an automatic summary should be critically analyzed to check if the important assumptions have not been lost in the process of automatic summarizing. Students should also add an interpretative component to the automatically created summaries.
STEP V
The syntheses are sent to the authors of the texts (e.g., through an individual chat featured on the communication platform that is used in class) to inform them whether they conveyed their main intention and communication goals correctly.
- the exercise makes it possible to practice the role of an expert in summarizing texts and to critically assess the content that is processed by automatic language analysis tools
- students consolidate their knowledge of summarizing texts
- students learn to interpret content prepared by other class participants
- the exercise is also an opportunity to share ideas and opinions and integrate participants
– There may be difficulties in communication between students: participants may not want to comment on the prepared synthesis, they may not feel like evaluating the work of other participants of the classes.
+ The teacher can use any tool for anonymous transfer of information and sharing opinions, e.g., Mentimeter (Q&A option). Every participant precedes his/her statement with information about which synthesis it concerns.
Exercise V: PRESENTING RESEARCH RESULTS (virtual conference - poster session)
Art Steps and Canva
At a diploma seminar during the presentation of the results of the participants’ research work.
Online/blended
Asynchronous
Developing the ability to visualize the results of research and analyses as well as to synthesize scientific content; preparing students to perform scientific presentations during events such as conferences/symposia.
It is recommended for the task to be preceded by showing the students examples of scientific posters from a given area or discipline to illustrate the principles of creating this type of presentation of scientific content.
STEP I
The task of a student or a small team (up to 3 people) is to prepare a scientific poster which is a synthesis of the results of a research project on which the student is working as part of a diploma seminar or (in the case of a team) presenting a research problem of their choice.
STEP II
For this purpose, students can use one of the free graphic design software options, e.g., Canva. The task of the student(s) is to create a visually attractive presentation (using an appropriate form of data visualization), which will contain information crucial for the research.
STEP III
The students prepare a short speech about their poster. The speech is then recorded with the use of any online software or on a mobile device in mp3 format.
STEP IV
Students send both results (poster and recording) to the teacher.
STEP V
The teacher prepares space for the presentation of scientific posters in the form of a virtual poster gallery on the Art Steps website (https://www.artsteps.com/) and recommends for the students to visit the gallery using the search option (see the Search option at the top of the website). Thanks to this, each participant of the classes can visit the gallery on their own and browse through the content of scientific posters.
STEP VI
After visiting the gallery individually, a joint discussion takes place on the posters placed there – the discussion (synchronously) may refer to, for example, the level of legibility of the message or the form of visualization of the content that was used.
- students learn the rules of creating scientific posters and presenting scientific content in an attractive form that is accessible for the recipient
- students practice the ability to synthesize information
- students have the opportunity to learn the principles of scientific communication – they learn how to share knowledge effectively
- students receive feedback not only from the teacher but also from other seminar participants
– This exercise can be time-consuming and requires students’ knowledge about online tools to prepare a poster and a recording.
+ Students can be asked to plan the task in several stages. In such a case, apart from the ability to present scientific content, the students have the opportunity to practice project planning.
