This seminar is required for all graduate students during their first year in our program. Using feedback from students who had taken previous iterations of the course, I redesigned the course to ensure that various needs are being met and help set students up for success. Weekly meetings are devoted to topics such as productively searching the literature, building networks, stress and time management, giving and receiving feedback, making figures, teaching tips, and discussing achievements and challenges. Students actively work on developing a good research question for a thesis project and gain practice both writing and speaking about their research (including developing an elevator pitch). I ask students to regularly complete reflections in personal learning journals, submit multiple drafts of a research (i.e. funding) proposal, provide feedback on a peer’s proposal, and give a research talk at the end of the semester. I also created a brief pre- and post-survey that I will use to monitor the effectiveness of the course in future years.
Click HERE to view the syllabus for this cousrse.
Teaching Portolio 