A SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION COURSE FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS TO GAIN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

A crucial component to scientific research is effective communication; however, graduate coursework often does not provide formal training in these soft skills and students are left to learn through informal methods. I developed a graduate course that emphasizes technical writing for grants or manuscripts and introduces students to other presentation modes often used in academia (i.e., scientific illustration, professional website, and oral presentation). The scientific communication course includes three phases: 1) academic skills, 2) technical writing, and 3) oral and digital communication. Academic skills include how to hone your elevator pitch, a graduate student panel Q&A session, reading and discussing scientific papers, and communicating with professors within and beyond the department. The technical writing component follows exercises from a textbook and also strives to build better writing habits, community feedback, and an introduction to the peer review process. The final phase of oral and digital communication includes multiple themes, which build on one another. For example, one theme is figure making that includes an introduction to Illustrator, feedback from scientific illustrators, and development of a conceptual diagram. The students used their figure(s) in an oral presentation to an audience of invited department faculty and students. Two important aspects to student success in this course are creating a safe, collaborative dynamic among students as colleagues to give and receive feedback as well as iterative learning with an initial deadline, time to incorporate suggested comments, and then a final deadline. This course was required for incoming graduate students in their first semester at the University of Kentucky but advanced graduate students also opted to take the course and hone their scientific communication skills. Evaluations indicated most students spent 4-5 hours outside of class on assignments and had a positive experience.