Landing : Athabascau University

D. Research Presentation: Communication & interpersonal skills, Research

Last updated January 22, 2012 - 3:30pm by Terumi MiyaZoé

I chose two works, a conference proceedings paper and a PowerPoint presentation, to best demonstrate my research and communication skills, as well as my planning abilities in a research in MDE. The paper was developed from the second course assignment in MDDE 620. I chose the free topic option, which is closely related to the course content.

In my work, I made a comparison between Blackboard and Moodle, two learning management systems (LMSs), to represent a commercial versus an open source platform. I used both systems in different institutions by implementing the same blended course design on two groups of students in two different schools. This was followed by a comparison of learner perceptions with their experiences. The same survey questionnaire was administered to all students, and the results were summarized in the paper.      

When the course was completed, I revised the paper based on the comments of the course tutor and other reviewers, and submitted it as a conference presentation proposal. The paper was eventually accepted and became a short research paper in the proceedings. This was a significant feat for me as it was my first time to write a paper on conference proceedings in English, which was read by many people.

More specifically, in the proceedings paper, competency 5.1, which refers to the frame research questions, is depicted in lines 9~14; competency 5.4 which refers to the competency of critical literature review is found on the left side of p.747; 5.8 referring to the development of critical analysis is on pp.750-751; 5.10 referring to the demonstration of the use of communications tools is on p.764; 5.11 referring to research ethics is found at the end of p.749 to the beginning of p.750; and 5.4 referring to the withdrawal of rational conclusions is on p.752. Also, in terms of communication and interpersonal skills, the course work/proceedings paper writing illustrates my competencies covering 4.1~4.4 while the oral presentation through the use of the PowerPoint slides cover my competencies 4.5~4.8, that is, collaborative knowledge sharing.