Motivate students by having them publish in new media: An invitation to science lecturers to share and test

Abstract

Can science undergraduates be motivated by activities that have them express science content in ‘new media’ – the popular communication forms that increasingly impact on their lives? In this paper, we are describing rationale, approaches to date, and a new project designed to develop the content knowledge and graduate attributes of science students via science communication. Specifically, the project is designed to foster student publication on the web – a medium of learning and publication that students find engaging, staff increasingly see as practical, and employers value as relevant. The aim is to enable science lecturers to exploit a growing number of publication opportunities provided by the web to enhance not only the learning that can be gained from a video production process, for example, but also the motivation to select science and to engage effectively in its study at university. The web also offers ready opportunities for cross-university and international collaboration. This paper serves as a prospectus, an invitation -- based on our research and experimentation -- for science lecturers to participate in the project.