Benefits and Challenges of Publishing

Undergraduate Students’ Writing

Chrissy Burns

Instructor, English Language Centre Editor-in-Chief, Inscribe

Outline: Publishing undergraduate research and writing

Context: Hong Kong and PolyU

Our journal: Benefits and challenges

Best practices

Q & A discussion

Publishing UG research and writing

Boyer Commission

report (1998)

Pedagogical

changes;

Focus on real

world results

Changes in

scholarly

publishing

Desire of students

to publish

Pervasive digital

publishing

Libraries - Information literacy

- Institutional

repositories (IRs)

- Open access

UG journals – some numbers

• …Emerging campus synergy in support of UR, engaged lea i g a d pu lishi g (Caprio, 2014, p. 150)

170+ undergraduate journals in the US (Stone, Benson & Beech, 2016)

1/3 of US institutions have 1+ online or print UG research journal (Kaitlin, as cited in Stone, Benson & Beech, 2016)

50% faculty-led / 50% student-run in the UK (cite)

Issues of sustainability (2009: 50%+ with broken links/old current issue) (Weiner & Watkinson, 2014)

Rationale / aims of journals Legitimate outlets for the publication and celebration of

outsta di g stude t esea h Ko, , p.

Promotion of student research or encouragement of student publication (80% of journal missions) (Ng et al., 2017)

- Low-risk opportunity to engage in scholarly writing and critical appraisal of evidence

- Develop writing and critical thinking skills

- Develop leadership and critical appraisal skills (editorial board) (Ng et al., 2017)

Student Journal Possibilities

Types and sources of

writing

Management and

editing*

Technology and hosting

Research / STEM,

medicine, law,

multidisciplinary, etc.

Faculty Libraries

Senior thesis Students IT department support

Course or program Mix of faculty and

students

Humanities & general

education

* reviewers, editors,

advisers, proofreaders,

editor-in-chief

Hong Kong

PolyU, ELC and GE / WAC

Founded 1937; university status in 1994

QS rankings in 2018: 95th in the world / 27th in Asia

28,499 students:

- 16,355 undergrads; 10,101 post-grads; 2,134 sub-degree

- 80% Hong Kong; 18% mainland China; 2.5% international

English Language Centre:

- 90+ academic staff

- Teach mandatory first-year English & discipline-specific English courses

2012: implementation of General Education / Writing Across the Curriculum

- ELC teachers provide pedagogical support and individual feedback and

consultations to students (>5000 students, 20 assignment genres yearly)

The establishment of Inscribe • An objective of grant to establish GE/WAC program

Rationale:

• Motivation for students to engage in WAC and writing

• A k o ledge e t of stude ts GE iti g

• Development of a writing community on campus

• Open access, multi-disciplinary, published yearly

• Focuses on GE and ELC courses

• Open call for submission & emails to GE and ELC teachers

• No funding; minor time-off compensation for Editor-in-Chief

• Faculty support: 6 reviewers, 6 editors, 6 proofreaders

Revolution: The Right Way

• By Anoushka Mahar, Accounting & Finance student

• Persuasive writing course offered by ELC

• Manifesto – a call to action

• www.inscribe.elc.polyu.edu.hk

Students’ Top Benefits

1. Editing process / working with the editor (5/6)

- the o e ou edit the o e ou lea ; it as so ethi g I eall e jo ed

- Meeti g people ho eall e jo iti g ; the i te a tio ith the edito

2. Learning / improving my writing (3/6)

- The est pa t as i p o i g iti g skills

- It added o e to a se al of iti g

3. Finishing / satisfaction (2/6)

- Whe I fi all fi ished, I felt e satisfied ; he e e thi g e ded

4. Confidence (2/6)

- Wo ki g ith EIC a d Edito … i p o ed o fide e a d i te est i iti g

5. Enjoyment (1/6); Interest in writing (1/6)

- No a ade i deadli e, o st ess

Students’ Biggest Challenges

1. Language (3/6)

- A spe ifi pa ag aph. I kept editi g it ut it e e see ed to e u de sta da le. M audie e as st uggli g to u de sta d

- Choosi g the ight o ds. I ha e a feeli g a d I do t k o ho to e p ess it.

- …ti ut i po ta t o ds; ho to e og ise la guage e o s

2. Negotiations with the editor (2/6)

- Getti g ou essage a oss to edito s ho…sha e a diffe e t pe spe ti e

- The edito did t tea h this su je t efo e… e had disag ee e ts

3. Negative comments from the editor (1/6)

- The o e ts o the fi st editi g d aft… e otio al a ie s ou t to o e o e. Unclear , Can’t picture that – it feels ad

Faculty Challenges • Interaction with the student

- Bei g patie t ith the stude ts

- W iti g is a e pe so al thi g… stude ts ha e to e ope to uite o je ti e a d iti al feed a k a d lea to e edito s

- Co itti g stude ts to e ise

• Unfamiliar genres of writing

- So e te ts a e uite te h i al ; spe ifi , u fa ilia ge es

• Workload

- P oof eadi g a e uite tedious, espe iall efe e es a d itatio s

Faculty’s perceived benefits • Publicity / promotion of ELC

• Showcase to the wider community (PolyU is more than vocational ed.)

• Motivate students to read and write

• We e o e o e a a e of the stude ts e p essio , a a e ess, iti g and how teachers can help

How more benefits can be realized:

• - needs more promotion outside the ELC

• - embedded in a course

• - expand the profile and readership

• - genre guidelines and vocabulary resources

Challenges for universities Cost, administrative and QC concerns (Walkington & Jenkins, 2017)

Costs Administrative Quality Control

- Funding issues: showing

the impact

- Financial sustainability of

the hosting service

- Publication costs

- Late al osts Waye &

Simpson, 2016); faculty

pressure and workload

- Monitoring and oversight

- Poor timing (semesters,

graduation, summers)

- Sources of quality work

- Students may need

encouragement to submit

- Systems of submission,

editing, review

Challenges for universities Cost, administrative and QC concerns (Walkington & Jenkins, 2017)

(Waye & Simpson, 2016)

Institutional Challenges of Inscribe

• La k of ti e gift e o o /p estige ; fa ult ti e tied to grant funding

• Quality of submissions (assignment, writing,

criticality)

• Wide scope / lack of focus / lack of writing

community

• Lack of visibility and promotion (information

overload / branding)

• Technology and hosting ($/time)

Conclusions

Inscribe is a unique and rich experience for students.

- E ide e of stude ts e efits

- Supports aims of the ELC and PolyU

- Wider benefits to student body unknown - Students whose scripts are rejected?

- Clearer perspective on possibilities and ways of overcoming challenges

References Caprio, M.J. (2014). Student publishing: Future scholars as change agents. OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives, 30(3), 144-157.

Ford, J. D., & Newmark, J. (2011). Emphasizing Research (Further) in Undergraduate Technical Communication Curricula: Involving Undergraduate Students with an Academic Journal's Publication and Management. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 41(3), 311-324.

Ho, A. K. (2011). Creating and Hosting Student-Run Research Journals: A Case Study. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 6(2).

Mariani, M., Buckley, F., Reidy, T., & Witmer, R. (2013). Promoting student learning and scholarship through undergraduate research journals. PS: Political Science & Politics, 46(4), 830-835.

Neville, P., Power, M., Barnes, C., & Haynes, A. (2012). Exploring the "Learning Careers" of Irish Undergraduate Sociology Students through the Establishment of an Undergraduate Sociology Student Journal. Teaching Sociology, 40(2), 107-122. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41502735

Ng, K., Lari, M. H. A., & Chan, S. W. S. Student-Run Academic Journals in STEM: A Growing Trend in Scholarly Communication. https://www.csescienceeditor.org/article/student-run-academic-journals-stem-growing-trend-scholarly-communication/

Sheedlo, S. (1998). Finding Reasons to Publish Student Writers. Language Arts Journal of Michigan, 14(2), 47-50. Retreived from http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1417&context=lajm Siegel, V. (2004). Points of View: Should Students Be Encouraged To Publish Their Research in Student-Run Publications? Weighing the Pros and Cons of Undergraduate-only Journal Publications. Cell Biology Education, 3(1), 26-27.

Stone, G., Jensen, K., & Beech, M. (2016). Publishing Undergraduate Research: Linking Teaching and Research through a Dedicated Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal. Journal of scholarly publishing, 47(2), 147-170.

Walkington, H. (2012). Developing dialogue learning space: The case of online undergraduate research journals. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 36, 547-562.

Walkington, H., & Jenkins, A. (2008). Embedding undergraduate research publication in the student learning experience. Brookes eJournal of Learning and Teaching, 2(3), 2. Retrieved from http://bejlt.brookes.ac.uk

Waye, L., & Simpson, A. (2016). Reflections on a Student Research Journal: What are the impacts, and are they worth it?. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching & Learning Journal, 9(2).

Weiner, S., & Watkinson, C. (2014). What do students learn from participation in an undergraduate research journal? Results of an assessment. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 2(2).

Q & A Discussion / Suggestions

Chrissy Burns, English Language Centre

Inscribe.elc.polyu.edu.hk

Active learning

techniques,

Reading videos,

and more…

Chrissy Burns

Conference Sharing

Lilly Conference Austin 2018

- 25% health (nursing/medical)

– 25% sciences

– 20% humanities and social science

– 20% business

– 10% English/first year composition

– https://www.lillyconferences-tx.com/

– Three images – professional / southern / keep Austin

weird

Polleverywhere

Pollev.com/ChristineBur834

Teachers’ co plai ts / co o issues discussed

Common “complaints” about students

–Lack of engagement

–Ca ’t / do ’t read

–Ca ’t write

Focus of this presentation

– 10 + active learning techniques

– - short activities to structure and guide learning

– - i i al pla i g; easy to i corporate i to what you’re already doing

– - technology or not

– Reading videos idea

– Gems of wisdom

Active learning technique (ALT #1)

– Skeleton notes

– - stude ts do ’t k ow how to take otes

ALT # 2 Polleverywhere

– Students can stay connected on their mobile

phone

– Interactive, instant answers can prompt

interesting class discussions

– Check for understanding

– What should we do next? – instant feedback

ALT #3: Prediction

– Activates the brain – neuroscience

– - predict course content, paragraph of

writing

– - online tools, tell your partner

GEM

– No lear i g without atte tio

– - more than just giving information – must be structured and scaffolded – must be engaging (**Dornyei – Feb 26)

– - real world, relates to their life

– Courses and classes must first focus on getting attention: relevance, value, context

GEM - Engagement

– Engagement is a product of:

– Motivation

And

– Active learning

– A synergistic interaction

GEM: Teaching Synergy

1. ZPD – material and tasks are appropriately

challenging

2. Building a sense of a learning community

3. Teaching for holistic learning

Holistic learning

– recognize the connectedness of mind, body

and spirit.

– physical, personal, social, emotional and

spiritual wellbeing as well as cognitive

aspects of learning

ALT #4: Pre- and post- Quiz

– Quiz or survey of views before learning

– Quiz or survey of views after learning

– Comparison; how did knowledge or

attitudes change?

ALT # 5: In-class quiz

– Quiz on previous learning

– Warm up for early birds?

– Quizizz, Kahoot

ALT # 6 – One sentence summary

– Have students summarise in one sentence

what they have learned from the class

lecture and activities.

– Ideas:

– - why we reference / how to write an in-text

citation

– - how to find journal articles

–

–

–

GEM

– Reduce cognitive load / reduce distractions

– Overwhelm (e.g. referencing)

– Structuring and scaffolding of learning

– Teaching rather than testing

GEM

– Our courses are steppi g sto es or obstacles

– - making content relevant; news that

connects to the class

ALT # 7- “Lecture wrapper”

– 3 ost i porta t ideas fro today’s class / session

– Reflection

Active Reading Videos

– demonstration

Reflection and discussion

– A useful or interesting idea from today’s session