Graduate and upper-level undergraduate students looking to share the fruits of their scholarship have received a big boost from the Centre for Scholarly Communication (CSC) at UBC’s Okanagan campus.
“The CSC has an enormous impact on academic research in the University,” says Dr. Kasun Hewage, Assistant Professor (Project & Construction Management) at the School of Engineering. “Most of our graduate students are international and have different writing and thinking patterns. It is very difficult for a research professor to guide them in academic writing. Whenever I note a need, I direct my students to get help from the CSC to improve their communication skills.”
The CSC, which opened last July and is housed in the Library, reports to Melody Burton, Chief Librarian, and Dr. Peter Arthur, Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the Okanagan campus. The centre offers one-on-one consultations on written and oral communication, special events and more. Librarians’ contributions include delivering well-received workshops on topics such as copyright, research tools such as RefWorks and Mendeley, and managing information with technology.
As a result, students learn strategies to manage time and resources, improve writing and editing skills, and discover how to present material to different audiences and for different purposes. “Supporting junior researchers and scholars in the communication of new knowledge has the potential to impact not just the student, but also his or her academic community and the wider community,” says Carolyn Labun, Director of the Centre For Scholarly Communications.
More: Hear other insights on academic communication from UBC authors at our Okanagan campus.
Read more from UBC Library’s Community Report (2013).