Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

School of Life Sciences

Academic Year: 2020-21

Project Leader: Bernard Burke

Partner University(s)/Organisation(s): Riga Stradins University (Latvia)

Project Overview:

My COIL is a session in which MSc students who are writing an assessed “Critical Review” of a published scientific research paper are able to “Meet the author” in an online Zoom session. The session usually last around 1 hour and the author normally gives an approximately 30-40 minute introduction to the research topic and describes the main aspects of the paper in question, including personal anecdotes about what life was like at that time for the researcher, work/life balance pressures, etc, as well as covering the scientific background and methods. The author asks a number of questions about the paper and tries to put the work into a broader context. The students are then able to ask whatever questions they want to about the paper and the academic area concerned. 

These sessions have been very popular with students (both informally and via the MEQ) and they find it invaluable to be able to ask questions directly to the author, as well as being given background information such as the state of research on that topic at the time, and how things have changed.

Online Tool Used: Zoom