Scholarly Skills

Grad School Essentials: A Crash Course in Scholarly Skills

“Grad School Essentials: A Crash Course in Scholarly Skills” is a new two term, 1-credit, fully online course sequence offered by the ECE department.

The purpose of the course is to make students better scholars to successfully complete a M.S. or PhD thesis. For PhD students, the course will be a preparation for their Research Proficiency Exam (RPE).

Course offerings:

  • Fall 2023: ECE 563 (CRN: TBA), Grad School Essentials: A Crash Course in Scholarly Skills I. 1 credit, online, asynchronous.
  • Winter 2024: ECE 564 (CRN: TBA), Grad School Essentials: A Crash Course in Scholarly Skills II. 1 credit, online, asynchronous.

Prerequisites/Co-requisites:

  • All students must be proficient in written and spoken English before taking this course.
  • The ECE faculty voted to make this course sequence a requirement for both ECE PhD and M.S. thesis students.
  • You should not take this course sequence in your first term at PSU.
  • You should not take this course sequence if you do not have a thesis advisor and a research topic yet.
  • Ideally, you should have done some initial research for your thesis before you take this course sequence.

Description:

The purpose of the course is to make students better scholars. Scholarly Skills I focuses on the foundations while Scholarly Skills II focuses on more advanced topics. Topics covered include research tools, choosing and planning a research project, conducting a literature review, research methodology, writing, referencing, editing, designing a poster, delivering a presentation, and writing a research paper. At the completion of the course, students should be familiar with the tasks and activities for successfully completing a M.S. or PhD thesis.

Topics and assignment overview:

Last updated: 12/16/20, rev 1

grad_school_essentials_overview_r1

Student learning outcomes

Scholarly Skills I (Fall):

  • Capable of using research tools.
  • Capable of managing research projects.
  •  Capable of formulating a research question and/or hypothesis.
  • Capable of performing a literature search.
  • Capable of using the library and search catalogues.
  • Understanding different research methodologies.
  • Capable of citing sources and generating bibliographies.
  • Capable of recognizing and avoiding plagiarism.
  • Understanding ethical and moral considerations and obligations in research.
  • Managing research project(s).

Scholarly Skills II (Winter):

  • Capable of producing high-quality visualizations.
  • Capable of organizing and writing technical reports.
  • Capable of editing and revising texts.
  • Capable of designing and presenting a poster.
  • Capable of delivering a research presentation.
  • Capable of writing a research paper.

Course format:

The course will be offered online in a fully asynchronous way. Mini-lectures will be pre-recorded.  The course will require 2-3h of homework per week.

Credits:

1

Grading:

Graded only

Required texts:

None

Course website:

Canvas

Instructor:

Christof Teuscher