TED Talks: A genre analysis

This research aims at investigating TED Talks as a genre. The analysis focuses on its rhetorical structure, characterized by moves and steps and the communicative purposes of the genre. The corpus comprises 10 talks selected from the website TED Talks. The data are discussed in the light of Bhatia’s (1996/2004) and Swales’ (1990/2004) theories of genre. Results demonstrate that, in terms of the analysis of the rhetorical structure, it reveals a constant pattern of moves and steps along the corpus, since every talk contained the five moves identified by the analysis. These cyclical and more frequent moves are: topic introduction, speaker presentation, topic development, concluding messages, and acknowledgments/gratitude. In terms of its communicative purpose, TED aims to celebrate ideas to a diverse audience worldwide, due to the variety of topics encompassed. This study also allowed us to develop a deeper view of this spoken genre, its features, and the way individuals may benefit from it in their lives.

Engaging the Experts to Embrace the Future: An Interactive Professional Learning Experience

We present the results of a research study exploring whether an integrated professional-student learning experience can better address the urgent demand for data-savvy, collaborative students ready to contribute on day one of their professional careers. The Interactive Professional Learning Experience (IPLE) brings practitioners into the classroom to work with students in an active learning setting. Our IPLE includes four steps: a guest speaker presentation to introduce the topic, assignment of a case project to student teams, a collaborative lab session with professionals and student teams, and finally, presentations to the original guest speaker and class. Pre- and post-test assessments indicate significantly positive improvement in student learning as compared to two other course sections that did not include the full IPLE. Questionnaire responses indicate overwhelmingly positive perceptions of the experience, including improved learning, satisfaction, and effectiveness. Overall, student feedback indicates the IPLE was an effective learning mechanism for students that simulates what they will encounter in the profession.

No Better Time to Practice Open Science Than Now

This is a guest speaker presentation given at the virtual Open Science Fellows Program 2020 in Berlin. The presentation captures the speakers perspectives on Open Science where he related it to the story of William Kamkwamba from Malawi, his journey through Open Science and Projects and Initiatives that are making use of Open Science in overcoming the challenges of COVID-19 today.