AHSS Virtual Coffee Chats Sessions January-March 2021
The AHSS Virtual Coffee Chat Sessions was set up for AHSS Postgraduate Researchers on MS Teams during Covid 19 to provide a platform where general discussions could take place and also a sharing of research-related topics.
The first session was in October 2020 and regular sessions followed After the Christmas break, the AHSS Virtual Coffee Chat sessions began again January 2021. The first session was on an International/Intercultural theme. Michelle Daly (MLAL) gave a great overview of research and provided a mind map on related concepts of culture and Sandrine Ndahiro (EIC ) spoke about her role as Equality Office within the Postgraduate Students Union (PSU). Really good session.
In February, the session was on ‘Minding your Mental Health during your PhD’. Dr. Niamh Lenahan, Michelle Daly and Chris Fitzgerald shared their findings from a recent workshop on ‘Mental Health’ they had attended. It was great to hear from everyone on how they are coping with study and keeping motivated to continue on with their PhDs.
In our first of two sessions that took place in March, the theme was ‘Tutoring’. Students shared tools they were using to help with the engagement of students such as using break-out rooms, putting up polls and getting students to answer questions verbally or through the use of the chat button. They also discussed how to motivate students. Tutors explored the differences they felt between teaching online compared to face to face. It was great to see how interested postgraduates are in engaging with new technology for online teaching. The session was very helpful to those tutoring and also to those who might want to tutor in the future.
At our second session in March Pattie Punch our AHSS Librarian looked at new resources made available to postgraduates within the last year. Pattie also gave helpful information on podcasting and Mojo. It was a great discussion and Pattie was extremely helpful and all who attended were well informed. It is great to have Pattie’s expertise available to our AHSS Postgraduate community.
Our next session in April looked at Twitter. Members of AHSS Faculty, Dr. Karol Mullaney-Dignam (History), Dr. Christina Morin (EIC), Dr. Niamh Nic Ghabhann (ADR) (History) and Dr. Rachel Murphy (History) discussed how they use Twitter for research and personal posts. Twitter is a great way of raising your profile to an academic world and it was interesting to hear various ways of doing this. Dr. Karol Mullaney-Dignam gave an overview of how to use Twitter and encouraged students to tweet regularly and to be mindful of the tone used. Dr. Tina Morin and Dr. Niamh Nic Ghabhann shared their personal Twitter accounts and guided participants on how they Tweet and how to garner followers. They also spoke about sharing academic and personal tweets. Dr. Rachel Murphy gave a practical session on setting up a Twitter account and posted a live tweet as a demonstration. It was an extremely informative session and all those who attended learned something about Twitter.
Our second AHSS Virtual Coffee Chat in April looked at Designing Posters using Canva. Jesse Waters from the Glucksman Library gave a workshop on creating an academic poster for a conference using Canva. Really good tips on how to create the poster were shared including ensuring that the message is clear, not to overload the poster with text and include essential information only. It was also pointed out that several drafts of posters are produced before the completed version is created. It is also helpful to get someone to view your poster before you submit.
