Project Context & Aims

The seminar, when established with the right atmosphere and culture, can be a space that is crucial in helping students gain confidence in expressing themselves and become more comfortable in their academic growth. Seeing the importance of this, this project is seeking to find the definition of what a seminar is. This will be by using both staff and student experiences to understand the expectations and realities of seminars, before pulling together similarities and differences to reach an effective conclusion - creating a route through which we can make seminars more inclusive, productive and engaging.

The project was centred around developing a six-part research podcast, covering both the opinions of students and staff on the seminar experience. Regarding content, the opinions which we intended to draw upon would have been generated from anonymous feedback forms from students and staff circulated across eight different departments, as well as including sections on recorded pseudo-seminars that explore how students from different departments convey their ideas in seminars and whether there is a diversity of thought.

Project Impact

The resources produced will be invaluable for the academic development and transition of first years into the academic world of university. Finding a definition of seminars has further enabled us to suggest approaches ensuring seminars are not only inclusive in allowing diversity of opinions, but also in understanding how room layout, content warning and other elements allow for increased productivity, enthusiasm and engagement from students.