On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. Show awareness and understanding of the background, fundamentals and theory of traditional and emerging media and how these relate to the communication of science.
2. Produce written communication suitable for a variety of media and publications.
3. Demonstrate oral communication skills from speeches to soundbites.
4. Demonstrate online communication skills from blog posts to videos.
5. Demonstrate an appreciation of the scope and diversity of science communication.
6. Demonstrate responsible, ethical and respectful attitudes as the field undergoes disruptive change fuelled by rapid technology advancement.

The Little Penguin Handbook (3rd Australasian Edition) (Lester Faigley: Longman; 2014)

Sharing Knowledge: A Guide to Effective Science Communication (Julian Cribb, Tjempaka Sari Hartomo: CSIRO Publishing; 2002) (Link to e-book from Barr Smith Library available on MyUni)

Writing for Science (3rd ed; Heather Silyn-Roberts: Pearson, 2012)  (Available from the Barr Smith Library)

Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps (Margaret Cargill, Patrick O’Connor: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) (Available from the Barr Smith Library)

Other required/recommended texts will be based on OER (open education resource) principles and will be available for free download online.

Other reading material as provided by lecturers and/or made available on MyUni.

It is important that all students maintain active communication channels with the course coordinator and course teaching staff throughout the course. The primary communication channels from staff to students are email and MyUni for course-related announcements, teaching material and additional resources.

The University's online learning management system, MyUni (https://myuni.adelaide.edu.au), will be used to provide students with a variety of learning resources, including (but not limited to) the following:
* Lecture notes
* Assessment information
* Marking rubrics
* Links to other websites that may assist learning, or provide further information

All learning resources will be provided electronically, and no printed copies will be supplied.

MyUni will also be used on a regular basis to post announcements about assessment deadlines and other information related to the course and to send students emails to their University-provided student email account.

The course consists of 1 x 3 hour morning “lecture” block and 1 x 3 hour afternoon “workshop” block (or equivalent) for most days of the course.  The workshops will serve to reinforce the topics covered in lectures.  Some free afternoons have been built into the course structure to allow students time to assimilate knowledge and prepare for summative assessment tasks.

Learning activity	Contact time	Non-contact time
Lectures	3-hour lecture block per day	1 hours preparation per lecture block
Workshops	3 hours per day (or equivalent)	1 hour per workshop
Blog posts	-	Approximately 2 hour per day
Feature Article	-	Approximately 10 hours spread over the duration of the course
Media Release	-	Approximately 2 hours
Review	-	Approximately 2 hours
Presentations	-	Approximately 10 hours spread over the duration of the course
Total hours	Up to 6 hours (on average) per day	Up to 5 non-contact hours (on average) per day)

Lecture content:

•    Background, fundamentals and theory of traditional media
•    Background, fundamentals and theory of emerging media
•    Writing skills:
     Construction, use of appropriate language, editing
     Writing styles – formal and informal
•    Oral communication skills – approaches, techniques, advice
•    Online communication and emerging online social media – use in communicating science, approaches to using these techniques
•    Radio, print and television media – different approaches for communicating science through different media, advice on how to manage aspects of these media outlets

Several guest workshops will be run by visiting experts in one or more facets of the course objectives to support the lecture material.

Assessment Task	Task Type	Due	Weighting	Learning Outcome
Blog Posts	Formative and Summative	Submitted every 2-3 days throughout the course	30%	1, 2, 4, 5, 6
Oral Presentation 1	Summative	Monday week 2	5%	1, 3, 5, 6
Oral Presentation 2	Summative	Monday-Wednesday week 3	15%	1, 3, 5, 6
Media Release	Formative and Summative	End of week 3	10%	1, 2, 5, 6
Review	Formative and Summative	End of week 3	10%	1, 2, 5, 6
Feature Article	Formative and Summative	End of week 4	30%	1, 2, 5, 6

Blog post assignments (30% of overall course grade)
Students will be required to produce 4 blog posts (approximately 1000 words each) every second- or third-day during week 1 and 2 of the course explaining a science topic. The first two blogs will be directed with a defined topic, audience and purpose. The remaining blogs are free for students to choose their own theme. Students will be expected to include a writer’s statement, detailing the audience, message and purpose of each blog. The blog posts may incorporate video and/or other media content and will allow students to develop and demonstrate their understanding of online media as a communication tool. Students will receive regular online formative feedback for these blog posts, enabling them to chart their progress and improvement as the course progresses. At the end of the course, each student’s collection of blog posts will be marked summatively as one body of work.

Oral Presentation (20% of overall course grade)
Students will be required to make two oral presentations during the course –at the start of week 2, and the start of week 3. This will enable students to put into practice the communication skills they have been developing as well as demonstrate proficiency in the various technology and media available in presenting a topic to a live audience, engaging online participants. Assessment for both presentations will involve peer marking.

Oral presentation 1 (5% of overall course grade) will be a 2-minute review (plus time for questions) of a scientific paper. Oral presentation 2 (15% of overall course grade) will be a 10-minute presentation on a scientific topic of the student’s choosing.

Feature Article (30% of overall course grade)
The writing assignment (approximately 2000 words) will enable students to demonstrate their understanding of and ability to communicate science through the written word in the form of a magazine/feature article. Students will be encouraged to choose a theme related to their blog posts. Students will be expected to include a writer’s statement, detailing the audience, message and purpose of the article. Students will be permitted to submit a draft for formative feedback prior to the final submission.

Media Release (10% of overall grade)
Students will be required to write a media release (approximately 500 words) based upon a science discovery (real or imaginary). This will enable students to develop and demonstrate their understanding of and ability to write to a defined short format to attract the attention of a media outlet. Students will be permitted to submit a draft for formative feedback prior to the final submission. Students will be expected to include a writer’s statement, detailing the audience, message and purpose of the media release.

Review (10% of overall grade)
Students will be required to write a review of a science exhibition (approximately 1000 words) for online or magazine publication. This will enable students to develop and demonstrate their understanding of how a science exhibition is put together and writing in a style appropriate for the audience of the publication. Students will be given the opportunity during the course to visit science exhibitions in Adelaide under the supervision of an academic or guest presenter. Students will be expected to include a writer’s statement, detailing the audience, message and purpose of the review. Students will be permitted to submit a draft for formative feedback prior to the final submission.

Extensions for Assessment Tasks
Extensions of deadlines for assessment tasks may be allowed for reasonable causes. Such situations would include compassionate and medical grounds of the severity that would justify the awarding of a supplementary examination. Evidence for the grounds must be provided when an extension is requested. Students are required to apply for an extension to the Course Coordinator before the assessment task is due. Extensions will not be provided on the grounds of poor prioritising of time. The assessment extension application form can be obtained from: http://www.sciences.adelaide.edu.au/current/

Late submission of assessments
If an extension is not applied for, or not granted then a penalty for late submission will apply.  A penalty of 10% of the value of the assignment for each calendar day that the assignment is late (i.e. weekends count as 2 days), up to a maximum of 50% of the available marks will be applied. This means that an assignment that is 5 days late or more without an approved extension can only receive a maximum of 50% of the marks available for that assignment.