Using competitions to enhance researcher’s knowledge of copyright in practice

Using competitions to enhance researcher’s knowledge of copyright in practice

Researchers need to communicate their research to non-specialist audiences in an impactful and engaging manner. Social media and visual presentations are a great means to generate engagement and interest in research, but developing researchers need opportunities to build their digital and creative literacies to employ visualisation to maximum effect. The University of Southern Queensland (USQ) recognised the potential of the Visualise Your Thesis competition as a framework to develop doctoral candidates’ capabilities to effectively communicate their research. Our local competition, led by a multi-disciplinary team, included training sessions and a peer-review process to build students’ digital and creative literacies. Aligned with our aims for the competition, many participants anecdotally commented on the development they experienced through the process. However, the USQ team supporting the competition were surprised by the insufficient readiness of participants to engage with the complexities in sourcing and referencing open access materials that are suitable for sharing (at low or no cost) on social media platforms. It points to the need for more practice-based research on how to incorporate copyright and intellectual property meta-literacies into education, not just for researchers, but also for our student cohorts generally. Using VYT as an educational tool enabled us to highlight the range of research being undertaken at USQ and communicate the value of that research to the general community, while making it accessible.