VSSN New Researchers Online Forum
23rd August 2021
1pm-2pm
Following on from our first session of 2021 in April, this session will continue to offer a supportive environment for new researchers to share their experiences.
As always, these meetings are an informal and open space for people to bring their interests, questions, successes, and worries. You do not have to have attended any of the previous sessions to come along to this one and you also do not have to be a member of VSSN. We do encourage you to join though and you can find out more about that here.
In this meeting we’ll briefly look ahead to the Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research (VSVR) Conference in September and give an overview of what it’s like to attend the New Researchers sessions there. For more information on the conference and to book, click here.
We also plan to have some breakout groups in which attendees give a ‘three-minute pitch’ on a topic of their choosing. If you’re presenting at VSVR this can help you to refine your content and if you’re not this will be a useful exercise for any future presentations that you might give.
Structuring your ‘three-minute pitch’.
These are typically structured as an overview of your research as a whole, but you could also focus on something specific, for example your approach to data collection, analysis, or position as a researcher.
Think about:
• Your title – clear and succinct
• The focus of your research/presentation – why is this topic/aspect important?
• Background or context – academic literature and/or practice – what has come before your work and
informed it?
• Key themes, issues, findings, or questions you might have
• Implications – for your research project or more widely for academia (what’s your contribution?), for practice,
for policy.
There is no ‘right way’ to do this so we’ll just give it a go!
Agenda
• Introductions and sharing of the good, not so good, frustrating, and infuriating about research! We usually devote around half of the meeting time to this (20-30 minutes).
• An overview of the VSVR conference including how it works and what it’s like to attend as a new researcher (5-10 minutes).
• The ‘three-minute pitch’ – depending on numbers we will break into smaller groups to discuss our pitches (20-30 minutes).
• Feedback, wrap-up and what’s next (5-10 minutes).
Joining information
The session will be hosted on Zoom. To register please visit: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvcOqsqz0sHNeNvN4Gu2ohSYsCH8K5-f4x
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
For any further information or questions please contact: Daniel.haslam@open.ac.uk
Looking forward to seeing you on the 23rd of August!
Best wishes,
VSSN New Researchers Organising Group.
