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Grad Success Week

May 1–3, 2023

Grad Success Week offers three days of seminars and panels for graduate students. Network with fellow students, learn how to enhance your research and writing, or participate in wellness activities to maintain your wellbeing.

Kick off your summer successfully

Grad Success Week is designed to help graduate students overcome common obstacles during their studies, as well as provide useful tips and strategies for their research or writing projects. The event is open to graduate students in both course-based and thesis-based programs and undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing graduate studies.

By attending Grad Success Week, you'll find seminars and events that are focused on improving your research, writing and wellbeing. Topics include:

  • Developing research proposals

  • How to get published

  • Presenting your research

  • Graduate funding applications

  • Project management and managing procrastination

  • Navigating supervisor relationships

  • ...and more!

Session levels

Whether you're just beginning your degree and need help with grad school fundamentals, or you're closer to completing your studies and want more specific support, you're sure to find something that fits your needs. Sessions are coded with their levels (C, I or A) to make navigating the schedule easier.

Core (C)

Sessions intended for any graduate student new to graduate school or new to the content area.

Intermediate (I)

Sessions intended for graduate students who are beyond their first year of graduate studies.

Advanced (A)

Sessions intended for graduate students who are nearing the end of their program of study.

Monday, May 1

Writing

Time: 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. MT
Platform: Online

Have you ever wanted to present your research at an academic research conference? Unsure of how to present your work to a broad audience? Wondering how you can increase interest in your research? Come participate in a workshop designed to help you answer these questions. Participants will be introduced to strategies for producing an engaging abstract that is appropriate for a broad audience.  Topics include elements of an abstract, improving readability, and increasing research appeal.  

Presented by: Kendell Heydon, PhD, Program Coordinator, Writing Support Services, Student Success Centre 

Time: 1:20–2:50 p.m. MT
Platform: In-person (TFDL)

Are you interested in publishing during your graduate studies, but are not sure where to start? This workshop will introduce participants to strategies for choosing a suitable publication venue (with an emphasis on scholarly journals) to ensure a good fit, a broad reach, and a significant impact on their academic work. 

Presented by: Christie Hurrell, MLIS, Associate Librarian, Libraries and Cultural Resources 

 

Time: 3–4:30 p.m. MT
Platform: Online

A literature review is more than a series of summaries. It presents a synthesis of current knowledge that connects to and informs your research. This workshop focuses on resources and strategies for researching, selecting, and analyzing literature. It will also demonstrate ways to organize your final review.  

Presented by: Kendell Heydon, PhD, Program Coordinator, Writing Support Services, Student Success Centre 

Time: 5–6:30 p.m. MT
Platform: Online

The literature review is a major component of every thesis and dissertation.  It both addresses a critical gap in academic knowledge and grounds the legitimacy of one’s research. The literature review also allows students to contextualize their research projects within their respective fields and disciplines. This workshop will examine common errors graduate students make when completing literature reviews. It will also provide a variety of resources students can use throughout the writing and revising processes.

Presented by: Kendell Heydon, PhD, Program Coordinator, Writing Support Services, Student Success Centre

Research

Time: 10:30 a.m.–noon MT
Platform: In-person (TFDL)

Good management of research data, whether made up of spreadsheets, interview transcripts, image collections, digital records, or other material, will be crucial to your career as a graduate student and researcher. This session will focus on how to manage your data before, during, and after your research, as well as describe how to use DMP Assistant, a Canadian online tool for creating data management plans.  

Presented by: Heather Ganshorn, MLIS. Associate Librarian, Libraries and Cultural Resources 

Time: 1:20–2:50 p.m. MDT
Platform: In-person (TFDL 440A)

This hands-on session will walk students through the basics on how to use Tableau, a tool capable of creating a wide variety of data visualizations. Tableau supports a variety of data formats and through simple interactions allows fast exploration to find the visualization most suited to the data. Tableau offers their desktop software free to post-secondary students. 

Presented by: John Brosz, PhD., Visualization Coordinator, Libraries and Cultural Resources 

Time: 5–6:30 p.m. MT
Platform: Online

The R statistical data analysis language is a standard tool throughout academia. This workshop will provide a brief demonstration of the basics of loading data sets, preparing data for analysis, performing statistical analysis, and tools to measure the performance of an R code. Expanding on this, the workshop will introduce R at the Linux command line and how this relates to high-performance computing. Finally, the workshop will introduce the consulting services provided by Research Computing Services and the research workflow support provided by Research Dataflow Services, as well as the high-performance research computing cluster (ARC), secure data storage (SCDS), secure data analysis tools (DAT), and secure computing cluster (MARC).  

Presented by: Tannistha Nandi, PhD, and Ian Percel, PhD, data scientists with Research Computing Services 

Wellbeing

Tuesday, May 2

Graduate students enjoying breakfast in the Last Defence Lounge at last year's Breakfast with the Dean.

Breakfast with the Dean

9–10:20 a.m.

Grab a hearty breakfast and connect with Dr. Robin Yates, the Dean and Vice-Provost of Graduate Studies. Dr. Yates will present an opening session, after which you can meet your peers during interactive and community-building activities.

Registration coming soon.

Writing

Time: 10:30 a.m.–noon MT
Platform: Online

Are you prepared to share your research progress or results in an academic setting?  This workshop focuses on creating a clear and appealing visual and oral presentation that accurately represents your research findings without overwhelming your audience. 

Presented by: Kendell Heydon, PhD, Program Coordinator, Writing Support Services, Student Success Centre 

Time: 12–12:50 p.m. MT
Platform: In-person (TFDL)

This hands-on workshop will teach you five tips to make your documents more accessible and inclusive. Students are encouraged to bring their laptops to the session and have access to MS Word or PowerPoint. This session will take place in a sensory-friendly space with the lights dimmed. Sensory tools will be provided. 

If you have any questions, please email Heather Thompson at heather.thompson1@ucalgary.ca  

Presented by: Heather Thompson, Academic Strategist, Student Success Centre

Time: 1:10 – 2:40 p.m. MDT
Platform: Zoom

This workshop will provide attendees with the knowledge and skills necessary to craft an effective academic CV and resume. The workshop will cover topics such as formatting and tailoring the CV and resume for different job applications.  

Presented by: Dr. Charlotte Anyango Ong’ang’a, Career Development Specialist, PhD students, Career Services

Details coming soon!

 

Research

Details coming soon!

Time: 12–1 p.m. MT
Platform: Zoom

Are you new to writing research proposals, or have you struggled with writing them in the past?  

This workshop offers practical advice about how to work through the process of developing and finishing a research proposal. It includes tips on how to get started, how to work through difficulties and writer’s block, and how to solicit and receive helpful feedback on your proposal.  

Presented by: Jared Secord, PhD, Coordinator of Scholars Programming, Student Success Centre

Time: 10:10 – 11:40 a.m. MDT
Platform: Zoom

Are you wanting to blend survey-based data into your research? Come participate in this workshop and learn how to leverage survey software that every UCalgary staff, student, and faculty already has a license for.  You’ll learn how to create your account, how to create a survey, how to program questions, and see an introduction to some of the Qualtrics software features.  

Presented by: Jean Gomes, MA, MEd, senior institutional analyst with the Office of Institutional Analysis  

Time: 1:10–1:50 p.m. MT
Platform: In-person (TFDL)

NVivo is a top-rated qualitative data analysis tool produced by QSR International.  NVivo supports researchers who need to analyze text-based documents, surveys, and multimedia files.  The University of Calgary has a license for NVivo, so it is available at no fee to students, staff and faculty.  This demo will show you the basics on how to get started.  

Presented by: Jean Gomes, MA, MEd, senior institutional analyst with the Office of Institutional Analysis   

Time: 2:50–4:20 p.m. MT
Platform: In-person (TFDL)

This session will cover the planning, development and refinement stages of writing a research proposal. We'll begin with the use of preliminary data, identifying potential collaborations and deciding on an area of investigation before clearly defining your research question; evaluating its scope, novelty and relevance; and demonstrating your suitability to carry out the study. A succinct and relevant literature review and an impactful but realistic statement of the work’s contribution to its field of study and society will also be covered. The session will conclude with examining issues pertinent to the refinement phase, such as accuracy, abstract structure, self-editing and incorporating feedback. Time will be allotted for questions from the audience.  

Please note: writing proposals for scholarship applications will be covered in a separate workshop  

Presented by: K. Quinn, PhD, Analyst, Planning and Reviews, Office of the Provost 

Wellbeing

Wednesday, May 3

Writing

Time: 10:10–11:40 a.m. MT
Platform: In-person (TFDL)

In this session, students will learn how to create a sensory-friendly toolkit by exploring their sensory preferences. Topics will include understanding sensory processing, exploring needs , and what effects different sensory environments may have on your learning. Students will be able to develop strategies to assist with this important topic to assist in their time studying at the university. This session will take place in a sensory-friendly space with the lights dimmed. Sensory tools will be provided.

If you have any questions, please send an email to heather.thompson1@ucalgary.ca   

Presented by: Heather Thompson, Academic Strategist, Student Success Centre

Time: 12–12:30 p.m. MT
Platform: In-person/online

Academic posters are effective research communication and networking tools common to conferences. Despite the cancellation of many in-person conferences this season, creating an effective poster is a necessary academic skill. This session will cover the basics of creating and presenting them. 

Presented by: Jennifer Lee, BSc, MISt, Collections Librarian, Health Knowledge Network Librarian, Libraries and Cultural Resources (she/her/hers)

Time: 1:10–2:40 p.m. MT
Platform: In-person

Are you interested in publishing in a peer-reviewed journal during your graduate studies, but are not sure where to start? This workshop will introduce participants to the peer-review process and strategies for success as an author and as a reviewer within the peer-review process. 

Presented by: Kate Cawthorn, MLIS, Assistant Librarian, Libraries and Cultural Resources 

Research

Time: 10:10 – 11:10 a.m. MT
Platform: In-person (TFDL)

LaTex is an open-source typesetting program that produces professional documents and PDF files.  In this demonstration, we present the basics of using LaTeX and Overleaf, a great tool for formatting your thesis and bibliographies. This session will introduce the overleaf interface and provide simple examples of how to use LaTeX. 

Presented by: 

  • Jennifer Lee, MISt, Collections Librarian, Libraries and Cultural Resources 
  • John Brosz, PhD, Data Visualization Coordinator, Libraries and Cultural Resources 

Time: 12:10–1 p.m. MT
Platform: In-person (TFDL)

Literature reviews are a common task in graduate work, either as part of the background section of a larger paper/thesis or as a standalone publication. This session will provide tips and resources for planning, researching, and managing your literature for a literature review.  

Presented by: Heather Ganshorn, MLIS. Associate Librarian, Libraries and Cultural Resources 

Details coming soon!

Wellbeing