Defining Success in Science Multimedia Communication Courses

Despite widespread agreement that communication and presentation skills are vital for students in the sciences, few universities have implemented dedicated science communication courses and fewer include sufficient opportunities for student improvement through repeated practice. We previously reported that student presentation quality in a physics senior seminar course was unaffected by observation and reflection on peer presentations, and that student takeaways from peer presentations were primarily affected by prior exposure to presentation content rather than any immediate course content. Inspired by student testimonials, we investigate the content, structure, and outcomes of an analogous chemistry senior seminar course at our institution. Across multiple multimedia presentations, chemistry students significantly improved their presentation skills as measured by the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning and reported noticeably higher course satisfaction in semi-structured interviews. Here, we discuss trends in interview responses between both physics and chemistry students and the results of consequent classroom reforms in the physics course.