Student group meeting 2024-01-30

Student Group Meeting

January 30, 2024

Key points:

• Participants suggest three presentation approaches for showcasing students’ works in the plenary meeting: 1. Working group-wise, 2. Based on geographic location, and 3. A combination of an overall presentation on thematic areas and individual two-minute presentations for each student.
• The group agreed to use a pie chart for visualizing the thematic areas.
• The group proposes using a spreadsheet with basic columns for students to briefly outline their main objectives, one or two key findings, and the status of their work.
• Anas suggests a time-efficient strategy where each working group nominates a representative to present key points, saving time and avoiding repetition.
• The group supports Ishan’s idea to use breakout rooms in the next meeting for detailed discussions within the working groups to decide on presentation details.
• Participants expressed concerns about fitting their work neatly into one working group.

Minutes:

Ishan: It's a collective presentation, so we can't go into a lot of detail about any one student's work. So, one way to do this would be to begin with a visual presentation of these broad thematic areas.

If we would like to follow the spreadsheet, we can have some basic columns where students can write briefly about their main objectives. Then, they can summarize their key findings in just one or two points. We can also include a column indicating the status of the work, whether it's completed, ongoing, or not started, to get a sense of where everyone is.

Mahfuz: Thanks, Ishan. Yeah, it's really a nice idea to have separate columns for key objectives or findings and the status of the research.

Ishan: In terms of visualizing this data, we could do a simple pie chart or something similar.

Colleen: It would be a pretty simple visualization. However, I am not sure how we would present it: working group-wise or three groups altogether. Some groups have fewer people than others. For example, there are quite a few people looking at policy. I'm not sure if we should do it by each working group or have all three within it, but I think it'd be a simple visualization we could make out of this.

Jessie: I agree with Ishan's suggestion and also with Colleen's about the pie chart. we can choose a working group where our work is best represented and just highlight ourselves in that group. Another student could work with another working group and then highlight their work there, so as not to spread all of us across all the working groups. We can highlight a certain student in one group and another in a different group, and so on.

Anas: I agree with the larger idea here. But what I would also suggest is better time management. If you have 30 minutes, one way of doing this is to have someone represent a working group. We give them all the points in their research, and this person talks about that briefly. It’s easier than having everyone speak about their research. Each working group will nominate someone to speak on their behalf, and then they can share all the points about what their research is about, the findings, and the implications.

Jessie: It might be too much if all of us will speak, so a leader from a certain working group will represent.

Mahfuz: We can decide who will present what part of the presentation or working group in the next meeting. Once we decide what we are presenting, then in the next meeting, we can decide who will present which part of the presentation.

Ishaan: If, in the next meeting, we can go to the breakout room to discuss among ourselves, that would also be great.  Then, the group will have a few minutes to discuss and decide what information to share and how to manage the time.

Mahfuz: This brings us to the next question: who wants to work in which working group? Shall we decide today or in the next meeting?

Ishaan: This can be decided in the next meeting when we have a breakout room. Once people have made up their minds about the working group where their thesis research falls under, then it’s easy to divide them into breakout rooms and figure out a leader or a presenter.

Safina: I have a question. Can I ask? Sometimes it is quite difficult to choose the working group. For example, in my case. It mostly covered working group one, but some parts also worked in group three. So, I need to choose one. I will go for working group one. In that case, will I miss working with group 3? Do I have a chance to work with and contribute to working group 3 so that I can learn from them as well?

Mahfuz: I believe you definitely can. Yeah, most students have multiple working areas and themes which cover all three working groups. However, you cannot present three working groups at the same time. So you have to choose one but can definitely contribute to other working groups.

Ishaan: This working group split is something that everyone seemed to be agreeing with, but I was also concerned about the same thing. People's work does not fit neatly into any one working group; it overlaps. So that kind of breakout session would mean that you're talking about one aspect of your work, whereas the other aspect is left out. So I was wondering if there's some other way to do this. We could still indicate which working groups are reflected in that visualization. But when we get to talking about the student project we don't have to necessarily divide them by working group. As you guys have also observed, they fall into different working groups and not just a single one. That might be an impartial representation of different projects. So, we can just think about whether it's something we want to consider.

If we do go ahead with the follow-up strategy that I suggested, then, after that, we'll get an idea of whether it makes sense to do this by working in a group or just doing it as a list. Suppose we have 10 students. Then, each student talks about their project for like a minute or 2 and finishes it off. So that would take maybe 10 to 15 min. Then, there will be 5 to 10 minutes of group discussion.

Mahfuz: So both ideas are really good, and it’s up to the group how they would like to present.

Let the ideas come in, and we can make a decision in the next meeting.

Sharmin: Actually, I don't have that much to say because I'm just kind of agreeing with the larger idea that is shared right now. I had the question that's already been asked. Some of my work falls under working group one, and some is in working group three. So, can I join the discussion on working group one?

Nazia:  My work also falls under working groups one and three. Its challenging for me to decide what to pick or what not. I think if we present in bigger working groups and then try to summarize all the ideas, it would work for me. If I have to work or choose one working group because I can't fit my work under any specific working group, I think we got the themes, and that will be a bit easier for me.

Mahfuz: So, we have two ideas for presenting our works; one is a working group where the student will choose one working group that best fits their work. However, they can contribute to other working groups as well if they wish. The second idea is that we can have a common presentation on the thematic areas followed by two-minute individual presentations of each student.

Jessie: Yeah, this is a question. Is everyone expected to present? Like in my batch of students, there are four, and I'm the only one present here.

Mahfuz: It will be challenging to cover everyone’s work individually. Yeah, but again, it's up to the group's decisions. I cannot decide it alone; the group has to come up with a decision.

Ishan: I just wanted to clarify that when I was suggesting that We go one after the other, I wasn't saying that students should present individually. I was just saying that it would be the points given by the students, which are presented by one person. So, just to quickly go one after the other. It was just an alternative. Dividing everybody into working groups because, as people have brought up, not everybody's work might fit into a working group.

Samia: I am having a bit of the same concern as Jessie that in our working group, we have more participants who are not present now. So, my question is whether everyone will participate in the presentation or not. That is a concern for me.

Jessie: I'm thinking of another alternative to do it. Instead of a theme, we can present it geographically.

Mahfuz: Yeah, that's a really nice alternative. we can also think about it. Yeah.

Colleen: I also share the sentiment that working group one might have more people than other groups. Another way to represent our works is based on geographic location.

Mahfuz: Thanks, Jessie, for bringing up another idea. By geographic location, do you mean country or region? For example, India is a large country, and DFM has multiple sub-groups within India.

Colleen: I'm not part of the India group. I'm in Cambodia, so I'm by myself. So, it mostly depends on who else shows up for the meeting. So, I could be grouped in with, say, Thailand, maybe Myanmar.

Jessie: I was saying we can do the grouping based on the number of. Students who are currently available at the next meeting.

Anas: India has several sub-groups, however, but now there are only two of us from India. So that way, I think we can just take that call based on how many people are present, and then do the grouping.

Mahfuz: I think we got really some nice ideas, for the next meeting. I will summarize your thoughts and share them with you. We'll further discuss those ideas in the next meeting and come up with the final decision. We will also assign work on who will present which part of the presentation and who will develop the presentation and everything.

Does anyone have any other thoughts or questions related to the student group or a student group presentation that we can discuss at this moment?

Nazia: I have a question like the one we have already ticked on the spreadsheet. Can we add or edit?

Mahfuz: Yeah, sure you can.

If you don't have any other questions, then we can wrap up the meeting for today.

We invited all the DFMA student to today's meeting, but unfortunately, some could not attend due to their fieldwork schedule.  I hope they will attend the next meeting.

So, I'm going to end the meeting today and thank you all again for joining..