How do we communicate what we are doing and learning to others?

Reporting

Part of any formal learning effort is communicating that learning to others. We offer more in-depth guidance on reporting elsewhere, here we wish to more conceptually address the issue of communicating your
learning. The traditional IQP project report presents an overarching narrative that moves smoothly from a brief introduction to the problem to a discussion of relevant background research that provides a more complete and nuanced understanding of the problem to an explication of an appropriate methodology for addressing the problem to the results of how the problem was addressed. It is a particular genre and modality of communication. It typically makes the whole process seem much smoother and more linear that it really was, which is both a strength and a weakness.

When we speak of modalities of communication we mean the way in which the information is communicated. Some of the communication modalities you might use in your project include: formal project reports, formal presentations, theatrical presentations (skits and songs), posters, blogs, and web pages. All of these modalities could draw upon a mixture of words and images. The appropriate modality will largely depend upon your audience and what you think the best way to communicate with them is.

When we speak of genre, we mean different types of narratives or stories. The classical IQP project report is based in a well-established genre of scientific reporting. The Cape Town Project Centre Web Page is a somewhat different genre of project reporting. SAL includes genres that are more process oriented – that is to say they follow the process of the project rather than focus on the product or outcomes of the project – and more first person (we might even say confessional). We welcome new genres that we will develop together. Much of this website is devoted to discussing different types of website page that are useful for IQP reporting, and how you might undertake them in your project.