Share Your Research

How to Create and Deliver a Good Research Talk

Share Your Research

How to Create and Deliver a Good Research Talk

About the Course

Status: Open, Self-Paced, Online | Estimated Effort: 1.5 to 3 hours/week

Share Your Research is a free, flexible 5-week course designed to help scientists at any career stage craft and deliver compelling research talks with confidence. Whether you're brand new to public speaking or looking to refine your style, this course walks you through every step—from defining your core message and outlining your talk to engaging your audience and navigating Q&As. With four bite-sized modules, expert strategies, and a personalized “My Talk Plan” to guide your presentation prep, you’ll gain the tools and confidence to communicate your science effectively—at conferences, in classrooms, and beyond.

Training Videos & Courses Science Communication

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Course Overview

Giving a research talk (say, at a conference, to your department or in your research group meeting) is a really important part of a scientist’s career. But, putting together and delivering a talk can be a nerve-wracking struggle. Maybe you have little to no experience giving research talks. Or maybe you’ve been doing it for a while, but feel like there is room for improvement. Either way, this course is for you!

Share Your Research is a FREE 5-week course that will guide you through the steps of creating and delivering a good research talk.

By the end of this course, you will have:

  • A detailed outline plan for your research talk.
  • Techniques and strategies for delivering an engaging and effective talk.
  • Approaches for finding and refining your preferred speaking style.
  • Strategies for practicing and receiving feedback on your talk.

A course for anyone who needs to give research talks

We designed this course for anyone who will be giving research-based scientific talks in the future. This list includes (but is not limited) to advanced undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, as well as early-career or well-established researchers who are interested in learning more about giving a good scientific talk. While most of our instructors have a background in the life sciences, the lessons included in the course are broadly applicable to other disciplines.

Includes 4 modules and a plan for your research talk

  • Module 1, FRAMING YOUR TALK: This module introduces you to a framework to help you define the foundations of an effective talk: who is the audience, what are your goals and what is your core message. This module will also offer advice to help you discover your speaking style.
  • Module 2, START BUILDING YOUR TALK: This module presents strategies to help you outline and structure your talk and engage your audience. This module will also get you started with defining the content of the body of your talk.
  • Module 3, ROUNDING OUT YOUR TALK: In this module, you will continue working on the structure and content of your talk, focusing on the introduction and ending. The module also discusses more strategies for audience engagement and talk titles.
  • Module 4, GIVING YOUR TALK: This module provides tips and best practices to deliver an effective talk: from strategies for practicing and receiving feedback, to lessening the nerves and dealing with the Q&A.
  • MY RESEARCH TALK PLAN: As you work through the course, you will be prompted to apply what you’re learning to your own presentation by completing a series of assessments. The responses to these exercises will be captured in a downloadable document called “My Talk Plan”, which is essentially an outline for your research talk. It is organized in a way so that relevant sections may be easily applied to the creation and delivery of future talks.

Built with your schedule in mind

We know you have lots of things to do, so we designed this 5-week course to take 1.5 to 3 hours per week. There are an average of 7 videos per module; each video is 2 to 6 minutes in length.

Requirements

There are no requirements needed to take this class.

How to do Good Science

Share Your Research is the third and final course in the “How to Do Good Science” series from iBiology Courses. Make sure to check out the two other courses in the series to complete your research training!

  1. Planning Your Scientific Journey teaches you how to ask scientific questions and build a research plan.
  2. Let’s Experiment: A Guide for Scientists Working at the Bench teaches you about experimental design in biological research.
  3. Share Your Research guides you through the steps of creating and delivering a good research talk.

Course Format & Certification

This is an on-demand, self-paced course. This means that, as soon as you enroll, all course content is available to you and may be consumed at your own pace. At the end of the course, you can apply to receive a a digital badge and Certificate of Completion to share and keep for your records. Passing requires that you complete all of the required activities for the course, which equals 50% of the total activities.

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Course Speakers (in alphabetical order)
  1. Brittany Anderton
  2. Shannon Behrman
  3. Samuel Díaz-Muñoz
  4. Mónica Feliú-Mójer
  5. Maite Ghazaleh Bucher
  6. Sarah Goodwin
  7. Elliot Kirschner
  8. Elie Maksoud
  9. Kevin McLean
  10. Katie Murphy
  11. Dipti Nayak
  12. Alexandra Schnoes
  13. Sven Truckenbrodt
  14. Danielle Twum
  15. Rosa Veguilla
Course Directors (in alphabetical order)
  • Shannon Behrman
  • Mónica Feliú-Mójer
  • Elie Maksoud
  • Alexandra Schnoes
Course Staff (in alphabetical order)
  • Noah Green
  • Daniel McQuillen
Graphics and Editing (in alphabetical order)
  • Adam Bolt (The Edit Center)
  • Rebecca Ellsworth (The Edit Center)
  • Chris George (OddSense)
  • Maggie Hubbard (OddSense)
  • Alexis Keenan
Video Production (in alphabetical order)
  • Alexis Keenan
  • Eric Kornblum (iBiology)
  • Derek Reich (Zooprax Productions)
Music and sound design
  • Marcus Bagala (Muse Light Music)
Course Advisory Team (in alphabetical order)
  • Sarah Goodwin
  • Elliot Kirshner
Acknowledgements

We’d like to thank the following iBiology Team members for their support in the creation of this course:

  • Evan Reeves (Operations Manager)
  • Lobsang Wangdu (Wordpress Developer)
  • Karen Dell (Content Editor)
  • Ron Vale (Founder and Board Member)
  • Doug Koshland (President)
Citation:

*Behrman, S.L., *Schnoes, A.M., *Feliú-Mójer, M., *Maksoud, E., Green, N., Ellsworth, R., Kirschner, E., Goodwin, S.S., Share Your Research: How to Give a Good Talk. iBiology Courses. July 2020. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/NWQJX

*Contributed equally

Funding

This work is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number R25GM116704.