C&RL News October 2020 454 Emily Bongiovanni is scholarly communications librarian, email: emilybongiovanni@mines.edu, Brianna Buljung is teaching and learning librarian, email: bbuljung@mines.edu, Lisa Dunn is STEM Research librarian, email: ldunn@mines.edu, and Karen Pfiffner is government information coordinator, email: kpfiffne@ mines.edu, at the Colorado School of Mines © 2020 Emily Bongiovanni, Brianna Buljung, Lisa Dunn, and Karen Pfiffner Emily Bongiovanni, Brianna Buljung, Lisa Dunn, and Karen Pfiffner From Golden to Xuzhou Teaching a graduate student workshop in China In late spring 2019, eight staff members from the Colorado School of Mines (Mines) Arthur Lakes Library, in Golden, Colorado, visited the China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT) in Xuzhou, China. The trip was intended to develop a relationship between the two libraries and foster future partnerships. The visit, which centered around the Symposium on Mines-CUMT Li- brary Collaboration, included presentations by Mines and CUMT staff, museum visits, cultural activities, and a full-day workshop for early career researchers. The authors were invited to conduct the one-day “Workshop on Writing and Publish- ing for Graduate Students,” which provided students with skills and knowledge they would need across the research life cycle as emerging scholars. The workshop was conducted with an emphasis on Western (pri- marily American and European) publishing models and practices. The day was broken down into four main sections covering best practices in academic writing, publishing models, scholarly identity, research impact, and tools, such as citation management software. Each session consisted of lecture, individual activities, and group discussion. The goal was to support students’ publishing in international journals by identifying and understanding tools from different stages of the research lifecycle, online profiling platforms, and different publishing models. The team is now exploring how to adapt this workshop to an online environment in response to COVID-19. Planning and preparation Emily Bongiovanni, scholarly communica- tions librarian at Mines, led the team and served as the primary point of contact for CUMT librarians in planning the workshop. As with any international exchange involv- ing a language barrier, a lot of back and forth was required in order to fully under- stand each other’s goals and desired out- comes. Bongiovanni met with the Mines team frequently to develop the day’s pro- gram and relay information from her CUMT contact. As part of the preparation, the CUMT team sent Bongiovanni approximately 50 papers the graduate students intended to submit to English-language journals. The Mines team reviewed the papers and tailored the work- shop to meet the needs of those students. Since the team is not trained in teaching English as a Second Language, we did not provide feedback on specific language usage during the workshop, other than commonly occurring grammatical norms in STEM pub- lishing. mailto:emilybongiovanni%40mines.edu?subject= mailto:bbuljung%40mines.edu?subject= mailto:ldunn%40mines.edu?subject= mailto:kpfiffne%40mines.edu?subject= mailto:kpfiffne%40mines.edu?subject= October 2020 455 C&RL News The workshop was based on the Mines’ Modern Researcher 101 series. This highly popular workshop series aims to provide early career researchers with tips, tools, and best practices across the research life- cycle. The Mines team converted portions of this series to a one-day workshop for the CUMT graduate students. The workshop content was reviewed by CUMT librarians to ensure we pre- sented on the topics they found most use- ful for their students. The workshop outline was exchanged three times before finalizing topics for the day. W e c a r e f u l l y planned for language barriers, cultural dif- ferences, and elec- tronic resource ac- cess. The authors researched cultural differences for teach- ing norms typical to the Chinese classroom to identify common American teaching practices that could impact the students’ learning. In addition to our research, two of the authors had experience teaching in a foreign country and one had previously visited China, enabling them to provide advice to the rest of the teaching team. The workshop was organized into man- ageable topics and taught entirely in English. Organizing the content into manageable topics also enabled team members to take leadership for a single session, minimizing the amount of work to be done by the schol- arly communications librarian. Breaks were scheduled throughout the day to diminish the cognitive overload of processing new content while learning in a second language. These breaks provided students with the opportu- nity to ask questions one-on-one, if they felt uncomfortable asking their question in front of the entire group. An essential part of workshop planning was ensuring access to our familiar databases, websites, and citation management tools while in China. The workshop’s structure required the team to be able to demon- strate websites and re- search tools and assist students with hands- on practice. As each team member worked on their portion of the content in prepara- tion for the work- shop, they sent web- site links and tools to Bongiovanni to share with the CUMT team. The tools were tested on CUMT’s network to ensure they would operate properly, in- cluding the Mines Li- brary Catalog, ORCiD, and Zotero. B o n g i o v a n n i ’ s leadership in collabo- rating with the CUMT librarians to plan the workshop was es- sential to its success. There were challenges coordinating the team as the workshop required more thought and careful planning than typically needed. Preparation efforts took place at the end of the Mines spring semester, a difficult period to arrange meetings for the four-member team who were also planning for the com- panion symposium and arranging logistics of the trip to China. Teaching the workshop The day began with a welcome speech by the CUMT associate dean of the graduate school and group photo. The first session Emily Bongiovanni teaching at the workshop. C&RL News October 2020 456 covered the benefits of using citation man- agement software, demonstrated Zotero, and provided students structured time to practice. In the second session, students learned about information and resources on conducting a review of a discipline’s litera- ture and tips for structuring the literature re- view portion of a thesis or scholarly article. The third session contained advice for tech- nical writing in English based on the papers previously shared by the attending students. In the fourth session, stu- dents learned about their publishing op- tions, tips for selecting jour- nals to target for publica- tion, and re- sources for en- hancing their scholarly iden- tity. Struc- tured time was provided for students to claim and be- gin populating their ORCiD accounts. The day concluded with a discussion on additional resources and topics for further exploration. Students completed a three-question survey on the effectiveness of the workshop. We felt it was critical to provide a variety of methods to encourage students to ask questions during the workshop. Question time was built into each section to encourage student participation and open discussion. We recognized the need to be sensitive to potential cultural differences in the classroom and students’ level of comfort participat- ing in active learning. Students were given notecards at the beginning of the day to write questions throughout the workshop. Attendees were encouraged to ask questions using the method with which they were most comfortable, including raising hands, using notecards, or approaching the presenters during breaks or activities. Students could ask questions in Chinese or English, and our hosts provided translations, as needed. The event was largely successful. We received positive feedback from the CUMT hosts and the workshop attendees. The au- dience was engaged throughout the entire day and asked thought-provoking questions. Student feedback via the end-of-workshop survey especially emphasized the usefulness of the research tools demon- strated. Lessons learned D e v e l o p i n g and teaching the workshop was a unique learning ex- perience for the authors, and we learned valu- able lessons about teach- ing abroad. 1) Even a well- planned event will have surprises, so be flexible. Right up until the workshop, we were still learning about the resources we could access from the local Internet net- work. We were all unfamiliar working with translation services and had to adapt on the fly. 2) Planning an international workshop takes longer than anticipated, so give your- self more time. You are not only planning the details of the workshop content and schedule, but also your travel and other po- tential activities during your visit. 3) You can’t know everything, so don’t be afraid to ask “stupid” questions throughout the pro- cess. Seek clarification on anything you are unsure of, such as how your contact would like to be addressed in emails. While instructional best practices are al- ways important, there are also a few special Workshop attendees during breakout activity. October 2020 457 C&RL News items to consider. 4) Have learning materi- als available in both languages whenever possible. This will help your students avoid cognitive overload and can help to clarify questions about research-specific jargon. 5) Doing your homework on the host country’s cultural norms in the class- room is essential. We knew we would be using standard American teaching prac- tices, such as active learning, and needed to identify areas of possible confusion or discomfort for our students. Teaching this workshop was a unique opportunity for the Mines team. We each learned new skills and perspectives that have already successfully impacted our work on our own campus. This includes insight into our teaching practices and our delivery of reference services. There is a significant population of international students at Mines who we will now be bet- ter able to serve. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with the CUMT librarians and work with their graduate students. Our workshop in the time of COVID-19 In light of the COIVD-19 pandemic, the team has recognized the need for an online version of this type of workshop. This new learning environment has sparked ideas for adapting it as a one-day virtual workshop intended for international early career researchers. It will be especially useful for students who may have difficulty connecting with advisors, fac- ulty, and librarians at their institutions. The team is exploring delivery options for a suc- cessful interactive workshop that offers both asynchronous and synchronous learning ac- tivities. The team intends to share and license any resources developed for others to use, modify, and redistribute to meet their cam- pus’ needs. W H I T E PA P E R Supporting Scholarly Research: Current & New Opportunities for Academic Libraries* READ THE WHITE PAPER AT CHOICE360.ORG * Underwritten by ProQuest