Genre, pedagogy, and the design of an online course for enhancing STEMM scientists' multiliteracies: The DILAN project as a case in point

Digital transformation and Open Science have pushed us once again to reexamine our approach to genre pedagogy in LSP and professional communication. In the quest to expand genre pedagogy didactic practices, LSP practitioners need to address current shifts in communication practices triggered by emerging digital semiotic technologies to be able to train future professionals to communicate using a repertoire of digital genres for public engagement and communication to diverse audiences online (Belcher 2017; Pérez-Llantada 2021). This study aims to show how we approached this challenge by assessing the design of a pilot online training course that aimed to expand and refine STEMM women scientists’ academic and professional communication literacies for participation within online specialized and non-specialized communities. A series of data considered relevant to the assessment of the pilot course design were collected: learning resources, course structure, data generated by the interaction of the course participants and instructors with the platform. Qualitative content analysis using Atlas.ti v. 25 was conducted to assess the alignment of the course with genre pedagogy principles and identify new didactic practices. In addition, the findings of the qualitative content analysis of the pilot course were corroborated with semi-structured interviews with the instructors and course designers. Preliminary findings indicate that the course provided students with knowledge of emerging digital genres, interdiscursivity and practice in genre knowledge transfer for continuous development of digital text composing and communication skills for engaging specialized and non-specialized online audiences. There was also evidence of the inclusion of rich input and practice on strategies of scientific content recontextualisation, language mediation and multimodality (including resemiotization of content from verbal to visual). We conclude with a reflection on learning, teaching, and assessment using genre pedagogy in LSP and professional communication in the context of digital transformation, artificial intelligence and Open Science. References Belcher, D. (2017). On becoming facilitators of multimodal composing and digital design. Journal of Second Language Writing, 38, 80-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2017.10.004 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2017.10.004). Pérez-Llantada, C. (2021). Research Genres across Languages. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108870528 (https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108870528).