What happens when student researchers around the globe seize the opportunity to present snapshots of their research projects live online to international audiences, gaining international exposure to — and engagement with — diverse perspectives?

World Class Day offers its participants a free-spirited, highly interactive platform for research communication, where they are not typecast by their credentials, background, or level of study. As an international online conference, WCD is designed to provide students with a platform on which to situate their research alongside work being conducted by their peers internationally. WCD provides an exchange of ideas within a widening, open-minded, attentive research community; success in this space usually depends on the originality of the research idea and the energy and clarity with which it is expressed.

The online platform facilitates free participation, even to undergraduate students, who thus do not have to worry about funding — a major roadblock to their sharing their research at other international conferences. The participants benefit from the opportunity to practise and refine skills in international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary research communication, thereby enhancing their capacities for further international research collaboration. A sign of this success comes with the spontaneous, simultaneous, sustained conversation that arises with distant participants, respondents, and audience members.

For the first time, without actually travelling miles, you have the opportunity to reach out to many other students, professors, and mentors and share your ideas, and challenge the boundaries of education systematized within states, nations, and ideologies.

Procedure

Across 24 hours, World Class Day takes place simultaneously around the globe. Students at all levels have the opportunity to present and discuss their research on a virtual international platform. They receive feedback from a diverse audience ranging from peers to professors.

Presentations must be no more than 5 minutes long. Each student who is accepted into World Class Day will be assigned a peer mentor and will be expected to work with that mentor during the four weeks before the event. A week before the event, each participating student is expected to provide a video preview of the presentation. A few days before the event, each student will have a live rehearsal with one of the conference moderators.

A maximum of twenty presentations happen at each World Class Day. Proposals will be chosen for strength and promise of the concept but also to assure a diversity of regions, academic levels, and disciplines involved.

Advisory Board

• Idowu Adegbilero-Iwari (Elizade University, Nigeria)
• Gray Kochhar-Lindgren (University of Hong Kong)
• Jim Lee (University of Saskatchewan)
• Amit Prashant (Indian Institute of Technology – Gandhinagar)
• Zsuzsa Papp (Mitacs)
• Nancy Turner (University of Saskatchewan)
• John Willison (University of Adelaide)

Organizing Committee

• Payel Chattopadhyay Mukherjee (Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology - Delhi)
• Jagriti Gangopadhyay (Manipal Academy of Higher Education)
• Pamela Giles (Faithful Servant Consulting)
• Lucy Hinnie (University of Saskatchewan)
• Yanyun Li (China University of Petroleum – Huangdao)
• Kara Loy (Thompson Rivers University)
• Merle Massie (University of Saskatchewan)

Institutional Sponsors

• China University of Petroleum – Huangdao
• Indian Institute of Technology – Gandhinagar
• Manipal Academy of Higher Education
• Mitacs
• University of Saskatchewan

Technical and Design Staff

• Tyson Brown (University of Saskatchewan)
• Serene George (Manipal Academy of Higher Education)
• Allain Esquivel (University of Saskatchewan)

Peer Mentors

• Matthew Arsenault (University of Saskatchewan)
• Sarah Dorward (Carleton University)
• Liz Miller (University of Saskatchewan)
• Hemali Sharma (Ahmedabad University)
• Sheldon Alderton (University of Saskatchewan)
• Jesse Sawitsky (University of Saskatchewan)
• Bailee Brewster (University of Saskatchewan)
• Marissa den Brok (University of Saskatchewan)
• Briana Linton (University of Saskatchewan)
• Lauryn Andrew (University of Saskatchewan)
• MacKenzie Read (University of Saskatchewan)
• Nathalie Barabas (University of Saskatchewan)
• Stephanie Lipski (University of Saskatchewan)
• Éric Chateigner (University of Saskatchewan)
• Zoe Kalenith (University of Saskatchewan)
• Cale Passmore (University of Saskatchewan)
• Mae McDonald (University of Saskatchewan)
• Ella McKercher (University of Saskatchewan)
• Bidisha Mitra (Manipal Centre for Humanities)
• Kenechukwu Onwudinjo (University of Saskatchewan)
• Katie Stuart (University of Saskatchewan)
• Komal Arcot (Manipal Centre for Humanities)
• Pavankumar Bentur (Manipal Centre for Humanities)
• Laya Kumar (Manipal Centre for Humanities)
• Amulya Raghavan (Manipal Centre for Humanities)
• Bidushy Sadika (University of Saskatchewan)
• Brittany Thiessen (University of Saskatchewan)
• Elishia Vaz (Manipal Centre for Humanities)