Image credit: nextscientist.com
This blog was initially developed to accompany a core 13 week course designed to develop PhD students’ research and presentation skills to prepare them for writing, submitting and defending their doctorate and for the post-doctorate job market. Through lectures, workshops and seminars doctoral research students learned about a wide range of research methods and approaches, such as reflexive practice, action and participatory action research, content analysis, survey questionnaire design, visual ethnography, observation, usability testing, web-based online surveys, web logging, digital ethnography, and eye-tracking data analysis.
Workshops enabled students to develop their writing skills for a range of different potential applications. The blog has a number of posts about writing and how to develop a PhD writing habit as this seems to be challenging for many PhD researchers. The key to a less stressful Phd is to start writing early and keep writing every week. Students had opportunities to improve their presentation skills through a series of presentations to one another, and invited faculty researchers.
Presentations and workshops helped research students to develop the core skills necessary during the Doctorate in order to be best-equipped for the post-Doctorate job market. These included: how to write grants; how to present research via peer-reviewed publications; how to conduct a job search; tailoring CVs for different markets and countries; how to write cover letters and statements.
I am continuing to update the blog for PhD researchers.