Pedagogy for Online Doctoral Study
Between infrastructure and improvisation: designing the Online MPhil/PhD
Martin Oliver and Richard Freeman (UCL, Institute of Education)
The rise of online education has prompted Universities to think about the flexibility of their provision. Within such discussions, spaces such as campuses are frequently framed as problems to be overcome, and technology as the solution. However, sociomaterial analyses of teaching and learning show how important campuses, classrooms, libraries and so on remain for students. Even so, most students will spend considerable amounts of time away from such spaces during their studies. This is especially true for doctoral students, who have a relatively individual experience rather than spending most of their time in a cohort. Indeed, some doctoral students identify as distance learners in spite of being classified as full-time and on-campus by their institution. The question then arises, what kinds of infrastructure should an institution provide to support this kind of distributed experience? What kind of resources and experiences can be offered to doctoral students, and how can they be supported in building a coherent experience through this?
In this talk, we will review previous work that provides a sociomaterial account of study practices. Focusing on one institution, we will describe the complexity of students’ patterns of study, and then describe an online programme designed to support them as they work towards their doctorates. Lessons learned from the first two years of the programme will be presented and discussed.
An International systematic literature review on best practices for online doctoral thesis supervision
Morag Gray and Lucilla Crosta (University of Liverpool & Laureate International Universities)
Our presentation intends to provide participants with the most up-to-date evidence-based information surrounding the topic supervising online doctoral students. We recently completed Systematic Literature Review process on Doctoral Supervision which for completeness covered both face-to-face and online practice so as to discover research evidence both from the perspective of best practice of face-to-face doctoral supervision and how this can be applied for the growing area of online doctoral professional programmes.
The research-based literature focuses mainly on face-to-face supervision leaving a paucity of research in delivering online doctoral supervision. The presenters are both very experienced online tutors, have good experience of face-to-face doctoral supervision and currently supervise this level of student using exclusively online methods. We therefore propose to share our experience of how we use the existing research and apply this to the online arena. The researchers are two members of Faculty working for Laureate Education International Universities in their EdD programme in partnership with the University of Liverpool.
During the presentation we will provide an overview of the major theories and definitions in doctoral supervisions and supervision styles; best practices in doctoral supervision and how these can be used or adapted to use in the online environment; the value of feedback in supervision and especially how it can be received by online students who are frequently international with English as a second language; characteristics of a good doctoral supervisor and how these can be developed, particularly for online students; and the importance of the community of practice in doctoral supervision how this is best created for online doctoral programmes.
Ten years of online doctoral pedagogy: Perspectives from the 'E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning' programme at Lancaster University
Brett Bligh, Tünde Varga-Atkins and Debbie Prescott (Universities of Liverpool & Lancaster)
This session will provide an overview of 'E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning', a pioneering online PhD programme at Lancaster University that will soon, in January 2017, be admitting its tenth annual cohort of 25 part-time distance students. Rather than being an online version of an existing course, this standalone programme was designed from scratch over a decade ago using the 'Networked Learning' framework. The programme uses a '2+2' design, with students in what is called Part One taking six online modules, before entering Part Two and undertaking a substantial thesis project, under the close guidance of an academic supervisor. The online modules in the first two years are supported by an annual residential week that has a dual purpose of tutorial pedagogy and cohort socialisation. Three complementary perspectives on the programme will be provided in the session: one from a student currently in Part One of the programme, one from an alumna who graduated from the programme two years ago, and one from a programme tutor.
The tutor will reflect on the programme's educational philosophy and its evolution in light of experience; show an example of a module design, focusing on how an online course might support reflective thinking about both literature and educational practices; highlight the role of tutor-peer-self review of draft assignments in preparing students to write substantial academic pieces; and outline the intended points of synergy between the online pedagogy and the residential week. The current student will consider who might study on such a programme, why they might choose it and what they might bring to it; and reflect on their experiences of studying the online modules – providing a counterpoint to the stated intentions of the tutor, and reflecting on the different opportunities that exist for learning new methodologies and theoretical approaches. The alumna student will reflect on the transition from participating in structured modules to the relatively open-ended thesis project; consider the experience of undertaking that thesis project at a distance from one's supervisor and reflect on how that process might be managed; and highlight the changes in perspective and benefits to work practices that she experienced.
When
October 19th, 2016 from 12:30 PM to 4:00 PM
Location
SRHE 73 Collier Street, London N1 9BE
Event Fee(s)
| Event Fee(s) | |
| Guest Price | £60.00 |
| Member Price | £0.00 |
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Resources
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