Over the last four years of reviewing for the ECTEL Doctoral Consortium board I came across pretty much the same problems every year. This presentation condenses some recommendations that Ph.D. candidates should consider when putting a submission together. I hope this also helps for submissions to other doctoral consortia.

1. Presenting your Research
at the ECTEL Doctoral Consortium
Dr. Christian Glahn

2. Why submit to a
doctoral consortium?
• Get feedback on your research
• Get feedback on your methodology
• Get input to problems and open questions
• Get a different perspective on organizing your
Ph.D. project
A doctoral consortium is not a conventional
workshop or conference!

3. You don’t write for yourself!
You always write for your readers!
• Your readers/reviewers may not know you
or your project
• Be explicit
• Be consistent

4. Always address these 6 points
- All of them, actually
1. Present your research question
2. (Preliminary) answer your research question based
you’re your findings (working hypotheses)
3. Present your work and/or plan
• The plan has to be aligned with your research question
4. How is your research related to TEL?
• Relate to research done by other groups!
5. How do your research results contribute to the field?
6. What are your open questions related to this
research?

5. Is your research actually TEL1
research?
• TEL as a research object
• SNA on referencing peers in TEL publications
• TEL research
• SNA to find relative experts in a learning
network
1
field
of
your
choice

6. Good research questions are
really important!
• One (1!) question word
• Not 2 or 3 or 4 question words
• Don’t forget the question mark
• Precise
• One (1!) research problem
• One (1!) research subject

7. Good research questions are
really important!
• One (1!) question word
• Not 2 or 3 or 4 question words
• Don’t forget the question mark
• Precise
• One (1!) research problem
• One (1!) research subject Your
crea1vity
goes
here!

8. What about working questions?
• Working questions are subordinate to the main
research question
• They contribute to answer a part of your main
research question
• They structure your project plan
Don’t forget explaining these relations!
The same rules apply for these questions as for the
main research question!

9. Types of research problems
Effec1veness
Efficiency
A<rac1veness
Hermeneu1c

10. Types of research problems
Effec1veness
Efficiency
A<rac1veness
Hermeneu1c
Evidence-­‐based
research

11. Types of research problems
Effec1veness
Efficiency
A<rac1veness
Hermeneu1c
Don’t
try
to
invent
your
own
research
problems!
It
won’t
work!

12. Types of research problems
Effec1veness
Efficiency
A<rac1veness
Hermeneu1c
You
cannot
address
all
these
problem
types
in
one
Ph.D.
project!

13. Effectiveness
• Does something work as expected?
• Effect on learning
• Effect on teaching
• Social effects
• Economical effects

14. Attractiveness
• What makes effective approaches more
interesting or intense?
• Less drop outs
• More or different target groups
• Time-on-learning
• Usability/Exepriences

15. Efficiency
• How achieve the same effects faster or
cheaper?
• Performance
• Costs
• Time
• Resources

16. Examples

17. A suitable question
What are the factors that influence the
perception of peer feedback in self-directed
learning?
• Only one question word
• “factors that influence ...” ß effectiveness
• “perception of peer feedback …” ß subject

18. A not so suitable question
What are the applications of social software in
formal education and how does it improve the
student performance?
• “What” and “how” ß 2 research words
• “applications of …” ß effectiveness
• “improve … performance” ß efficiency
• “social software in formal education” ß subject
• “social software and student performance” ß subject

19. What is better: a conference or a
doctoral consortium paper?
• Journal papers are always better ;-)
• Conference papers allow to present your
research results
• Doctoral consortia allow to discuss your
research ideas and methods

20. Criteria for submissions
Doctoral consortium
• Research question
• Preliminary answers
• Ideas, plans and methods
• Relation to TEL
• Advancing the field
• Open questions
Conferences and Journals
• Research question
• Results
• Method
• Relation to TEL/conference
• Advancing the field

21. Dr. Christian Glahn
http://www.isn.ethz.ch
@phish108
h<p://slidesha.re/phish108
h<p://lo-­‐f.at/glahn