CharlesMcleanOnlineHDRsupportQPR2014

Cassily Charles, HDR Academic Writing Coordinator | Lisa McLean, Manager Research & Grad Studies, Faculty of Ed
The pleasures and practicalities of
supporting HDRs online:
initiatives & reflections on community-building

Supporting research candidates online
Outline
• The CSU context: history & numbers
• Now on the menu: online initiatives to support HDRs
• Reflections on community-building
• Who is in the community?
• Where is the home of community-building?
• Strengths and vulnerabilities of our pop-up initiatives

1997

External HDR candidates 2012
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
% of total HDR
enrolments
Source: DEEWR uCube

Now on the menu: Online HDR support
1. Online professional development workshops
• Induction, writing, research methods, tools, ethics, etc
• Combined calendar for HDRs, supervisors, ECRs...
• Administered by RO but provided by diverse folks
• 2013 numbers: 106 workshops, 937 attendances
http://www.csu.edu.au/research/professional-development/program-calendar

2. Individual consultations online
• Research genres and registers, writing strategies, the
feedback cycle with supervisors, time management, etc
• Adobe Connect or Skype
• Uptake by both external and on-campus HDRs
• S.E. corner of Oz but also Canada, Jordan, Switzerland...

3. Online writing groups: “Shut Up & Write”
• Adobe Connect, Pomodoro technique
• Now 4x weekly online, including evenings and weekends
• Mix of HDRs and other staff & students
• Dandelion seeds

4. Online writing groups: “Bootcamp”
• Hybrid mode: simultaneously F2F and online Adobe Connect

4. Online writing groups: “Bootcamp”
• Hybrid mode: simultaneously F2F and online Adobe Connect
• Very popular – currently monthly
• Bootcampers are HDRs and other staff
• Declared goals, quantity, tracking & celebrating progress
• Aspiration: Online peer feedback writing groups (now F2F)
(e.g. Aitchison, 2009; Lee & Boud, 2003)

5. Online Three Minute Thesis competition
• Hybrid mode: presenters and facilitator online, judges and
audience face-to-face

Synchronous Trans-Tasman 3MT heat

It’s a real shot in the arm. It reminds me what I’m here for.
(Three Minute Thesis audience member - Manager of a support unit)

5. Online Three Minute Thesis competition
• Hybrid mode: presenters and facilitator online, judges and
audience face-to-face
• Heat winners were located in Switzerland and India
• 3MT Trans Tasman does not allow synchronous online
participation ... yet 
• Universitas 21: asynchronous comp - recorded presentations

6. The usual suspects – asynchronous resources

7. New event being piloted in 2014... DocFest
DocFest – a festival of ideas for research candidates

7. New event being piloted in 2014... DocFest
• Hybrid mode: simultaneously online and face-to-face
• Collaborative sessions across expertise boundaries
Assoc Deans, HDRs, supervisors, librarians, counsellors, legal, etc.
• Topics include:
Mindfulness, Protect your intellectual property, Sustainability in
research, Architecture of the thesis, Looking after your supervisor, etc.

Reflections on community-building

1. Who is in the community?
• HDR <<>> HDR (across faculties)
• Fewer on-campus HDRs means (even) fewer opportunities
to connect
• Benefits of cross-disciplinary & diverse doctoral community
(e.g. Guerin et al., 2012)

• HDR <<>> ECR and other research staff
• Overlap – 7% of CSU academics are doctoral candidates

• HDR <<>> administrators, writing & stats consultants,
librarians, counsellors, associate deans graduate studies...
• HDRs: the hub of the wheel ...
• ... OR in the nest of connections?
• Benefits of collaborative events - e.g. Lit Review series

2. Where is the ‘home’ of community-building?
• Who ‘owns’ community-building? Is it being sustained?
• Leonard & Becker (2008)
• central/faculty/school/research centre admin units in the UK
• financial & managerialist pressures >>
• rise in compliance culture >>
• drop in scope, creativity, responsiveness of support for doctoral
candidates

2. Where is the ‘home’ of community-building?
• Who ‘owns’ community-building? Is it being sustained?
• Star supervisors (intra-discipline or intra-research centre)
• Historical examples: doctoral room, extended orientations
• Current: ‘Pop-up’ collaborations and initiatives such as these

3. Strengths of pop-up & collaborative approach
• Distributed, jointly constructed expertise vs single-centre
• Safe fuzzy space for elastic identities
• Liminal space & corridor conversations
(e.g. Iedema et al., 2006)
• Unexpected treasures – e.g. Bruce & Jaz’s paper

4. Vulnerabilities of collaborative & pop-up approach
• Infrastructure & resources: rooms, microphones, teabags
• Advocacy, sponsorship & voice for community-building
• Continuity of initiatives outside staff ‘core business’
• Community-building as ‘core-business’ ... ?

Love
If my PhD were a country (i have clearly never been to!) the online
resources at CSU have been the best guide books i could imagine
having. They have helped me navigate the terrain and learn the
language in the safest (attendance at and involvement in sessions is
entirely up to me), most comfortable (can participate in person or in
uggies at home!) and most supportive (C and L are THE wisest and
most able tour guides who know not just the popular sites everyone
visits but take you off the beaten track for unique discoveries that suit
my individual needs) way.
(Distance doctoral candidate, Faculty of Education, Blue Mountains)

Lisa McLean
Research & Grad Studies Office
Faculty of Education
lmclean@csu.edu.au
Tel: +61 2 6338 4966
Cassily Charles
HDR Academic Writing Coordinator
Academic Support
ccharles@csu.edu.au
Tel: +61 2 6933 2695
Your thoughts please...
We would love to hear from you 

CharlesMcleanOnlineHDRsupportQPR2014

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