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Acting on PhD student feedbackto create new learning resourcesAngela NewtonDan Pullinger

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In today’s workshop• First steps in PhD teaching • New 2011/12 PhD workshops – Student feedback – What we created• Over to you – Student feedback – Group work – Future activities

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2005 - format for workshops Finding information Managing information for your PhD for your PhD• Planning a literature search • Brain style quiz• Mind-mapping • EndNote• Keyword searching • Managing electronic• Journal databases overview information• Hands-on searching • Organising your workspace

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What’s worrying you?• Discussion activity in workshop 1 – Threw up more and more challenging questions – Topics not covered in either workshop• Conclusion? – Change the workshops!**Teacher feedback on issues raised by attendees was also taken into account

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Over to you• How would you respond to these student ‘worries’?• In your group, devise a learning activity that addresses the problems• Use the resources on your table to show & describe how it would work • You have 15 minutes!

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Quotes 1• Is this paper worthwhile/valid?• How to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant literature• When papers say contradictory things, which do you trust?• How to filter “un-useful” information

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Quotes 2• How do I get full-text scientific papers online?• I often worry theres crucial papers out there I dont know are there...• How do I know when to stop looking for information?• Uni doesn’t have subscriptions to useful papers/journals – I don’t want to pay too much• [How do I find] unpublished and ongoing work?• Some papers can’t be accessed online

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Quotes 3• How to make selections of what is important in a vast number of research sources?• Which of the articles is most important?• How can I know this work is significant?• How do you find/know papers that are the most cited/respected, i.e. people who really know their stuff• How to check the “top rating” research in certain areas?• Credibility of authors?• What order should I read the literature in?

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Quotes 4• How do I extract the important information [from a paper]?• Organised reading – by theme / topic?• I get distracted & find “irrelevant information” interesting too• How to distinguish what is essential to read from what is not• Choosing the most relevant papers to read• Reading methods – don’t want to read all papers from beginning to end

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2011 - format for workshops Working with literature: Search & Save: Information Impact, evaluation & reading searching for PhD students strategies• Planning and controlling the • Which paper first? Measures literature search of importance: Bibliometrics• Search tools: Where to search • Which papers match my for what research question?• Search techniques • Reading & note-taking• EndNote strategies• Keeping up to date: Alerting services

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How we responded to the feedback• New activities integrating academic skills – Critical analysis – Research information landscape – Bibliometrics – Reading and note-taking strategies

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Critical analysisLearning Development, University of Plymouth

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What are bibliometrics?• A variety of statistical measures used to quantify research• Often make use of citation counts• Relate to journals• Relate to researchers – individuals or groups

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Which authors are the most important/influential? • How it works: h-index, or Hirsch index – A scholar with an index of h has published h papers, each of which has been cited by others at least h times. • You have a go: – Search for the h-index for the lead authors of the articles you have found – What do you think is a ‘good’ h-index score? – Will the h-index be a useful tool for your research? – What are the pros and cons of the h-index?

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3 different ways to read • Speed = Fast • Searching quickly for facts and details, looking for the answers toScanning specific questions. Pick out keywords. • Speed = Fast • Getting the gist, picking up the main ideas, reading with a clearSkimming purpose and objective in mind. • Speed = Slow Close • Focused and concentrated reading, analysing, evaluating and reading questioning the text.

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Text mapping

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2011/12 students liked• H-index, how to create groups in EndNote, critical analysis of papers• How to determine influence and impact of authors, journals and articles• Ideas about best ways to take notes• Factors which determine the importance of a piece of work C• Idea of text-mapping - good way to think about and internalise ideas

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2011/12 students disliked• Reading - skim, scan, close - too basic• Did not really see how bibliometrics help to prioritise literature for my subject• Not enough explanation of reading strategies• It didnt give the magic answer to solve all my reading problems! (high expectation maybe!) D• roll of paper scroll - impractical

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What will you do next?• Change the way I choose references. Use mind- mapping• Put some effort into learning EndNote. Text mapping• Start using an explicit framework for my notes, including a section on how this article specifically can enhance my argument (to help draw strands together).

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What will you do next?• Rearrange my work• Be more structured about which articles I select, using citation and impact factors• Now understand Im a more visual person & will use text mapping• Change my note-taking techniques• Buy coloured pens, mindmap and use RSS feeds

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Future plans• Rebalance parts of each workshop: – More reading & note-taking – Change emphasis for bibliometrics• Long-term student impact survey• Animate the research information landscape slide• Video input featuring academic staff• EndNote vs. Mendeley• Create a skills collection