ACTING ON FEEDBACK How to use essay feedback constructively 1.
Acting on PhD student feedback to create new learning resources
-
Upload
lul-sci-eng-team -
Category
Education
-
view
1.005 -
download
1
description
Transcript of Acting on PhD student feedback to create new learning resources
Acting on PhD student feedback to create new learning resources
Angela Newton
Dan Pullinger
In today’s workshop
• New 2011/12 PhD workshops
–What we created–Student feedback–Future activities
• First steps in PhD teaching–Student feedback
• Over to you–Group work
2005 - format for workshops
Finding information for your PhD
• Planning a literature search• Mind-mapping• Keyword searching• Journal databases overview• Hands-on searching
Managing information for your PhD
• Brain style quiz• EndNote• Managing electronic
information• Organising your workspace
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
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!
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
Quotes 2
• How do I get full-text scientific papers online?• I often worry there's crucial papers out there I don't 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• [How do I find] unpublished and ongoing work?• Some papers can’t be accessed online
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?
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
2011 - format for workshops
Search & Save: Information searching for PhD students
• Planning and controlling the literature search
• Search tools: Where to search for what
• Search techniques• EndNote• Keeping up to date: Alerting
services
Working with literature: Impact, evaluation & reading strategies
• Which paper first? Measures of importance: Bibliometrics
• Which papers match my research question?
• Reading & note-taking strategies
How we responded to the feedback
• New activities integrating academic skills–Critical analysis–Research information landscape–Bibliometrics–Reading and note-taking strategies
Learning Development, University of Plymouth
Critical analysis
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
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?
3 different ways to read
Scanning •Speed = Fast•Searching quickly for facts and details, looking for the answers to specific questions. Pick out keywords.
Skimming •Speed = Fast•Getting the gist, picking up the main ideas, reading with a clear purpose and objective in mind.
Close reading •Speed = Slow•Focused and concentrated reading, analysing, evaluating and questioning the text.
Text mapping
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
• Idea of text-mapping - good way to think about and internalise ideas C
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 didn't give the magic answer to solve all my reading problems! (high expectation maybe!)
• roll of paper scroll - impractical D
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).
What will you do next?
• Rearrange my work• Be more structured about which articles I select, using citation and impact factors
• Now understand I'm a more visual person & will use text mapping
• Change my note-taking techniques• Buy coloured pens, mindmap and use RSS feeds
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