Online Communities for Doctoral Researchers and their Supervisors

Building Engagement with Social Media

Julie Sheldon, Victoria Sheppard, Julie Sheldon, Victoria Sheppard

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780367224004
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000467345
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Bringing together accounts of online community engagement from a range of perspectives, this book considers how the changing landscape of doctoral communities might be used to inform institutional level decisions about doctoral provision and support.

Despite the increasing availability of online communities dedicated to doctoral supervisors, there has been little consideration of how they form and operate. This book surveys the landscape of these online communities and examines their impact on the production of the doctorate, and on the experience of doctoral researchers and supervisors. Bringing together accounts of online community engagement from a range of perspectives – doctoral students, supervisors, content curators, and research support practitioners, one of the overarching aims of this volume is to explore these communities in action.

With the supporting doctoral research through online media catalysed as the 'new normal', this book allows stakeholders in doctoral education to better understand how students are using social media in their PhD studies, how online communities of practice impact upon researcher/supervisor relationships and support, and ways in which student experiences of various platforms might converge to create an augmented experience.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. The open dissertation: how social media shaped – and scaled – my PhD process
• 2. Doctoral candidates’ experiences of social media: I don’t think I could do the PhD without it
• 3. It started with a tweet: how doctoral researchers become social media savvy
• 4. Intersubjective reflections of @PhDForum: a doctoral community on Twitter
• 5. Online communities that support postgraduate well-being
• 6. Online communities of practice for academic practice and a sense of belonging
• 7. Blending online and offline in a community of practice model for research degree supervisor development
• 8. The Supervision Whisperers: why a virtual community of practice for research supervisors did (not) work
• 9. Academic identity, the supervisor and online communities of practice
• 10. Interview with Mel Haines: Julie Sheldon and Victoria Sheppard interviewing Mel Haines
• 11. Interview with Katy Peplin: Julie Sheldon and Victoria Sheppard interviewing Katy Peplin
• 12. Interview with Amy Bonsall: Julie Sheldon and Victoria Sheppard interviewing Amy Bonsall
• 13. Interview with Pat Thomson and Anuja Cabraal: Victoria Sheppard interviewing Pat Thomson and Anuja Cabraal
• Afterword
• Index