FACULTY OF
EDUCATION
Does alignment of research interests matter?
Exploring doctoral students’ perception of
supervisors’ expertise
Jan Gube
Seyum Getenet
Adnan Satariyan
Yaar Muhammad
Presentation delivered at Students Matter Forum, Hobart TAS, Australia, 1 September 2014
The changing demographics of UTAS
HDR students
400
30%
350
300
Influx of doctoral students +
existing disciplinary base of
the Faculty = Increasingly
challenging to find a right
match between supervisors
and students?
9%
10%
250
200
150
100
50
0
2010
2011
2012
2013
(University of Tasmania, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)
Research focus
1. From students’ point of view, how significant
is a supervisory team’s discipline expertise on
students’ doctoral research?
2. What support do students draw on from
their supervisors who have expertise on their
area for their doctoral research?
3. What support do students draw on from
their supervisors who have little expertise on
their area for their doctoral research?
The study
Research questions
Methods
1. From students’ point of view, how
significant is a supervisory team’s
discipline expertise on students’ doctoral
research?
Survey (descriptive statistics)
• A 26-item online survey was sent to 87
Faculty of Education doctoral (PhD & EdD)
students
• Response rate: 28% (as of 23 Aug 2014)
2. What support do students draw on from
their supervisors who have expertise on
their area for their doctoral research?
Individual interviews
• 9 participants completed so far
• About 30 minutes in average
3. What support do students draw on from
their supervisors who have little expertise
on their area for their doctoral research?
Survey key findings
• A significant number of participants (N = 12 (48%)),
however, do not believe their supervisory team has a
similar level of expertise in the area they are
researching
• A large number (N = 17 (71%)) of participants have cosupervisors who have similar expertise what they
researching than their primary supervisors
• Having supervisors with similar expertise on the topic
they are researching is generally (N = 19 (79%))
important for their overall supervision experience
Cont’d
• A large number (N = 19 (79.1%)) of participants feel more
comfortable in approaching their supervisors when they
have expertise in students’ area of research
• Most of them (N = 18 (75%)) agreed or strongly agreed that
academic expertise/knowledge is an important
consideration when nominating supervisory team
• Most participants (N = 16 (66.3%)) either disagreed or
undecided to comment on the negative impact of having
misalignment of supervisors’ expertise what they are
researching on the quality of feedback on their written
work
Interview findings in a gist
Support from expert
supervisors
Support from nonexpert supervisors
Methodology
Other forms of
support that
contribute to their
candidature
Personal relationship
Research direction
Proof-reading /
editing
Content-specific
feedback
Emotional support
Previous collaboration
with supervisors
Supervisory team
combination
Approach to
supervision
Support from supervisors
With discipline expertise
• Research direction
– “My primary supervisor is an
expert in my area. And how I have
asked for specific guidance really
has been to help me navigate my
way into the literature in my field
of studies” (Susan)
• Content-specific feedback
– “He’ll come back with hundreds of
comments… they’re comments
about… things like I may have
forgotten something…” (Linda)
With no discipline expertise
• Methodology
– “I have more engagement with my
first supervisor… it’s the aspect of
the study in terms of
methodology, in terms of putting
it together to be able to flow and
connect” (Steve)
• Proof-reading / editing
• Emotional support
Is it all about discipline expertise?
• Personal relationship
• Previous collaboration with supervisors
• Supervision approach
Does alignment of research interests matter?
• YES - Most students value the importance of having
discipline-expert supervisors and recognise the
advantages they can bring to students’ work
• NO – It is difficult to determine at this point whether
having non-discipline expert supervisors can negatively
affect students’ doctoral experience
• NO – There are other personal factors to be considered
when choosing a supervisor
Recommendations
• For potential RHD students
– Before submitting an application, “research” your
potential supervisors (e.g. do they publish a lot in
your research topic?)
– Consider other factors in addition to discipline
expertise
• For the Faculty / Supervisors
– If students are persistently struggling to find fieldspecific guidance, then it is worth directing them to
an appropriate research advisor (externally where
possible)
Thank you!
Acknowledgements
A special thanks to Dr Sara Booth, Dr Shannon Klekociuk and Ms
Sunny Jang for their tireless support, and our PhD peers who have
gracefully participated in our project.
Contact
Jan Gube Jan.Gube@utas.edu.au
Seyum Tekeher Seyum.Getenet@utas.edu.au
Adnan Satariyan Adnan.Satariyan@utas.edu.au
Yaar Muhammad Yaar.Muhammad@utas.edu.au
Using Peer Storytelling to improve
understanding of future research methods
studies for first year psychology students
Presented by Cyndia Hilliger
Part of the Student As change Agents program
*
*(Williams,
Many students have a fear of studying statistics
2013; Onwuegbuzie, 1997)
*Worry can cause adverse effects on student
academic performance including academic
procrastination and lack of motivation (Williams, 2013)
*Pre-course attitude has been shown to be related
to anxiety
(Chiesni & Primi,2013)
*
*Strategies to improve student attitudes towards studying
statistics focussed on tutor/lecturers/ amendments to
course content (Perepiczka, Chandler & Becerra, 2011; Dykeman, 2011)
*Students have a stronger identification with peer
experience than the experience of tutors or teachers
(Topping & Ehly, 2009)
*Being able to observe other students’ experiences and
attempts at mastery allows students a chance to reflect
on their own capacities and strategies for success (Topping
& Ehly, 2009)
*
*To improve students’ experiences of studying
2nd year research methods, by providing first
year students with peer insights of what to
expect in future research methods studies
*This is a two stage process:
*Examine the experiences of students who have
undertaken research methods study at UTAS
* Collate these experiences to form an online
repository of stories/hints & tips for students to
access
*
*Student survey sent to students who have completed 2nd
year research methods (KHA201). We asked students for:
* Key demographics
* Their “Top tips” for success
* Their stories describing their experiences
*We had 15% response rate, 99 responses from 678
surveys issued
*We have done some basic data and thematic analysis on
responses
*
*3 key ‘top tips’ messages
* Collaboration with others (15%)
“….sit next to the smart people, you will know who they are
after the first class …they can give you immediate
clarification…so you don’t go completely off track…and buy
the smart people chocolate that way everybody
wins..”(Annette)
* Study strategies(29%)
“The harder you work early, the easier everything becomes
later, once you get the core concepts everything will pretty
much fall into place.” (Anonymous)
* Emotional Strategies (30%)
“Do not buy into the stressful hype that classmates and
tutors express.”(Anonymous)
*
*Of the 26 stories shared by the survey
respondents, the overwhelming themes
were about overcoming the anticipated and
experienced difficulties of studying research
methods and triumphing at the end.
*Stories offered :
* Advice on the journey
* Encouragement
* Accounts of personal triumphs
*
* “I haven’t studied maths since year 10….you
can imagine I was not looking forward to
Research Methods and Design…bit by bit I was
able to grasp the content. I didn’t do great in
research methods 2 (overall credit)..but I
committed to getting on top of the tricky
concepts...although I often felt completely out
of my depth, I did slowly develop more
confidence….I’m rather shocked, but it turns
out I received a high distinction for that unit
(KHA350). For someone who is a complete
mathsphobe, I am really blown away.” (Lucy)
*
*“I’d heard the rumours….people in
talked in whispers about ‘research
methods’ because everyone was too
scared of the subject…I’m not going to
lie, research methods wasn’t my
favourite subject…I can remember
thinking ,‘I can’t do this’...it all felt too
overwhelming. But for some reason, I
kept going….the whole subject just
clicks by week 11,12 or 13…My major
tip is that it’s going to be okay. Stick at
it. Yeah it’s hard, be ready to work for
it. Hey, you might even enjoy it!” (Jill)
*
* “What RM teaches you is tenacity. I came through with a
great grade and I know I earned it, and I know that I can do
anything I want as a result!”(R)
* “When I started RM I felt overwhelmed and out of my
depth…the content [was]challenging…it also felt very
rewarding when things ‘clicked’…amazingly after all my
doubts I achieved a final score of 89 - the highest score I
have ever gotten.”(Kate)
* “Maths was not my strong point….I was literally petrified to
start RM,….. because I thought I would surely fail…I soon
realised I didn’t have to be good at maths; I just had to apply
myself.” (Annie)
*
*Finish curation of stories and upload to MyLo
*Students encouraged to check in with this
resource to read the content
*Potential to keep building and adding to the
stories to help inform students more clearly as
to what studying research methods is really
about
*As a result, see students’ reframe their
expectations of studying research methods from
being ‘difficult’ to be being ‘challenging’
*
*
Exploring the use of Open
Educational Resources (OER)
in medical education at
University of Tasmania
Georgina Taylor
A Students as Change Agents project
Textbook pricing and student costs
• Internationally, textbook
prices are rising and students
have difficulty affording this.
(SPARC, 2014; PIRGs, 2014)
• Two thirds of Australian
students are worried about
their finances. (Bexley et al 2013)
Open Educational Resources (OER)
"Open Educational Resources are teaching,
learning or research materials that are in the
public domain or released with an intellectual
property license that allows for free use,
adaptation, and distribution.”
(UNESCO 2002).
FOAM/FOAMed
“FOAM stands for Free Open
Access Meducation
– Medical education for
anyone, anywhere, anytime.”
(Life in the Fast Lane)
This movement began in
emergency medicine, and is
dedicated to free and dynamic
medical education.
The research project
• Survey was designed to assess student and
staff understanding, use and opinions of OER.
• The target population:
– 559 students in the MBBS course at UTAS
– Up to 143 staff teaching into this course
Demographics
• Responses from 31 students and 12 staff so far.
• Staff were widely distributed, teaching into a
variety of years in the course.
• 88% of students were in years 3-5 of the
course, with increased clinical teaching.
Understanding OER
100.0%
80.0%
60.0%
40.0%
20.0%
Students
0.0%
Free to read
100.0%
Free to share
with others
Free to adapt None of above
and modify
I’m not sure
Understanding FOAM
80.0%
60.0%
40.0%
20.0%
0.0%
Free to read
Free to share
with others
Free to adapt None of above
and modify
I’m not sure
Staff
Use of OER
• Websites were far more used in both learning
and teaching than any other OER resource.
• Students listed specific resources:
– 11 students mentioned Life in the Fast Lane
– 5 referred to Wikipedia
– Others included websites, youtube and quizzes
• 15% of students and 27% of staff had
contributed to developing OER.
Opinions of OER
Students have been encouraged to use OER in the
past primarily because they are:
Free
Easy to
acccess
Up to date
Students had been prevented from using OER in the
past primarily due to:
Difficulty finding
resources
Unsure of
reliability
Usefulness and quality were the highest scoring
factors that would promote future OER use for both
students and staff.
Next steps
• The survey is continuing to gather responses
throughout second semester to increase the
response rate.
• A report will be prepared for the SERRU unit.
• Dissemination of the findings to relevant staff
at UTAS will seek to positively influence
teaching and learning.
Dr Derek Choi-Lundberg
Dr Shannon Klekociuk
Sun Jang
Students experience of
Bachelor of Nursing (Fast
Track): Is it a 2-year sprint or
a 4-year marathon?
Fatima Anjum
Preview of Today’s Talk
• Project Background
• Project Aims
• Research Methodology
▫ Sampling
▫ Data Collection
▫ Data Analysis
• Results
• Conclusion (recommendations)
Background
Fast track courses mean students can save
money on fees, accommodation and other costs
(Husson & Kennedy, 2003:51-61), while also getting a head
start on entering employment (Mandelson, 2010).
BUT, a number of students enrolled in fast-track
courses experience delays in the completion of
their programs, and the factors contributing to
these delays are NOT clear.
Aims
To identify factors causing delays of course
completion for 2-Year Fast-Track Nursing students
To provide suggestions that enable nursing
students to progress through the fast-track
program on time
Methodology
Sampling
111 responses (over 18 % of 611 participants)
Data collection
Online survey sent to students enrolled in the 2year fast track nursing program at UTAS
Data analysis
Frequency and thematic analysis on responses
Results
31 % participants are currently experiencing
delays in completing their courses
Family commitments
53%
Academic load
53%
Course structure/schedule
Others (work commitments,
physical and mental health)
26%
24%
Results (cont’d)
50% participant have attempted to avoid
delays in course completion
Accessed university support
34%
Employment adjustments
18%
Course re-structure/new
pathway
Sought support
2%
from family
18%
Results (cont’d)
69% participants have avoided
delays in course completion.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Family support
Academic skills
Personal attributes
Good time management
UTAS support
Living/working situation that accommodates
study
Recommendations
For UTAS
• provide information about the demands and commitments of
the course (e.g., sharing experiences of graduates, more
guidance for prospective students, and offering a 3-year
program in the Sydney campus)
For Students
• Ensure that you (students) have adequate family/social
support and flexible lifestyle to accommodate the demands of
the course
A final report of this study will be provided to
the Student Experience Committee.
THANK YOU!
Presented by Fatima Anjum