Researcher Training for
Part-Time and Distance
Doctoral Students
Wednesday 22nd – Friday 24th June 2016
Programme
1
Introduction
From juggling your research and other commitments to preparing for your viva, this threeday series of workshops addresses a wide range of research and personal skills. Whether
you’re just starting or are near completion, this is an opportunity to explore the research
process, pick up some useful tips and share your experiences and ideas with other part-time
and distance researchers.
It is up to you to decide, in discussion with your supervisor(s), which of the sessions you will
attend. As the Researcher Development Team run a similar programme on an annual basis,
there will be opportunities to attend courses in the future, and we encourage you to focus
on identifying the skills you will need over the next year when making your selection.
Venues
In order to minimise the need for travel between venues across campus and to ensure easy
access to appropriate IT training rooms and the Bill Bryson Library, all workshops and meals
will be held at venues situated in the lower half of the Science Site, Durham City Campus. A
map can be found at:
https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/map/DurhammapandkeyJan2014.pdf.
The Science site encompasses the buildings shaded in black on Stockton road, in the lowermiddle of the map.
Costs
All the workshops, refreshments and lunches are free.
As this is a non-residential programme, accommodation is not provided. If you need to
organise accommodation, you can book bed and breakfast at one of Durham University’s
colleges. For further details and prices, see:
https://www.dur.ac.uk/event.durham/tourism/
For details about hotels and guest houses in Durham, see:
http://www.thisisdurham.com/
2
Booking Places
1. On the Timetable and Booking Form:
a) complete the participant details
b) indicate which workshops you wish to attend in the ‘booking’ column.
c) Indicate which refreshments/lunches you require
2. Save the document and send it to the Researcher Development team
By email to: postgraduate.training@durham.ac.uk
By post to: Carolyn McAlhone
Centre for Academic, Researcher and Organisation Development
Durham University
The Lodge
Lower Mountjoy
Durham
DH1 3LE
You will receive confirmation of the workshops you have booked places on.
3
Wednesday 22nd June
9:15 – 9:45
Arrival
9:45 – 10:00
Welcome
10:00 – 13:00
Starting your Doctorate
Trainer: Bob Matthew
Target audience: First year research postgraduates.
This course aims to demystify the Doctorate. In addition to exploring the structure and
criteria of a doctorate the session focuses on getting started and establishing good practice.
This is also an opportunity for participants to discuss concerns and ideas about workload,
supervision and motivation.
By the end of this session, participants will have:
 explored the criteria for a doctorate
 considered how best to get started
 had an opportunity to share ideas, expectations and experiences.
10:00 – 13:00
Introduction to EndNote
Trainer: Teresa Henley
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
This course provides the knowledge to use EndNote for bibliography management, via a
step by step introduction to the fundamentals to utilise EndNote as a
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Reference Database: to store manage and search for bibliographic references in a user’s
private reference library.
Bibliography Maker: to build lists of cited works automatically into Microsoft Word and,
later, to scan a document for the in-text citations in order to compile a bibliography in
any format that is required.
Online Database: to search online bibliographic databases and retrieve the references
directly into EndNote, in order to store them in the user’s own personal reference
library.
4
Wednesday 22nd June
10:00 – 13:00
Be a Better Writer
Trainer: Helen Lawrence
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
Have you ever looked at your academic writing and thought, 'Well, it's ok, but it could be
better'? If so, this session is for you. We will explore the character and style of academic
writing, then consider ways to enhance both the clarity and accuracy of your written work.
10:00 – 11:45 Google Scholar and the Academic Web
Trainer: James Bisset
Target audience: First year research postgraduates, or anyone looking for help or assurance
around their search skills.
The internet is a rich source for researchers but its vast size means that even the most
proficient user can struggle to find relevant information. This session will cover a range of
resources to help you find information for your research.
Google Scholar indexes peer-reviewed academic content from some of the largest scholarly
publishers, as well as other non-peer-reviewed material aimed at a practitioner or scholarly
audience. This provides greater visibility of academic content, if not always a means to
access the full text. This session will cover how to make the most of Google Scholar,
including setting up your library options to provide more streamlined access to full text
content, citation searching and alternative versions.
This session will also look at Google Scholar as a profile service for the academic author, to
increase the visibility and discoverability of your own research output (and tracking its use).
The session will then provide an overview and chance to explore other sources of academic
literature on the web, such as:
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content available via open access repositories from around the world (including
meta-search portals provided through CORE and openDOAR),
open-access theses from across the UK (and beyond),
data sharing sites such as Figshare
profile sites such as ResearchGate or Academia.edu.
5
Wednesday 22nd June
14:00 - 17:00
Long Documents in Word
Trainers: David Heading, Sarah Dodds, Teresa Henley
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
This course explores the facilities within Word that aid the production of longer documents.
Topics include:
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organising a longer document
splitting a document into sections
generating a table of contents and an index
working with multiple files and using the Master Document facility
14:00 - 17:00
Resilience
Trainer: Helen Lawrence
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
Research is full of ups, downs and unexpected turns, isn't it? Navigating this rollercoaster
takes resilience: the ability to bounce back and face whatever is coming next. This session
will give participants the opportunity to discuss the situations which threaten to derail us, to
examine their own responses to those situations, and to develop a plan for taking control of
those responses and therefore flourishing in the research environment.
6
Wednesday 22nd June
14:00 – 16:00
Introduction to Poster Production and Presentation
Trainer: Christine Bohlander
Target audience: Research postgraduates with little or no experience of poster production
and presentation.
Already commonly used in the Sciences, poster sessions are becoming a more popular mode
of presentation across all disciplines. This course will serve as an introduction to the design,
production and delivery of a poster.
The session will focus on:
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How to strike the right balance between content and design
The various methods of production
How to make the most of the poster session.
16:30 – 18:00
Introduction to Project Management
Trainer: Christine Bohlander
Target audience: First year research postgraduates
A PhD project requires careful planning and management in order to ensure success. This
session focuses on exploring how you can apply the various methods of project
management to your research project:
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Principles of Project Management
Stakeholder Management
Tools for Planning
Managing Risks
7
Thursday 23rd June
9:00 - 12:00
Introduction to NVivo
Trainer: David Heading
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
NVivo is a software package designed to assist research with qualitative data. It contains a
selection of tools to facilitate data management and analysis. The course will cover:
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Creating projects
Adding documents and linking external files
Creating nodes and coding data
Creating cases and attributes
Using queries
Using sets
Creating dynamic models
Generating reports.
9:00 - 12:00
First Steps with Excel 2013
Trainer: Sarah Dodds
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
This workshop will introduce the basic concepts of data entry, formatting and presentation,
and also some of the more commonly used functions to enable you to create some basic
spreadsheets. Topics included in this first course include:
 Navigating a spreadsheet
 Entering data
 Formatting data
 Arithmetic operations
 Simple functions (SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, COUNT)
 Charts
 Printing spreadsheets
8
Thursday 23rd June
9:00 – 12:00
Taster Session for Reading Skills in German
Trainer: Christine Bohlander
Target audience: Research postgraduates who plan to read German texts for their research.
No prior knowledge of German is required.
This workshop familiarises you with the basic structures of a German text based on words
that are similar to their English equivalents. By the end of the session you will be able to
decode simple German texts and to develop strategies to improve your reading skills in
German.
10:00 – 12:00
Discover your Personality Type
Trainer: Carolyn Whelan
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
Using the Myers-Brigg Personality Type Indicator you will explore your own personality
preferences and gain an insight into how other people’s preferences may affect your
working relationships with them. We will also look at how your personality preferences can
influence your career choice & planning.
12:00 – 13:30
Open Access Publishing: Funder & REF requirements,
options and your academic career
Target audience: All who are interested in pursuing an academic career in the UK, but
predominantly second and third year research postgraduates (or anyone in receipt of
Doctoral funding from the Research Councils or currently publishing academic peerreviewed research).Open Access publishing is currently a prominent topic of discussion
within the academic community. It is also a requirement of many funders, both within the
UK and internationally, to which all researchers looking to publish need to be aware of. In
addition to this, any academic looking to pursue a career at a UK University should be aware
that making your research publications open access is an eligibility requirement for
submission to the next REF.
Over the lunch period, information will be available and professional staff on hand to
discuss any concerns, answer any questions or go through some of the policy requirements
you may have heard of but aren’t sure of the details.
9
Thursday 23rd June
13:30 – 16:30
Individual careers appointments
Trainer: David Henderson
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates
This is an opportunity to discuss your individual career ideas and plans. It is a useful followup activity to the personality type workshop but the appointments are open to all part-time
and distance doctoral students.
13:30 – 16:30
Speed Reading
Trainer: David Heading
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates
How many hours a week do you spend reading? When did you last learn a new technique to
improve your reading?
This workshop will help participants to:
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Measure their initial reading speed and comprehension
Consider how they read and what limits their current speed
Distinguish between types of reading material and choose the appropriate reading
strategy
Learn and practise techniques of speed reading
Design an individual learning programme to follow after the workshop.
10
Thursday 23rd June
13:30 – 15:30
Completing your Doctorate and Preparing for your Viva
Trainer: Bob Matthew
Target audience: Final year research postgraduates.
How are you going to pull all your research together into a coherent thesis? What are the
administrative procedures you need to complete before you can submit your thesis? How
are examiners (internal and external) appointed? In focussing on these and other questions,
the course enables you to make the best use of your time during the final stages of your
research.
By the end of this session, participants will have:
 prioritised essential activity with the aim of completion
 become familiar with the processes and procedures for the successful completion of
a research degree
 discussed issues pertinent to their own situation.
13:30 – 15:30
Introduction to Time Management
Trainer: Christine Bohlander
Target audience: First year research postgraduates.
Have you ever wondered where all your time goes?
This workshop will help you focus on your own time management situation and provide an
opportunity to explore and discuss a range of time management tools and strategies.
By the end of the session, participants will have:
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discussed the importance of time management in the research environment
considered a range of tools and strategies
reflected on their own time management strategies and considered ways to
improve.
11
Thursday 23rd June
13:30 – 15:00
Copyright for Researchers
Trainer: Colin Theakston, Academic Liaison Librarian and University Copyright Officer.
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
This session will provide an overview of copyright law in the UK. Throughout the session
users will learn about rights for authors, length of copyright, "fair dealing", digital copyright,
Crown copyright, the licences held by the University and their scope, "orphan works",
"creative commons", and the UK government licencing scheme.
15:30 – 17:30
Keeping up to date with Emerging Research
Trainer: James Bisset
Target audience: Primarily first or second year part-time research postgraduates, or anyone
who is looking to keep on top of the published research in their field of study.
It is a frightening reality that a literature review is often out of date as soon as you have
started it. During the course of your research you will need to ensure that you keep up to
date with the most current publications and news in your field.
This session will take an in-depth look at current awareness, covering both email alerts and
RSS feeds as tools to help you discover new articles and academic debate relevant to your
needs. No technical knowledge of RSS required - this session simply looks at what they are,
and some examples of how to use and manage them.
This hands-on pc-based session will focus on:
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E-mail alerts and RSS feeds
Setting up an online RSS reader account and starting to populate with current
awareness feeds
Using RSS and email alerts to keep up with new book, journal and other information
sources.
A brief overview of additional tools for keeping up to date to explore in your own
time
12
Friday 24th June
9:00 - 12:00
Research Integrity
Trainer: Sam Nolan
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
The learning outcomes of this course will be that you will
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Know, understand and explain the key responsibilities you have as a researcher
Identify the challenges you could face in meeting those responsibilities
Be aware of strategies for dealing with pressures and difficult situations.
Before the workshop, participants will be asked to work through one of the on-line Epigeum
modules on research integrity which are available on Duo. The suite of Epigeum modules
includes separate courses for natural sciences, social science, arts & humanities, engineering
and biomedical sciences. Participants will be asked to work through the course that is most
appropriate for their research discipline. It is expected that a participant will need to spend
about half a day working through this material.
The participants will then attend the workshop where they will apply the knowledge they
have gained by working through the on-line material by means of facilitated discussion using
appropriate case studies. The case studies will be tailored to the discipline mix of
participants.
13
Friday 24th June
9:00 - 12:00
Moving on with Excel 2013
Trainer: Sarah Dodds
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
This course is designed as a follow on from the introductory course. Participants should be familiar
with cell referencing, constructing simple formula, charts and formatting worksheets for printing.
The new concepts introduced in this course aim to enable further use of the spreadsheet including
some functions which can be used to carry out simple day to day activities. Topics covered include:
• Working with multiple worksheets
• Linking cells
• Absolute and relative cell referencing
• IF function
• LOOKUP function
• Filters
• Pivot Tables
10.00 – 12:00
Critical Reading
No matter which academic discipline you are working in, reading will be a central part of your life
while you're working on your doctorate. Reading large amounts of text will almost certainly be
necessary for your research, but the quality of your reading will be at least as important as the
quantity. The success of your doctoral studies will depend on your being a 'good' reader, and reading
in the appropriate way. In the context of academic research, good reading is critical reading.
'Critical reading' does not mean taking an unreasonably negative or hostile attitude towards a text;
rather, it means moving beyond simply understanding the texts you read, and evaluating them and
assessing their strengths and weaknesses. Critical readers do not read each text in isolation; they
develop strategies for comparing different texts, seeing the relationships between texts, and
evaluating each text in terms of the larger academic context.
This session will:
introduce the concept of critical reading, and explore what 'critical' means in this context
* equip you with a set of basic critical reading questions, which you can ask about any text
* give you some practice in applying these questions to a variety of academic texts
* look in detail at the use of evidence, and the ways in which a critical reader can analyse a writer's
use of evidence
* consider context, and how to think about the relationship between a text and the other texts
around it.
14
Friday 24th June
10:00 – 12:00
Making the shortlist - Academic CVs and Covering Letters
Trainer: David Henderson
Target audience: second and third year research postgraduates
This workshop will focus on developing effective CVs and covering letters for academic jobs.
By the end of the session you will:
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Be aware of the distinct features of an academic CV
Have an appreciation of what makes a CV and covering letter effective
Have a better understanding of how to market yourself effectively in a CV and
covering letter
Have the opportunity to discuss example CVs with your peers (please bring a copy of
your own CV if you are willing to discuss it with your peers)
Think about your CV and personal profile in respect of professional networking tools
such as LinkedIn
13.00 – 16.00
CV Drop-ins
There is the option of one-to-one appointments with David Henderson to go through your
CV. Please tick the relevant box on p. 5 of the booking form.
15
Friday 24th June
13:00 – 16:00
Introduction to Giving Presentations
Trainer: Christine Bohlander
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
This course explores the key aspects of planning and delivering a presentation, different
types of presentation structure, and the use of visual aids and supplementary material. We
will also focus on strategies for dealing with nerves and different presentation techniques.
By the end of the session, participants will have:
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gained an understanding of the key issues in planning a successful and appropriate
presentation
explored how to structure your presentation
considered the value and potential of using visual aids
had an opportunity to share concerns and experiences of giving presentations
explored techniques for successful delivery and controlling nerves
13:00 – 16:00
Communicating your Research to the Public
Trainer: Sam Nolan
Target audience: First, second and third year research postgraduates.
'Impact' and the public dissemination of research are increasingly important issues in
academia. The purpose of this course is to give you information and practical experience for
presenting your research to an intelligent but non-specialist audience without dumbing it
down or trivialising it.
The course will consider a range of different forms of dissemination, from public
presentations to traditional publications and social media, as well as covering practical
techniques and strategies for reaching wider audiences and communicating effectively with
them.