The PhD Trail - Online Learning, Design, Collaboration & Innovation

Dendogram Showing Full Node Tree for Gray (2015)

Feb

11

2015

Using Google Drive as a University Lecturer

Jan

29

2014

I run a lot of short courses, both for academia and business, and one of the most popular is a week long introduction to cloud applications. Cloud apps, such as Google Drive and Evernote, can make such a difference to your productivity that it’s just silly to ignore them, despite some of the possible downsides ...

Technology Enhanced Learning Journals: Impact Factor and SJR

Dec

16

2013

I’m currently writing up my first batch of research and, to give myself a bit of a kick in the pants to do that, I thought I’d make a plan for journals to submit to. The Elusive Impact Factor Anyone who’s tried to start mapping out journals in a new field knows it’s a pretty ...

Design in Action PhD Meet-Up: Abertay, July 31st, 2013

Jul

23

2013

Details Venue: Room 2522 University of Abertay Dundee, Kydd Building, Bell Street. Date: July 31st, 2013 Programme 10.30am – 11.30: Research Catchup Summaries of what we’re currently up to. Topics, conferences & journals we might apply for, books/journals others might want to read, methodologies we’ve been reading up on. 11.30 – 12.30: Reading Group Theme ...

How to Review your PhD Research Questions

Nov

5

2012

This week I put down some concrete ideas around my research questions. That involved coming up with: a Rationale – Why would it be useful to know the answer to these questions? What’s the point? Outcomes – What concrete deliverable would result from researching this question? Links to the Design in Action agenda Research methods ...

Finding a Definition of Design

Nov

5

2012

I’m concious of the fact that, while I am, by experience, a web designer, I don’t have any formal education in design. Because my design mentality is very digitally, and particularly web biased, I struggle sometimes to think how design could be applied to situations in other contexts. I’m still trying to expand my mental ...

Reading and Annotating Research Literature Digitally

Oct

25

2012

Since my first supervisory meeting I’ve been cracking on with the literature review, and it feels like I’m making a bit of progress. All the reading has led me to think about how I’m processing the literature though. Technology comes to the rescue again! Processing Research Papers Digitally: Look Maw, No Paper! Initially I had been ...

Finding a Focus for the Literature Review

Sep

8

2012

I had my first proper meeting with the PhD project team today. Over around 2 hours we discussed the background of the project and what it intended to achieve. Design in Action is a national project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and there are partners in a number of universities around Scotland. ...