A-N Course List

***First Year Students Only***

This session is aimed primarily at first year international post-graduate research students whose first language is not English.

It is intended to provide guidance to students who would like to feel more confident when communicating about their research, whether in interaction with their supervisors, or when presenting their research in written or spoken form. The workshop will cover:

• Email etiquette
• Making requests
• Presenting your research
• Extending your academic vocabulary
• Enhancing your writing through reading
• Other sources of help with academic writing

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you shoulod feel more confident about:

• Communicating with your supervisor
• Telling others about your research, in speech and in writing
• Working independently to enhance your academic English, using texts in your discipline and other resources

The workshop will not cover research methods

Publishing your work and sharing your findings is a key component of a successful research career. In the last years publishing open access became a (research funder) requirement and a (publisher) expectation. In this rapidly changing landscape, it is very easy to get confused between Green and Gold or Bronze and Platinum Open Access publishing models. Add on top some Creative Commons licenses and the confusion is complete. This workshop is designed to explain the relationship between copyright, Creative Commons licenses and Open Access and how authors can navigate the publishing process meeting all their funder’s requirements, ensuring maximum impact and visibility of their research while not breaking the law (nor the bank). 

At the end of this workshop participants will have:

• a clear overview of the publishing models;

• an understanding of open access, creative commons licenses and copyright and how this applies to scholarly communications;

• an understanding of what is required of authors

This workshop relates to domains C1, D2 and D3 of the RDF.

Workshop Facilitator: Eugen Stoica

Publishing your work and sharing your findings is a key component of a successful research career. In the last years publishing open access became a (research funder) requirement and a (publisher) expectation. In this rapidly changing landscape, it is very easy to get confused between Green and Gold or Bronze and Platinum Open Access publishing models. Add on top some Creative Commons licenses and the confusion is complete. This workshop is designed to explain the relationship between copyright, Creative Commons licenses and Open Access and how authors can navigate the publishing process meeting all their funder’s requirements, ensuring maximum impact and visibility of their research while not breaking the law (nor the bank). 

At the end of this workshop participants will have:

• a clear overview of the publishing models;

• an understanding of open access, creative commons licenses and copyright and how this applies to scholarly communications;

• an understanding of what is required of authors

This workshop relates to domains C1, D2 and D3 of the RDF.

For further information on the RDF visit:  http://edin.ac/2cDDzAE

This workshop is aimed at all PGRsPre-requisitesYou need to have some of your recent academic writing ready to work with during this workshop.

Academic writers often don’t realise that they bring creativity to their writing. This workshop explores creative dimensions of research writing.

Aims/purpose-          to highlight common ground between ‘creative’ and ‘academic’ writing through short writing tasks

-          to help you appreciate creative aspects of your own academic writing

Content-          ‘Academic’ vs ‘creative’: a false dilemma!

-          Observing and paying attention

-          Using imagery

-          Creating connections

-          Making meaning

-          Crafting

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:- identify creative moments in your academic work- (occasionally) take a more playful approach to your academic writing 

Workshop Facilitator: Mimo Caenepeel

***This workshop is only open to participants who have attended the Voice and Presentation Skills Workshop***

Whether you speak in public regularly or only occasionally, without expert feedback and advice, it’s difficult to know how your presentations are landing with your audience and what you can do to make them even better. Knowing what to say and how to present are essential, but only by understanding the skill of delivery will you have the greatest impact; therefore, this workshop is designed to help you practice and develop your skills. This workshop will focus on the presentation design, structure, style and delivery and not the content of your presentation.

In this practical and interactive session, you will have the opportunity to deliver a pre-prepared presentation in a relaxed and supportive environment. You’ll then review it, deconstruct it and identify opportunities for improvement with the support of the facilitator, Communication Specialist and Award-winning Speaker, Mel Sherwood.

By the end of the training, you will increase your confidence and enhance your own natural presentation style to ensure your audience is engaged and your message is remembered.

Learning outcomes

After attending this workshop you will be able to:

1. Build confidence and belief in your own unique presentation style

2. Use engagement techniques to capture and hold the attention of your audience

3. Open and close your presentation with impact

4. Be fully relaxed, present and in the moment when speaking in public

5. Enhance your body language and vocal expression using subtle yet powerful verbal and non-verbal communication techniques

6. Incorporate props and effectively use visual aids to ensure your message is memorable (for all the right reasons!)

This workshop will be held in person and class size is limited to ensure everyone gets the required support. As this is an advanced course, participants must have completed the Voice and Presentation Skills Workshop before attending this workshop. This workshop is ideally suited to anyone who will be delivering a research presentation in the next 6 months (e.g a conference presentation)

Please note that there is pre course work for this masterclass. You will be asked to complete a questionnaire to ensure the session content can be tailored as much as possible to address your particular requirements. You will also be asked to prepare a 5 minute presentation to be delivered on the day; the topic can be anything you like. Your presentation may be filmed during the session.

Workshop Facilitator: Mel Sherwood

Please note:  This workshop is also open to Research Staff, however booking is only available via the People & Money Learning App.  Please book a place via the People and Money Learning App. More information and details on how to book can be found here: https://edin.ac/3Ad7oxP

The aim of a structured writing retreat is to use dedicated writing time to progress writing projects in a supportive environment. Example projects include, book chapters, journal articles, research proposals and reports.

Most of the time is used for writing, with everyone logged into the online session working on their own projects.  This is not a writing workshop, but just gives participants space and time to write. Participants should come to the session with an idea of what they are going to be working on. 

A retreat works best when you focus exclusively on writing, defining specific goals you want to achieve i.e. sections of a paper/chapter, number of words, etc.  

This 1-minute video covers what the retreat session will, and won't involve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcR47DpBgfQ 

This Afternoon writing retreat will be held online via Blackboard Collaborate.

Timings: 

13:30 – 13:35 Check-in and planning

13:35 – 14:25 Writing (50mins)

14:25 – 14:35 Break (10mins)

14:35 – 15:25 Writing (50mins)

15:25 – 15:30 Wrap up

Additional Information:

The programme is based on retreats run by Professor Rowena Murray, University of West of Scotland. Rowena has published extensively on academic writing and is a very experienced facilitator. Rowena’s research indicates that writing retreats can result in significant outcomes in terms of growing research-orientated interactions and building confidence in writing and research and creating cross-disciplinary research conversations.

After attending this workshop you will be able to:

• Develop an awareness of how to use time and space for productive writing;
• Develop an understanding of how to plan writing and generate solutions to writing problems.

This workshop relates to domains A1, B1, B2 and D2 of the RDF.

For further information on the RDF visit: http://edin.ac/2cDDzAEPlease note:  This workshop is also open to Research Staff, however booking is only available via the People & Money Learning App.  Please book a place via the People and Money Learning App. More information and details on how to book can be found here: https://edin.ac/3Ad7oxP

This workshop provides an overview on the fundamentals of copyright as it applies to students and academic researchers in terms of writing dissertations/theses, journal articles and other types of research outputs. Much of the content will be delivered by presentation, but there will be plenty of room for questions and discussion as part of the session.  In addition, the Scholarly Communications Team will be able to provide follow-up support for individuals or small groups. 

After attending this workshop, you will:

1.Understand the types of works covered by copyright.

2.Understand the intricacies of copyright ownership.

3.Know what issues to consider when (re-)using third party materials in a dissertation/thesis or in a scholarly output.

This workshop relates to domains C1, D2 and D3 of the RDF.

For further information on the RDF visit:  http://edin.ac/2cDDzA

Workshop Facilitator: Eugen Stoica

This workshop is aimed at tutors who are new to tutoring online and have limited experience of teaching in online environments. The workshop will provide an brief overview of digital pedagogy by introducing some models which should help tutors support their students during online sessions. The workshop aims to support tutors understand how to create an engaging environment which will help motivate students to participate in online activities.

Public engagement is one of the many ways that research can have positive impact beyond the four walls of the University – not to mention benefits to the researcher. Done well, it can boost your communication skills, give you fresh perspectives on your research, inspire others and maybe even lead to a practical change in how society does things. But how do you get started? And would members of the public honestly be interested in what you do?  This introductory workshop helps answer these questions.

At the end of the workshop you will:

• Develop a deeper understanding of the social context for your research
• Make sense of the variety of stakeholders in your research
• Identify the next steps you need to take in developing your public engagement skills

Please note:  This workshop is also open to Research Staff, however booking is only available via the People & Money Learning App.  Please book a place via the People and Money Learning App. More information and details on how to book can be found here: https://edin.ac/3Ad7oxP

In this workshop you will learn how to approach the key decisions around archiving your research data, such as whether to release your data under an open licence. 

This course will cover:

1. Which research data should I archive and when?

2. Is my dataset suitable for sharing under an open licence?

3. How can I select the best repository for my data?

4. When should I ask the Research Data Service for support? For example for questions about digital preservation or estimating costs or getting a DOI.  

5. How much will it cost?

6. How long do I need to store my data, after the end of my project?

This workshop relates to domains A, C and D of the RDF.

For further information on the RDF visit:  http://edin.ac/2cDDzAE

Workshop Facilitator: Pauline Ward & Sara Thomson

This workshop is intended for tutors and demonstrators from across the University of Edinburgh with responsibility for marking and/or providing feedback.

It provides an overview of assessment processes and explores the students' needs for support at different stages. It identifies some of the challenges faced by markers, discusses strategies for coping with these challenges; and examines good practice in providing feedback on students' work. Please note we do not do any practical marking exercises in this workshop due to the varied practices across disciplines and subjects.

You will get most out of this workshop if you have had some experience marking. Before signing up, please check for any sessions running in your School which may be mandatory. School workshops will be able to provide subject specific advice and guidance. IMPORTANT NOTE: **JOINING INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE SENT PRIOR TO THE EVENT**

If you need to cancel your booking, please do so at the earliest opportunity as someone else may be able to take your place, but we need time to contact them.  

As a researcher you’ve presented your work to your group and to your departmental peers.  And it was no big deal.  You handled it calmly and professionally.  But now you you’ve been accepted to give a talk at that big prestigious conference.   Or you’ve been given a chance to present your research pitch in a large regional or national competition. 

You imagine a large sea of faces in front of you.

And the Big Audience Nerves kick in.

Of course, the secret to success here is practice – but Big Audience events are not things that occur every day – so opportunities to practice are comparatively rare.  However, in this session we’ll focus on how to BANish your Big Audience Nerves.

Together we’ll explore some tactics to

•            Be at your best in front of a large room of people

•            Accept what you can and can’t control and so regulate your speech and behaviour

•            Nullify the downsides of nerves while harnessing the energy that adrenaline can provide

(This session builds on the themes and ideas explored in Presenting for the Terrified).

This workshop is facilitated by Steve Hutchinson.

Please note this is a two part workshop – participants MUST attend on both days. Wednesday 5th June AND Wednesday 12th June 2024Booking Link for 5th June 2024:  

You will also be asked to undertake writing and discussion between the sessions.Habits and Tools for Effective WritingMany researchers struggle with the strategies of academic writing, both with regard to writing techniques and to writing habits.  Moreover, many junior scholars sometimes need a little help with editing and targeting their outputs. These focused webinars (with a small amount of pre-thinking and some work between the sessions) will provide you with a toolkit to help you to: 

• Identify 'good' academic prose and consider the techniques of creating 'good' writing
• Deconstruct the mechanics of effective prose
• Develop a process for conceptualising and planning writing
• Create writing habits that ensure you actually write Recognize prose traps and edit your work more effectively
• Understand how to target your efforts so they’re more likely to be editor, and thus publication, friendly.

We can’t guarantee that your research findings will be high-impact, but we can work together to help you understand how to convey your findings in a clear, succinct and scholarly way.   After all, your research efforts count for very little unless you write...

Workshop Facilitator: Steve Hutchinson

This workshop is aimed at all PGRs

Aims/purpose

-          To help you reflect on what is happening when you feel completely stuck in your dissertation writing

-          To offer strategies you can adopt to reconnect with your writing  

Content

-          Feelings that accompany writing blocks

-          Research on writing blocks

-          Why writing blocks tend to occur in transitions

-          How writing blocks start  – and what you can do

-          Strategies for preventing writing blocks

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:- recognise when you are getting caught in a loop that might lead to a writing block- take steps to stop a writing block from paralysing your writing- accept that imperfection is a necessary part of writing

This workshop requires active participation.

Workshop Facilitator: Mimo Caenepeel

This workshop is aimed at all PGRs

Aims/purpose

-          To help you reflect on what is happening when you feel completely stuck in your dissertation writing

-          To offer strategies you can adopt to reconnect with your writing  

Content

-          Feelings that accompany writing blocks

-          Research on writing blocks

-          Why writing blocks tend to occur in transitions

-          How writing blocks start  – and what you can do

-          Strategies for preventing writing blocks

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:

- recognise when you are getting caught in a loop that might lead to a writing block- take steps to stop a writing block from paralysing your writing- accept that imperfection is a necessary part of writing

Workshop expectations:

Workshop Facilitator: Mimo Caenepeel

About the course: This is a 10-week course delivered through online learning within the University’s e-learning platform, Learn.

What will I learn? This self-paced, online course, gives a basic understanding of the history of imaging, an explanation about each imaging modality (MRI, CT, Ultrasound, Light Microscopy, PET and SPECT), as well as giving a basic understanding of image processing and image analysis.  This is a great starting point for those working on research projects in many different areas, including medicine, engineering, science, psychology and art.

If students wish to learn more about a particular modality or technique, they can progress onto the Edinburgh Imaging Academy ODL CPD teaching materials – which are offered as ‘read only’ for a vastly reduced price of £20 per 10 credits.

Target audience: We have had students from a wide range of disciplines including:

-       Political Studies – interested in using fMRI to assess people’s thoughts

-       Anatomy & Biology students – to gain a basic background in imaging

-       Psychology & Cognitive Science – understanding tools & techniques

-       College of Art – interested in using images for 3D design

-       Engineering, Physics & Chemistry

-       Veterinary Science & Bioscience

-       Medical & Biomedical Science students

When does it start? Monday 9th October - Monday 18th December 2023

Time commitment: 4-8 hours per week

Want to learn more about one imaging modality or analysis tool?  Once students have grasped the basics, they may wish to go on to study a full 10 credit course (e.g. in Light Microscopy or Image Processing). A full list of courses can be accessed via: www.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-imaging/short-courses

If they wish to gain credits then the PPD option is best, if not the CPD read only option is available.

The Edinburgh Imaging Academy offers the online CPD option, by giving students ‘read only’ access to the teaching material used in our ODL Master programs, for £20 per 10 credit course. Simply book through – http://bit.ly/EdinPhD .

For information on Edinburgh Imaging, and our imaging facilities based at the Clinical Research Imaging Centre, the Brain Research Imaging Centre, Institute of Genetics and Cancer and The Roslin Institute – please visit www.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-imaging 

List of Learning Outcomes. By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate a basic knowledge and understanding of the history of imaging

2. Identify different imaging modalities and how and when they should be used

3. Apply a basic understanding of image processing and image analysis to their own research project

The recent health situation has led to a radical change in professional and personal circumstance for everyone. But research goes on. And in the new reality of remote working and professional distancing we all need to rethink how to maximize our research effectiveness and efficiency.

During the session, we’ll focus on:

Reflecting on our routines, habits and tactics of remote researching (specifically managing our self, time, project, relationships and information)

Building routines, habits, strategies, environments and tools that work remotely and that will help us not just professionally survive, but *maybe* even thrive as a remote researcher.

There will be a small amount of focussing pre-coursework in advance of this webinar.

Workshop Facilitator: Steve Hutchinson

This workshop is open to all PGRs and Research Staff.Collaborating can be stressful, as well as hugely rewarding. This workshop looks at what makes some collaborations break down, and what makes others successful.

Aims/purpose

-             to enable you to share your experiences with collaboration

-             to help you explore collaborative writing in real time

-             to alert you to common areas of conflict, and how to engage with them

Content

-             Advantages and challenges of collaborative writing

-             Collaborative writing software

-             Group exercise

-             Collaborative publishing: contribution and authorship issues

-             Habits of successful collaborators

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:

- approach a new collaboration in a more informed way- navigate simultaneous collaborative writing- refer to external support for resolving authorship issuesThis workshop won’t explore collaborative software in detail.

Workshop Facilitators: Mimo Caenepeel

Please note:  There are places available for staff however they must book via the People & Money Learning App.  More information and how to book can be found here: People and Money User Guide – How to View/Search, Enrol and Withdraw from Learning (Employee guide)

A lot of hard work and time goes into conducting research. And then more time and work goes into publishing the results. And yet sadly many papers are never read and many findings are never translated into practice. So how do you communicate effectively about your research and its impact? This is important to fulfil funding obligations, to create further funding and collaboration opportunities, to encourage the application of your findings and for your own career. 

In this workshop you will learn strategies for: 

• Developing a communication strategy
• Pitching your message to the your audience
• How to make it accessible without dumbing down
• Dealing with media
• Using new media
• Developing your one minute pitch
• Dealing with the discomfort of it all

Facilitator:

Hugh Kearns BAgSc, MEd, MMHS

Hugh Kearns is recognised internationally as a public speaker, educator and researcher. He regularly lectures at universities across the world and has recently returned from a lecture tour of the UK and the US which included lectures at Oxford, Harvard and Stanford.

His areas of expertise include self-management, positive psychology, work-life balance, learning and creativity. He draws on over twenty years of experience as a leading training and development professional within the corporate, financial, education and health sectors in Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand and Australia. He has coached individuals, teams and executives in a wide range of organisations in the public and private sectors.

Hugh lectures and researches at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. He is widely recognised for his ability to take the latest research in psychology and education and apply it to high-performing people and groups. As a co-author with Maria Gardiner, he has published six books which are in high demand both in Australia and internationally.

Workshop Facilitator: Hugh Kearns

This workshop is aimed at all PGRS.

Please note:  This workshop is also open to Research Staff, however booking is only available via the People & Money Learning App.  Please book a place via the People and Money Learning App. More information and details on how to book can be found here: https://edin.ac/3Ad7oxP

This workshop is designed specifically for students who are interested in planning events, workshops or conferences. Organising a conference gives researchers the opportunity to boost their profile, develop new skills and to meet other academics in their field. 

In order to deliver a high-quality event it is crucial that organisers execute a sequence of well planned actions in advance, leaving plenty of time to solve any problems that arise unexpectedly. There are now a number of free online tools and event marketing systems, such as Eventbrite, that can be used to help you manage your conference so that you can achieve maximum impact and attract delegates.

The workshop is designed to cover event planning and design, management, finance, venues, online tools, marketing and promotion, attracting sponsorship and post-event actions. The content is taught via short lectures, demonstrations of free online tools and interactive group exercises, in addition to case studies and the instructor’s own experience. Participants are encouraged to share their own event ideas throughout. This workshop is popular with students, researchers and professional staff at universities.

 The content of this workshop is applicable to individuals who are interested in careers both inside and outside of academia.

• Generating ideas for your event
  • What is your aim? Why hold an event?
  • Timing and length
• Planning your event
  • Team, dates, venue, costs
  • Pre-event software
• Event structure
  • Cutting edge talks, workshops, posters, papers, networking (speed)
  • Inviting & attracting high-quality speakers
  • Timing & livestreaming
• Marketing and promoting your event
  • Early bird vs late bird rates
  • Digital & social engagement
  • Tools to measure your progress: website, Eventbrite, analytics
• Attracting sponsorship
  • Who to ask?
  • Sponsorship packages: gold, silver, bronze
• Event management
  • Badges, bags, stands and technical tests
  • Reminders & drop outs
  • Registration and welcoming delegates
  • Managing speakers, timing, questions and an audience
• Post-event actions
  • Surveys and feedback
  • Mailing lists, videos and blogs

List of Learning Outcomes. By the end of this workshop, students should be able to:

Workshop Facilitator: Jo Young

This Copyright and Social Media session is well-suited for those who require a basic understanding of copyright law and licensing when using works from social media (or from the internet, in general) no matter if they are content creators or just students or researchers. It will cover topics such as fair dealing, copyright infringement, Creative Commons and how to obtain permission to use copyrighted materials. Opportunities for questions and discussions will be ample.

Here are some of the key points that could be covered in the session:

What is copyright?

What are the different types of copyright?

What are the fair dealing exceptions to copyright infringement?

How to obtain permission to use copyrighted material

How to avoid copyright infringement on social media

The session would be beneficial for anyone who uses social media to share content, whether for personal or professional purposes. It would also be a good resource for businesses that want to make sure they are complying with copyright law.

Workshop Facilitator: Eugen Stoica

Please note you will be required to complete a preparation task in advance of this workshop.

Full Description:

Interested in public engagement but unsure how to maximise the impact of your efforts? This workshop introduces a flexible approach to planning engagement activities with focus on the outcomes. What are you hoping participants (i.e. community groups, policymakers, researchers, etc.) get out of the interaction, and what activities are most likely to make these outcomes happen?

By the end of this workshop, you will have the key tools to take forward public engagement plans that match your impact goals.

This workshop is delivered by Fiona Murray (Public Engagement Coordinator) and Anne-Marte Bergseng (Communications Manager, ClimateXChange). It draws on material from the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement.

Please note that your email address will be used to share templates immediately after the event. We will also email you a short questionnaire 2-3 months after the workshop. If you wish to opt out, please let the organisers know during the workshop.

This seminar will introduce you to the basics of Creative Commons (CC), a nonprofit organization that provides free copyright licenses to creators. CC licenses allow you to share your work with others while retaining some control over how it is used.  

Designed for artists, creators, educators, and anyone interested in sharing their work with the world, this session provides a comprehensive introduction to Creative Commons licensing. Discover the various license types, learn how to apply them to your creative works, and explore the benefits of sharing content while retaining control over your intellectual property.  

Whether you're an artist, writer, educator, or simply curious about open collaboration, this seminar will empower you to navigate the world of open licensing and promote a vibrant and collaborative creative community." 

In this seminar, you will learn: 

What is Creative Commons? 

How to choose a CC license for your work 

How to apply a CC license to your work 

The benefits of using CC licenses 

This seminar is perfect for anyone who wants to learn more about CC and how to use it to share their work with others. 

Workshop Facilitator: Eugen Stoica

The core business of a PhD or early career researcher is to have new ideas and then explore them. Originality is our shared currency regardless of academic discipline. And yet many researchers report finding themselves stuck in a rut, having the same thoughts again and again, when what they really need are fresh insights, new concepts and original ideas.

This empowering and challenging workshop will allow participants to bring along their own real problems and explore them from a number of new angles.

The workshop will focus on the needs and personal creativity styles of all the participants and explore a range of creativity techniques and how to apply and implement them and review a toolkit for evaluating ideas.

This workshop relates to domains A2 and A3 of the RDF.

List of Learning Outcomes. By the end of this workshop, students should be able to: 

1. Understand how to explore a problem and tackle it in a number of different ways

2. Identify a range of creativity techniques and apply them to find original ways to resolve problems

3. Utilise the creative problem solving toolkit to evaluate ideas

This workshop is open to all PGRs.

Workshop pre-requisites:

You need to have an article relevant to your dissertation ready to work with during this workshop

Critical engagement is an essential aspect of doing research. This workshop focuses on how to approach your academic reading, writing and thinking with a critical mindset.

Aim/purpose

-             to clarify what critical engagement means in a research context

-             to equip you with concepts and questions that support critical thinking

Content

-             Why research relies on critical thinking

-             Responding critically to primary and secondary sources

-             Paying attention to argumentation

-             Critical thinking chains, and how to build your own

-             Critical questions that we need to keep asking

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:

- differentiate between ‘criticising’ and ‘critiquing’- trace arguments in academic writing, including your own- explain why engaging with alternative approaches or different conclusions is part of critical thinking

This workshop won’t cover discipline-specific aspects of critical thinking.

Workshop Facilitator: Mimo Caenepeel

This workshop is intended for more experienced tutors and demonstrators who are relatively new to lecturing or embarking on it for the first time. It considers what is involved in planning a lecture, and discusses strategies for engaging students’ attention.

You will get most out of this workshop if you will be lecturing in the near future.

***  NOTE:  Please bring along a device that can connect to the internet as we will be using interactive technology. ***

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you need to cancel your booking, please do so at the earliest opportunity as someone else may be able to take your place, but we need time to contact them.  

This workshop is aimed at those who have some experience of teaching online. It will explore tutoring in a changing digital environment where increasingly courses are designed to be flexible and incorporate aspects of blended and hybrid learning. During the workshop you will explore what it means to tutor in blended or hybrid environments and consider what student engagement might look like in blended and hybrid environments.

This is a Town Hall event for all current postgraduate researchers at the University which will be hosted by Professor Colm Harmon, Vice-Principal Students, Professor Christina Boswell, Vice-Principal Research and Enterprise and the academic leads of the Doctoral College. It will update participants on key developments in postgraduate research at the University and will have a question and answer session.

You can submit questions in advance via this form.

This is a short welcome talk from the University of Edinburgh Doctoral College open to all new postgraduate researchers. The Doctoral College is a central structure at Edinburgh, designed to help coordinate and highlight training, support and opportunities for all postgraduate researchers across the institution. Join us to hear from the Doctoral College leads and representatives from across the University about how the Doctoral College can help you to make the most of your time at Edinburgh. Participants will be able to ask questions throughout/ at the end. You can find out more about the Doctoral College here - Doctoral College | The University of Edinburgh

This workshop provides advice and information on how to write a chemistry PhD thesis and prepare for the examination process. The session will include practical, interactive activities and contributions from experienced PhD supervisors, examiners and recent PhD graduates.

Course Content:

The role of the thesis and doctoral regulations

The external examiner's perspective and responsibilities

Organisation, motivation and planning

What makes a good thesis

Writing and reviewing the thesis

Anticipating the viva

List of Learning Outcomes. By the end of this workshop, students should be able to:

1. Understand the role of the thesis and the doctoral regulations, including the external examiner’s perspective and responsibilities

2. Understand what makes a good thesis

3. Identify what is required in preparing for a successful viva

This workshop is for tutors who are new or relatively new to teaching tutorials from across the University of Edinburgh with a focus on open-discussion classes.

We consider what makes for an effective tutorial; examine the students’ perspectives and their needs in particular contexts; and share experiences of strategies that might be adopted in different contexts.

You will get most out of this workshop if you are already teaching tutorials. Before signing up for this workshop, please check for any sessions running in your School which may be mandatory.  

***  NOTE:  Please bring along a device that can connect to the internet as we will be using interactive technology. ***

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you need to cancel your booking, please do so at the earliest opportunity as someone else may be able to take your place, but we need time to contact them. 

Do you need facilitation skills to do your job? Probably: good facilitation skills are critical to team working, collaborating with other teams and organisations, planning and holding meetings, and small group teaching.

If you’d like to improve the communication and inter-personal skills needed to facilitate well, this workshop may be for you!

Skills You’ll Develop:

• Enabling everyone to speak openly about their views, interests and needs
• Thinking together to tackle difficult problems or get a job done
• Fostering creativity and realise the potential for ‘group intelligence’
• Handling dominant voices and ensure all participants are heard
• Working through conflict without confrontation
• Recognising different patterns of communication and encourage ‘authentic’ communication
• Using your power as a facilitator constructively

Training Approach:

Our training approach integrates some ‘theory’ with a lot of opportunities to practice. Specifically, we will:

• Introduce key concepts – about different forms of communication and styles of facilitation, and about collaboration
• Work on key skills and common challenges, giving you experience of some different techniques and approaches
• Make this relevant to your circumstances and needs, and encourage your reflective practice.

What this Course Does Not Cover:

Facilitation involves two skill sets: thinking strategically (for planning and evaluation); and attending to communication and inter-personal dynamics in these critical conversations. This workshop aims to build capacity in the latter skill set only.

 While this workshop is extremely useful for people wishing to engage others with their research, this won’t be a specific focus on the day.

Suitability

This workshop is intended for people who already do some facilitation and want the opportunity to reflect on and deepen their practice in this area. Those new to facilitation and dialogue, are encouraged to attend Public Engagement Beyond Public Lectures instead.

Workshop Facilitators: Oliver Escobar & Sarah Stocks

Please note:  There are places available for staff however they must book via the People & Money Learning App.  More information and how to book can be found here: People and Money User Guide – How to View/Search, Enrol and Withdraw from Learning (Employee guide)

Displaying information in a visual format is an excellent way for researchers to communicate their work. You can enhance your research papers, thesis, conference posters, presentations and public engagement activities with accurate and clear visual representations. This workshop is designed to introduce participants to various types of visual formats including standard graphs, information visualisations and graphics for publication.  There are a number of different ways to display your data or ideas visually and it depends on who you are aiming to engage and what you want to tell them. Building excellent graphics and summary figures takes time, practice and a willingness to learn the appropriate software. This workshop will provide an overview of information visualisation and further resources for participants to explore in their own time. Data and information visualisation is a vast and rapidly growing field.

This workshop covers the principles of visualising information, examples of excellent visualisations and poor visualisations and case studies including examples from the instructor’s own publications and experience. At the end of this workshop participants will have:

• been introduced to the principles of good information visualisation;

• an overview of various types of visualisations and considered how they can represent their own work visually.

*Please note: this is not a workshop on software tools, though a list of tools will be provided for participants to explore in their own time.

Workshop Facilitator: Jo Young

This workshop is suitable for all PGRs - but most suitable for PGRs starting their final year of a PhDOverwhelmed at the thought of all you have to do in your final year? Attend Final Year Focus to get what you need to find your way!

Are you several years into your PhD journey, but feel like there is a long way to go? Are you finding finishing your research or thesis hard going? Does it feel like there is a lot to do - and not all of it seems clear? This session might be helpful for you!

Final Year Focus is a 1-hour webinar to encourage PhD candidates as they work through their final year. During this session you will:

• learn tools and processes to help with the final year of your PhD;
• identify what actions you must take to help you succeed; 
• explore ideas to help you on your way to submission and beyond!

You don’t need to prepare anything before the session, but will benefit from having paper to hand or some way to make notes. The session will be delivered by Dr Nathan Ryder live over Zoom.

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:- apply tools and processes to help with the final year of your PhD.- identify what actions you need to take to help you succeed.- start mapping out your journey to the end of your PhD.

This session is for students in the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences.

One of the first tasks undertaken by research students is a review of the literature. This course introduces resources and services available from the Library and will cover the use of online literature databases to help you find relevant research literature effectively.

Workshop outline:

• Search skills and why you need them
• Bibliographic databases and cited reference searching
• Getting full-text
• Journal impact factors
• Keeping up-to-date
• Alerts and/or saved searches
• Brief introduction to reference management software

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this workshop, students should be able to: 

1. Identify the different information resources available when producing a literature review, including the use of online literature databases
2. Understand and demonstrate the ability to use reference management software

 Apply knowledge of cited reference searching and journal impact factors.

Run by the Library Academic Support Team 

This session is for students in the College of Science & Engineering.

One of the first tasks undertaken by research students is a review of the literature. This course introduces resources and services available from the Library and will cover the use of online literature databases to help you find relevant research literature effectively.

Participants are encouraged to use their own device(s) to follow along as presenters demonstrate search strategies and techniques online.

Workshop outline:

• Search skills and why you need them
• Literature databases and cited reference searching
• Getting the full-text
• Journal impact factors
• Keeping up to date
• Alerts and/or saved searches
• Brief Introduction to reference management software.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this workshop, students should be able to:

1. Identify the different information resources available to students when producing a literature review including the use of online literature databases
2. Understand and demonstrate ability to use reference management software

Apply knowledge of cited reference searching and journal impact factors.

Run by the Academic Library Support Team

This session is for students in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.

One of the first tasks undertaken by research students is a review of the literature. This course introduces resources and services available from the Library and will cover the use of online literature databases to help you find relevant research literature effectively.

Workshop Outline:

• Search skills and why you need them
• Literature databases and cited reference searching
• Getting the full-text
• Journal impact factors
• Keeping up to date
• Alerts and/or saved searches
• Brief Introduction to Reference management software

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this workshop, students should be able to:

1. Identify the different information resources available to students when producing a literature review including the use of online literature databases and recognise which are relevant for biomedical research
2. Understand and demonstrate ability to use reference management software

Apply knowledge of cited reference searching and journal impact factors.

Run by the Academic Library Support Team

This session is for students in the School of Engineering.

One of the first tasks undertaken by research students is a review of the literature. This course provides an introduction to resources and services available from the Library and will cover the use of online literature databases to help you find relevant research literature effectively.

Participants are encouraged to use their own device(s) to follow along as presenters demonstrate search strategies and techniques online.

Workshop outline:

• Search skills and why you need them
• Literature databases and cited reference searching
• Getting the full-text
• Journal impact factors
• Keeping up to date
• Alerts and/or saved searches
• Brief Introduction to reference management software.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this workshop, students should be able to:

1. Identify the different information resources available to students when producing a literature review including the use of online literature databases
2. Understand and demonstrate ability to use reference management software
3. Apply knowledge of cited reference searching and journal impact factors.

Run by the Academic Library Support Team

This workshop will cover Writing a PhD Report for the School of Chemistry.

*This course is for first year PhD students*

Getting Started with Postgraduate Research is a 3-week, interactive online course for all new postgraduate researchers at the University of Edinburgh.

Starting a postgraduate research degree is a very exciting time, but it can also be difficult to know where to start.

We hope this online course will help you settle in to your doctoral studies by sharing essential information, tips and advice, and giving you an opportunity to interact with other students at the same stage.

Course structure, dates & time committment

Course dates: this course will run for three weeks from Monday 16th October 2023.

Time committment: we estimate you should expect to spend about 1-2 hours per week reading the materials and engaging with the tasks and online forums. It will be run as an asynchronous course, which means you can look at the tasks and post in the forums at a time that suits you.

Structure:

• Week 1: Getting to know you and starting out – this is to introduce you to the course and other participants and to cover the essential information and expectations
• Week 2:  Focus on achieving the first milestones - identifying milestones, planning and skills development, the supervisory relationship
• Week 3: Overcoming common challenges – identifying challenges, tips and strategies to overcome

This course relates to domains A1, B2, and C2 of the RDF.

This is a self-paced course that you can complete in your own time, at a time that suits you best.  There are no 'live' elements to this course.

Many graduate students cite getting and dealing with feedback from their supervisors as one of the most frustrating areas of candidature. You can wait for ages and when it comes it’s not what you wanted. Feedback is essential to help you make progress and improve the quality of you outputs. But if you just say “give me feedback” you are leaving it completely up to chance. So what can you do to ensure you get the feedback you need?

This workshop will look at asking more specific questions and being clear about the type of feedback you want. It will cover:

• create your big picture thesis plan
• when to get feedback
• how to ask
• getting timely feedback
• feedback on writing, feedback on performance, on everything
• written and verbal feedback
• interpreting feedback
• dealing with the emotional reaction to feedback
• how to respond to feedback
• how do you manage the feedback you didn’t want?

Workshop Facilitator: Hugh Kearns

To paraphrase an old military saying – “no plan survives first contact with the enemy.”  We prepare our talk and in rehearsal we are perfect.  We feel confident and ready to share our work.  But then something happens that derails you. 

For many presenters the key challenge at conference or seminar is handling the moments where they lose control.  Situations like

• Losing your thread of your talk, or forgetting your words
• Being asked an impossible or ‘left-field’ question that throws you completely
• When you’re interrupted by a valid question, but now your timings are wrong
• When the technology fails.

All excellent and experienced presenters have had these situations.  Come along and learn some tips and tricks for dealing with the presentation stumbling blocks that you can’t control.

Workshop Facilitator: Steve Hutchinson

This workshop is open to all PGRs

Workshop pre-requisites:You need some text to work with during this workshop. This can be a few pages of a chapter you are working on, or a paper, your literature review, or your first-year report. Bring work in progress, not a polished draft

Skilful editing requires more than intuitive rewriting. This workshop focuses on working to specific editorial standards, with a degree of detachment as well as care.

Aims/purpose

-             to identify editorial standards for strong writing

-             to apply focused editorial checks to your own writing

Content

-             editing from the reader’s perspective

-             hands-on editorial work

-             editorial toolkit

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:- edit on the basis of strategy as well as intuition- identify some writing habits (in your own writing) that won’t work for your reader- tune into the rhythm of your writing

This workshop will not cover how to use editorial software

You will need to work on your own writing during this workshop, and share your reflections on the chat. Come prepared to work on your writing and engage with other participants.

Workshop Facilitiator: Mimo Caenepeel

This workshop is open to all PGRs

Workshop pre-requisites:You need some text to work with during this workshop. This can be a few pages of a chapter you are working on, or a paper, your literature review, or your first-year report. Bring work in progress, not a polished draft

Skilful editing requires more than intuitive rewriting. This workshop focuses on working to specific editorial standards, with a degree of detachment as well as care.

Aims/purpose

-             to identify editorial standards for strong writing

-             to apply focused editorial checks to your own writing

Content

-             editing from the reader’s perspective

-             hands-on editorial work

-             editorial toolkit

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:- edit on the basis of strategy as well as intuition- identify some writing habits (in your own writing) that won’t work for your reader- tune into the rhythm of your writing

This workshop will not cover how to use editorial software

You will need to work on your own writing during this workshop, and share your reflections on the chat.

Workshop Facilitiator: Mimo Caenepeel

This workshop enables you to identify ways to connect with the wider research community and to build a network that will benefit your research project and professional development. Although many activities connected with research such as lab-work, archival research, reading, and writing are done on your own, researching is anything but a lonesome activity. Research is in its very nature a collaborative process where you are in constant dialogue with colleagues, peers, and communities. This short workshop enables you to identify strategies how you can connect with the wider research community and build a network that will benefit your research trajectory and professional development, both on- and offline. After all, networking is all about meaningful conversations and connections. 

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:  - understand different types of networkers and networking;  - reflect on networking opportunities for you and your project;  - implement different strategies to network building

Facilitator:  Anna PilzRDF Mapping:  B3

This workshop looks at the reasons why successful people can feel ‘like a fraud’ and introduces strategies to learn to accept that you deserve to be where you are.?  Academia is a highly competitive environment where you are constantly entering processes of evaluation, from applications for funding to peer reviews, from feedback at conferences to teaching evaluations. Do you sometimes wonder whether you just 'got lucky' in being selected for a programme / conference / job / prize / award? Do you sometimes think that everyone else seems to much better at what they’re doing and you’ll be discovered as a fraud? Such thoughts are indicative of imposter syndrome. Sometimes those doubts about your skills and accomplishments may even affect your work, especially if you are from an underrepresented or minority group. In this session, we look at the definition and types of imposter syndrome, draw on research to understand the reasons behind such feelings of self-doubt, and identify strategies how you can learn to accept that you deserve to be where you are.??  Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to: understand what imposter syndrome is and how it manifests;  identify when imposter syndrome arises within yourself and how it affects you; learn strategies that can help you to cope with imposter syndrome.   FACILITATOR: Dr Anna Pilz  

RDF mapping: B1 

It can be difficult to design public engagement activities to be truly interactive and inclusive. You may not feel confident about how to engage people or you may sense that your activity could be more effective at meeting the expectations of everyone involved. This workshop will help by giving you strategies to design public engagement activities where everyone is engaged and comes away with something useful.

This workshop will be run flexibly according to the needs and priorities of the participants. It will address:

•    What you want from the engagement

•    Who your participants should be and what they may want from the experience

•     What kind of interaction and communication are appropriate depending on the type of participatory process

•     How to enable everyone to be fully involved and work together

•     How to ensure that the process meets both your and your participants’ aims.

The core principles covered in this workshop are relevant for anyone planning a public or stakeholder engagement process that involves dialogue or deliberation. Whether it is a short interactive event at a science festival or a longer workshop with stakeholders or an ongoing collaboration that you are planning, this course is for you.

The training approach in this course is practical, hands on with regular opportunities to do, discuss and reflect.  The course facilitators will work with you so that you can apply the course material directly to your own public engagement activities/ideas/proposals/plans (see prerequisites below).

Please note: This course does not address the facilitation skills needed to implement your process design effectively: these are addressed in a separate one day course to be run on 18 April 2023.

Preparation for the course:

•This workshop is especially relevant to participants who are planning an interactive public engagement activity or wish to build public engagement into a funding proposal.  As such, participants should come with a particular public engagement activity in mind which they can work on throughout the course.

•Part of the materials for this workshop involves pre-written case studies that participants use to design a public engagement process. The organisers have a bank of these, however if any participants wish to use their own activity for a case study this can be accommodated. The course organisers have a case study pro-forma that needs to be completed and sent to Jan Barfoot (j.barfoot@ed.ac.uk) 7 days before the workshop. Contact Jan Barfoot for the proforma.

•All participants are expected to have a basic understanding of dialogue and of deliberation. To this end we recommend that, prior to the course, you read the relevant sections of ‘Public Dialogue and Deliberation’ by Oliver Escobar, available at: http://www.beltanenetwork.org/resources/beltane-publications/

After attending this workshop you will be able to:

1.Think strategically about the design of your public engagement activity, with a focus on inclusion, dialogue and deliberation.

3.Develop the skills to create workable plans for public or stakeholder engagement that both attends to relevant practical considerations and meets everyone’s aims.

4. Apply this learning to your own public engagements plans

In research we are often called upon to present our work in the form of a poster at a conference. The design and layout of these posters is important, if we are to show our work in the best possible light. Many posters are, however, poorly thought out and badly designed. This workshop, using a series of short presentations and practical sessions will examine in detail the features of good poster design, will look at the relative importance of pictures versus words, and will equip the participants to play an active role in the design of their future conference posters.

After the workshop each participant will:

• understand the purpose of the conference poster

• be familiar with the basic rules for poster design

• understand the importance of words, pictures and flow

• know how deliver a conference poster

• have a working strategy for designing a winning poster.

You and your research project are an interactive unit. Your skills and experiences shape the scope and framework of your research; your research project requires you to develop new skills and offers opportunities for new collaborations and reaching out to different audiences. This lunchtime skills session will consider top tips on how to develop a research strategy that allows both you and your project to grow.

Workshop Facilitator: Anna Pilz

Drafting and revising chapters for your thesis project is one of the main tasks. Developing your academic writing skills is therefore essential. This session will focus on tips and tricks to edit your work. Among other things, we will address strategies to: foreground the argument; revise the structure; cut.

On completion, participants will be able to:

• Understand the different components of the editing process;
• Develop methods to revise with purpose in relation to argument, structure, word count.

Workshop Facilitator: Anna Pilz

This workshop is aimed at PGRs who are planning their first conference attendance. 

This session offers top tips on preparing for your first conference; networking strategies; and understanding the benefits of conferences for your professional and project development. 

Sharing your research findings with scholars in your field is one of the most rewarding but perhaps also among the more daunting prospects. At some point during your postgraduate degree journey, you’ll be participating in and presenting at an academic conference. This session will offer some top tips how to get the most out of your first conference, focusing on benefits; preparation; participation; and networking approaches.  

On completion, participants will be able to:

• make relevant preparations for attending conferences, in-person or online; 
• apply networking strategies prior to, during, and after the conference. 
• Understand the benefits of conferences for professional and project development.

Workshop Facilitator: Anna PilzRDF Mapping:  A3, B1-B3, D2

This session introduces you to strategies to set realistic goals and make time visible, enabling you to develop a schedule so that you can clock off with a sense of achievement.??  Do you ever wonder where the day went and why you haven't even started on that most important task? Do you reply to an email as soon as it comes in? Do you put a lunch break in your calendar? Do you block off time for writing? Making time visible is essential for effective time management. We will look at methods such as work breakdown structure that help you set realistic goals and daily/weekly tasks to make time visible. The session will offer top tips on keeping to a schedule so that you can clock off with a sense of achievement and develop a work-life balance.???  Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:  understand the importance and application of making time visible for realistic goals;  reflect on your work and energy patterns, time constraints, and opportunities;  apply work breakdown structure to your research project.   FACILITATOR: Dr Anna Pilz 

RDF mapping: B2 

This workshop is primarily aimed at PGRs, particularly for those at the beginning of their PGR journey.   This workshop focuses on top tips on how to organise your drafts, reading materials, notes etc and introduces you to methods and systems that will save you time.   Have you ever searched your downloads folder for  that important article that had that crucial quote or data you need? Have you ever clicked through a range of 'Draft Chapter X' documents to locate your latest version? Have you ever spent hours looking for that file of photographs that you took in an archive? Have you ever lost a draft or dataset? Every thesis is the result of various processes of data collection, reading, note-taking, writing, revising, editing. Establishing a strong organisational structure and filing system for your project will save you time in the long run. This session focuses on top tips on how to organise your stuff.?  Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:  reflect and identify what types of data / materials / notes etc you are collecting;  apply and develop an appropriate filing, naming, and saving system; identify potential applications and tools that can assist you in your organisation.  This workshop does not cover the specific use of applications or programs such as Notion or Zotero.   If you have experience with or wish to alert your peers to a particular application or tool you’re using, you are welcome to do so in the Q&A session.   FACILITATOR: Dr Anna Pilz  

RDF mapping: A1 

A PhD is a major undertaking yet many people spend more time planning a weekend away than they do planning the next three years of their life. This generally leads to missing deadlines, running overtime, regular crises and lots of stress. If you want to finish on time and enjoy the process along the way then it is important to have a good plan.

You need some very specific skills and tools to plan a PhD. This workshop will introduce you to the PhD Planning Toolkit. You will learn how to use these tools to:

create your big picture thesis plan

unpack your thesis down into logical parts

create tasks lists for each stage of your thesis

estimate times and schedule tasks

create a Gantt chart for your thesis

keep on track as you implement your plan

plan your writing

manage the finances

identify risks and deal with setbacks

At the end of the workshop you will have your own PhD Planning Toolkit and know how to use it to plan your PhD.

Who it is for?

PhD candidates in early to mid-candidature.

PGRs (early to mid-stages of their research journey)   Prior to the workshop, please familiarise yourself with your School /Department Guidelines & your programme structure such as training requirements, annual review, PhD length and specific format, practical elements (if any). The more details you bring, the more concrete your planning can be.  This workshop introduces you to three key tools that enable you to plan your PhD journey backwards, keeping the big picture in mind and considering the knowns and unknowns of that journey.   Starting out on the journey of a full- or part-time postgraduate research degree is exciting but can also feel overwhelming. Investing time early in project planning with consideration to potential setbacks such as unexpected stops and roadblocks will reduce stress. This hands-on workshop introduces you to three key tools that enable you to plan your PhD journey backwards, keeping the big picture with the knowns and unknowns of your journey in mind. Through practical tasks, you will develop a project plan by breaking down work into smaller and manageable parts, and by identifying milestones that inform your time management. We will look at strategies to turn the unknowns into knowns, and you will have the opportunity to think through unknowns in conversation with your peers.   This is a hands-on workshop. You are expected to engage with handouts and participate in group conversations.   Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to: 

- apply three tools essential to planning: reflective practice; work breakdown structure; and time management;  - identify the knowns and unknowns of your project and professional development;  - develop the skills to tackle the unknowns.  

Workshop Facilitator: Anna Pilz

This session introduces you to a purposeful approach to your reading by enabling you to identify what you’re reading for.   Do you have a long 'to read' list for your research project but not enough time to read it all? Reading lists for projects (as well as teaching preparation) are a bottomless pit. This session will introduce you to methods on how to read with purpose and keep a record of your reading that can save you time in the short- and long-term.   Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to: 

- identify the purpose to your reading;  - apply methods to read with purpose;  - develop a critical reading and note-taking practice This workshop will not cover how to find relevant sources / literature.   FACILITATOR: Dr Anna Pilz  

RDF mapping: A1-2, B2 

Workshop Facilitator: Dave Filipovic-Carter

This workshop is open to 1st and 2nd Year students in the School of Informatics and the SICSA group.

This workshop will explore the nature of Informatics research and the diversity of methodologies that it employs. In particular, it will investigate the forms of hypotheses or claims that an Informatics research project establishes, and the ways in which such claims can be evaluated.

Pre course work:

Students will be required to bring a 1000 word summary of their research project to the workshop. Guidance will be sent out prior to the course.

If you are a SICSA member and not matriculated at the University of Edinburgh you will need to register for an EASEfriend account before completing the booking form: https://www.ease.ed.ac.uk/userdocs/friend.html

List of Learning Outcomes. By the end of this workshop, students should be able to:

1. Describe the nature of Informatics research and the methodologies that it employs

2. Identify the forms of hypotheses or claims that an Informatics research project establishes and the ways in which such claims can be evaluated

This course relates for domains A1, A2, and C2 of the RDF.

This session offers top tips and practical ways of working effectively with your supervisor(s) that benefit both your professional development and your project.  A good and effective working relationship with your supervisors is essential to your postgraduate degree journey. This session will offer some top tips on navigating this relationship both for your project and your professional development. We’ll be looking at this working relationship both from your and your supervisors’ perspective to understand expectations, consider different tools that support an effective relationship with mutual benefits, and identify good communication strategies that include trouble shooting.  Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to: 

- understand your and your supervisors’ expectations;  - reflect and articulate what an effective relationship means to you;  - learn and apply strategies for effective communication with your supervisors.  This workshop will not cover School or College-specific regulations about the supervision requirements, such as how many supervisors are necessary.   FACILITATOR: Dr Anna Pilz  

RDF mapping: B1-3, D1-2 

Focus | Plan | Do It! ***Please note this is a three part workshop and it is encouraged that you should attend each of the sessions***

As researchers, how can we effectively manage an ever-increasing and complex workload, in a world of unprecedented change … and still have time for personal life?

This interactive, hands-on programme has been developed to support busy professionals, providing an approach which puts you in control, improves productivity and reduces stress. 

The workshop is split into three sessions; it is recommended that participants attend all three sessions however this is not essential.

Session 1 - DEPTHS OF PERSPECTIVE

• Identifying and focusing on our priorities
• Managing projects effectively
• Dealing with procrastination
• Creating to-do lists that work

Session 2 - GETTING TO GRIPS WITH WORKFLOW

• The 5-stage approach to manage a busy workload
• Capturing effectively into external tools
• Embedding the Weekly Review

Session 3 - SETTING UP SYSTEMS (for Microsoft users)

• Setting up Microsoft OneNote effectively
• Getting the best from Outlook (inbox zero)
• Synchronising the tools and using MS To Do

Outcomes

• Skilfully manage a busy schedule.
• Feel on top of work and home life.
• Get the inbox back to empty.
• Get the best from Outlook, OneNote and other tools
• Effectively plan and progress projects.
• Clarify roles, prioritise goals, learn to say “No!”
• Increase creativity

List of Learning Outcomes. By the end of this workshop, students should be able to:

1. Identify strategies to manage a busy and complex workload

2. Effectively plan and progress projects

3. Understand how to clarify roles and prioritise goals and when to say ‘No’ 

Workshop Facilitator: David Longstaff

Interdisciplinary research has seen a boom in recent years with governments, funders, institutions and other decision makers promoting it as the best way to solve many of societies ongoing problems. This has meant that interdisciplinary collaborations are increasingly becoming the norm, rather than the exception. However, interdisciplinary collaborations require more effort to ensure effective communication and integration of different cultural and disciplinary perspectives, and they have different needs for success. 

In this workshop we will:

•       Identify some of the barriers and specific needs for success of interdisciplinary collaborations;

•       Discuss different practical strategies to navigate these barriers within existing research structures. 

The workshop will provide an introduction to interdisciplinary collaborations and is aimed at early career researchers who are new to, or who want to improve skills for, interdisciplinary collaborations. The workshop will give participants a chance to understand and reflect on what barriers might present themselves, and how they might tackle these with practical strategies for effective interdisciplinary collaboration. There will also be opportunities to discuss these with peers during the session. Anticipating potential challenges early and troubleshooting these will help project leads and teams to manage interdisciplinary collaborations successfully.Please note:  This workshop is also open to Research Staff, however booking is only available via the People & Money Learning App.  Please book a place via the People and Money Learning App. More information and details on how to book can be found here: https://edin.ac/3Ad7oxP

The Final Assignment Queries session gives participants a chance to discuss what is required for the final assignment with course organisers and peers prior to the final assignment being due. Following this, there will be some time dedicated to a related Writing Retreat to start writing or editing the final assignment. Course organisers will not provide individual feedback during this event, but you will have the opportunity to discuss your assignment with peers.

Information about the Introduction to Academic Practice (HEA-accredited course for T&Ds).

This is an information session about a six month course for experienced T&Ds which is accredited by the HEA at Associate Fellowship. In the session, we discuss the course outcomes, course completion requirements, eligibility for participating in it, what is involved and whether this is the right course for you. Detailed information about this course is available at:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/learning-teaching/cpd/intro-ap

If you would like to know more about this course but cannot make this session and cannot find the information on the above website, please email IAD.tutdem@ed.ac.uk.

This workshop is intended for demonstrators from across the University of Edinburgh who are new to teaching or have recently started demonstrating.

We will discuss necessary skills to best assist students in laboratories and what strategies might be applied in challenging situations; the boundaries to the demonstrator’s responsibilities; and will have a short overview of safety issues.

You will get most out of this workshop if you are already teaching tutorials. Before signing up, please check for any sessions running in your School which may be mandatory. 

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you need to cancel your booking, please do so at the earliest opportunity and at least 3 working days before the event. Someone else may be able to take your place, but we need time to contact them. 

Please arrive on time and remain for the scheduled period of the workshop. Although we try to be as inclusive as possible in our workshops and recognise that Wednesday afternoons may not suit all schedules, we need to consider others on the event by minimising disruptions and ensuring that everyone gets the most out of attending.

An introductory leadership workshop for late-stage PhD students interested in exploring leadership and developing their expertise as they consider future leadership positions.

An introductory leadership workshop for late-stage PhD students interested in exploring leadership and developing their expertise as they consider future leadership positions. The workshop will be based around the leadership model Resilient Leaders Elements^TM and will be active and engaging, balancing theory with group activities and discussion.

Aims: This course aims to introduce postgraduate researchers to leadership concepts and their applicability to the research context.Purpose: To provide postgraduate researchers with a space to explore leadership concepts and explore their own leadership aspirations.Content: We will explore concepts of leadership and what they mean to us. We will focus on having a vision for the future, developing realistic strategies to get there, and how to bring people on board to make progress. We’ll explore how to make great decisions. How do we evaluate situations to ensure our choices are robust? How do we flex and adapt as situations change?We will explore our awareness. Of ourselves, others and the environment in which we work. We will consider how this helps us motivate, manage and make progress. We will explore the practicalities of leadership for you. In what roles and contexts will you be practising your leadership? How will you remain authentic, intentional and people-focused whilst you do? And what do you need in order to realise your leadership goals?The morning session will bring the group together to share experience and create personal leadership goals. We will introduce the leadership case study.The afternoon session will focus on tools and techniques to inspire future action. We will complete the leadership case study and look to the future.

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:

1. Better understand leadership in the research context including appreciation of a leadership framework2. Better understand their own leadership aspirations and their strengths and development areas across the leadership framework3. Practice their leadership within the research context and evaluate their development using the leadership framework.Workshop expectations:This workshop will require active participation and attendance is expected for the full course. Use of cameras is expected to facilitate group discussions and foster a positive group environment. Participants are expected to engage in breakout room activities and support their colleagues through the course. Please attend this online course from a safe, comfortable place where you are able to participate and contribute fully. 

This workshop is open to all PGRsPre- requisities:You need to have some of your most recent academic writing handy to work on during the workshop.  

If possible, students should have attended 'The Writing Process — Getting Started'

This workshop is open to all PhD and MScR students in CAHSS

Writing in a wordy, dull or somewhat pompous way won’t make your writing academic. In this workshop, we look at academic writing from the perspective of academic readers: what will they expect and appreciate?

Aims/purpose

-             to reflect on what it means to write ‘academically’ at a postgraduate level

-             to approach your writing preferences with a critical mindset

Content

-             Academic genres and territories

-             Academic priorities for research writing

-             Academic qualities at the level of content, structure and writing style

-             Common conundrums for academic writers

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:

- distinguish between academic writing ‘rules’ that serve a purpose and those that don’t- check whether your writing meets essential academic requirements- explain why or when you would (or would not) use the first-person pronoun in your writing; or why you might (or might not) write in an active style.

This workshop will not cover discipline- or journal-specific academic conventions

Workshop expectations:  This workshop requires active participation; you will be invited to share your observations and views on the chat.

Workshop Facilitator: Mimo Caenepeel

This workshop is open to all PGRsPre- requisities:You need to have some of your most recent academic writing handy to work on during the workshop.  

If possible, students should have attended 'The Writing Process — Getting Started'

This workshop is open to all PhD and MScR students in CSCE and CMVM

Writing in a wordy, dull or somewhat pompous way won’t make your writing academic. In this workshop, we look at academic writing from the perspective of academic readers: what will they expect and appreciate?

Aims/purpose

-             to reflect on what it means to write ‘academically’ at a postgraduate level

-             to approach your writing preferences with a critical mindset

Content

-             Academic genres and territories

-             Academic priorities for research writing

-             Academic qualities at the level of content, structure and writing style

-             Common conundrums for academic writers

Learning Outcomes - after attending this workshop you will be able to:

- distinguish between academic writing ‘rules’ that serve a purpose and those that don’t- check whether your writing meets essential academic requirements- explain why or when you would (or would not) use the first-person pronoun in your writing; or why you might (or might not) write in an active style.

This workshop will not cover discipline- or journal-specific academic conventions

Workshop expectations:  This workshop requires active participation; you will be invited to share your observations and views on the chat.

Workshop Facilitator: Mimo Caenepeel

Time. It’s the one thing no one ever seems to have enough of. It’s our most precious resource and yet we only seem to be happy when we’re wasting it!Sometimes we can control how we spend our time and sometimes it is dictated to us; but in many ways the key to our academic and professional success is how we choose to use the time that we have. This is particularly difficult in a 'new normal' world where we are more isolated (and thus self-regulating) than ever before.

This interactive webinar will help with procrastination, and provide strategies, tools, and techniques for effective personal time management.

Specifically we'll offer methods for how to

• Reflect on your current actions and priorities• Behave efficiently as well as effectively and so manage your time more productively.• Prioritize and place your focus in appropriate areas

Workshop Facilitator: Steve Hutchinson

This workshop is for 1st year PhD students.

This workshop aims to provide you with an opportunity to take stock of where you are and make practical steps towards an effective start on your PhD. This interactive session will be delivered through a mixture of short presentations and group work and there will be an opportunity to get advice and information from a variety of experienced researchers, supervisors and PhD students.

Topics covered include:

• PhD targets and goal setting
• Advice on practical day to day issues of good research practice
• Advice and approaches to managing yourself and your project

It also provides an invaluable opportunity to meet and get to know other 1st year PhD students from your school.

By the end of this workshop, students should be able to:

1.Identify practical steps to get started with your PhD

2.Identify the key milestones of a PhD and how to prepare for them

This course relates to domains A1 and B2 of the RDF.

This workshop is for 1st year PhD students. It aims to provide you with an opportunity to take stock of where you are and make practical steps towards an effective start on your PhD. This short, interactive workshop will be delivered through a mixture of short presentations and group work and there will be an opportunity to get advice and information from a variety of experienced researchers, supervisors and PhD students.

Topics covered include:

•  PhD targets and goal setting
• Advice on practical day to day issues of good research practice
• Advice and approaches to managing oneself and ones project

It also provides an invaluable opportunity to connect with other 1st year PhD students from your school.

List of Learning Outcomes. By the end of this workshop, students should be able to:

1.Identify practical steps to get started with your PhD

2.Identify the key milestones of a PhD and how to prepare for them

This course relates to domains A1 and B2 of the RDF.

Project management is a core skill for many jobs and being a researcher is no different.  This workshop is designed to help you take control of your research and support you in the successful completion of your PhD and future project inside and outside academia.

This workshop, which is aimed at all postgraduate researchers, explores how you can apply project management principles to research projects. By attending the workshop you will learn how to:

• Clearly define your project to ensure it is successful.
• Identify stakeholders and plan how to engage and communicate with them effectively to ensure your research has impact.
• Define clear roles and responsibilities for the individuals involved in executing the research.
• Develop a high-level plan for the whole research project including project time-lines, budgets and plans to manage project risks.
• Identify time critical activities so you can prioritise these.
• Develop a detailed plan for shorter term activities to effectively manage your time.
• Monitor the progress of your project and what action to take when the project is not progressing as planned.

The workshop is interactive and you will have opportunities to learn project management tools through group activities as well as having time to reflect on your own research.

List of Learning Outcomes. By the end of this workshop, students should be able to:

1. Clearly define your project to ensure it is successful 2. Develop a plan for the whole research project including project time-lines, budgets and plans to manage project risks 3.Identify when things are not going to plan, and what action to take to solve this

Workshop Facilitator: Robin Henderson

EndNote is used for managing bibliographic references and is available for Windows and Macintosh. This is an introductory course aimed at getting you started in using EndNote. The course topics include adding records to your EndNote database, using EndNote to insert citations in word documents and generate bibliographies, and tips for efficient management of bibliographic sources.

List of Learning Outcomes. By the end of this workshop, students should be able to:

1.Understand and be able to use the basic functions of Endnote

2.Identify strategies for efficient management of bibliographic sources

Please note: this event is not catered.

This course relates to domains A1 and B2 of the RDF.

Finding your genius: managing and developing your work, your goals and yourself, for happiness and success as a researcher and future knowledge worker

A half-day interactive workshop which takes a new look at how we manage our working life as knowledge workers so that we can stay creative, happy and productive. We’ll explore the natural rhythm of your day, your personal approach to work and how to prioritise and synchronise to make the most of your work time. This is not a traditional time management course. There will be no 'dos and don’ts’, although we will explore similar themes and concerns, but only from a different perspective. One based on ‘intrinsically’ driven daily routines and clever goal setting.

The workshop will invite you to apply the latest research on body-clocks, physiology and cognitive peaks and troughs as well as helping you to manage goals and expectations. By the end of this short session participants will be invited to change aspects of their approach to managing and thinking about their working life and also begin to implement motivational ‘next steps’ that really work!

This session will include two 10 Minute breaks.

Managing and developing your work, your goals and yourself, for happiness and success as a researcher and future knowledge worker

A half-day interactive workshop which takes a new look at how we manage our working life as knowledge workers so that we can stay creative, happy and productive. We’ll explore the natural rhythm of your day, your personal approach to work and how to prioritise and synchronise to make the most of your work time. This is not a traditional time management course. There will be no 'dos and don’ts’, although we will explore similar themes and concerns, but only from a different perspective. One based on ‘intrinsically’ driven daily routines and clever goal setting.

The workshop will invite you to apply the latest research on body-clocks, physiology and cognitive peaks and troughs as well as helping you to manage goals and expectations. By the end of this short session participants will be invited to change aspects of their approach to managing and thinking about their working life and also begin to implement motivational ‘next steps’ that really work!

Woskhop Facilitator: Iain Davidson

This session will include two 10 Minute breaks.

Working with other people: leading, following and developing professional relationships at meetings, 1:1 and other group working events and opportunities; how to agree shared goals and support and be supported by the stakeholders in your research project.

A half-day, interactive workshop which develops themes from part one (managing yourself: finding your genius) and explores how we can manage our working life when working closely with the needs of others. These could be our supervisors, family and friends, funders, co-workers, corporate sponsors or interested members of the public, government or university. We usually underestimate how many people are touched by our research and how engaged they are with its impact and implications.

This workshop will develop your unique team working skills by helping you to focus first on how you like to work and then how to use this knowledge to co-operate and co-work with other professional people (and yes, even our friends and family sometimes). In a highly interactive session we’ll explore:

• what role work plays in your life
• what role work plays in the life of others
• how to understand group dynamics
• how to make meetings work by using creative solutions
• why teams/groups succeed or fail
• how to negotiate by being flexible yet strong
• when to lead and when to follow
• how to build a motivational team to support your work and the work of others

***This workshop runs over four consecutive weeks, participants must attend all sessions.  Please book a place on all four dates***

The PhD journey can be a roller-coaster of a ride. Do you notice the “lows” more than the “highs”?

There is the first-year lack of structure and ambiguity about what you are actually researching, all the way to the final-year uncertainty and unknown of “what’s next”. And there is everything in-between: research-partner setbacks out of your control, tricky lab colleagues, balloon-bursting journal responses, not to mention the family, relationship and health events that accompany our lives, PhD or no PhD…

Throughout all this, we can experience isolation and loneliness, motivation for everything BUT our PhD, podium-worthy procrastination,  and the anxiety-inducing experiences of “writer’s block” and “imposter syndrome”. Meanwhile, the highs often pass us by, or we interpret them as flukes and struggle to enjoy our successes when they come.

Mindfulness-based Wellbeing for Doctoral Students has been specifically designed to help you enjoy the PhD ride as much as possible – celebrate the highs, and find a helpful way to be with the other bits. Over 4 weekly sessions, we will: 

•Build our awareness of how we experience everyday life

•Develop our curiosity for the highs and lows of PhD life

•Explore ideas, practical techniques, and approaches to proactively support our mental wellbeing

WEEK 1: Learning how to focus amidst busyness and/or isolation

WEEK 2: Developing curiosity in daily life & academic studies

WEEK 3: Recognising your personal “stress signals” and style of self-talk

WEEK 4: Making helpful choices to support your “energy tank”

This workshop is Funded by the Student Partnership Agreement

The aim of a structured writing retreat is to use dedicated writing time to progress writing projects in a supportive environment. Example projects include, book chapters, journal articles, research proposals and reports.

Most of the time is used for writing, with everyone logged into the online session working on their own projects.  This is not a writing workshop, but just gives participants space and time to write. Participants should come to the session with an idea of what they are going to be working on. 

A retreat works best when you focus exclusively on writing, defining specific goals you want to achieve i.e. sections of a paper/chapter, number of words, etc.  

This 1-minute video covers what the retreat session will, and won't involve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcR47DpBgfQ 

This Morning writing retreat will be held online via Blackboard Collaborate.

Timings: 

09:30 – 09:35 Check-in and planning

09:35 – 10:25 Writing (50mins)

10:25 – 10:35 Break (10mins)

10:35 – 11:25 Writing (50mins)

11:25 – 11:30 Wrap up

Additional information:

The programme is based on retreats run by Professor Rowena Murray, University of West of Scotland. Rowena has published extensively on academic writing and is a very experienced facilitator. Rowena’s research indicates that writing retreats can result in significant outcomes in terms of growing research-orientated interactions and relationships, building confidence in writing and research and creating cross-disciplinary research conversations.

After attending this workshop you will be able to:

• Develop an awareness of how to use time and space for productive writing;
• Develop an understanding of how to plan writing and generate solutions to writing problems.

This workshop relates to domains A1, B1, B2 and D2 of the RDF.

For further information on the RDF visit: http://edin.ac/2cDDzAEPlease note:  This workshop is also open to Research Staff, however booking is only available via the People & Money Learning App.  Please book a place via the People and Money Learning App. More information and details on how to book can be found here: https://edin.ac/3Ad7oxP

All researchers will encounter peer review during their career, both as an author and as an expert who has been asked to review the work of another. This workshop will introduce researchers to the peer review system including the process, the complexities, the responsibilities of the author/ reviewer and how to get the most out of the experience.   An awareness and knowledge of the peer review system is important so that early career researchers know what to expect when they submit their first research paper for publication. Equally, understanding how to critically assess a research manuscript for quality, style, content, novelty and relevance gives researchers an insight into how cutting edge research is assessed and published. What should you look for in a manuscript? How can you optimise your chances of success as an author?    

In this workshop, participants will be introduced to the academic publishing and peer review system through short presentations, discussions and peer review exercises.

At the end of this workshop participants will have:

• an overview of the peer review process,  author responsibilities and what to expect

 • an understanding of how to conduct a peer review and provide constructive feedback;

• completed a short peer review exercise using a simple workflow that they can apply to papers in their own field

Workshop Facilitator: Jo Young

This half-day networking skills workshop is aimed at postgraduate research students who will be attending conferences, presenting work, meeting academics and other Postgraduate Researchers.  It will encourage you to think about your existing network of contacts and how to expand this to meet key thinkers in your field, as well as offer practical skills for meeting people at conferences, networking and useful ways to explain your thesis to new contacts. We will also explore the idea s of marketing and branding to highlight your skills and experience to potential employers, collaborators and others outside your immediate network.

Workshop Facilitator: Iain Davidson

This workshop will provide advice on how to bid to the Principal's Teaching Award Scheme (PTAS)  

Decoding the Literature is an online seminar series where we unpack one scholarly piece of work that is relevant across many areas of learning and teaching. The speaker will begin by summarising the piece, giving the attendees a general sense of what the piece is about. A discussion will follow where attendees can ask questions and continue to unpack how this research may be applied in practice. 

In this seminar we will read this piece: https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2021.1872055 

Facilitated by Dr Jacqueline Dohaney

Decoding the Literature is an online seminar series where we unpack one scholarly piece of work that is relevant across many areas of learning and teaching. The speaker will begin by summarising the piece, giving the attendees a general sense of what the piece is about. A discussion will follow where attendees can ask questions and continue to unpack how this research may be applied in practice. 

In this seminar we will read this piece:  https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12548 

Facilitated by Dr Jacqueline Dohaney 

Decoding the Literature is an online seminar series where we unpack one scholarly piece of work that is relevant across many areas of learning and teaching. The speaker will begin by summarising the piece, giving the attendees a general sense of what the piece is about. A discussion will follow where attendees can ask questions and continue to unpack how this research may be applied in practice. 

In this seminar we will read this piece: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ed/reader.action?docID=6406252&ppg=158 

Facilitated by Dr Jacqueline Dohaney 

Invited speaker is Dr Hannah Chalmers

Decoding the Literature is an online seminar series where we unpack one scholarly piece of work that is relevant across many areas of learning and teaching. The speaker will begin by summarising the piece, giving the attendees a general sense of what the piece is about. A discussion will follow where attendees can ask questions and continue to unpack how this research may be applied in practice. 

In this seminar we will read this piece: https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2019.1705879 

Facilitated by Dr Jacqueline Dohaney

Decoding the Literature is an online seminar series where we unpack one scholarly piece of work that is relevant across many areas of learning and teaching. The speaker will begin by summarising the piece, giving the attendees a general sense of what the piece is about. A discussion will follow where attendees can ask questions and continue to unpack how this research may be applied in practice. 

In this seminar we will read this piece:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.775804 

Facilitated by Dr Jacqueline Dohaney 

Please note: Staff are to book a place on the workshop via People and Money.