D. A. Flores

Digital Tools for Researchers 2016 (RSSP) - OnLine

2016-03-26T20:00:00.003-07:00

From 11 January to 26 March 2016 [at] moodle.warwick.ac.uk

Digital Tools for Researchers (15/16) - Completion Badge

This moodle course was very useful and fun to do. I learnt mainly the importance of managing an online identity in order to keep a digital track of your academic life and activities on the web.

Actually, keeping an online identity can be done by being your real self or a persona. Being your real self gives you the chance of telling the world who you are and also being easily associated with your publications and other research material. The risk you take is that your trace can be disseminated without control on the Web, so you have to be careful with the information that you share. A good way to do this is by Googling yourself and see if the results you find are actually information related to you or to someone else. On the other hand, being a persona can help you to keep anonymity on the Web, but also puts you on the risk of someone using your persona ID to expose you in a bad way. I rather show myself as my true self since I find that being a persona on the Web may suggest that you have something to hide.

Online Identity 2016 Badge

Another useful aspect that I learnt on this course was using social media to engage with other researchers. This course allowed me to properly identify which social network services I can use to keep track of my research interests and also separate my personal life and activities. For example, I am using Twitter and Hootsuite to keep track of my research interests. I am using LinkedIn and ResearchGate to manage my professional and academic contacts, along with Blogger to keep track of my research journal and activities.

Web Publishing 2016 Badge

Networking 2016 Badge

Finally, I also learnt how to manage and organise information and research data. First, RSS feeds are very useful to keep track of information related to your research. Netvibes is a very useful tool that I use to keep track of journal feeds that are related to my research, including Twitter feeds of the people I follow. Regarding research data, it is important to establish a strategy to keep your research data safe. I use cloud services such as Google Drive and Dropbox to keep my information updated; however, it is also important to have offline backups such as in your office computer or on a USB external drive. I actually use both in case any of them fails.

Organising Information 2016 Badge

Research Data Management 2016 Badge

Dealing With Imposter Syndrome - RSSP (P4R)

2016-03-14T20:00:00.002-07:00

Date and Time: 14 March 2016, 14:00 - 17:00

The imposter syndrome, more than a syndrome, is a pattern of behaviour which makes a person feels like a fraud. People that show this behaviour feel like they do not deserve to be in the place they are at the moment, and some of the achievements they have had in life is just mere luck.

This way of thinking is common in a lot of people, but becomes destructive when it begins to manifest extreme anxiety, fear and lack of confidence. This can actually put your life on edge and affect relationships. I learnt that this syndrome may manifest at any stage of a PhD route affecting the outcome and making you feel like a fraud.

Some techniques that are very useful (as I have tried myself) to control anxiety are doing exercise, practising meditation and breathing techniques and avoiding self-sabotaging behaviour. I really found this workshop interesting and informative.

Getting started with public engagement (RSSP A14R)

2016-03-11T20:00:00.003-08:00

Date and Time: 11 March 2016, 09:30 - 13:30

This workshop was very useful to understand the importance of making a public impact on people who listen to your research. This is not as simple as it seems because communicating your research must consider strategies depending on the audience. For example, if your audience is familiar with your topic, basic introductory explanations should be avoided but in-depth explanations about the particularities of your research must also be provided. This explanations must clearly and concisely explain your research plan and methods as communicating them may also give you a chance to receive valuable feedback form experts in your field.

On the other hand, if the audience is general and not even remotely related to your project, adequate pitching is essential since this audience may include possible funding sponsors that may be interested in supporting your ideas. In this case, introductory explanations must be given avoiding technicalities that may deviate the attention of your project. After all, you want people to understand the broad context of your research idea without going deeper into implementation or technical aspects. This is called a surface approach which encourages you to briefly introduce your idea and spend time explaining the importance of your contribution rather than how X or Y method should be applied.

The best part of the workshop was creating a video to explain your research idea in no more than 1 minute. This was a huge challenge because I am a camera-shy person... although the tutor praised my speech, I lacked of confidence to present it... actually, making a video about my research topic is in my head... in the future I'm planning to do it properly and include it in my portfolio.

Organising references using EndNote Online for Research Students (RSSP I4R)

2016-02-25T20:00:00.003-08:00

Date and Time: 25 February 2016, 14:00 - 15:30

This workshop was very useful to learn how to manage EndNote Web, an online service form Thompson Reuters to manage references.

This was particularly very useful because EndNote helps you to organise your references without worries about formatting later. In fact, once you need to use the references you have collected, EndNote can help you exporting in the format that you want. Also, this service helps you to add references whilst performing searches on databases such as Warwick Library or Google Scholar.

As this workshop is completely practical, I also had the opportunity to practice with EndNote Cite-While-You-Write plugin that can be used inside MS Word for creating documents and insert references straight from your EndNote repositories.

Due to conventions with my supervisor, I have to use LaTeX and BibTex to format my documents and references, respectively. However, conventional LaTeX editors and BibTeX managers do not help you to keep your references safe. One of the best features of EndNote is the Import option which can be used to keep back ups of BibTeX collections into a specific EndNote reference group.

Reading and note-making strategies (RSSP R3R)

2016-02-17T20:00:00.002-08:00

Date and Time: 17 February 2016, 12:00 - 14:00

This workshop was very practical as it encouraged participation and discussion in between the tutor and the students.
I found this workshop very useful as I had the change to explore the different methods for taking and organising notes and bibliography. Every student shared tips and strategies for making notes. For example, people who like writing their notes kept records of them in notepads or folders with labels. The main disadvantage of making notes using this method is the lack of backup plans in case you lose your physical notes.

Instead, you can use also software tools to help you out with note taking. For example, some people like me use MS Word or MS One Note to keep track of notes which can be synchronised using Cloud services like OneDrive in order to have them accessible and available in all your devices. Some people also like taking notes using mind map tools such as Mind Genius, Freemind or Docear. Mind mapping is actually very useful for making notes, as you can also organise them and keep a storyline in case you may want to write something later.

We also had the chance to understand the importance of skimming and scanning as reading techniques to avoid spending too much time on understanding articles that may not be useful for your research. Whilst skimming helps you acquiring a broad understanding of the context by fast reading an article, scanning allows you finding keywords and ideas inside a document that can be of your interest. Developing these techniques are important to improve your reading performance and boost the ability to explore bibliographic material without understanding it or analysing it in-depth.

Finally, keeping record of your references is important. Services like Mendeley and EndNote are quite effective on this. A lot of people keep track of their references using EndNote which also has plugins for Firefox and MS Word to bookmark pages and insert references in your documents, respectively.

The tools that I use for my note taking strategies are:

For managing references:

EndNote
JabRef (BibTex manager)
Docear (BibTex bibliography and PDF management functionality)

For note-making:

Mind Genius (mind mapping paid tool)
Docear (mind mapping free tool)
Tex Studio (LaTeX editor)
MS OneNote
MS Word

Working Effectively with your Supervisor (RSSP T4R)

2016-02-11T20:00:00.002-08:00

Date and Time: 11 February 2016, 10:00 - 13:00

This workshop helped me to differentiate supervisory responsibilities from student expectations. The main problem in the communication with your supervisor is based on the lack of understanding of each others expectations. For example, some people may expect their supervisors to be very involved with their research, but in reality, they may be feel very distant. This must not to be taken personal rather be seen as an opportunity to set communication channels and agreements so that the relationship can grow and develop over time.

Unfortunately, there is also the dark side, where some students may actually find totally neglected by their supervisors due to the lack of supervisory commitment. In this rare but real scenario, this workshop helped me to understand that there is support in place when the student feels like the supervisory relationship is unsatisfactory, even for requesting change of supervisor.

Finally, differentiating between unsettled mutual expectations and unsatisfactory communication can be only achieved if, after having used all the possible resources and communication channels, you still feel misunderstood and lost. One particular aspect that was covered in this workshop in order to identify this difference was the importance of having 'assertive conversations' with your supervisor. Being assertive implies managing the communication with your supervisor by making the right questions at the right moment. Questions like what I need, how do I do it and where can I find sources are assertive questions that can help in facilitating the communication with your supervisor and getting the most out of supervisory meetings.

How to be an Effective Researcher (RSSP ER1)

2016-02-03T20:00:00.000-08:00

Date and Time: 03 February 2016, 09:30 - 17:00

This workshop was very productive as it was an intense, but interesting approach to understand and practice research skills that are important for planning activities related to your project, and also to be able to communicate them in a very effective way.

I liked the approached that we followed in the seminar. All the students participated on outlining a plan and we also spent some time talking about our research interests. It was very interesting to spend some time discussing about strategies to approach to our supervisors, and the support that are available when there are communication issues that may affect our research.

In general, I found this workshop very useful for learning and applying new skills along with the opportunity of socialising with other PhD students.

Effective Literature Searching (RSSP I1R)

2016-01-28T20:00:00.002-08:00

Date and Time: 28 January 2016, 14:00 - 17:00

This workshop has been very useful to me because it helped me to learn how to effectively use search engines and advanced search expressions to find relevant articles related to my research area.
I found that the electronic sources available in the Library are very powerful and complete. I actually use more electronic articles, journals and books than printed versions of them, so I found very helpful to learn techniques to filter and search content that could have taken me ages to do without these tools.

Another aspect that was very interesting was learning the configuration of alerts for journals or content that may be useful. Alerts on Google Scholar are very accurate and does the job for you. All you need to do is check your inbox every day or every week to find the latest articles that match your search criteria.

Academic Writing - Elements of Structure and Organisation (RSSP W2R)

2016-01-07T20:00:00.004-08:00

Date and Time: 07 January 2016, 14:00 - 16:00

After attending the 'Upgrade Process' Workshop, it was evident to me that I needed to refresh and polish my academic writing. After being away from the Academia, your writing tends to become rusty. I found myself in a difficult position because I was struggling to even begin writing something.

I decided to attend this workshop in order to get back into academic writing as soon as possible. I found the 2-hour lecture very rewarding since I had the chance to explore with other students, different writing approaches and styles. One thing that was clear to me is that every person has his/her own style to communicate written work, but engaging the reader is an skill that has to be developed with practice.

Finally, the most important aspect of having attended this workshop was understanding the importance of coherence. I.e. Structuring the document so that the readers can be smoothly introduced to the argument by engaging them with an interesting introduction, presenting supporting ideas in a comprehensive way so that the conclusions can be considered a logical consequence of the supporting argument that was developed in the process.

Understanding the Upgrade Process (RSSP R4R)

2015-11-25T20:00:00.003-08:00

Date and Time: 25 November 2015, 15:00 - 17:00

As a new and 'fresh' PhD student, this workshop was very useful to understand the regulatory requirements for the always feared upgrade from MPhil to PhD. I would recommend any new PhD student to attend this workshop; especially, if you joined your course after the term start date. For example, I started on November the 2nd, a few weeks after the Departmental PG Induction. After the first meeting with my supervisor, I realised that I had to fulfil some requirements in order to become an official PhD student, and one of these requirements was preparing an 'upgrade' report which has to be substantial and concise enough to satisfy not only my supervisor's expectations, but also those set by my advisors. To be honest, this took me off guard, giving me more questions than answers. In fact, one of my greatest fears was the kind of questions that my advisory board would expect me to answer because upgrading is not just about handing in a report, but having an upgrade meeting - something like a very short viva.

This workshop was a bless to be honest. It helped me to identify possible structures that my upgrade report should have, depending on your subject and discipline. Also, I had the chance to meet other PhD students that were as anxious as I was, so having a support talk also helped to increase my own confidence. A very important and useful activity of this workshop is having the chance to expose your most 'feared' questions and having them validated by an experienced academic and your other PhD peers.

The feeling of relieve and confidence that you have after this workshop is amazing because you soon find out that a lot of your fears towards the upgrade process are not true. Additionally, you will feel more prepared as you get tips and strategies to present yourself with confidence and professionalism.

One important thing that is actually encouraged during the workshop is to begin writing and preparing drafts of your report as soon as possible, which actually helps a lot not just due to the upcoming upgrade , but also to keep your motivation up.