FASS Virtual Research Training Pilot Project

FASS

We are pleased to announce that we have received £3750 from the FASS Research Training Initiatives Fund for a new programme of interdisciplinary virtual Research Training.  The pilot, which will run Summer Term 2008, will be mounted and managed by the project’s Research Associate, Kate Horsley.

We are hoping to involve a selection of FASS PhD students from different disciplines, and are recruiting volunteers from each year of study.  The pilot group will range from first-year students who have yet to undertake research training to final-year students who are able to look back on the entire process of postgraduate work, to retrospectively assess their research training needs and to compare online modules with the face-to-face instruction they have received during the earlier part their degree course. 

There will be five interactive modules, providing a virtual version of Professor Lynne Pearce’s workshop-based course, ‘Developing Thesis Writing Skills’ (part of the FASS Research Training Programme). This is a course that’s aimed specifically at students who are in the process of moving from 'preliminary writing' (sample chapters, textual analysis, literature reviews, etc) to draft chapters of the thesis in its final form. The modules will include:

- types of writing
- the literature review
- the process of converting notes to drafts
- audiences
- producing the final draft 

Those following the course virtually will have access to a range of case studies and other course materials; they will be asked to participate in carefully structured intranet discussions with small groups of fellow students and will be invited to contribute to online course assessment and peer mentoring.

In addition, the pilot project will provide five free-standing modules:

- postgraduate e-learning and web facilities
- library, online & archival research
- scholarly & professional presentation
- writer’s block
- presenting conference papers

It is hoped that students will draw on these modules to meet their own needs – and that they will help us to judge and improve the effectiveness of such provisions.

We think the project will provide valuable experience for both new and fully trained research students, giving them the opportunity to reflect on the whole process of developing research and writing skills and to feed their views into the structure, content and presentation of virtual forms of such training.


FASS

Centre for Transcultural Writing and Research, County College, Lancaster University, LA1 4YD, UK