Making the most of feedback

Introduction

What is this course about?

Welcome to Working with your Supervisors.

Working with your Supervisors will support postgraduate candidates in the development of a positive and professional relationship with their supervisory team during their research degree. The course has a proactive focus and will support you to get the best out of your time with your supervisors, as well as offering potential approaches for navigating the common issues that can arise in these relationships.

Working with your Supervisors is part of the Becoming a Researcher programme.

Who is this course for?

Anyone studying a postgraduate degree or conducting academic research. Becoming a researcher is an exciting partnership between individuals, their supervisory teams and their institutions – everyone has role to play. Depending on where you are in your research journey, the course will help you develop good research habits, support a positive research culture at your institution and champion your own and your colleague's mental health wellbeing. Whether you're just getting started, or you're returning to research and need a refresher, this course has lots of helpful tips and hints to support you on your research journey.

Learning outcomes

Outline the role of formative feedback in doctoral degrees
Engage in dialogue with your supervisory team and obtain effective feedback on your work
Describe your approach for effective interpretation of feedback and how to respond
Evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy for using all forms of feedback to enhance the quality of your research while maintaining your wellbeing.

Using the module

If this is the first time you have accessed the Working with your Supervisors course, or if you need a brief reminder, here is some information on how the screens are organised, and some of the tools and features that are used throughout:

Content

The centre of each screen contains the core content for each course, presented as either text, interactive activities, graphics, videos or animations
Text highlighted in a box preceded by an arrow contains instructions on how to navigate the activities that follow
Terms highlighted like this are clickable glossary terms, and can be clicked on to access pop-up boxes containing definitions of key terms.

Text/print versions

We strive to make our content accessible to the widest possible audience. While the module is largely compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, there are some interactive objects that we can't make fully accessible. Where this poses a challenge, an alternative might be to access the text/print version of the screens. However, it's important to note that while the text/print version retains the core content, it may be limited in presenting certain interactive features. It would include transcripts for video and audio files, and increased font sizes for greater readability.

Look out for the Text/print version button, located at the top right of any screen in the course, to toggle this feature.

You may also use this feature to activate a print-friendly version of any screen, in case you would like to print and keep the content for your notes.

Confidentiality

While you have the option to save your own work, please note that responses to all activities are anonymous and are not saved within the modules. We hope this will help you to be as honest as possible about how you are feeling.

Poll questions

The poll questions are designed to help you think about your own situation and attitudes, and to compare your responses to those of others taking the programme. Note: responses are anonymous.

Pods

Throughout this course, you will see additional learning opportunities in 'pods'. Exploring the information provided in the pods will enrich the learning experience.

Useful information: Contains extra content to expand or emphasise key points from the main screen and houses links to useful external resources.
Employability skills: Highlights transferable skills that are valuable both within and outside of an academic setting.
Your context: Contains links and information specific to your context and/or institution.
Download: Contains the glossary for the entire course as well as opportunities to download flow-chart versions of some of the content.
Video: Contains additional video interviews with staff members to support the main screen content.
Wellbeing : Contains information that is useful towards supporting your general wellbeing and mental health.
Module evaluation: Contains a short survey for you to rate and send us feedback on the module you have completed.

Quiz

At the very end of each module, you have the opportunity to test your learning further with a multiple-choice quiz. This consists of five questions and can be taken more than once (a new set of questions will appear).

The Working with your Supervisors course is designed to gradually build up your understanding and skills. We recommend that you complete the modules in the order given, but they have been designed so you can access each of them independently according to your own requirements and those of your institution.

Technical support

If you require technical support with using the course, please refer to the Technical support button, located at the top right of any screen in the course.

Terminology

Note on the use of the word 'stakeholders'

Throughout this programme we have used the term 'stakeholders'. There are currently some discussions around the use of the word 'stakeholder' and its suitability for use in research. It has been noted that in some contexts the term can hold negative meanings. For example, it may be considered to be an offensive word rooted in colonialism, whereby colonialists would stake out and lay claim to indigenous lands.

With this in mind, we would like to outline what we mean when we use the word 'stakeholder' in Becoming a Researcher:

A stakeholder is defined as a person, group, or organisation that has an interest, concern, or stake in a project.
Examples of stakeholders might include students, supervisory boards, funding bodies, government agencies, participants in data collection and local communities.

We will continue to review the use of this word and in the future.

Expert panel

Dr Alex Standen :"
Author of this updated version

Alex Standen is Head of Academic Development at the London School of Economics, where she has oversight of a wide and varied portfolio of events, workshops, programmes, resources and funding opportunities for all LSE staff who teach and support learning, including research supervisors. Her first role in academic development was leading UCL's programme for Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) and she has maintained an interested in GTAs since then, co-leading a national network for staff supporting GTAs and editing the journal Postgraduate Pedagogies. She is co-editor of Shaping Higher Education with Students: Ways to Connect Research and Teaching (Tong, Standen and Sotiriou, UCL Press 2018), in which GTAs, students and academics explored how they can work in partnership to advance research-based education. Alex re-developed and led UCL's supervisor development programme and has contributed chapters on Italy to The Making of Doctoral Supervisors (Taylor, Kiley and Holley, Routledge 2020) and Doctoral Examination: Exploring Practice Across the Globe (Kumar, Taylor and Sharmini, Routledge 2023). Alex gained Advance HE Principal Fellowship in 2023.

Professor Douglas Halliday :"
Author of the previous version & Lead advisor of this updated version (and the previous version)

Douglas Halliday was Professor of Physics at Durham University, retiring in 2023. He was a Co-Director of Durham Energy Institute and Director of the Multidisciplinary Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy, which trains doctoral candidates across science and social sciences in a multidisciplinary training environment, helping doctoral candidates to understand the breadth and complexity of the whole energy system. Douglas was the Director of Durham University Global Challenges Centre for Doctoral Training, supporting a cohort of international students to undertake research exploring solutions for the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Previously, he was Dean of Durham's Graduate School from 2005 to 2010 and a recipient of a 2009 THE Award for Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and the Energy Institute, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Douglas was Chair of the UK Council for Graduate Education until July 2021.

Professor Fiona Denney :"
Lead advisor of the previous version

Fiona Denney is a Professor of Business Education at Brunel Business School, Brunel University London, where she has a particular focus on supporting and enhancing the student experience. From 2014 to 2020 she was the Director of the Brunel Educational Excellence Centre, supporting learning and teaching enhancement for both staff and students. Fiona is a member of the Executive Committee of the UK Council for Graduate Education, a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). She has a Ph.D. in marketing and has held academic posts in marketing and management studies. Fiona has worked in academic staff development since 2003 and has research interests in academic leadership.

Wilma Alexander :"
Accessibility advisor

Wilma Alexander is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy with Master's degrees in Human-Computer Interaction, Linguistics and Information Science. She has over 15 years of experience as a manager with the online learning team at the University of Edinburgh, where she specialised in usable and accessible digital practice, tutored on the groundbreaking Master's degree in Digital Education and developed online staff training on accessible e-learning and online tutoring skills. Since retiring from the University at the end of 2015, Wilma has provided consultancy services on all aspects of online learning, with a special focus on accessibility and usability issues.

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