Co-learning with my students: supervising literature-based dissertations within education contexts.

Supporting Students to Submit an Extended Literature Review: Challenges and Solutions

My 2020-2021 MA cohort of supervisees were not based on campus and face-to-face fieldwork was not possible. Students were encouraged to submit literature-based dissertations, a type of submission often referred to an extended literature review. There were several challenges with this situation which I had to address to design, support and develop effective student learning (Collins, 2019). As a result, I have developed as a practitioner to incorporate a wider view of academic research methods in education contexts and developed effective approaches to support students in their use and understanding of these methods with reference to inclusive teaching at a distance (Bell & Waters, 2018; Lupton, 2020). I also discovered that there are several ways to conduct a literature review and I have identified these, with examples, at the end of this paper.

I considered the diversity of student experience using online research methods in terms of digital skills. I collated a list of eight key education data bases and education journals together with guides to writing an extended literature review, which were circulated to students. The databases and guides are listed at the end of this paper. This also involved learning for me as I was somewhat unfamiliar with the method and a couple of the data bases. I wanted to ensure those students who were new to this way of working would have all the search materials available. It was also important to ascertain the extent to which students needed help to conduct literature searches. Additional support was provided in identifying and using key words and how to choose recent rather than outdated literature.

Creating a Sustainable Online Environment

I began as a research supervisor in 2010, undertaking my first academic role at Edge Hill University following completion of my EdD. What is unique, compared to many of my colleagues at UCL, is my consistent and long-term experience of teaching and learning remotely. I have also supervised a wide range of students with a private provider, offering one-to-one supervision for PG and doctoral students from UK universities. This experience gave me insights into how to supervise research students effectively online by offering encouragement, ongoing support and creating an accessible learning experience. Most importantly, I give timely and constructive feedback on research design, methodology and academic writing and relate these to the grade criteria for their degree programme. I have continued to develop all these aspects at UCL and at Glasgow University.

For the initial sessions, I aimed to enable the students who had been learning online since the start of their programme to gain confidence to talk about research methods and be comfortable asking questions of me and each other with this new area (Van Deursen et al, 2014). I used Zoom and designed several short question and answer protocols about their own personal research and their strengths. In later sessions, I followed Q and As with students presentations (5 minutes) in which they were invited to screenshare a provisional title, background information, reason for choosing their area for research, research questions and a range of references. Students were encouraged to discuss their topics with each other as well as with me via the ‘chat’, either privately or with the whole group. My aim to design a graduated approach to learning together paid off and students were not only able to come up with relevant topics related to literature searching but I was able to offer additional guidance and clarification. Students had one-to-one sessions to develop their work and I developed my expertise in supporting and motivating them to develop their own original research, thus indicating to me that they were meeting the new learning outcomes. Sessions included core skills in theoretical and philosophical situating and critical evaluation and understanding of this research method (Cottrell, 2011; Wainwright, 2018). Questions were circulated with reference to research paradigms and associated theorists. Student shared their responses to demonstrate their understanding of how their research area related to the appropriate philosophical background. Two research papers and a list of questions were circulated prior to the session and students worked in pairs to prepare a critical evaluation of one of the papers using the questions provided as a guide. Sessions were participatory and followed up by one-to-one discussion to support to formulate topics and research questions. Feedback to me confirmed that most students benefitted from the interactive nature of research sharing.

A further key area of literature-based reports is developing information literacy skills, including skills in saving, organising and categorising literature. It is not expected that a level 7 student would do this at the same level a PhD student, however, due to the nature of the research method being solely based on literatures, this became a key part of my learning as well as that of my students. As a result of student feedback, I designed a session to enable students to share the own processes of curating and collating papers (eg using of Endnote/Zotero/ Mendeley) that were related to their research topic and related questions. This feedback from the students further helped me to create a research learning community where students could knowledge share (Stentiford and Koutsouris, 2021).

For the 21-22 cohort, the arrangements are now different whereby students can do face to face fieldwork or an extended literature review. There are many transferable teaching approaches which can be used for both types of assessment and I intend to use a learning community approach which is tailored to student needs in this way. This has provided me with the opportunity to build on my practice and enhance student learning via the benefits of a phased approach. The next section outlines, with examples, how this has evolved.

Assessment for Learning Online

In my supervisory roles at UCL (2020 to date) and Glasgow University (2021 to date) I have supervised five cohorts of MA students, a total of 38 students, and regularly collaborate with colleagues to ensure consistency for marking, moderation and providing summative feedback at both universities. All my students from 2020 and 2021 cohorts were awarded their MA at the end of the programme.

Reflections on my early practice and to date indicate that the relationship between supervisor and research student is a unique one. Within an online environment such as Zoom, Skype or Teams, I aim to create a rapport as well as offer advice and guidance to mentor students as they progress through a research project . I dedicate time initially to find out about students’ motivations and their connectivity to their research. I have found that having students do this as a group (max 7-8) online can help counteract any feelings of isolation and self-doubt that might be present (Daniels, 2013; Bitzer & Albertyn, 2011). Using the chat facility in Zoom is particularly useful for supporting and guiding each student during the presentation process and for those who may not be confident in their English-speaking skills. This is connected to my early experiences whereby many of the students I privately supervised reported a disconnect with their peers (Manathunga, 2007).

My one-to-one online support has a specific structure to make the best of meetings and the time allocation for each student. I have learned that mentoring and guidance are integral to effective supervision as not all students are as autonomous as one may sometimes expect. When I receive a first piece of writing, not only do I feedback via comments in MS Word, I also use screenshare to go through the work in some detail and take time to explain my comments and suggestions. This ensures that the student and I are focusing on specific examples and highlights areas which need attention and improvement (and praise!) including the norms and standards for academic writing. For example, Music MA students regularly investigate aspects of special needs in music education. For those for whom English is not their first language it is important that they are made aware the terms of reference that are used within special needs education in the UK. My work on this has been applied across the MA programme and exemplifies how using one example can help address an overall improvement for all students (Ryan, 2005).

My students are encouraged to use technology of their choice to carry out their research. Different tools such as Survey Monkey, EndNote and SPSS are used so it is important that I recognise that they approach the processes of research in a variety of ways. Students share their work, share information about the tool and explain why it is helpful. Students use the internet during supervision sessions to look up concepts, definitions or any other type of information and share their references. This is useful for non-native English speakers and contributes to information literacy skills.

The way a supervisory session ends is also important for me as helps to show what the students have understood, the learning they will take forward, and to check that we are clear about next steps. In an online setting, I feel there is even more need to do this. We share notes in real-time which contain information about next steps and dates for feedback. (Lee, 2016).

I have always sought feedback on my practice, and students report feeling well supported as well as respected throughout the research process. Going forward, I would like to see how some of these online approaches can be used in the context of face-to-face supervision to enhance my practice and those of others.

References

Bell, J. and Waters, S. (2018). ebook: Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for first-time researchers. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Bitzer, E. and Albertyn, R. (2011) Alternative approaches to postgraduate supervision: A planning tool to facilitate supervisory processes. South African Journal of Higher Education, 25(5): 25-38.

Collins, D. (2019). Teaching social research methods online – NCRM quick start guide. Manual. NCRM.

Cottrell, S. (2011). Critical thinking skills: Developing effective analysis and argument. 2^nd ed. London: Palgrave.

Daniels, J. (2013). Developing capability: International students in doctoral writing groups. In J. Ryan (Ed.), Cross cultural teaching and learning for home and international students: Internationalisation of pedagogy and curriculum in higher education. London: Routledge. pp. 44-52.

Lee, L. (2016) How challenging is distance postgraduate research supervision? Think Ahead Blog, University of Sheffield. Available on-line at https://thinkaheadsheffield.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/how-challenging-is-distancepostgraduate-research-supervision/

Lupton, D. (editor) (2020) Doing fieldwork in a pandemic (crowd-sourced document). Available At https://docs.google.com/document/d/1clGjGABB2h2qbduTgfqribHmog9B6P0NvMgVuiHZCl8/edit?ts=5e88ae0a#

Manathunga, C. (2007). Intercultural postgraduate supervision: Ethnographic journeys of identity and power. In D. Palfreyman and D. McBride (Eds.), Learning and teaching across cultures in higher education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ryan, J. (2005). Postgraduate supervision. In J. Carroll & J. Ryan. (Eds.), Teaching international students: Improving learning for all (pp. 101-106). London: Routledge.

Stentiford, L., & Koutsouris, G. (2021). What are inclusive pedagogies in higher education? A systematic scoping review. Studies in Higher Education, 46(11), 2245-2261.

Van Deursen, A.J.A.M., Helsper, E.J. & Eynon, R. (2014). Measuring Digital Skills. From Digital Skills to Tangible Outcomes project report. Available at: www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/?id=112

Wainwright, J. (2018) Chapter 5, Research Methodologies in Carter, C. (Ed.). (2018). Successful dissertations: The complete guide for education, childhood and early childhood studies students. Bloomsbury Academic.

Top 8 Education Data bases

• Scopus
• Web of Science
• PubMed
• ERIC
• IEEE Xplore
• Science Direct
• Directory of Open Access (DOAJ)
• JSTOR

Examples of types of literature-based research

Rapid Review Approach: Khangura, S., Konnyu, K., Cushman, R., Grimshaw, J., & Moher, D. (2012). Evidence summaries: the evolution of a rapid review approach. Systematic reviews, 1(1), 1-9

Narrative Review: Evans, D., Hopewell-Kelly, N., Kok, M., & White, J. (2018). Synthesising conceptual frameworks for patient and public involvement in research–a critical appraisal of a meta-narrative review. BMC medical research methodology, 18(1), 1-9.

Interpretive Review: Christmals, C. D., & Gross, J. J. (2017). An integrative literature review framework for postgraduate nursing research reviews. European Journal of Research in Medical Sciences Vol, 5(1).

Systematic Review: Boyle, K., Felling, R., Yiu, A., Battarjee, W., Schwartz, J. M., Salorio, C., & Bembea, M. M. (2018). Neurologic Outcomes After Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation – a Systematic Review. Pediatric critical care medicine: a journal of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies, 19(8), 760.

In House Guides for Students

Broderick, N. (2021) Writing an Extended Literature Review.  Guide 1, General Guidance for Writing an Extended Literature. University of Glasgow: Unpublished. Available via c.preston@ucl.ac.uk

Broderick, N. (2021) Writing an Extended Literature Review Guide 2, Methodology for the Literature review. University of Glasgow: Unpublished. Available via c.preston@ucl.ac.uk

Broderick, N. (2021) WRITING AN EXTENDED LITERATURE REVIEW Guide 3, Ethics and the extended literature review. University of Glasgow: Unpublished. Available via c.preston@ucl.ac.uk