Category: Research

Another day in paradise…

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NVivo Application ScreenAnother day of writing…

However today was focussed on utilising newly acquired interviewing skills and applying them in a practical method of transcription for my doctoral training modules.

Specifically, I elected to transcribe a Prince William conference keynote speech, and utilise newly acquired video/voice/transcription software to determine the efficiencies and efficacies of these application types. Thereafter, I downloaded and installed the latest version of NVivo in order to begin on-ramping much of the qualitative data captured. I am hoping to begin this process in two days’ time.

Once the practical work was out of the way, I spent the remainder of the day refining my upcoming DDL Lab PowerPoint presentation. I realised that I needed to edit more thoroughly my messaging from the perspective of someone having absolutely no knowledge of artificial intelligence, cognitive enhancement and neural networks.

After spending a good deal of time reworking the flow, my presentation is now considerably more refined, easier to digest and–I pray–compelling. I am eager to present this in less than a week.

As a UCL Student Trustee, I spent the evening reviewing both the National Student Survey Briefing and the latest updates to the UCLSU Trustee Reports and Governance Committee documents. Combined with myriad amendments, survey/recommendation reports and various pro forma, I feel I am in a considerably better prepared position to attend, participate and contribute to next week’s meetings.

Peer review

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Today started with an unexpected invitation…

A dear colleague of mine located in Qatar suggested that, because of my previous editorial and writing experiences, I should consider enrolling in an online peer review academy (Publons) and become a certified, credentialed academic reviewer. Moreover, she suggested I serve as her mentor during her progression through the academy; something I was all too happy to oblige.

Later in the morning, I attended my first KL seminar and composed a post-mortem report describing the technology efficacy for provisioning the meeting from a distance PhD researcher perspective (it was most positive!). Thereafter, I further contributed through a volunteer position at the KL by scheduling additional and upcoming KL seminars and broadcasting these to the appropriate UCL channels in order to invite attendees.

Because I am a full-time PhD student, I have to carefully balance other business and family/personal responsibilities. Today was such a day; in that, following a busy academic day, I tended to third-party business matters over the course of a 4-hour night-time  recording studio session for an upcoming artist on a well-known recording label. Curiously, there is a blending of my academic and business pursuits in that I found myself employing many of the technologies in the music domain that are to be leveraged as part of my audiometrics methodology utilised in my PhD research and trials.

Oh happy day

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An excellent day…

I received excellent news from both supervisors that after only a minor iteration, my project’s initial Data Protection Application and Data Protection Impact Assessments were fully approved and submitted for review well in advance of their deadlines. Now it’s time to iterate the larger Ethics Application due in two weeks’ time. The initial draft was completed last week, and I am looking forward to guidance from my supervisors.

While Monday’s focus was writing, and Tuesday’s focus was online participation and PowerPoint creation, today’s motivation was reading. And a massive amount of reading at that, including the introductory units to both Qualitative and Research Methods modules—combined with the extended recommended reading lists as well.

After several hours of note-taking and review, the coffee ran out and bleary eyes prevailed.

Rapport building 101

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Today was emblematic of how distance students build rapport with colleagues…

Better than one-quarter of the day was spent “live and online” either within the Blackboard Collaborate Ultra or Zoom applications environment attending a variety of meetings, classroom modules, inductions, etc.

Included were one of two laboratories (the alternate to my Knowledge Lab; that is, the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience’s Developmental Diversity Lab) where lab mates assisted one another in creating content and programming the lab’s website. Thereafter, I participated in a mid-year induction for online and returning doctoral students where we discussed mentoring, PGR Student Representative and Student Trustees and our individual research projects.

Later the same day, I participated in another online-line supervisory meeting with my secondary supervisor to discuss both upgrade and ethics application related to my research and MPhil/PhD. We also discussed my upcoming presentation to the aforementioned Development Diversity Lab; hence, I spent the afternoon updating the PowerPoint mentioned in yesterday’s blog post.

This upcoming presentation is a particularly challenging exposition; in that, the material is highly technical, and not very well known among my DDL colleagues. In addition to the attending Masters and PhD students, I plan on repurposing this presentation to future audiences consisting primarily of non-academics and laypeople.

Of course, there was a mountain of email and scheduling issues to attend to, and because the day started at 0900 GMT (4am local time), I was in bed and asleep earlier this evening than what would be considered normal. Up again tomorrow before the sun rises!

Monday monday….

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Today is a writing, writing and “more” writing day!

After inhaling the magic of my morning coffee elixir, I began early today by creating, editing and publishing a brand-new website announcing my PhD Project Research (along with the first official project-centric blog post). Once completed, these pages (screen captures) became a component of my MPhil/PhD Upgrade Report’s “Appendices Section”.

In order to round out this Appendix, I completed authoring a Post-mortem Participant-Public-Information Survey. This particular document is to be completed by participants who complete the lived-experience PPI Study (e.g. either a focus group or questionnaire) that form the first phase of my three-part study.

And finally, after spending the afternoon programmatically coding the aforementioned questionnaire in the Gorilla Experiment Builder application, I ran preliminary tests on the actual “main section” of the PPI. Once test data collection was confirmed, secured and anonymised, I then captured screens for inclusion in the aforementioned Appendix.

Of course, there were about two dozen email relating to doctoral training modules, student government documents for upcoming Governance Meetings and several National Student Survey documents that needed my attention prior to convening next week’s UCL Trustee/Student Union Meetings.

Certainly, there’s never a dull moment as a PhD Student…distance learners included! Now I am off to get some exercise with our daughter and prepare—what will hopefully be—a lovely dinner for the family. The it’s back to (you guessed it) more literature research!