1. Innovative tools for PhD
supervision
Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning
Rhodes University

2. Rhodes University
Eastern Cape
South Africa

3. Two Programmes
1. Nuffic funded Strengthening Doctoral Supervision
1. CHERTL’s Higher Education Studies PhD Programme
A few things that worked…

4. 1. Strengthening Doctoral Supervision
 Doctoralsupervision.net
 30 credit (300 notional hours) course in blended mode to develop
supervision capacity
 Assessed by portfolio and accredited by short course
 Creative Commons

5. 18 SA Universities
Others?
Netherlands
Namibia
Mozambique

6. Phase 2 - Online

7. Phase 2 - Online

8. 2. Our Programme
 Higher Education Studies – range of topics
 Scholars are all academics from across South Africa,
Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Abu Dhabi
 30 PhD scholars and ±10 Pre-Docs
 Average age 45, all part-time with other commitments
 Most have English as an additional language and have
concerns about writing
 Few have experience with theory or with academic
publication

9. Programme Structure
 Most undertaking individual study, though 8 are part of funded team project
 All have own supervisor (and co-supervisor/s)
 3 Doc Weeks per year
 Technology used for
 Individual supervision (Chrissie will comment more on this)
 Programme based communication - Programme based use of technology is for two
reasons
 Community of Practice
 PhD beyond the topic
Success of the programme will be measured not only by the number of graduates but by
the quality of their experience and by the ways in which their research contributes to

10. Technology for ‘holding’ a PhD programme
 RUConnected – Moodle based program
 Elluminate
 Skype
 YouTube
 Turnitin

11. RUConnected

16. Elluminate & Skype

17. YouTube

18. Turnitin

19. Conclusion
 Many possibilities but don’t overwhelm with technology – a little bit at a time
 May need to be more structured – direct invitation to participate in a specific format
 Need to have a co-ordinator to ‘hold’ the programme together and to liaise between supervisors and
scholars
 Need strong IT support
 eTechnology needs occasional ‘in person’ contact
 eTechnology no quicker – Good supervision requires time –
 Inducting a person into knowledge construction takes time
 Inducting a person into the disciplinary norms is often an identity issue
 Producing knowledge takes time
 But eTechnology can enable just as rich an experience – and across a much wider geographical area