Organisational and Professional Development, 12 March 2018

OPD Training Opportunities Available to PGRs - March/April

The following Organisational and Professional Development (OPD) workshops, taking place March/April, for Postgraduate Researchers have places available. For further information, please follow the links provided after the workshop descriptors below, and make a booking by signing into your OPD account.

Workshops for which there is information below include:

• Mastering Academic Style
• Advanced Excel - Functions, Tricks and Short-cuts
• Getting to Grips with Referencing - How to Cite Right and Avoid Plagiarism
• Infographics, Data Visualisation, Animation - New Ways to Illustrate Your Research
• Resilience in Research [NEW]
• Employability Beyond Your PhD/Postdoc
• Unconscious Bias Seminar
• Thesis Writing for International PGRs  - Results
• Thesis Writing for International PGRs  - Discussion and Conclusion
• Research Degree Theses: Publication, Open Access and Copyright
• Networking for Researchers
• Leadership and Teamworking for Postgraduate Researchers
• Layman's Abstract: Summarising Your Research for the Non-Specialist
• Creating Your Thesis in Microsoft Word
• Intermediate Research Statistics for BioScience Research Staff and Postgraduate Researchers
• The Writing Process: Getting Started with the Literature Review

Sessions are provided free of change. If you have any issues, please contact OPD@dundee.ac.uk.

Please note: We require sufficient notice of cancellation and non-attendance to allow others the opportunity to attend these workshops, or to allow the workshops to be cancelled if insufficient places are filled. Our Terms and Conditions are available to read on our website.

Mastering Academic Style

19/03/2018 13:30 - 16:30

A half-day workshop for PGRs, exploring the characteristics of academic style, including developing an objective tone, and the use of references in a critical way, are explored and presented within the context of a research writing process. Participants are provided with a set of analytical tools aimed at analysing their own discipline’s standards and writing tasks suitable to all fields of study.

For more information and to book.

Advanced Excel - Functions, Tricks and Short-cuts

20/03/2018 9:30 - 12:30

This is an intermediate course aiming to expand your knowledge of MS Excel 2013to help gain confidence in using Excel as a tool, either for data gathering, or data analysis, or simply getting to know more useful functions.

For more information and to book.

Getting to Grips with Referencing - How to Cite Right and Avoid Plagiarism

20/03/2018 14:00 - 16:00

Accurate citation and referencing are crucial elements of PhD research, yet many candidates find it a confusing and stressful process. This workshop aims to provide reassurance and to equip participants with the skills to go about this task with confidence. We will demystify the process by exploring the general mechanics of referencing, and applying these mechanics to the specific referencing systems employed in the candidates’ disciplines. Where anxieties over referencing exist, they are often linked to fears about plagiarism. We will thus also consider exactly what is meant by plagiarism, and examine ways in which good referencing can ensure we do not fall into such a trap. Similarly, we will also explore and practice techniques for effective quotation and paraphrasing, and look at the ways in which all of these factors – good referencing & citation, avoiding plagiarism, effective quotation & paraphrasing – are interlinked and integral to successful completion of the PhD thesis.

For more information and to book.

Infographics, Data Visualisation, Animation - New Ways to Illustrate Your Research

26/03/2018 9:30 - 12:30

This workshop will serve as an introduction to the vast field of data visualisation. Highlighting on-line tools, you will learn how to tell stories with your data. Examples of unique data visualisation projects will be shown for inspiration. Animation will be introduced as an alternative method to illustrate your research.

This workshop will look at how data can be turned into compelling visual stories, including flat graphic design (infographics).

For more information and to book.

Resilience in Research

28/03/2018 10:00 - 12:30

This workshop will work on strategies and activates to build and maintain resilience in the research environment.

Resilience in Research is a new offering for our researchers. This workshop will relate directly to resilience building in the research environment whilst considering the individual actions we can/may take to develop and maintain our own resilience.

This workshop will consider a range of tactical strategies for the maintenance of resilience on a daily, monthly and annual basis.

For more information and to book.

Employability Beyond Your PhD/Postdoc

28/03/2018 13:30 - 16:30

This half-day workshop has a future focus to it. It will encourage participants to think about what their options and choices are beyond their PhD/current postdoc to be able to put a short to medium term plan together identifying the opportunities that they may need to seek or take to develop the skills and experiences that would be useful in creating employment in the next 12 months, 3 years or 10 years.

For more information and to book.

Unconscious Bias Seminar

29/03/2018 13:30 - 15:00

Unconscious Bias refers to the biases we hold that are not in our conscious control. Research shows that these biases can adversely affect key decisions in the workplace. The session will enable you to work towards reducing the effects of unconscious bias for yourself and within your organisation. Using examples that you will be able to relate to, we help you to explore the link between implicit bias and the impact on the organisation.

For more information and to book.

Thesis Writing for International PGRs - Results

30/03/2018 14:00 - 16:00

Please note: this workshop is aimed at students whose native language is not English.
This workshop will outline the typical components of the results chapter of a thesis. We will look at the purpose and structure of this particular chapter and highlight issues which may cause difficulties for second-language speakers of English. Particular attention will be paid to the organisational and linguistic features of writing about your results.
Participants are encouraged to bring any of their own written work which they think will be relevant to this workshop.

For more information and to book.

Thesis Writing for International PGRs - Discussion and Conclusion

16/04/2018 10:00 - 12:00

Please note that this workshop is aimed at students whose native language is not English.
This workshop will begin by looking at the function of a discussion chapter and how such chapters are typically organised. We will also consider a framework for writing this section and look at the language for making claims about data.
We will also consider the purpose, structure, and language used in a conclusion as well as looking at a framework which can be used when writing a conclusion.
Participants are encouraged to bring any of their own written work which they think will be relevant to this workshop.

For more information and to book.

Research Degree Theses: Publication, Open Access and Copyright

17/04/2018 13:30 - 16:30

For research postgraduate students to graduate, they must digitally archive the final version of their thesis in the Discovery Research portal. Discovery serves as the institutional repository for the University and is underpinned by software known as Pure. This requirement allows research postgraduate students to have a Discovery researcher profile, providing an opportunity to create an online presence to promote their research outputs and activities. The workshop shows students how to promote research, whilst also raising awareness of their responsibilities to funders and corporate partners. This includes explaining why an embargo (restricting access to a thesis) may be necessary and under what conditions they may be applied. This includes protecting confidential or sensitive research and intellectual property rights. We will also give a brief overview of how embargoes are managed by the Library and Learning Centre Research Services team.

For more information and to book.

Networking for Researchers

19/04/2018 9:30 - 12:30

This workshop will focus on how to establish a network and build it to support your career and aims.

We will cover networking strategies, engagement methods and how to “pitch” yourself and/or your ideas. Participants will be introduced to various techniques that they can use in a variety of situations with a range of different audiences. How can we turn conversations to our advantage? How do we approach and engage with senior academics? When and how should we follow up with people?

For more information and to book.

Leadership and Teamworking for Postgraduate Researchers

19/04/2018 13:30 - 16:30

When hiring new team members, the professional environment is now increasingly choosing individuals with transferable skills such as leadership, teamworking, strong communication, negotiation and cooperative working. How an individual perceives their own working style, what their preferences are and how they interact with and manage others is a key part of this, and researchers can benefit from exploring their own personal method of working.

The workshop will cover different types and styles of leadership, how to find leadership opportunities and a leadership case study. The leadership case study will help students to recognise and relate to specific leadership practices and employ these in their own work.

For more information and to book.

Layman's Abstract: Summarising Your Research for the Non-Specialist

23/04/2018 13:30 - 16:30

Journals, funders and employers routinely expect academics to summarise their work for non-specialists. This workshop equips researchers with the skills required to produce eye-catching, non-technical summaries without compromising academic integrity.

What is a layman’s abstract and why do academics need to be able to write one? It’s part of the job description; it’s a transferable skill.

For more information and to book.

Creating Your Thesis in Microsoft Word

24/04/2018 9:30 - 12:30

Are you daunted by the prospect of writing your thesis or long documents in Word? Have you heard rumours of lost work and crashing programs? Would you like to know how you can save time by automating different aspects of your documents? This hands-on session introduces the advanced features of Word 2013 which will be invaluable when writing your thesis or long document.

For more information and to book.

Intermediate Research Statistics for BioScience Research Staff and Postgraduate Researchers

27/04/2018 9:30 - 16:30

his workshop extends the introductory course, by broadening the treatment of core topics such as analysis of variance and regression, and introducing new material based on the implementation of generalised linear models with binomial and poisson error structures.

For more information and to book.

The Writing Process: Getting Started with the Literature Review

30/04/2018 10:00 - 12:00

The early stages of a PhD are often spent acclimatising to the research environment, narrowing down the focus, and carrying out a great deal of reading as part of the Literature Review. When it comes to actually writing –up that Literature Review, the prospect can seem daunting and many researchers suffer from writer’s block or produce poor and overly-descriptive reviews. This workshop will help participants place the Literature Review within the wider context of the thesis as a whole and, through discussion and illustrations, will help establish the purpose and scope of their own Literature Review. In addition to considering the content, structure and presentation of the Literature Review, the workshop will also explore some general tools that allow researchers to approach the writing process as a whole in a focused and confident manner.

For more information and to book.

How to Ace Strength-Based Interviews: FMD Group

When:  Friday 16/03/18
Time:  14:30 – 15:30
Where:   Dalhousie Room 2S12

Strength-based interviews are becoming more common within graduate recruitment, so it is important to understand how to approach these. Come along to FDM’s workshop to build your confidence in strength-based interviews.  

To book.

OPD Academic and Researcher Steering Group

Are you interested in providing input into the future direction of researcher development training on the OPD programme? Would you like to contribute to activities that support the career development of researchers?  If so, we’d like to hear from you, please contact opd-secretary@dundee.ac.uk for more details.

Research Leader’s Impact Toolkit

This Toolkit designed to help higher education institutions, research leaders and individual researchers to maximise the impact of their research.