Normally, at this time of year in #PGRTowers, we are both finishing off the annual workshop and event programme and completing the planning process for next academic year.

Things are slightly different this year.

Before lockdown, we already offered webinar alternatives for our most popular workshops, alongside one-to-one Careers and Writing support via Zoom (offered by Katrina Gardner and Jennifer Boyle respectively). This meant that when we needed to transition workshops online after the lockdown, these were pretty quick to do, allowing us to focus our efforts in developing other areas. We worked with tutors to adapt face-to-face workshops for online, such as creating shorter, staggered sessions to avoid Zoom-overload and increase interactivity, or, for our presenting workshops, offering the opportunity to get one-to-one feedback on a video pitch.

Fortunately, Joanna Royle joined us pretty much right as we entered lockdown, and within a few short weeks she had rallied a team of UofG experts to help put together the 10-week PGR@Home programme. We felt that developing asynchronous materials (bitesize chunks, that you can just work through at your own pace) would be particularly important for students who had returned to their home countries with different timezones, or those with connectivity issues at home, or caring responsibilities, which might leave them working at odd hours.

At the same time, the University extended its pilot of LinkedIn Learning, and rolled it out to include PGRs as well as staff (use your university email to login and you’ll be prompted to sign in with your GUID). We’d love to know how you’ve been getting on with this and with the various MOOCs that we’ve been promoting (such as the excellent career management for researchers).

So, right now, we are finishing off a mixture of webinar and PGR@Home delivery, rescheduling the 3 Minute Thesis final to take place online, and also trying to plan for what lies ahead in the next academic year. Here is some of our thinking so far, and we would love to hear your thoughts, too.

What will be different next academic year

Even if our researchers start to come back to campus, we know there will be differences in accessibility, and perhaps rotas to access offices and labs, so we will continue to emphasise the use of materials you can work through at your own pace in your own space. We anticipate spending much of July and August (when we’re not having a well-deserved break) thinking carefully about how we can re-purpose and enhance existing materials.

We expect that we will have a mixture of the bitesize chunks and short webinars, which could potentially be tailored to particular disciplines or groups. This will probably be the case up until at least Christmas and perhaps beyond, if social distancing is still in place and it is proving to be effective. We are preparing to be flexible, depending on circumstances, government policy, and university guidance. All workshops/webinars are still booked through MyCampus, and the Zoom links emailed to participants prior to the workshop.

In terms of content (and in response to concerns raised in the PGR community), we expect to develop increased careers, mental health and wellbeing support. We are still discussing what shape this will take.

Writing support and development will include shorter asynchronous resources, live and recorded webinars, and one-to-one appointments via Zoom and email.  As with PGR@Home, the aim is to ensure that everyone can access workshops, resources and support, no matter their situation.

There are a few things that are unlikely to take place at all while we are prioritising health and safety, such as the workshop on first aid for fieldworkers. That said, we have seen so much creativity in the last few months, so perhaps we will find a way.

As information on the workshop programmes are released, and as you reflect on workshop offerings of the last year, please get in touch if there is something missing that you would like to see included or if you have ideas for how some of these workshops could take shape in the coming year (information on getting in touch is at the bottom of the post). Your feedback on your needs for development opportunities and ideas for workshops are appreciated and considered seriously by the PGR team in #PGRTowers.

Looking to the future

We are trying to learn what works, and doesn’t work, in terms of online researcher development. We hope to keep the best of it even on the other side of the social distancing protocols, to promote greater opportunity and inclusion in the future. In particular, the Zoom careers chat last week (there will be more) seemed to work well and allow for a lot of questions. We want these to be a safe space for the speakers to speak openly, so we tend not to record them, but they are complimented by other careers and online resources, MOOCs, PGR@Home, etc.

We hope there will be opportunities to collaborate across other Higher Education Institutions for this shift to online researcher development, learn from each other and get access to wider networks, particularly when it comes to non-academic careers support.

Three ways we need your help as PGRs

• Let us know what is working.  We are currently evaluating our workshop programme for this past year. If you are a current PGR, you likely either have or will be getting an email asking you for feedback (or you can get in touch in the ways listed at the bottom of the post). We really hope you’ll take this opportunity to work with us to create a programme that really works for you. We are a small (but dedicated) team and would love to have your input and creativity to help us shape the best researcher development programme we can.

• If you can’t go, please let us know.  In many cases, we are keeping webinar numbers low to allow for more interactivity and participation. However, we are seeing a number of researchers sign up and then not turn up on the day. We understand that there are many reasons for this, and you may need to change your plans in response to other pressures (technology, finances, work, family matters).  However, these workshops often have a waiting list of students wanting to attend. On behalf of those students, we ask that you get in touch as soon as you are aware of your change in circumstances so we can release the space for another student. You can do this by emailing your graduate school or Researcher Development: it depends on who is running the workshop.

• Take a break if you can. When your workplace is also your home, and there’s nowhere much else to go, it can be so tempting to just keep working. We all recognise this within #PGRTowers and will consciously be taking breaks over the summer to recover from the challenges of the last few months and come back refreshed for the new academic year. While we understand that not all PGRs may be able to take a longer holiday, we hope that you prioritise a proper rest by taking a few days, single days, or even half days off throughout the summer, and that you are taking time off (such as one or two days on the weekend) each week, as fits your schedule. Your research will still be there and will benefit from a healthier you.

To get in touch with us with your ideas, feedback, and concerns, email Elizabeth Adams or Joanna Royle or tweet us (@researchdreams and @RoyleJoanna) to share your ideas. To remain anonymous, you can fill out question 4 of the survey mentioned below.

We are also working on adjusting the blog and community events to the reality of a physically-distanced academic year. Please fill out this brief survey (no personal data required) to share your interest in and ideas on events, blog post topics, and anything else you want to share with PGR Blog Headquarters or #PGRTowers.