Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Blogging: Connecting Research Communities Online

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Postgraduate Education in Higher Education

Part of the book series: University Development and Administration ((UDAA))

Abstract

The demand for higher degree research qualifications is growing in response to the requirements of the knowledge economy, greater international competition for and mobility of students, and increased demand for research and researchers. As institutions struggle to keep up with the changing forms and requirements of doctoral education, students and supervisors appear to be turning to alternative spaces for learning and networking, notably in the sphere of social media.

This chapter reports on the establishment of an academic blog on doctoral writing, DoctoralWritingSIG. We draw on notions of connectivism (Downes, Connectivism and connective knowledge: Essays on meaning and learning networks. Stephen Downes Web. Available at http://www.downes.ca/files/Connective_Knowledge-19May2012.pdf. 2012; Siemens and Mattheos, Education 16(1):3–18, 2010) to describe how the blog developed its own community networked across countries and disciplines bringing doctoral students into fruitful exchange with a wide set of doctoral educators.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aitchison, C., and C. Guerin. 2014. Writing groups, pedagogy, theory, practice: An introduction. In Writing groups for doctoral education and beyond: Innovations in theory and practice, ed. C. Aitchison and C. Guerin. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aitchison, C., and A. Lee. 2006. Research writing: Problems and pedagogies. Teaching in Higher Education 11 (3): 265–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aitchison, C., and S. Mowbray. 2013. Doctoral women: Managing emotions, managing doctoral studies. Teaching in Higher Education 18 (8): 859–870. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2013.827642.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aitchison, C., and S. Mowbray. 2015. Doctoral writing markets: Exploring the grey zone. In Handbook of academic integrity, ed. T. Bretag. Singapore: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aitchison, C., C. Guerin, and S. Carter. 2015. Academic blogging in the “accelerated academy”: How to build a personal, professional and public community. The London School of Economics and Political Science, Social Sciences Impact Blog. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/06/25/academic-blogging-personal-professional-public/.

  • Badenhorst, C., and C. Guerin. 2016. Research literacies and writing pedagogies for masters and doctoral writers. Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billot, J. 2010. The imagined and the real: The tensions for academic identity. Higher Education Research and Development 29 (6): 709–721.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouwma-Gearhart, J.L., and J.L. Bess. 2012. The transformative potential of blogs for research in higher education. The Journal of Higher Education 83 (2): 249–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carrigan, M. 2015. Life in the accelerated academy. The London School of Economics and Political Science, Social Sciences Impact Blog. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/04/07/life-in-the-accelerated-academy-carrigan/.

  • Carrigan, M. 2016. Social media for academics. London: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter, S. 2012. Original knowledge, gender and the word’s mythology: Voicing the doctorate. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 11 (4): 406–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carter, S., and V.M. Kumar. 2016. ‘Ignoring me is part of learning’: Supervisory feedback on doctoral writing. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2015.1123104.

  • Carter, S., and D. Laurs. 2018. Developing research writing: A handbook for supervisors and advisors. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter, S., S. Sturm, and J.G. Geraldo. 2014. Situating e-learning: Accelerating precepts from the past. International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning 9 (1): 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dowling, R., and M. Wilson. 2015. Digital doctorates? An exploratory study of PhD candidates’ use of online tools. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2015.1058720.

  • Downes, S. 2012. Connectivism and connective knowledge: Essays on meaning and learning networks. Stephen Downes Web. Available at http://www.downes.ca/files/Connective_Knowledge-19May2012.pdf.

  • Fourie-Malherbe, M., C. Aitchison, E. Bitzer, and R. Albertyn, eds. 2016. Postgraduate supervision: Future foci for a knowledge society. Stellenbosch: SUNMedia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrison, R., and T. Anderson. 2003. E-Learning in the 21st century: A framework for research and practice. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Grant, B. 2010. Negotiating layered relations of supervision. In The Routledge doctoral supervisor’s companion: Supporting effective research in education and the social sciences, ed. M. Walker and P. Thomson. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guerin, C., S. Carter, and C. Aitchison. 2015. Blogging as learning community: Lessons for academic development? International Journal of Academic Development 20 (3): 212–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halavais, A. 2006. Scholarly blogging: Moving toward the visible college. In Uses of blogs, ed. A. Bruns and J. Jacobs. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamler, B., and P. Thomson. 2014. Helping doctoral students to write: Pedagogies for supervision. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz, J. 2001. Here come the weblogs. In We’ve got blog: How weblogs are changing our culture, ed. J. Rodzvilla. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lave, J., and E. Wenger. 1991. Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, A., and C. Williams. 1999. Forged in fire: Narratives of trauma in postgraduate research education. Southern Review 32 (1): 6–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCulloch, A. 2013. The quest for the PhD: A better metaphor for doctoral education. International Journal for Researcher Development 4 (1): 55–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mewburn, I., and P. Thomson. 2013. Why do academics blog? An analysis of audiences, purposes and challenges. Studies in Higher Education 38 (8): 1105–1119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison-Saunders, A., S.A. Moore, M. Hughes, and D. Newsome. 2010. Coming to terms with research practice: Riding the emotional rollercoaster of doctoral research studies. In The Routledge doctoral supervisor’s companion: Supporting effective research in education and the social sciences, ed. M. Walker and P. Thomson. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nerad, M., and B. Evans, eds. 2014. Globalisation and its impacts on the quality of PhD education: Forces and forms in doctoral education worldwide. Rotterdam: Sense.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paré, A. 2011. Speaking of writing: Supervisory feedback and the dissertation. In Doctoral education: Research-based strategies for doctoral students, supervisors and administrators, ed. L. McAlpine and C. Amundsen. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pyhältö, K., J. Stubb, and K. Lonka. 2009. Developing scholarly communities as learning environments for doctoral students. International Journal for Academic Development 14 (3): 221–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siemens, G., and K. Mattheos. 2010. Systemic changes in in higher education. Education 16 (1): 3–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sim, K.N. 2015. PhD Study and computer technology use: A common experience? https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com//?s=technologies&search=Go.

  • Veletsianos, G., and R. Kimmons. 2012. Networked participatory scholarship: Emergent techno-cultural pressures toward open and digital scholarship in online networks. Computers & Education 58 (2): 766–774.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, S. 2016. Why do university-managed blogs matter? On the importance of public, open and networked digital infrastructure. The London School of Economics and Political Science, Social Sciences Impact Blog. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/04/20/why-do-university-managed-blogs-matter/.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Australia in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Claire Aitchison

  2. University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Susan Carter

  3. University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

    Cally Guerin

Authors
  1. Claire Aitchison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Susan Carter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cally Guerin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claire Aitchison .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

    Ronel Erwee

  2. Tertiary Preparation Program, University of Southern Queensland Tertiary Preparation Program, Queensland, Queensland, Australia

    Meredith Harmes

  3. Open Access College Administration, Queensland, Australia

    Marcus Harmes

  4. University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

    Patrick Alan Danaher

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Aitchison, C., Carter, S., Guerin, C. (2018). Blogging: Connecting Research Communities Online. In: Erwee, R., Harmes, M., Harmes, M., Danaher, P. (eds) Postgraduate Education in Higher Education. University Development and Administration. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0468-1_7-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0468-1_7-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0468-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0468-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation