Train PhD Students as Enterpreneurs

This week I attended a presentation from an early career academic on the challenges of having a family and a research career, even before COVID-19 made it much harder. Also this week I was welcomed to the Canberra Innovation Network's Virtual Co-workingonline community. It occurred to me that the approach which the entrepreneur/startup community takes to mutual support may be of use for training doctoral students and supporting early career academics.

From one point of view entrepreneurs are business people all competing with each other, but on the other hand there is a lot of sharing and support. There is also an emphasis on learning from failure, as at least 90% of startups fold. With the usual face to face events closed, this support has moved online.

Part of the stress and frustration for new researchers may come from too high expectations during their training. If they do well, they hope to be funded as a post-doctoral researcher and then, in time, a secure tenured position. However, there are far fewer post doctoral positions and even fewer tenured positions, than PhD graduates.

Even a supposedly permanent university position is dependent on funding from student fees, research grants and other variable sources to pay a salary. This can come as a shock to a new graduate who has worked for years in the expectation of a career in research. PhD students could be instead encouraged to think of themselves as entrepreneurs, with conducting research being just one skill they need to succeed.

Doctoral training could be changed to incorporate features of that provided for entrepreneurs. This emphasizes any one project has only a very slim chance of success and you should be prepared to learn from repeated failed projects. Skills in identifying what makes a project appealing to funding bodies can be taught. Also the ability to "pivot" can be nurtured: take a small sliver of potential from a failing project and run with that. Lastly, students can be provided with a broad set of skills useful for industry, as that is where 90% of them will end up working, not in research.

Getting academics to do professional development

In the last few days I have been approached by several people asking for help to use ed-tech for academic professional envelopment. One of the paradoxes of higher education is that while academics insist that training and testing is needed by their students, they are reluctant to do any training themselves in how to teach.

Botham (2018) looks at the issue of engagement in a professional development scheme to develop teaching skills. They concluded that institutional policies encouraging, or requiring, PD got staff into such programs, but it was not enough to get them to completion. I suggest this may require a change in doctoral education, and university hiring practices. If universities want good educators, they will need to include teacher training in graduate  programs, and select staff based on their teaching qualifications. Selecting the best researchers and then trying to turn them into educators does not work.

At a practical level it should be possible to train academics, using the same sort of blended techniques which are used to get students through a course they do not have an aptitude for, or interest in. That may not turn the average academic into an enthusiastic expert educator, but can at least make them reluctantly competent.

Reference

Botham, K. A. (2018). An analysis of the factors that affect engagement of Higher Education teachers with an institutional professional development scheme. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 55(2), 176-189. URL blob:https://www.tandfonline.com/bbabfffd-2eb4-42a9-ad72-a1300abb9d64

Learning to Teach and Assess at the ANU Early Career Academic Forum

The Australian National University is holding an "Early Career Academic Forum", 24 ^to 25 July 2018. This is run by the ANU Network of Early Career Teachers, Academics and Researchers ("NECTAR"). This is aimed at new staff starting their career and Phd students considering a career. I will be facilitating a discussion of Improving Teaching and Learning at ANU.

"Program Highlights:
Tuesday, 24 July

• Workshop: Indigenous perspective inclusive/sensitive pedagogy
• World Cafe style Morning Tea with discussions around Learning to Teach and Assess, PDRs and promotions, challenges faced by Early Career Academics and many more.
• Roundtable with Marnie Hughes-Warrington, DVC (Academic), and Grady Venville, PVC (Education).
• Workshop: ANU Teaching and Learning Vision with Grady Venville
• Research Presentation on ECA Employability
• Panel: Job Security. Confirmed panel members: Sue Thomas (CEO, ARC), Mike Calford (Provost, ANU), Denise Ferris (Head, School of Art & Design) and Lyndall Strazdins (National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU).

Wednesday, 25 July:

• Panel: Overturning the obstacles of sexual misconduct, harassment, hostility and practices of inequity within the university. Confirmed panel members: Dean of Staff, Alyssa Shaw (PARSA President), Renee Hamilton (Universities Australia) and Jamiyl Mosley (Head of Burton and Garran Hall).
• Roundtable with VC Brian Schmidt.
• AGM
• Workshop: “What to do when things go wrong” with Gail Frank (Adviser to staff, ANU)."

From: Early Career Academic Forum, NECTAR, 2018

ps: An interesting future option for ANU is microcredentialing, as mentioned by the VC at a Senate inquiry recently. 

ANU Early Career Academic Retreat

The Australian National University is holding an "ANU Early Career Academic Retreat" for new staff to  June 2014. Other universities hold similar events and they are a good way to meet other new staff and meet some of the university executive, including the Vice Chancellor. Last year I talked at the ANU event on "Learning to Teach Using e-Learning for Early Career Academics" (unfortunately this year as I will be at the International Sustainable Development Conference in Indonesia).

Planning the Future of Early Career Academics

Greetings from the Griffin Room at the JG Crawford Building at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. I am taking part in a planning meeting for "NECTAR, the ANU Centre for Early Career Academics". The issues being discussed are, I suspect, not different to those at other higher education institutions. Early Career Academics (ECAs) have the problem of living from short term project to project, funded often by short term research grants. Some research shows that is can be an effective way to promote innovation, but that is little consolation for the individual who has no certainty of career or salary.

One aspect which I would like to see addressed is the professional training and development of ECAs. The ECA tends to concentrate on short term issues of getting the next grant and doing the research, not what they need for the long term. Also there is the assumption that with a PHD they have all the qualifications they will ever need and their career will depend on research excellence. There is also the need to teach ECAs how to teach and be administrators, which is an important part of academia. Most academics have three professions: research in an area of academic specialization, teaching (including supervision of research) and administration.

In terms of support Oxford university has a web site: Promoting Academic Practice. One issue I believes requires addressing is the role of adjuncts in academia. Some adjuncts are late career academics who will be familiar with the system, but others will be form industry and so are in effect early career academics. Also the role of the Internet needs to be considered.

The role of professional bodies, nationally and internationally is not considered sufficiently when dealing with ECAs. The disciplines which have bodies, especially vocational ones (such as Law, Medicine, Computing and Accounting) have influence at the national and international level.

One current issue for Australian academics it is it is not clear which minister in the new government will be responsible for Higher Education, or will different aspects be shared between departments.

Some of the issues are addressed in "The Australian academic profession in transition" (Emmaline Bexley, Richard James, and Sophie Arkoudis, Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne, September 2011):

• A deep commitment to scholarship draws people to academic work and lies at the core  of their professional values. The opportunity for intellectually stimulating work, a genuine passion for a field of study and the opportunity to contribute to new knowledge are the
 aspects of academic work most prized.
• Overall, less than one third of Australian academics believe that their workload is manageable, while just under one half indicate that their workload is not manageable.
  Close to half of mid and late career staff indicate that their work is a source of considerable personal stress.
• Early career staff are more likely to be dissatisfied with their job security and income than those later in their career - 60 per cent of early career staff are dissatisfied with their job security compared with less than one quarter of late career staff. In the same vein, 40 per cent of early career staff are dissatisfied with their income compared with less than 30 per cent of late career staff. Access to secure and well-remunerated positions is an important consideration for early career academics.
• Nearly three-quarters of staff intend to continue in their current role and position in the short term (two to three years). However, substantial proportions of academics have medium to long-term intentions (for the next five to ten years) to: move to another   institution (29 per cent); move to an overseas institution (25 per cent); leave the higher education sector all together (26 per cent); or retire (21 per cent).
• The intention to leave Australian higher education is highest among the younger age groups. Close to 40 per cent of academics under 30 years of age plan to leave Australian higher education in the next five to ten years, with 13 to 18 per cent intending to leave in the immediate future. Around one-third of staff aged 30-39 years intend to leave in the next five to ten years.
• Overall, when both short and long-term intentions are taken into consideration, close to half of the academic workforce intend to retire, move to an overseas university or leave Australian higher education at some time in the next ten years.
• While the mobility of academics, especially early in their career, is vitally important for innovation and the diffusion of knowledge in what is a highly skilled and knowledge intensive occupation, and Australia benefits from inward flows of academics from other
 countries, some Australian academics indicate that they intend to move overseas due to workplace issues. Of the range of attitudinal indicators investigated, the major differentiator between those who intend to leave Australia in either the short or long
term to work in an overseas university and those planning to stay, is levels of satisfaction with income and with job security. Of those who intend to leave, 50 per cent are of the view that they do not have adequate job security, compared with 40 per cent of other
academics; and 42 per cent are not satisfied with their level of income, compared with 34 per cent of other academics.
• Over half of those intending to move to an overseas university, or to leave the sector, cite reasons related to dissatisfaction with working conditions. The most common reasons are around issues of job security, remuneration levels, lack of research funding, and dissatisfaction with the institutional or sectoral culture.
• Academics are concerned about the perceived lack of recognition for teaching in existing promotions processes, despite the efforts of some universities to include teaching performance and achievement in promotion criteria: 88 per cent believe that teaching should be rewarded in promotion but only 31 per cent believe it is currently rewarded.
• There is a general disquiet with the leadership and management of institutions, although the extent varies greatly across the institutions involved in the study. On the national  policy front, few academic staff believe the higher education sector is heading in the right direction or that there is strong government support for the university sector. ...

Twelve principles to guide planning for the future academic workforce ...

1. Stability in higher education policy directions benefits workforce planning. ...
2. There is a need to establish better pre-conditions for more stable forms of
   employment. ...
3. Institutions should be cautious about replicating national funding formulae
   at the academic unit level ...
4. Support for early career academics should be made a national priority. ...
5. A better understanding of the nature of sessional and short-term academic
   work is needed ...
6. The primacy of the research-teaching nexus in the work of universities
   should be maintained ...
7. Appropriate career pathways and promotion opportunities for teaching-
   specialist academic work should be ubiquitous across the sector. ...
8. A more sophisticated distribution of academic work roles than the
   conventional classification of teaching-only, teaching-and-research and
   research-only positions is needed. ...
9. The casualisation of academic work needs to be reversed, and sessional and
   short-term contract staff load shifted to longer term and ongoing forms of
   employment. ...
10. A better understanding of the nature and extent of administration activities
    associated with national and institutional benchmarking and quality audit
    requirements is needed.  ...
11. There is a need for the development of a new and specialised kind of
    professional staff. ...
12. Further professional development is needed at senior levels for academic
    staff moving into department and faculty leadership roles. ...

ps: The Griffin Room at the JG Crawford Building at the Australian National University (ANU) has a wonderful view out the window. The building is built half into the ground on one side, so the meadow comes right up to the window, with a view down to  Lake Burley Griffin. Both the room and lake are named after Walter Burley Griffin, architect of Canberra.

Support for Early Career Academics

The Australian National University (ANU) have set up a new web site NECTAR for Support for Early Career Academics. It is not clear what "NECTAR" stands for and the web site has some validation errors, rates only 44% for Mobile compatibility and has some accessibility problems. Other Australian universities also have resources for ECAs (with similar web design problems), including: University of Newcastle, QUT, UQ, Curtin University, and Griffith University.

Skills for University Tutors

As part of the Vocational Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, I was required to learn how to prepare Work-based Learning Pathways. At the time I was looking at what training university tutors received, so I prepared a work-based learning pathway for an ANU computer science tutor. This was an interesting exercise in seeing what training was available from the university and if  vocational e-leaning modules could be used to supplement this. Also it was interesting to see if the vocational approach made sense in a university environment. Overall it worked reasonably well.

It would be interesting to see if the training which early career academics (ECAs) receive could be structured in such a way that they receive both a university and vocational qualification. That is the student would receive a Cert IV in Training and Assessment, plus do extra study for a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, so they were qualified to teach in universities and TAFEs.

WORK-BASED LEARNING PATHWAY

Graduate Students Tutoring Undergraduates in Computer Science

Workplace: ANU

Name of employee/s: Graduate Students Tutoring Undergraduates in Computer Science

Learning goals:

• Run tutorial groups and workshops. Administer the course website.
• Maintain student records for the course.
• Assist with teaching in tutorials and workshops. Undertake assessment of assignments

Benchmark/units of competency

• BSBCMM401A - Make a presentation
• TAEDEL401A - Plan, organise and deliver group-based learning
• BSBEBU401A - Review and maintain a website
• TAETAS401A - Maintain training and assessment information
• TAEASS402A Assess competence
• ANU Code of Practice for Teaching and Learning, 1 Jan 2012

Instructions to facilitator: This learning pathway documents the recommended learning pathway for graduate students tutoring undergraduates.

Please note:

1. This will need tailoring for individual tutors. It is expected the graduate students have necessary technical knowledge of computer science topics and be familiar with HTML, but have limited presentation skills and little or no teaching experience.
2. Tutors will need to make a presentation and assist with a tutorial before doing so on their own.

Tutors will need “tutor” access to the Learning Management System.

Development Plan

 

Skills and knowledge to be developed	Learning activity and recommended strategy	Facilitator	Cost	Sequence/ Timeframe	Agreed Completion Dates
Run tutorial groups and workshops.	Attend introductory university on-line course on small group learning. Prepare and present to the group of tutors.	CECS Educational Development Group	3 hours	Day 1	Day 1
Administer the course website.	Read “Introduction to Wattle" (Web Access To Teaching & Learning Environments) Attend “Wattle Course Setup”  Attend ANU “Alliance” workshop.	ANU Library and Central Wattle Training	3.5 Hours	Day 2	Day 2
Maintain student records for the course.	Attend “Student Admin System Training Session"	ANU Division of Registrar & Student Services	3 Hours	Day 3	Day 3
Undertake assessment of assignments	Read “Assessment and examinations” section of ANU website Listen to “Tutors Again” podcast and undertake the exercises Undertake “Assess competence” from the Australian Flexible Learning Toolbox Coaching by experienced tutor.	ANU Academic Skills & Learning Centre	3 Hours	3 Hours	Day 4

Implications for the workplace: Face-to-face workshops may take months to schedule and so would be better if this was organized the semester before the tutor is to start work.

Assessment methods: Student to keep a journal using ANU Mahara e-portfolio system to document learning. Experienced tutor to provide feedback on this.

Support needs: Student will need to be paid 12.5 hours for the training. Experienced tutor will need to be paid to undertake the coaching (3 hours).