GS505

Title Graduate Research Skills

5 ECTS

Module description

This module aims to enable students to develop and acquire a range of generic and discipline specific research skills and methodological expertise and to gain an understanding of their practical application to the research process in order to successfully complete postgraduate research.

Students are required to attend a ‘Getting Started on Your PhD’ workshop - this half-day workshop to be provided by the student’s School. Students are expected to undertake independent research activities and to develop their research skills, aided by their research supervisor and other research team members. Students may avail of a suite of online training materials to augment this research skills training (detailed in Resources section). Student’s research activities must be recorded in a properly notarised notebook and reported on regularly to their supervisor and Graduate Research Committee. Reports should also include future research strategies and refer to the further research expertise to be developed. Students are also required to present their research (by oral and/or poster presentation) to a peer audience in their discipline, School or College.

Learning outcomes

1. Demonstrate the ability to identify, critically evaluate and access the requisite specialised skills, technical training, and specialised diagnostic or other equipment required to carry out their research project.
2. Maintain a notarised notebook as a record of their original contributions to research.
3. Write regular comprehensive reports of their research activities.
4. Plan detailed strategies for the succeeding phases of the research.
5. Communicate their research findings to a local audience by oral or poster presentation.

Module resources/ Any other resources: Epigeum Ethics 1: Good Research Practice, Epigeum Ethic 2: Working with Human Subjects (if relevant), Epigeum Research Methods in the Arts and Humanities OR in the Social Sciences OR in the Sciences, Epigeum Research Methods in Literature Review, Epigeum Managing your Research Project, Epigeum Working with your Supervisor, Epigeum Conferences, Presenting & Networking, Epigeum Research Integrity Biomedical Sciences/Natural and Physical Sciences/Engineering and Technology/Behavioural Sciences/ Arts and Humanities (as appropriate)

Common Content for all supervisor-owned GS modules:

Teaching period all year

Module description The student should only register for this module in the academic year that they intend to complete the module.

Module content & assessment

Indicative content Completion of this module may require the student to attend workshops or seminars, complete training (including online training), maintain a reflective journal recording the student’s experience of their learning and/or completion of specific tasks or assessments. The content will be designed by the student’s supervisor so as to ensure that the student can achieve the module’s learning outcomes and that the supervisor can assess that the learning outcomes have been met by the student.

Department-based assessment

The research student’s supervisor is responsible for ensuring that the student has achieved the learning outcomes for this module and for recording this result in the student record system.

The supervisor will gather and retain written evidence that the student t has achieved the module’s learning outcomes. Each piece of evidence may only be used to demonstrate that the learning outcomes have been achieved for a specific module, i.e. no double-counting of learning achieved.

Results to be recorded on a Pass/Fail basis, with a Pass mark of 40%.

Each student may only receive credit for this module once.

Workload type/Independent & Directed Learning (non-contact)/

all learning and assessment activities/ all learning outcomes/100-125 hours for 5 ECTS

Any other resources: Online training materials are available on Blackboard 1GST1 in the Research Skills Training folder and in some cases the relevant GS module on Blackboard. Such resources include those from Epigeum.