Doctoral Consortium

The CSCL 2015 Doctoral Consortium Workshop, designed to support the growth of young talents in the field of CSCL, provides an opportunity for advanced Ph.D. students to share their dissertation research with their peers and a panel of faculty serving as mentors. Participants will engage in collaborative inquiry and scholarly discourse to improve their dissertation work and to advance their understanding of CSCL and the Learning Sciences. To benefit from the Doctoral Consortium Workshop, applicants should be advanced graduate students, and be at a stage in their dissertation research where the participants and mentors may be of help in shaping and framing the research and analysis activities.

Date: June 7-8, 2015
Location: A1 334

Day 1, Sunday

08:30-08:45	Welcome and overview of the workshop by organizers
08:45–09:15	Whole group firehose session: Participants and mentors introduce themselves and their research in 60 seconds each
09:15–10:00	Poster Groups I: Participants will be broken into 3-4 small groups, each lead by a mentor. Each participant has at least 45 minutes for his/her work.
10:00–10:30	Coffee Break; Informal social networking
10:30–12:00	Poster Groups II (continued): Participants will be broken into 3-4 small groups, each lead by a mentor. Each participant has at least 45 minutes for his/her work
12.00–13.00	Lunch
13:00–15:00	Poster Groups III (continued): Participants will be broken into 3-4 small groups, each lead by a mentor. Each participant has at least 45 minutes for his/her work. **if time permits, participants will discuss areas of collaboration/networking among participants (e.g., joint symposia; method task force)
15:00 – 15:30	Coffee Break; Informal social networking
15:30– 17:00	Career path discussion: Career development (e.g., academic vs. non-academic career)
17:00 – 22:00	Social Event with Early Career (EC) participants

Day 2, Monday

08:30-10:00	Panel discussion I: Publishing. Presentation and discussion with editors. A joint session with EC.
10:00–10:30	Coffee Break; Informal social networking
10:30–11:30	Panel discussion II: Job search/applications, job talks, Interviews, etc. (Panel discussion with mentors and organizers)
11:30–12:00	Wrap-up session

Objectives and Design

The Doctoral Consortium Workshop aims to

• provide an opportunity for participants to reflect on their dissertation research and to identify problems/issues for further discussion and inquiry;
• provide a setting for participants to contribute ideas as well as to receive feedback and guidance on their current research;
• provide a forum for discussing theoretical and methodological issues of central importance to CSCL and the Learning Sciences.
• develop a network of supportive scholars in CSCL across countries and continents;
• collaborate and draw upon literature across countries and institutions;
• contribute to the conference experience of participating students through interaction with other participants, mentors and organizers; and
• support young researchers in their effort to enter the Learning Sciences research community.
  

The Doctoral Consortium Workshop will last for 1.5 days scheduled during the pre-conference events – from the morning of June 7th to lunch June 8th. The design of the workshop will include these principles and activities: Doctoral Consortium Workshop activities are organized around small-group interactions. During the workshop, participants will first present their research briefly to familiarize each other with their dissertation project and highlight specific aspects they would like to have further discussion on or receiving input on how to approach them; intriguing issues and tensions for CSCL research generally; methodological problems that other Ph.D. students are likely to be confronted with, or issues that have the potential of stimulating discussions of theoretical and methodological significance. Then, based on the common issues and themes identified (theoretical models, research design and questions, pedagogy and technology, data collection, methods of analysis etc.) participants will form small groups supported by an expert mentor, to engage in further inquiry and discussion. Participants will work on the various problems and issues identified making reference to their own dissertation project and the broader field of CSCL and the Learning Sciences. After the small group interactions, participants will report their progress and new questions to the whole group. Plans for further joint activity will be discussed as well.

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  If you have any questions, please contact the Doctoral Consortium chairs: Cindy Hmelo-Silver, Erno Lehtinen and Heisawn Jeong at dc2015cscl@gmail.com

The call for CSCL 2015 Doctoral Consortium Workshop can be downloaded as a pdf.