PebblePad: The research student perspective

1. PebblePad:The research student perspective Lucy Cave l.m.cave@aston.ac.uk

2. My use of PebblePad • Part-time PhD in Pedagogical Research and full-time job as a Research Executive at Aston University • Self-taught and independent use of PebblePad • PebblePad is a helpful tool for recording my thoughts, reflections and research notes • PebblePad serves as a repository for useful links in my research area

3. 62 assets

4. Stage one: initial use of PebblePad • Reflective journal – used as and when I could find the time, provides a chronology of my thoughts for the PhD

5. Stage two: recording meetings, events and recording research notes • Used as a medium for recording my notes and action points from supervisory meetings • References and research notes noted, used in combination with EndNote

6. Stage three: aggregating my assets • Creating a blog to document the process of developing the PhD research design

7. Stage four: uploading and sharing documents • Useful for documenting feedback from supervisory team

8. The benefits of sharing assets • Feedback – two supervisors will often have different opinions, therefore PebblePad provides a dialogue and summary of their comments • Time between supervisions is used effectively • Interim meetings are not always possible, but both supervisors can be involved through PebblePad comments facility

9. Visual representation of research activity • Stand alone ‘thoughts’ need to be tied together to form a webfolio • Research-intensive months over the summer, due to reduced activity in the University (‘day job’)

10. Overall benefits and limitations • Particularly useful when working remotely • Easy to ‘dip in and out’ as a part-time student • Serves as a repository for my research notes and useful links • Provides a chronology of my thought processes and development of the research • Ideal for sharing my work with a team of supervisors • Reduces paperwork • Concerns over security • Need to have access to the internet