Exploring the professional development of online and distance doctoral supervisors

ABSTRACT

The supervision of doctoral students has been evolving in the last decade. Supervisors supervise students on campus or at a distance and supervision takes place in formal or informal environments with the latter occurring more often through online encounters. This context of supervision has changed supervisory practices and students’ own approaches to learning. This paradigmatic shift demands a rethinking of how supervisors develop themselves and how they learn to cope with the challenges of ‘modern’ supervision. To date, little has been said or written about the development or training of doctoral supervisors who supervise students online or at a distance. This paper aims to fill this gap by presenting a model for the professional development of supervisors in these contexts. This model can be adapted and implemented by institutions that wish to support supervisors who support students online or at the distance.

KEYWORDS:

• Doctoral supervision
• distance and online supervision
• professional development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Isabel Huet

Dr Isabel Huet is an Associate Professor at the University of West London, UK. She has been doing research in the areas of Doctoral Supervision, Pedagogy and Adult Learning. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6215-0448

Diogo Casanova

Dr Diogo Casanova is an Associate Professor at the University of West London. His research addresses issues related to the quality and design of online and blended learning courses and environments. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8586-0370