Enhancing skills of academic researchers: The development of a participatory threefold peer learning model

ABSTRACT

In this article, we introduce a threefold peer learning model developed during the design and implementation of an innovative researcher-led digital skills training programme for early career researchers. The programme brought together researchers from three UK universities and facilitated the personal and professional development of: (1) the researchers who organised the programme; (2) the researchers who designed and delivered content; (3) the researchers who attended and participated in the digital skills workshops. This article outlines and reflects on its participatory approach to collaborative learning, which responded to the changing needs of UK higher education researchers who increasingly find themselves in interdisciplinary and digitally mediated research contexts. Finally, we propose the transferability of the approach to other fields of knowledge, student/staff learning and professional development.

KEYWORDS:

• Early career researchers (ECRs)
• peer learning
• communities of practice
• higher education institutions
• staff development

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all trainers and attendees who contributed to Design and the Digital World. Special thanks to our co-organisers, Sarah Martindale (University of Nottingham) and Martin Sterry (University of Leicester), and those who supported the scheme at Loughborough University and Vitae. This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant number AH/L010844/1].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Evidencing this, the three authors have successfully made the next career step since the project ended – two are now lecturers, the other a senior research associate.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [AH/L010844/1].

Notes on contributors

Sarah Barnard

Sarah Barnard is Lecturer in Sociology of Contemporary Work in the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University. Sarah’s fields of research include organisations, gender, higher education, sociology of science, engineering and technology and communications. She is currently Principal Investigator for three research projects: a longitudinal study of women in higher education institutions, a project on LGBT workers in the construction sector and ‘Communities of Practice for Accelerating Gender Equality and Institutional Change in Research and Innovation across Europe’.

Becky Mallaband

Becky Mallaband is a lecturer in Product Design in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University. Her research focuses on User Centred Design (UCD), particularly within the domestic energy domain. She is particularly interested in how a UCD approach can be used within interdisciplinary research and how it can add value to the engineering design process of energy saving technologies. She has worked on multidisciplinary projects with other academic institutes, commercial and industrial partners, including the RCUK/E.ON funded project CALEBRE (Consumer Appealing Low Energy Building Retrofitting) and the EPSRC DEFACTO project (Digital Energy Feedback and Control Technology Optimisation).

Kerstin Leder Mackley

Kerstin Leder Mackley is a Senior Research Associate at the UCL Knowledge Lab, currently exploring the social meanings and significance of digital touch technologies and their impact on communication (in-touch-digital.com). Her research interests include the sensory and visual ethnographic exploration of (digital) media in people’s lives. She has 10 years of postdoctoral research experience across three higher education institutions, having previously contributed to interdisciplinary projects at the School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, the Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, and the Loughborough Design School.