an introduction to the researcher development programme … · be introduced to the researcher...
TRANSCRIPT
An Introduction to The Researcher Development Programme
Using ‘Skills Forge’
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Support via e-mail
If you have any questions or comments about the Researcher Development Programme or Skills Forge please contact us at:
Any general Graduate School queries should be directed to:
Web links The Graduate School:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/graduate/school/
The Researcher Development Programme pages:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/graduate/school/training.html
The RDP Skills Forge:
http://training.kcl.ac.uk
Rachel Bullen, Graduate Training Unit, University of York Jonathan Carr, Department of Electronics, University of York
October 2007 (revised October 2008)
King’s College London version: Fiona Denney, Graduate School, KCL (October 2008)
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Contents:
Learning objectives .............................................................................................................. - 4 -
Conventions used in this workbook.................................................................................... - 4 -
1 Introduction.................................................................................................................... - 5 - 1.1 What is the Researcher Development Programme?................................................. - 5 - 1.2 Why have the RDP? ................................................................................................. - 5 - 1.3 What is ‘The Skills Forge’? ....................................................................................... - 5 -
2 Getting Started............................................................................................................... - 6 - 2.1 Loading up ‘Skills Forge’........................................................................................... - 6 - 2.2 Signing In.................................................................................................................. - 6 -
3 Finding Your Way around ‘The Skills Forge’............................................................... - 7 - 3.1 The Tabbed Menu .................................................................................................... - 7 - 3.2 Using Tabs................................................................................................................ - 7 - 3.3 Your PhD Timeline (to-do list) – For PhD Students .................................................. - 9 -
4 Your Training Needs Analysis (TNA) ..........................................................................- 10 - 4.1 Rating Your Skills ....................................................................................................- 10 -
4.1.1 Choosing which skills to work on ...........................................................................- 11 - 4.1.2 Rating how Confident and Competent you are: .....................................................- 12 - 4.1.3 View Your Skills Summary: ....................................................................................- 12 -
5 Development Activities ................................................................................................- 14 - 5.1 Find & Book Courses...............................................................................................- 14 -
5.1.1 Book a Course .......................................................................................................- 16 - 5.2 Adding Other Development Opportunities ...............................................................- 16 -
5.2.1 Adding My Own Activity .........................................................................................- 16 - 5.2.2 Viewing Your Development Summary ...................................................................- 16 -
6 The Diary tab .................................................................................................................- 18 - 6.1 Viewing your Calendar.............................................................................................- 18 - 6.2 Adding a Supervision meeting .................................................................................- 19 -
7 Final exercises – for revision! .....................................................................................- 20 -
Notes.....................................................................................................................................- 21 -
Learning objectives During this session you will:
be introduced to the Researcher Development Programme (RDP)
gain some practical experience of using ‘Skills Forge’ – including:
o Signing in to ‘Skills Forge’
o Finding your way around ‘Skills Forge’
o Starting Your Training Needs Analysis
o Finding & Booking Courses
o Recording a personal development activity
o Adding events to your calendar
Conventions used in this workbook The hand sign means you should follow the numbered steps to perform a task. They assume you are using an ISS-supported PC.
Note: Skills Forge can be accessed from any computer at King’s or elsewhere, if connected to the Internet.
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1 Introduction
1.1 What is the Researcher Development Programme?
The RDP is a co-ordinated programme of training and development opportunities for research students and research staff at King’s. It includes the process whereby researchers plan, monitor and reflect on their skills development. All researchers at King’s are expected to undertake appropriate transferable skills training and to reflect on the development of their skills.
1.2 Why have the RDP?
The RDP is the response by King’s to fulfil the College’s obligations under the national Roberts Agenda. This Agenda incorporates the requirements for the development of transferable skills from the Research Councils, the QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) and other funders of research. It is important to give researchers the opportunity to reflect on, monitor and develop their transferable skills for their personal, professional and career development and to help those doing a PhD to complete successfully on-time. To meet this requirement, King’s has developed the Researcher Development Programme which provides training and development opportunities for researchers across the College. In addition, identification of learning needs, personal development planning and workshop bookings are integrated in a tool called ‘Skills Forge’ .
1.3 What is ‘Skills Forge’?
Skills Forge is an interactive web-based system and it will help you develop your personal, professional and career management skills and approach to research.
This system was initially developed by the University of York and has been tailored to meet the requirements at King’s. Here are a few of the system’s key benefits: Using the system you can:
• analyse where you currently are with each skill area; • identify courses to help you develop these skill areas; • search for, book and manage training courses; • record and reflect on other development opportunities; • use the calendar function to help you plan your time.
2 Getting Started
2.1 Loading up ‘Skills Forge’
1. Log in to any PC with an Internet connection.
2. Double-click on the Internet Explorer icon (alternatively you can use a different web browser such as Firefox, if preferred).
3. In the Address bar type http://training.kcl.ac.uk and press Enter.
2.2 Signing In
1. Select King’s College London from the drop down list of organisations.
2. Enter your usual King’s username, e.g. abcd1234.
3. Enter your usual King’s password. If you change your password via the Computing Service Electronic Infodesk, your password also changes on Skills Forge.
4. Click the Sign In button that is located immediately below the password.
Once logged in you should see this welcome page
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3 Finding Your Way around ‘Skills Forge’
3.1 The Tabbed Menu The 'main menu' on The Skills Forge is represented by a row of tabs. The main tabs on the dark purple bar divide the website up into its main sections. These main tabs will always be visible no matter which screen you are in.
Main tabs
Active tab
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Active sub-tab Sub-tab
Within each main tab are sub-tabs that further divide the section into individual screens. These sub-tabs are on the light purple bar and will change depending on which of the main sections you are in.
3.2 Using Tabs
To get used to the tabs, just take a moment to click on the main tabs and their corresponding sub-tabs. When you are finished, click back on the Home tab.
Below is a quick summary of what you can find in each tab:
The ‘Home’ Tab
The Home tab gives you access to the following screens:
Welcome – gives 1 click access to the most commonly accessed parts of the system and also includes an Announcements box on the right hand side
My Details – details about your own Skills Forge account
These options could change depending on which School you are from – for example, Biomedical and Health Sciences students should also see a BHS tab.
The ‘My Supervisors’ tab This gives you access to details of your supervisor(s).
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The ‘Diary’ tab Calendar – You can add action points, meetings and notes/memos into your calendar.
Any courses you book through Skills Forge will also appear in your diary, as will any development opportunities you add. We’ll come back to the calendar later.
The PhD Timeline (To-do List) for PhD Students – This timeline is designed to guide you through the PhD process. Use this timeline as a guide to the sorts of things you should be thinking about at various stages throughout your PhD. Please be aware that there will be additional activities and obligations within your department/School that are not included on this list.
The PhD Time line has been broken down into things you might want to think about when you start you PhD, during your First year, Second year, Third year (or part-time equivalents) onwards and things that should be ongoing every year.
The ‘My Skills’ tab
Overview – This page includes an introduction to the Joint Skills Statement (JSS) and displays a summary of your skills development in the form of the JSS pie (more about the JSS in the next section)
PhD Research Skills – Here you can review your current research skills
Skills Summary – Having reviewed your current skills, the skills summary will indicate the areas you need to work on
The ‘Development Activities’ tab
Find & Book training courses – book on RDP courses (and some dept/School courses) here. We are planning on expanding the information on dept/School courses over time.
Record other development opportunities – such as dept/School courses if not in Skills Forge, Grad schools, courses from Information Services and Systems (ISS), the King’s Learning Institute (KLI) and Modern Languages Centre (MLC) etc.
My own activities – here you can record other activities, for example volunteering or paid employment, where you are developing your skills
Development Summary – View a summary of all of your training and development to include training courses you have booked on and attended as well as other development opportunities you have recorded
3.3 Your PhD Timeline (to-do list) – For PhD Students
You will see that Your PhD Timeline is broken down into:
On Arrival First Year Second Year Third Year onwards
Take some time to have a look at some of the suggestions of tasks and processed you might need to work through. The On Arrival section indicates that the first part of the development process you should engage with is your Training Needs Analysis. You should spend a few minutes on this as soon as you can. This is a process you should re-visit regularly. We’re going to look at how to do this next.
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4 Your Training Needs Analysis (TNA) The Skills tab contains a competency framework that was published by the UK Research Councils in collaboration with the HE sector. The framework is called the “Joint Skills Statement” (JSS).
The JSS identifies the competencies that a postgraduate researcher should have or develop during the course of their PhD degree programme, and is now embedded in the QAA Code of Practice. The JSS can help you to do your Training Needs Analysis (TNA).
The JSS covers seven sections, which you can access in the PhD Research Skills part of the Skills Tab:
The first stage of your TNA is to review where you currently are with all of these skills.
Each of these skill areas has a sub-heading which is accessed once you click on your chosen section.
For Research Staff: Although the JSS refers to competencies PhD students should develop, it is also a useful framework for identifying skills areas that all researchers need to develop. Training and development opportunities for Research Staff are therefore also categorised using the JSS headings but these workshops are intended to develop skills that are particularly focused on continuing professional development and career management and are tailored to suit the needs of staff rather than students.
4.1 Rating Your Skills
1. Select A) Research Skills and Techniques
2. Scroll down the page and you will see that Section A) is sub-divided into 6 sections
3. Hover over the [more…] after each sub-heading for a fuller explanation of each skill.
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Active section
Scroll down for sections A1 to A6
4.1.1 Choosing which skills to work on Against each skill area you have 3 options to select:
‘This isn't a skill I want to work on at the moment’ -
If you want to concentrate on one or a few skills at anyone time, you are free to leave the option ‘This isn't a skill I want to work on at the moment’ selected until this is a skill you wish to work on. This leaves the ‘pie’ blank.
‘Yes, it's work in progress’ -
If this is a skill you wish to work on, select this option – this activates the ‘pie’ so you can reflect on where you are with this skill.
‘I'm happy I have this ability’ –
If you already feel completely confident and competent in a particular skill, select this option. This makes the 4 segments of the ‘pie’ green.
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4.1.2 Rating how Confident and Competent you are: For each skill area you wish to work on, we want you to reflect on how confident and how competent you feel in that skill.
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1. Take a few minutes to rate your ability against statements A1 to A6. As you click on the segments of pie, you will see the verdict box change to reflect your rating.
2. Remember to save your changes by clicking on the save changes button:
There is also a comments box at the bottom of the page which you can use to record any private thoughts, reflection or actions.
Once you have rated your ability against all statements in Section A, you will also need to do this for Sections B-G. Please try and make time to do this as soon as you can – unfortunately we do not have time in this session. Once you have rated all statements your TNA is finished – it should only take you about 10-15 minutes.
4.1.3 View Your Skills Summary: As there are quite a few skills to keep track of, we thought you’d like to be able to view a summary to help you spot skills you would like to develop. The Skills Summary page is a sub-tab on the Skills tab.
1. Click on the Skills Summary sub-tab
2. View the list of Skills and the summary – this list should reflect the changes you just made in Section A)
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In this example I’ve chosen not to work on A1) and A2) yet and have started working on A3), A4) & A6). I am 100% happy with A5), and also B1), B2), B3), B4), B5), B6) & B7). This means I am 100% happy with Section B), but still need to work on Section A) I haven’t yet started work on Section C) Once you are 100% happy with all skills you are working on in a section, as per Section B) in this example, you are awarded a piece of JSS pie! Your pie can be viewed by clicking the overview tab of the Skills tab.
JSS Pie:
5 Development Activities
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1. Select the Development Activities tab and then the Find & Book Courses sub-tab
5.1 Find & Book Courses
Now you have identified some skill areas you would like to develop, Skills Forge can help you to search for courses which will help you to develop this skill.
You can do a search for courses that relate to any of the 7 JSS sections. So, in the previous example, I hadn’t started work on Section C) so I might want to search for courses under section C).
A list of search results will appear here:
Once you have found a course you are interested
in, click Details (see the next page for the
details of this course)
If you know what you are looking for, you can do a custom search (shown on the next page
Session summary Here you can view more information about the session to help you decide if it is appropriate for you to attend. Session Details This shows the date, times and venues for the session, the facilitator and any other public notes attached to this session.
Booking status This will show whether or not you have a place confirmed on this event and will give you a book or cancel option as appropriate.
Attendance Records Once the course has taken place and attendance records are processed you will see here whether or not you cancelled, failed to attend or attended this course and any associated points will be displayed here.
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5.1.1 Book a Course
1. Choose a course you wish to book and select click here to book a place on this event (You will see that the status of your booking has changed to place confirmed as below)
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2. If you do not really want to attend this course please remember to cancel before the end of this session. (Don’t cancel yet, we need to keep the booking for a later stage)
5.2 Adding Other Development Opportunities As well as courses you might take from the RDP, many other opportunities can count towards your skills development. For example, taking part in Grad Schools or attending courses run by ISS or courses taken in your own dept/School (if their courses are not already in Skills Forge) can be recorded here.
In order to add another training opportunity to your Skills Forge account:
1. Select the Other Training Opportunities sub-tab within the Development Activities tab
2. Click on the heading that is most appropriate to bring up the ‘Add Other Development Activity’ form.
3. Overwrite ‘A custom development activity’ in the Title with your own title.
4. Add comments in the comment boxes – for this exercise this can be a made up entry, we can delete it later.
5.2.1 Adding My Own Activity This is the same process as adding a development activity. The types of activities you might want to record are listed on the ‘My Own Activities’ Tab.
1. Select the My Own Activities sub-tab within the Development Activities tab and enter an activity (again for this exercise this can be a made up entry, we can delete it later).
5.2.2 Viewing Your Development Summary Any training courses you have booked on and any development activities you have added should appear in your development summary.
1. Select the Development Summary sub-tab within the Development Activities tab and view your development summary as below:
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The Development Summary shows all courses you have ever booked on, including ones you have cancelled or failed to attend in the Training and courses section at the top. At the bottom is the Other Development Activities section where you can view any other activities you have added into Skills Forge.
6 The Diary tab Within the Diary tab you will find the Calendar and several useful functions which link to your calendar.
6.1 Viewing your Calendar
1. Access your calendar by clicking on the Calendar sub-tab within the Diary tab.
2. Use the arrows to view different months in your calendar
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3. Hover over any course details in your calendar for more details or click in the course to link through to the full course details and an option to cancel
You should see that any training events you are due to attend, or any development opportunities you have added to your record will have appeared in your calendar:
You can also add Actions, Notes/Memos or Meetings into your calendar. Actions could be used for tasks you need to undertake in a specific timescale – such as completing a chapter, or reading a particular book – you can attach deadlines to action points.
1. Try adding an Action or Note / Memo by clicking on the appropriate link
You can also add meetings to your Skills Forge record. These can be informal meetings or more formal
meetings, such as your Supervision meetings. This gives you the facility to not only record when and where a meeting is going to happen but to reflect on it and record some notes afterwards.
6.2 Adding a Supervision meeting
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1. Click on the Meetings sub-tab within the Diary tab, and the link to Record a Supervision Meeting
This brings up a simple form where you can record the outcomes of the meetings you have with your supervisor. The system should know where you are in the process – for example it should remember the date of your last supervision meeting.
You should enter actions completed or still ongoing since the last supervision meeting, and future actions and agreed training. There is also a box for your comments. Later, your supervisor can also go in and record their comments. Don’t forget that your supervisor can see all of this form! Once you are happy with the form, you can sign it to lock the form.
To add your signature to the form, tick to sign the form, then click SAVE.
This is the equivalent of signing a form and handing it to your supervisor to counter-sign.
Your supervisor also needs to sign the form. They supervisor can read your comments, but they cannot edit them. However, they could edit or add to your action points. Once your supervisor has made any comments and signed the form, you need to sign it again in order to ‘lock’ it. Once you have both signed and agreed any changes to the form, the form becomes locked and cannot be edited:
7 Final exercises – for revision!
To test that you can navigate your way around ‘The Skills Forge’ have a go at the following exercises:
1. Add a test note/memo to your calendar
2. Delete a test note/memo from your calendar
3. Cancel the course you booked on earlier (unless you wish to attend it!)
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4. Delete the development activities you added earlier (unless genuine activities)
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Notes
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The Graduate School Researcher Development Programme:
Web: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/graduate/school/training.html
Tel: 020 7848 3931 e-mail: [email protected]
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