PebblePad: The research student perspective Lucy Cave

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

62 assets

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

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

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

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

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

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’)

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