Taking a Closer Look at GradHacker

Kathleen Moore is a PhD candidate in Higher Education at the University of Toronto. You can follow her on Twitter @kathleenmoore_ where she tweets about graduate education, mental health, and disability.

 

 

When I saw the call for GradHacker authors in December, it took days to think about what I could pitch as my first blog post. I wanted to come up with something unique. While reviewing previous posts,  it came to me: If I’m looking at all these posts, why don’t I write a post about the GradHacker blog? This way, I could ask readers what they want GradHackers to write about.

 

In this piece I first review the number of posts and comments in order to take stock of the activity on the blog. I then provide a summary of the main themes (based on titles and brief descriptions) that I identified from the 2016 posts, and ask readers to comment on what topics they would like to see on the blog. Finally, I provide a reflection on what I learned from doing this process.  

 

Number of Blog Posts and Comments

I first wanted to see what kind of activity has been taking place on the blog. In 2016, 109 blog posts were shared. The number of posts in each month ranged from 7-13 (Kudos to the GradHacker team!). In terms of discussion, readers provided 388 comments. The most frequently discussed posts included:

    -“Being Elite without Becoming Elitist” by DeWitt Scott    

    - “Resisting Elite Stereotypes” by Lindsay Oden       

    -“Surviving and Thriving During Quals” by Natasha Chtena  

I didn’t get to the part where I look at why the most frequently posts attracted the most discussion. But for now I’m interested in your thoughts. What topics are you most likely to discuss?

 

Themes

I can’t say that I did an in-depth analysis the way I originally intended to. But, I did do preliminary coding to identify what others wrote about and where the gaps were. I found three themes:

 

a. Productivity. This area was the most frequently discussed, and these posts mostly focused on how to get things done. Of course, many of these posts looked at writing productivity, which we know is an issue a lot of us deal with. Examples of articles in this area included: “Support your Writing Productivity and Leave Binge-writing Behind”, “Strategies to Maintain Focus while Writing your Dissertation” and “How to Write Like an Olympian.”

 

b. Technology. Many posts related to productivity also had to do with technology. Posts that jointly discussed productivity and technology included for example, “An Audiophile’s Guide to Efficiency” and “7 Apps for a Productive and Balanced Summer.” Others focused on how to get organized: “Organize your Computer with Help from an Archivist” and “How to Hit Inbox Zero.”

 

c. Teaching. Several posts focusing on technology also involved teaching. Examples of these include: “Software for Adding Some Digital to your Classroom”, “Teaching Selfies”, and “Build more Collaboration into your Online Class.”

 

I also identified finances (e.g., here and here), the dissertation (e.g., here and here), and self-care/burnout (e.g., here and here) as additional key themes.

 

What I Learned from Doing this Task

 

1. Looking at the gaps. It was interesting to see the main themes and to begin identifying the gaps. There were only a few posts for other identified categories including: comprehensive exams, taking time off from the Ph.D., the political climate, specific groups of students (students with disabilities, minority students), completing service components, interviews, attending conferences, parenting, supervision, and topics related to post-Ph.D life.

 

So, what surprises you (the readers), and what’s missing? For example, I was surprised that so few posts focused specifically on degree supervision. In fact, I only identified one post, which talks about choosing the right advisor. As I’ve read about the graduate student experience, I consistently read about how critical the supervisor is, so this might be an area we could address further. Another topic was service, which includes getting involved in additional activities that indicate a commitment to the field (e.g., volunteering on committees; volunteering at conferences). Service has been a crucial component of my experience so I was surprised there wasn’t more discussion on this. Though not as important as publishing, I think service has great benefits to enhancing your student experience. Again, maybe another area that GradHackers could address.

 

I invite you, as the readers, to consider these themes and leave a comment responding to these questions: What issues are graduate students facing that need more attention on the blog? What topics do you want to see us discuss?

 

2. Is it possible to take off your researcher hat?

This idea to review the GradHacker blog came from my desire as a researcher to look at the existing blog posts to come up with something unique. Throughout my graduate programs, I have been trained to look at the existing literature and what data already exists. Without this training, I likely wouldn’t have come up with the idea.

 

The notion that I was using my research skills without recognizing it made me wonder about whether the ‘researcher hat’ that graduate students wear is something that can be taken off. Do students look at everyday situations with this frame of mind? I know now that I do; last night I returned a shopping cart to its rightful place and thought “I wonder if there is research about how far people will walk to return their cart? How would they collect data on that?” (By the way, in case you are looking for a dissertation topic, it doesn’t look like anyone is researching this niche).

 

So, I’m curious to hear what readers think about this. Does the researcher hat shape how we look at the world outside our program? If so, what are the implications of this?

 

3. Do ALL the projects! On second thought….maybe not.

My original idea was to do an analysis of the entire of GradHacker blog. Once I looked at writing from other authors I couldn’t help but develop this plan for a new “project.” I would collect ALL of the blog posts, dating back to 2011 when GradHacker started. I devised a plan to do an in depth-analysis of not only the titles, but also the content of these posts.

 

I ran with this new project idea. I mean, who cares if it was only a pitch for one blog post, surely I could do all this work for this amazing piece. But, looking back now, I didn’t assess how long this task would take. I was distracted by this exciting new shiny idea I had come up with. This is something that graduate students often do, and I believe a lot of students end up over-committing because of this.

 

My point here is not that graduate students shouldn’t take on new projects; It is that being realistic about your goals and strategic about what you commit to is important. I recommend considering how big the task is, how long it will take, and ultimately, and how it advances your long-term goals, before pursuing exciting new things. What strategies do you use to be realistic about how long a project will take? How do you not get diverted to all the new shiny project you want to do?

 

[Image by Flickr user Eddi and used under Creative Commons licensing.]