Supervisors Cannot Bear the Sole Burden for Effective Graduate Education

Recently, Sharon, Sandra and I were excited to see our first article published from a research project focused on understanding Online Doctoral Supervision: 

Jacobsen, M., Friesen, S., & Becker, S. (2021). Online supervision in a professional doctorate in education: Cultivating relational trust within learning alliances. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 58(6), 635-646. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2021.1991425 (Q1 Education Journal)

Inspired by a great presentation by Dr. Brockway, Nursing, on the value of tweetorials to increase awareness of one's work, I tried my hand at writing one in 18 parts (see below): https://twitter.com/dmichelej/status/1488651595889856513

Dr. Kay Guccione, an amazing colleague I have come to know through IDERN, saw the tweetorial, and invited us to write this blog post: 

      Jacobsen, M., Friesen, S., & Becker, S. (2022, February). Trust grows when supervisors take the lead in online supervision. Guest post on Dr. Kay Guccione’s Supervising PhDs Blog. https://supervisingphds.wordpress.com/2022/02/23/trust-grows-when-supervisors-take-the-lead-in-online-supervision/

The three of us have drafted a book chapter from this research for a book (in review) and look forward to sharing it soon. 

Our Tweetorial in 18 Parts

Online supervision in a professional doctorate in education: Cultivating relational trust within learning alliances, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, DOI:10.1080/14703297.2021.1891425
@sfriesen @sandralynnbeck a #tweetorial

The rapid and widespread pivot to online teaching and supervision in the pandemic created a pressing need to improve understanding of effective online supervisory relationships 2/18

@dmichelej @sfriesen @sandralynnbeck’s case study yielded five enabling factors for effective online supervisory relationships 1) Establish trust early in relationship 2) Engage intentionally in mentorship and scaffolding 3/18

3) Provide multiple levels and layers of support 4) Give timely formative feedback 5) Cultivate a collaborative community of support for doctoral student writing 4/18

Establishing a trusting relationship early, and then cultivating ongoing relational trust throughout the supervisory relationship, is essential for student progress, success & satisfaction 5/18

Effective supervisors establish regular meeting times with their doctoral students and organise deadlines for milestones early in the program 6/18

Effective online doctoral supervisors engage in student focused, responsive and tailored mentoring that evolves and changes year by year 7/18

Supervisors & programs need to understand and leverage the academic and social support provided by peer relationships in doctoral cohorts 8/18

Regular, timely and purposeful communication along with multiple rounds of productive feedback using a range of technologies is necessary for effective online supervisory relationships 9/18

Supervisors emphasize mentoring doctoral students as they develop disciplinary knowledge and engage in different forms of scholarly writing is a community experience rather than an individual endeavour 10/18

Supervisors emphasize the value of the supervisory committee in supporting students to work through multiple drafts of the research proposal, chapters in the dissertation, and to bring diverse perspectives to research-based learning 11/18

Doctoral graduates emphasised that trust and knowing their supervisor had their best interests at heart was key as they engaged in mentored academic writing 12/18

Student’s trust and knowledge their supervisor and committee supports their work & provides ongoing, formative feedback and sound advice through multiple drafts and continual review is key to their writing and research progress 13/18

The power asymmetry in supervisor-student relationships & student-program interactions means the supervisor must lead and initiate actions to reduce students’ sense and experiences of vulnerability in the relationship and in the program 14/18

Institutions and programs must understand that “supervisors cannot bear the sole burden for effective graduate education” (p. 10) 15/18

Institutions must ensure doctoral program designs and technological infrastructure provides fertile ground for students & professors to develop effective online supervisory relationships 16/18

Universities must provide access to online faculty development for professors to build capacity, join networks of support and create learning alliances across disciplines for effective supervision https://ucalgary.ca/graduate-supervision-mooc 17/18

@dmichelej @sfriesen @sandralynnbeck are grateful to the supervisors & doctoral graduates who shared their experiences and insights in our case study of Online doctoral supervision 18/18 fini DOI: 10.1080/14703297.2021.1891425