Australia’s first ‘digital doctorate’ takes a giant step forward

Inspire Release 3 will be live on the Monday December 17th.

Early in 2018, the Office of Graduate Research (OGR) met with Digital Research Services (DRS) to re-imagine how  Flinders  could best support HDR students to most efficiently  achieve  the endpoint of their  candidature, the  final thesis.

In three years of study and research, a lot needs to be coordinated. A student must select a supervisor, develop a research proposal, provide a plan, follow the plan, obtain required training to develop skills for their future careers, undertake the research, submit publications, meet review deadlines, and publish their final thesis. The student, their supervisor and HDR coordinator need to communicate throughout to manage expectations and tasks.

This administrative whirlpool can be difficult to coordinate. That is why in 2018 OGR and DRS introduced a new system to manage the  entire HDR lifecycle.

Inspire  is  Australia’s first ‘digital doctorate’, the one place where HDR students, supervisors, and others can see what is happening and what needs to be done to ensure HDR student success.

Inspire Release 1 enabled students to analyse and develop the skills they need, using the world-leading  Research and Employability Skills Training (REST)  framework.

Inspire Release 2  made it easier for students to modify their HDR candidature, by providing online forms and step-by-step workflows. A dashboard provided students, supervisors, and coordinators with a shared view of actions arising from these workflows.

In  Inspire Release 3, we’re taking a giant leap forward, by enabling HDR student milestones to be monitored:

    • Confirmation of Candidature
    • Mid-Candidature Review
    • Final Thesis Review

This will make it much easier for a student and their supervisor to track progression on the way to the final thesis. A dashboard view with key deadlines will be provided in early 2019 to present this information clearly and simply.

With Inspire Release 3, it will be easier for students to  achieve timely completion. Students and supervisors will know what’s needed every step along the  way and  will be notified of any actions they’ll need to take.

We thank all HDR students and supervisors for their patience during the transition phase from  RHD Research Excellence  to  Inspire  for the submission of Milestones. The OGR will be in touch with you soon regarding Milestones that are due.

To help you, in January / February 2019 you can get  hands-on training and support from OGR. See the  Inspire Release 3 webpage  for the training schedule and quick reference guides for all participants.

If you have any questions, contact the  Digital Research Services Team.

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