I'm starting with showcasing the university run courses I followed and completed during my early career stage as an independent researcher, to upskill and to continue my professional researcher development while I was writing and presenting my research papers and authoring my scholarly books.
They are not necessarily listed in chronological order below, but these were all studied and completed after graduating in 2013 up to the end of 2019.
This course below was run and taught by the University of Southampton and was a 3 week course I undertook and completed in 2016 titled 'Developing Your Research Project'. It was aimed at both postgraduate students as well as academics, including lecturers/supervisors.
The course description says that it "provides you with the opportunity to be part of a much wider community of researchers" and it covers all aspects of a research project, from writing a proposal, research methodology, to undertaking the research process, writing up your research and presenting it when you give talks, for instance, at academic conferences.
As with all these courses, you have an opportunity to engage with the course tutors/leaders/mentors and other researchers studying the course in the learning community comments section. The course mentors are amazing and always on hand to discuss, teach and inform the researchers taking this course and have a wonderfully inclusive, encouraging and supportive attitude towards everyone.
Here's a few examples of me interacting with other researchers and the course mentors in the community (I've removed the mentor's name and profile picture to maintain their privacy)
The same month in 2016, I was was also studying and completing this Academic Integrity course too:
I also studied and completed researcher development training courses that covered related aspects of honing my research practice and my overall research process, which developed my professional skills as an Independent Researcher in: planning research; conducting research ethically within various disciplines; the research writing process; assessing data in the media including how to spot fake news so you do not inadvertently include it in your research and do not draw upon it when substantiating and supporting your academic arguments.
As you can see in my screenshots above of the course progress info, 90% or more signifies that you have completed the course and are usually eligible for the course certificate. The same is true for the courses below: over 90% was the maximum percentage the course I was required to do, as the remaining steps were not academically relevant (this can include eg advertisements for other related courses, course feedback sections etc).
So a score of over 90% course completion and achievement means that I completed 100% of all the modules and steps I needed to study in order to complete the course.
A score of over 90% also means I met the requirements to be eligible for the course certificate.
The exception to this was when, for instance, that particular course was structured such that you had to pay to unlock a separate test/exam before being eligible for the certificate. In these cases, I completed the maximum percentage available for course completion instead, hence you will see that for those, I completed over 80% of the steps in the course. However, this did not affect accessing, following and learning all of the course materials nor did it impact on training and course completion.
Course title: Research Writing
Course run by: University of Wollongong
Course title: Why Planning Your Research Matters
Course run by: Deakin University
Course title: Why Ethics Matters
Course description: 'Explore the role ethics plays in research and why it matters'
Course run by: Griffith University
Course title: Making Sense of Data in the Media
Course description: 'Learn what numbers reveal, when and why they mislead, and how to spot fake news'
Course run by: University of Sheffield
Course title: Learning Online: Searching and Researching
Course description: 'Improve your online research skills and your ability to critically analyse sources of information'
Course run by: University of Leeds
I also developed my professional research methodology knowledge and skills in additional fields to Philosophy, such as in the Social Sciences and Psychology:
Course title: Transparent and Open Social Science Research
Course description: 'Explore the drivers of the social science credibility crisis and learn tools to make your own work more open and reproducible'.
Course run by: University of California, Berkeley
For this course, I met the course certificate eligibility requirements on completing 85% of the steps because this did not leave out any steps that were academically required.
Course title: Research Methods in Psychology: Using Animal Models to Understand Human Behaviour
Course run by: University of Padova
Course description: 'Learn how to use quantitative research to make difficult decisions and solve real-world problems'
Course run by: Deakin University
I also completed a course specifically on Copyright, the only one listed in this blog post that was run by a professional body as opposed to a university. I've included it anyway because this copyright course is most closely related to my other courses developing my research practice and process:
Course title: Exploring Copyright
Course run by: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC)
Broadening out a little, I also completed courses that explore related aspects of my life as an Independent Researcher and academic that are interwoven with my research practice, approach and process:
Course title: Research Impact: Making a Difference
Course run by: University of Glasgow
Course title: Dangerous Questions: Why Academic Freedom Matters
Course description: 'Explore the meaning of academic freedom and how it relates to core higher education and societal values'
Course run by: University of Oslo
As you can see below, I met the requirements to be eligible for a certificate for this course on Academic Freedom.
Course title: Career Management for Early Career Academic Researchers
Course run by: The University of Glasgow
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