PhD course feedback by Outi Hakola

2024-11-28 12:44:17 UTC

I liked pre-assignments: they oriented me to the topic but were not too demanding in how much time was required.

2024-11-28 12:45:20 UTC

The group discussions where great and helped in keeping the focus throughout the long lecture days

Working together in samalle groups

2024-11-28 12:45:26 UTC

Getting to exchange ideas with others was really helpful. Both contentwise and motivationwise.

What I liked

2024-11-28 12:45:27 UTC

Flexible schedule and attendance, diverse tasks whether they were pre-assignments or discussions with the group, all the group discussions with other students

2024-11-28 12:45:44 UTC

The group discussions provided a great opportunity to elaborate on the topic, to bring out questions/doubts and to learn from others.

2024-11-28 12:46:04 UTC

I think the seminar days were well balanced, good amounts of lectures, group discussions and breaks.

Feedback

2024-11-28 12:46:20 UTC

Thank you for interesting course! Everything was planned very good; it was easy to understand how much time do you need to finish the course. I learned a lot and get new inspiration.

Course feedback

2024-11-28 12:46:31 UTC

I really liked this course and got to learn a lot from it. The way the course meetings were structure made them enjoyable: it was great to have the lectures (which were very informative), and have group discussions where we could talk about how we relate with our own research, our background and research goals. Many examples were provided and learning was fun!

Thank you

2024-11-28 12:46:56 UTC

This has been a very useful and well made course, thank you! I enjoyed all the pre-assignments, lectures and group discussions. Great interactive learning during the long webinars!

2024-11-28 12:47:02 UTC

I liked diverse teaching methods

I got a lot to think about about the role of the researcher in qualitative research --> New perspectives.

Group discussions were nice!

2024-11-28 12:47:25 UTC

I liked the pre- assigments and the also the optional reading lists. All meetings have been useful. For me it has been very useful to start my PhD studies with this course, refreshing my methodological thinking. The video-essay first caused some anxiety but I guess I will manage that well enough.

2024-11-28 12:47:26 UTC

It's an amazing course. I learned so many things. Pre-assignments helped me to associate more with the course. Also, the group discussion has helped me engage more and gather great experiences. Thank you so much for organizing the course this way.

2024-11-28 12:47:33 UTC

The morning session in the last day was highly relevant (the role of social interaction and emotions in qualitative research)! It also gave content to much that was discussed in earlier sessions.

2024-11-28 12:47:35 UTC

I really like the dynamic of discussing topics in a group. It allows you to have a space to specifically discuss our research and receive knowledge from people from different areas.

I would really like to have more time, because there are so many methodologies that of course there is not enough time to cover everything, but I appreciate that you share extra materials to read.

I also like that you do not only focus on traditional areas, and that you bring ways of seeing qualitative research that are not so common and that open the mind to consider how we can improve as researchers.

Very well-organized!

2024-11-28 12:47:40 UTC

The structure and organization were carefully thought and prepared!

2024-11-28 12:47:47 UTC

Thank you! Every lesson was well-planned and varied, I liked!

Great course!

2024-11-28 12:47:54 UTC

I've taken this course to learn new things, find new tools, get answers to my questions, get out of my comfort zone, and not fall asleep during the course. I've got much more than I expected. Good job!

2024-11-28 12:48:24 UTC

I learned so much about qualitative research! This course has also strenghtened my feeling that I am in the right place and on the right path doing qualitative research in my PhD. Also liked the atmosphere and the feeling of mutual respect. Seminar days were nicely balanced, and it was nice to be able to get to know other students a bit. Thank you so much for this course!

Course content and lecture structure

2024-11-28 12:48:44 UTC

Choosing what to include in just four seminar days is not easy, but all of the course content was useful and connected - forming a meaningful whole. Also having the content divided into digestable bits of lectures followed-up with the discussions helped going through the process. Thank you for one of the best courses I've participated in!

Feedback

2024-11-28 12:48:47 UTC

I really appreciated the overall course planning, which struck a great balance with appropriate breaks and a manageable workload. The pre-assignments were particularly helpful in preparing me for the sessions, and the group discussions truly felt like the heart of the course.

One suggestion for further improvement could be to make the course even more interactive by encouraging more two-way interaction and asking participants to keep their cameras on during sessions. I’ve experienced this approach in another course, and it significantly improved attentiveness and engagement throughout the sessions. Thank you for such a well-structured and insightful learning experience!

2024-11-28 12:48:53 UTC

This course really challenges your own learning, which is great!

2024-11-28 12:49:54 UTC

The course was able to increase understanding of a particularly difficult aspect of qualitative research methods, the relationship between "theory" and "methodology". For example, the lecture "Thinking with theory" in particular was very enlightening and greatly increased my own understanding of qualitative methods. As a small bonus, it would perhaps be nice to get more tips on particularly good or "classical" studies where qualitative methods have been used in innovative ways, or which serve as "best examples" (in the lecturer's opinion) of certain methodologies, as I believe that reading and studying other studies also helps to open up more of the topics covered in the lectures.

2024-11-28 12:50:04 UTC

I found the discussion on epistemological and ontological foundations bit distracting as these claims are generally quite controversial. But I realize that these are referred in the literature on qualitative methods so its important to mention them, I guess.

Time

2024-11-28 12:50:19 UTC

I would also like to echo what someone has said that we could have had more time.

2024-11-28 12:51:08 UTC

The short session on AI tools was also very useful (and also discussions on the problems of using them).

Thank you for providing examples

2024-11-28 12:53:44 UTC

You provided examples from your personal experiences and it helped understand practical challenges and lessons which we can benefit from! :)

2024-11-28 12:55:02 UTC

I think this course was interesting and I learn a lot. Many thanks!