These slides have a companion video - telling the story of three doctoral students, each looking for support at different times in the doctoral journey. Using the slides to go with the video allows you to access the tools easily when you need them

1. DoctoralNet Case Studies -
Tools for the full Graduate
Journey

2. Special NOTE:
• You will want the slides for this presentation – available on
slideshare.net/doctoralnet/DN-Case-Studies-Tools-4-Journey
• These slides are designed as a bibliography of the tools available to
doctoral students, powered by DoctoralNet
• These slides include the urls needed to find the tools mentioned…
HOWEVER
• You must sign into the portal for your university (or main. If your
university does not have a subscription)
• Then add the end of the url for the tool you want after .com
• All additional urls start with /

3. Goal – to make PhD and Professional
Doctoral work easier
We never know what we don’t know –
we uncover it slowly – and sometimes
painfully
Goal for today, to use the experience of
those before you, so…
• That you know of and can easily find
the tools you need when you realize
you need them

4. Agenda: Case Studies of 3 Students
1. Getting Started
1. Plotting the doctoral journey – what is needed when
2. How to prepare for the end journey at the beginning
2. Progress Your Academic Writing
3. Improve Your Critical Thinking
4. Continual Development of Your Research
5. Have Data? Winning at the END GAME!
6. Work-Life Balance & Continuous Support

5. What makes the difference between
Masters & Undergrad?

6. What makes the difference between
Undergrad Masters & Doctoral levels?
• The ability to think critically…
• To read and comprehend
• To dissect and analyse
• To build arguments and critically look at the arguments of others
• The ability to write from that viewpoint…
• Knowledge of, and skill in, academic writing
• To develop your own ideas through writing
• To build arguments based on your analysis and built on the foundation of previous
literature
• Your own research
• Ability to build an argument
• Ability to design and execute research
• Advanced expertise in one area of your field
• Ability to defend your ideas in front of your peers

7. Getting Started
Emily’s Story

8. Emily has always been a
straight A student – she plans
ahead
She realizes as she starts her EdD
that:
• She doesn’t know enough about what is
entailed in a dissertation or thesis
• She is insecure about the quality of her
assignments
• She knows she will be expected to
demonstrate his ability to think critically
but she is not at all sure exactly
what that entails at the PhD level

9. She doesn’t know enough about what is entailed in a
dissertation or thesis
Check out Phase 1: Steps | 1.1 Getting mentally ready
/phase-1/1-1-getting-mentally-ready.html
1.1.1 Understanding the Dissertation/Thesis Process
/phase-1/1-1-getting-mentally-ready/understanding-of-the-phd-dissertation-thesis-process.html
1.1.2 Examples Downloaded and Analyzed
/phase-1/1-1-getting-mentally-ready/find-examples-of-dissertations-theses-to-download.html
On Demand…
Begin with the end in mind (for Doctoral)… (conducting a
critical analysis of others’ final work)
https://morgan.doctoralnet.com/begin-with-the-end-in-mind-for-doctoral.html
1
2

10. She is insecure about the quality of her
assignments
• First she reviews academic writing basics
• On Demand Video: Academic writing basics:
/academic-writing-basics.html
• Opt-In: 10 Day Writing Boost
https://resources.doctoralnet.com/optins/opt-in-10-day-academic-writing-
boost.html
• Opt-In: Friday academic writing emails
https://resources.doctoralnet.com/optins/opt-in-friday-academic-writing-
emails.html

11. She doesn’t stop just with basics…
She works upgrading her understanding of writing subtleties
• Upcoming Webinars:
https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/doctoralnet/conferences
• Boxed Set: Academic Writing – Tools and Concepts
• https://resources.doctoralnet.com/boxed-sets/academic-writing-tools-to-get-it-done.html
• On Demand Video: Academic writing subtleties /academic-writing-
subtleties.html
• On Demand video: Avoiding Unconscious Plagiarism
/avoiding-unconscious-plagiarism.html

12. She is not at all sure exactly
what critical thinking entails for PhDs
• As found through search…
• Exercises to Develop Critical Thinking Skills
/component/content/article/362-resources/skills-development/critical-thinking-critical-analysis/1270-exercises-to-develop-critical-
thinking-skills.html?Itemid=1594
• What ?... Critical Thinking?
/component/content/article/362-resources/skills-development/critical-thinking-critical-analysis/1090-what-critical-
thinking.html?Itemid=1594
• As part of the 30 day writing challenge…
• /component/content/article/362-resources/skills-development/critical-thinking-critical-analysis/1063-five-
minutes-on-courses-of-action-in-critical-analysis-day-20-of-the-30-day-challenge.html?Itemid=1594
• /component/content/article/362-resources/skills-development/critical-thinking-critical-analysis/1062-five-
minutes-on-what-is-critical-analysis-day-6-of-the-writing-challenge.html?Itemid=1594
• Boxed Set: Critical thinking, reading, writing, and analysis
• https://resources.doctoralnet.com/boxed-sets/critical-reading-thinking-writing-analysis.html
• On Demand Videos /my-account/video-on-demand.html
• Critical thinking : /critical-thinking.html
• Upcoming Webinars
• https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/doctoralnet/conferences
5

13. The Research Side of the
Doctoral Journey

14. 1. Building her design
2. Writing about her research
(proposal stage)
3. Data Collection and Analysis
4. Work-Life Balance
Jane’s Story - Steps to
Research Mastery while
being a Working Mom

15. She is happy to find a map through the entire
PhD process & an off campus community
• Phase 1 /phase-1.html
• Ongoing webinars:
• https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/doctoralnet/conf
erences

16. Building her design
• Phase 1 /phase-1.html
• /phase-1/1-3-bridging-topic-and-methods.html
• On Demand videos /my-account/video-on-demand.html
• /choosing-research-designs-methods.html
• Boxed Set
• https://resources.doctoralnet.com/boxed-sets/designing-
research.html
• Ongoing webinars:
• https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/doctoralnet/conferences
• Automations © or Self Assessments
• /self-asses-aspects-of-my-research-with-automations.html

17. Support During Her Data Collection and
Analysis Phases
• Phase 3 /phase-3.html
• /phase-3/3-1-data-collection.html
• /phase-3/3-2-data-analysis.html
• Ongoing webinars:
• https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/doctoralnet/conf
erences
3

18. 4 Working on her Work-Life Balance as
well
• Webinars at the start of each semester
• https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/doctoralnet/conferences
• Skills development showcase on control panel
• /my-account/my-control-panel/358-resources/skills-development/planning-and-time-
management/465-facing-down-the-doctoral-candidate-dragons.html
• OnDemand Video: /my-account/video-on-demand.html
• /work-life-balance-in-grad-school.html
• 30 Day work-life balance challenge
• https://resources.doctoralnet.com/optins/30-day-challenge-4-work-life-balance.html
• General Motivation
• On the app or your control panel – a showcase of support in motivational quotes
and also highlighted videos

19. Aaron is challenged by writing it all up and
getting published

20. Aaron understands his
research but is nervous
about writing it up
He feels confused about…
• What goes where in the final
document
• How to avoid redundancy &
develop his own voice
• He also wants to build his argument
& publish
his research

21. What goes where, building your argument
• Phases 2 & 3
• Read and Reread what is required for each chapter… 2.2, 2.3, 2.4,
2.5
• /phase-2/2-2-writing-methodology.html
• /phase-2/2-3-writing-phd-review-of-literature.html
• /phase-2/2-4-writing-intro-to-phd-thesis.html
• /phase-3/3-3-findings-presented/findings-chapter-written.html
• /phase-3/3-4-findings-discussed/discussion-written.html
1

22. Academic writing… Tools.2
Build your voice and cement your argument while honing your skills with
the 30 Day writing challenge
https://resources.doctoralnet.com/optins/30-day-writing-challenge.html
Get Published – Phase 4 and Beyond… /phase-4.html
• On Demand video: /my-account/video-on-demand.html
• Getting ready to publish: /getting-ready-to-publish.html
• Boxed Set – Get Published
• https://resources.doctoralnet.com/boxed-sets/get-published.html

23. The End Game of Viva or Final Defense Has its
own challenges…
• OnDemand Videos /my-account/video-on-demand.html
• /getting-your-docs-ready-for-the-endgame.html
• /surviving-your-final-defense.html
• /preparing-for-presentation-or-3mts.html
• Boxed Set:
• https://resources.doctoralnet.com/boxed-sets/final-defense-or-viva-the-end-game.html
• In Development:
Learning snippets (will be on your control panel)

24. Other Areas of
Support:

25. Continuous Support
• Been at it too long? Join the lingerers for support
• https://resources.doctoralnet.com/optins/opt-in-abds-or-those-moving-forward-with-theses.html
• Or try this boxed set…
• https://resources.doctoralnet.com/boxed-sets/for-abds-reengaging-and-getting-done.html
• Feeling Isolated? 365 motivational emails
• https://resources.doctoralnet.com/optins/365-phd-motivation.html
• Need to translate grad school skills to employment skills?
2 boxed sets: cognitive skills and soft skills
• https://resources.doctoralnet.com/boxed-sets/5-cognitive-skills-for-the-4th-industrial-
revolution.html
• https://resources.doctoralnet.com/boxed-sets/5-soft-skills-for-the-4th-industrial-
revolution-the-attitudinal-ones.html

26. Download the app
Sign Up 4 the
Webinars
Take 30 minutes and explore your
uni.doctoralnet.com site