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*Notes:
Homophily and Academic Isolation
In addition to the sense of isolation felt by all researchers who will spend much of their time working alone, some people may also be subject to additional feelings of isolation.
Research suggests that international and part-time doctoral researchers, and those from underrepresented minority groups, are more likely to feel isolated. Â
Studies have also shown that unless a programme is specifically designed to support interdisciplinary researchers, they will often feel excluded from the wider traditional research culture of the university. ‘The increased diversity of the doctoral researcher population can lead to challenges and mismatches in expectations between student and supervisor â. Duke and Denicolo (2017). Â Continue reading “Homophily Among Students and Academics”
Any social network potentially brings together groups with different perspectives and circumstances. âMeetingofMindsâ must take into account possible power dynamics between students and academics.
Models of PhD Supervision
There have been a number of attempts to model PhD supervision. More recently these have focused on supportive approaches allowing students to move from a state of relative dependency to complete independence (through a shift in the balance of control).
However there are also a number of potential power inequalities built into the relationship between supervisor and student. This includes:
Photograph from  Contributor(s): Queensland figaro – Copied and digitised from an image appearing in Queensland figaro, 28 July 1888, p. 140., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12662338
Continue reading “Power Differentials Between Students and Supervisors”
The application architecture falls into the so-called âThree Tier Architectureâ model (click the image for zoom). We chose this architectural model in order to ensure the flexibility, security and performance of the application. The functionality is separated into three different tiers.
Continue reading “System Architecture”
The featured image displayed above (for zoom, click the image) is a brief representation of the application flow. It is styled as a pseudocode graphic. Continue reading “Application Screens Flow Chart”
The application should enable matching between student and supervisor. This includes:
When designing an online social network it is important to consider whether this is likely to result in the creation of a ‘new network’, or reflects existing real world contacts.
In the 1990s, Dunbar proposed a neurocognitive limit on the number of people that a person can have in their social network of around 150 stable relationships.  Research on undergraduate use of Facebook found that although the median number of contacts in the sample was 300 Facebook friends, the actual number of people participants considered friends was around 75.  Recently Dunbar (2015) found that the number of online friends in a Facebook network that are actual friends is similar to that of friendships. (Parsons 2017).
Continue reading “User Research: The Relationship Between Online and Offline Social Networks”
The Need for Nuanced Research
Many existing studies (often focused on adolescent or student samples) try to make general assumptions about how humans regard privacy and what actions they take, or fail to take, to protect their own privacy.
But Blank, Bolsover, and Dubois (2014) found that only three peer-reviewed papers that addressed questions of privacy using a sample that could be generalized to a population. Continue reading “Privacy and Age Online”
We live in a time where online social networks and the higher educational systems are facing major challenges. Â In both cases, they are facing major new political and regulatory pressures.
The global social media giants are being regularly criticised in the press for data breaches, fake news, and a number of other perceived social âillsâ. Even advocates of the Web, such as Tim Berners-Lee is publicly stating that these corporate giants have too much power, and this is potentially distorting the Web.
Most recently, the publicity around Cambridge Analytics use of Facebook data, has further reduced public trust in social networks, and both companies are facing class actions.
Continue reading “The Social, Legal and Ethical Context of âMeetingofMindsâ”
âMeetingofMindsâ will support the âmatchingâ students to supervisors. Such matching systems are already found in dating apps and employment markets. So existing findings on existing âmatchingâ apps can inform the development of the âMeetingofMindsâ Social Network. Continue reading “Game Theory: Matching Apps as Social Networks”
