Mentoring doctoral students within a virtual community of practice - With special reference to their information recording behaviour

Abstract

Master’s and doctoral students in particular are expected to demonstrate advanced research skills with regard to identifying, evaluating, recording and using information for research, especially their skills in analysing already published information which might be utilised to document the status quo of a particular aspect of a topic (sometimes called the literature study). There are various ways and means to guide or coach advanced post-graduate students at masters and doctoral level. Once such approach is to work from within a virtually community of practice (VCoP). Because of the nature of learning content, additional benefits can be created. This paper will argue and demonstrate why a VCoP is the ideal environment to mentor doctoral students in certain aspects of their research (for example identifying a research problem, selecting investigative research questions, or writing a literature review). A theoretical framework as departure point will illustrate how knowledge transfer (or coaching) effectively takes place within a VCoP. The paper will then focus on information recording techniques as a case study. The latter is one of the most neglected areas in the information seeking process. The author will also demonstrate how mindmapping software can provide in an effective way to record or store information segments by means of multi-tier keywords. Examples of mind mapping for information recording will also be provided.