PhD offer access to a multitude of careers, but many PhD candidates do not know where to find out about them. They feel isolated and struggle to find the time to prepare their future.
The PhDOOC association offers PhD candidates and graduates a MOOC designed to familiarize them with the tools and resources available online. This tailor-made collaborative initiative allows them to draw on the support of a community whilst taking into account their limited time and availability. The aim is to create a space for discussing and finding information on post-doctoral careers. We hope that this MOOC will help create a community focused on sharing, collaboration and peer support.
We have chosen to use a social MOOC model, from the connectivist, or cMOOC, family. This means that learners are encouraged to add to the educational content. The training is based on peer working together and jointly compiling knowledge by encouraging participants to hold discussions and help one another. It enables learners to identify and build their skills portfolio and define their career plan. They receive guidance to develop their communication media using digital tools and expand their professional networks to help them in their job hunt.
With participant numbers reaching over 6,400 after three editions, the next iteration will start on January 2020. Changes and improvements have been made each year with the aim of continually improving the course. Currently, our challenges are to expand the team of volunteers and to raise the empowerment of the participants using the existing community. For instance, we are exploring new networking activities and peer supporting. Our presentation will allow us to discuss these challenges and gather new ideas and feedback.
https://phdooc.moocit.fr/Winners of the 2019 Open Education Award for Excellence: Open MOOC
