This paper explores the experiences of two doctoral students who embraced Web 2.0 tools in their digital scholarship practices. The paper gives an insider perspective of the challenges and potential of working with online tools, such as blogs, and participating in online communities, such as Twitter’s #phdchat. We explore by drawing on our personal experiences as to how this participation was affected by our hybridised identity as both members of staff at a UK university and as PhD students. We argue that social media tools provide access to a community of doctoral students and knowledgeable others that reduce isolation and provide challenge and support along the challenging journey of undertaking a doctoral study. Whilst the tools involved exposure and risk in relation to managing our hybridised identities, our experience of their use was one we would recommend to others.Keywords: doctoral students; liminality; blogging; Web 2.0; Twitter(Published: 26 May 2014)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2014, 22: 23791 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v22.23791

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to take a student-centred perspective to understanding the range of ways that students respond to receiving information about their learning behaviours presented on a dashboard. It identifies four principles to inform the design of dashboards which support learner agency and empowerment, features which Prinsloo and Slade (2016) suggest are central to ethical adoption of learning analytics. Design/methodology/approach The study involved semi-structured interviews with 24 final-year undergraduates to explore the students’ response to receiving dashboards that showed the students’ achievement and other learning behaviours. Findings The paper identifies four principles that should be used when designing and adopting learner dashboards to support student agency and empowerment. Research limitations/implications The study was based on a small sample of undergraduate students from the final year from one academic school. The data are based on students’ self-reporting. Practical implications The paper suggests that these four principles are guiding tenets for the design and implementation of learner dashboards in higher education. The four principles are: designs that are customisable by students; foregrounds students sense making; enables students to identify actionable insights; and dashboards are embedded into educational processes. Originality/value The paper’s originality is that it illuminates student-centred principles of learner dashboard design and adoption.

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