Information Sharing Amongst PhD Students?

[imonedaful]

I received an e-mail today from a second year student in my program addressed to our entire class. He proposed that when we are assigned articles to read (5 each week) we split them up amongst oursleves and each write a summary and share it with eachother. He did not say it was a way not to read the other articles, but having indepth summaries when coming to class is a better way to be prepared. Other students seem to think that is a good idea. I however, am not very comfortable with it. I believed this kind of information hinders the learning experience as a whole. Here are my reasons:

(1) I do not like sharing my work with other students. If I write a summary of an article to study later, it is for my own use on my own terms and not specified for anyone else's use.

(2) The process of understanding and figuring things out in your own way will help you out just not in a specific class but how you learn for the rest of your life.

(3) It is boring if everybody comes to class with the same ideas.

(4) How somebody else outlines something may be of little use, because I do not understand it the same way I do.

(5) It feels like cheating.

I do understand the other side. Sometimes working together can be beneficial for everybody. However, it is a seminar style class where we discuss the articles each week. That is when we are supposed to collectively come up with good ideas. I feel like that would be harder to do when everybody has the same ideas in front of them. So, I would like to obstain from this collective summary idea, but I am may be the only student in my class against that idea. I don't know if it would be a good idea to give the other students a reason to dislike me. I don't care about popularity, but ultimately I want to be successful in my program.

What do you guys think?

[Physwimic]

Alright, I will stick my neck out here. I think this is an okay idea, as long as it is implemented correctly. Everyone should still read all of the articles and think about them on their own, but having just a basic outline of the article can still help you during discussions to remember details about the article or to process your own thoughts. These summaries should under no circumstances contain other people's analysis of the article though, since then I think you would be correct that everyone would enter class with the same ideas and something would be lost. As far as your specific points go, I think 1 is your own personal style. You should remember that life requires collaboration in almost any field. Management often requires you to rely on others to write up reports that you will have to read and understand. 2) If you do the summary as I have suggested above, everyone will still have to figure things out on their own, you will just get a short summary to refresh your mind before class. Also, you still learn the process because you will have to write the summary every once in a while. 3) People will still come to class with their own ideas if they continue reading the articles and analyzing on their own. In fact, this may add to the learning process because someone might think something was really important that wasn't mentioned in the summary and bring it up, and this would underscore that point. 4) Again, I would think this skill of working with other people and reading and understanding someone else's summary will be very important for later in your career, so now is a good time to work on this. This would be a great way to hone your summary writing skills, since you would get feedback during class on what other people found important and what you missed in writing your specific summary, and you can help other people learn from their summaries. 5) As long as you are still doing the readings and thinking about them, I don't feel this is cheating. However, if you are really still worried about this, go and talk with the professor. Carefully ask him if he thinks this is acceptable or not, and if not, can he fill the rest of the class in on his belief without singling you out.

I would also be interested to hear other's opinions as well, so hopefully I got the ball rolling!

[aberrant]

Easiest: Politely reject their suggestion and fly solo.

Other: Ask the prof. to see if such action violates academic integrity (to answer your reasons #5).

If it is okay, then you can either:

a. do what they suggest and play as a team player, or

Complicated: b. keep your VERY IN-DEPT summary for your own review, and make a slightly dumb-down version of summary for the group.

[imonedaful]

You both bring up good points. I guess abherrant's "complicated" suggestion is a pretty good idea. Just contribute my basic summary to the group each week and continue keeping my own notes. If I don't like somebody's summary, I suppose I don't have to use it. Hmmm...

[fuzzylogician]

I love these types of collaborations. My colleagues are some of the smartest people I know and I enjoy talking with them about complicated ideas we read in papers. Of course it's a good idea if everyone could at least skim all the papers and then one person has the responsibility of creating a more detailed summary (and, by the way, no one is stopping you from reading all of the papers thoroughly before you meet with the group). My research always benefits from talking to other people rather than flying solo and keeping all to myself. But, if any of this makes you uncomfortable, find a way to excuse yourself from the group and do what works for you.

[Dal PhDer]

Physwimic makes some really great points.

Myself, I think it's a great idea. I am reminded of another thread on here about difficult academic readings ()...I think something like this could help students out if they are unsure of an article. It's almost like an additional study aid. It doesn't sounds like the students are suggesting to use each others work as their own, but simply lift some of the burden that reading and synthesizing several articles is...also, if you chose to take on one specific article, it's almost like that one person could spearhead/facilitate the discussion in class about it.

I think if used as something to help eachother along, it's good...I wouldn't use it as your only source of information.

If this something you have to participate in? If not, why not just say you're not interested?

Also, I don't see grad school as a place where you are competing with your classmates (in class...for grants and such it is)...class time is essentially a place where you go, collaborate, share ideas and learn from others. You providing your summaries to your fellow classmates is probably a great opportunity for them to learn from you...and you from them! You never know, their summaries might be pretty extensive and help you with the readings and discussions a lot. I wouldn't go in to it thinking it's necessarily a bad thing where people will steal your ideas/thoughts...but an opportunity to become part of a team and learn from eachother!!

Edited September 8, 2012 by Dal PhDer

[imonedaful]

I am going to give it a try. Graduate school is all about trying new things right? haha. One of my concerns is that when I write notes about an article and compose a summary I write it in a way that I understand it. Somebody else might read it and it is useless to them. I don't compose classnotes for an audience. But I don't want to hinder everybody else's learning process by being the only student abstaining.

[wildviolet]

I have a similar situation as the OP, except that one of my colleagues in my cohort suggested the idea. So far, I haven't heard of a group forming (but that doesn't mean that it hasn't formed, just that I haven't heard of it). Another colleague suggested a reading/discussion group outside of class. Ummm... isn't that what class is for? To discuss the readings under the guidance of experienced faculty? I'm concerned because:

1. I don't have much time outside of courses/TA/RA/kid responsibilities.

2. Although our cohort has been awesome so far, I am concerned about someone stealing my ideas. Perhaps this stems from my competitive nature and the culture of American public schools to produce winners and losers. Perhaps I am worried about being competitive in the job market.

And as far as learning how to collaborate with others--that's what my TA/RA experiences are for--it's all about collaboration and the sharing of ideas. Except in this case, we all get credit for it.

I'm not opposed to sharing my ideas in class. In fact, participation counts anywhere from 10% to 20% in my courses, so being vocal in class is important. However, I guess I'm opposed to sharing my written work, even if it's just a summary. As the OP pointed out, how you view the reading (i.e., what is significant) may vary from person to person. I'm happy to learn from others in class. But I just don't want to "share" the work.

As I write this, I'm feeling conflicted, like I should be part of the group, to promote collegiality, but at the same time, I don't want to.

It's kind of funny because our readings this week are about exactly this--the contradiction between what public schools promote (democratic equality) versus what public schools actually do (encourage competition, going through the motions of schooling to get credentials, and individual achievement). In a way, I feel like the program is promoting working together, but at the same time, when we all graduate, jobs are going to be awarded individually, not collectively. Maybe I'm wrong to think that my colleagues will be my competition? Maybe it will be graduates from other programs?

Thoughts from more experienced GCers?

[SeriousSillyPutty]

One of my concerns is that when I write notes about an article and compose a summary I write it in a way that I understand it. Somebody else might read it and it is useless to them.

I think that would be a reasonable thing to tell them: You'll share an online you made for you, but you don't have the time to make a study guide so complete that anyone can follow it. (Or, if you decide you don't want to share, just tell them the second half of the sentence.)

That being said, teaching other people is the best way to learn, so hopefully it will help you out! If it doesn't, then "I'm too busy" is almost always a plausible and acceptable excuse in grad school, right?

It's kind of funny you brought this up, because I just started a seminar style class where everyon reads everything, but each week one student is assigned (by the prof) to create a summary of each article read and present it to the class.

[Dal PhDer]

I have a similar situation as the OP, except that one of my colleagues in my cohort suggested the idea. So far, I haven't heard of a group forming (but that doesn't mean that it hasn't formed, just that I haven't heard of it). Another colleague suggested a reading/discussion group outside of class. Ummm... isn't that what class is for? To discuss the readings under the guidance of experienced faculty? I'm concerned because:

1. I don't have much time outside of courses/TA/RA/kid responsibilities.

2. Although our cohort has been awesome so far, I am concerned about someone stealing my ideas. Perhaps this stems from my competitive nature and the culture of American public schools to produce winners and losers. Perhaps I am worried about being competitive in the job market.

And as far as learning how to collaborate with others--that's what my TA/RA experiences are for--it's all about collaboration and the sharing of ideas. Except in this case, we all get credit for it.

I'm not opposed to sharing my ideas in class. In fact, participation counts anywhere from 10% to 20% in my courses, so being vocal in class is important. However, I guess I'm opposed to sharing my written work, even if it's just a summary. As the OP pointed out, how you view the reading (i.e., what is significant) may vary from person to person. I'm happy to learn from others in class. But I just don't want to "share" the work.

As I write this, I'm feeling conflicted, like I should be part of the group, to promote collegiality, but at the same time, I don't want to.

It's kind of funny because our readings this week are about exactly this--the contradiction between what public schools promote (democratic equality) versus what public schools actually do (encourage competition, going through the motions of schooling to get credentials, and individual achievement). In a way, I feel like the program is promoting working together, but at the same time, when we all graduate, jobs are going to be awarded individually, not collectively. Maybe I'm wrong to think that my colleagues will be my competition? Maybe it will be graduates from other programs?

Thoughts from more experienced GCers?

I think it's really interesting. I have a hugely different perspective on this, but I kind of wonder if it's because I'm not in classes at the moment and haven't been for the last year or so.

When I was doing my MA, it was a pretty tight group, and I really enjoyed getting together and discussing the week's reading assignments before class. For me, it allowed me to clarify what the article really meant. We did this on occasion when we were heavily loaded with things, or we actually had to facilitate a class...we didn't do it every week, because you're right in some respects- class IS for that, where it is facilitated by the professor. But I think you're losing a little bit of the experience if you only use class time to discuss the work, sometimes it's the out of class discussion that is what really sticks.

As for writing and sending it to other students....I wouldn't go out of my way to rewrite my own notes. I think that's extra work that's not needed. If you are a person who writes a summary/notes on your own, i think that's reasonable to share with the class...as for stealing your ideas/work....I don't remember having that worry. I can remember sharing assignments to be peer reviewed, working with other students (or sending them my assignment) if they were a bit unclear on their goals/objectives...perhaps it was a bit naive, but I had complete trust in my fellow grad students that they wouldn't steal my work. I think there's a general respect in grad school (or perhaps it's just my discipline!) that you don't do that.

Also, RA/TA work, you're right it does help with team work, collaboration, and sharing...but I think there is value in class work collaboration. Perhaps it's just that I have always had really great experiences working with other students outside the classroom on assignments and readings, but I have always found it really valuable...and it's a great way to build peer relationships and friendships.

I guess each to their own! But personally, I would stress trying to be involved in as many collaborative sessions/activities as possible...because it's a two way street- you share your work and maybe get great/useful feedback, but you're also partaking in reviewing their work (which is also a great skill) and getting to see how another perspective reads the same piece of work!

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

My comment is this: don't refuse collaboration, even if it is totally useless to you academically, because you'll get to make friends with people, and one day, you might actually need them. I had no problems collaborating with people who seemed to be leeches during undergrad because hey, one day I might need a ride, or a meal ticket, or they know something I don't, etc.

At the very least, explaining things to others is a great check to see if you actually understand it yourself. You might think 'oh I know this', you might even be able to solve problems, but if you cannot explain it to someone else, then do you really know it?

[wildviolet]

Dal PhDer and SymmetryofImperfection--Your arguments make sense to me, which is why I conclude that my paranoia must stem from my schooling and knowledge of the academic job market. I completely understand about being able to explain it to somebody else as a check to see how well you understand it. That's how I finally learned chemistry on a deeper level--by having to teach it! Well, I take your suggestions to heart and will see if I can organize an informal study/reading group outside of class. I shall report back if there's anything worth reporting.

Oh, and I guess the other thing is that I don't know my cohort very well yet in terms of intellectual conversations, so I don't have a good feel for who would be compatible with me. All we've done so far is attend orientation and social activities together--we're a fun group, but I don't know how academic discussions will go.

[Stately Plump]

I like the idea of collaborating on article summaries. Reading articles can be incredibly time consuming and does not necessarily payoff, unlike seminar papers, which could potentially turn into publications.

I would be more hesitant about collaborating on papers--unless part of the course instruction is to do so--because when I work on papers, I am thinking about how I might turn them into publications.

But article summaries might be very helpful. I have a few class assignments that require this type of "teamwork."

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

Dal PhDer and SymmetryofImperfection--Your arguments make sense to me, which is why I conclude that my paranoia must stem from my schooling and knowledge of the academic job market. I completely understand about being able to explain it to somebody else as a check to see how well you understand it. That's how I finally learned chemistry on a deeper level--by having to teach it! Well, I take your suggestions to heart and will see if I can organize an informal study/reading group outside of class. I shall report back if there's anything worth reporting.

Oh, and I guess the other thing is that I don't know my cohort very well yet in terms of intellectual conversations, so I don't have a good feel for who would be compatible with me. All we've done so far is attend orientation and social activities together--we're a fun group, but I don't know how academic discussions will go.

It depends on cohort. I've been very active trying to promote collaboration but the others have little interest, maybe its because I'm like you, a minority in a majority department, with a totally different culture than I know. If your cohort doesn't want to do anything, then there's no point.

I wouldn't be so paranoid though. Everyone's research is different. I don't know how it works in education though.

[Dal PhDer]

Oh, and I guess the other thing is that I don't know my cohort very well yet in terms of intellectual conversations, so I don't have a good feel for who would be compatible with me. All we've done so far is attend orientation and social activities together--we're a fun group, but I don't know how academic discussions will go.

The best and worst part is when you have that one person in your group that you just want to strangle...it's awful to have to deal with it, but you learn soooooo many fantastic interpersonal skills (that you will use in the future!)! haha!

It's interesting to look back now, and realize how 'dealing with people' was actually something I learned (and am still learning) to do in grad school!

[robot_hamster]

I have known people to do this. In fact, I have taken classes where the professor would designate a person responsible for summarizing an article and then leading a discussion about it. Everyone else would skim over the article. Different person/people for each class meeting

[BrokenRecord]

I received an e-mail today from a second year student in my program addressed to our entire class. He proposed that when we are assigned articles to read (5 each week) we split them up amongst oursleves and each write a summary and share it with eachother. He did not say it was a way not to read the other articles, but having indepth summaries when coming to class is a better way to be prepared. Other students seem to think that is a good idea. I however, am not very comfortable with it. I believed this kind of information hinders the learning experience as a whole.

I know I'm going to veer off a bit from the seeming consensus on this thread thus far, but I personally wouldn't do exactly what the email suggested. To me, it is acceptable (and encouraged) to discuss articles read or even read them together before the seminar, but sharing your own written work will not bode well for you, especially if you may want to turn those summaries into a literature reviews for a publication or a chapter of your thesis/dissertation. No diss to your classmate obviously, but his motive was definitely clear to me, because if he truly wanted to "understand" the material more he would have suggested you all to do it together and get a flux of different ideas, rather than relying on one person's interpretation. But it is a lot easier to read a written heavily-summarized piece, rather than reading the entire article themselves. Then what will happen in this discussion when everyone has the same ideas? It seems to me you have a gut feeling that something is amiss---let that be your guide in this and anything else you encounter, it will never fail you.

Wildviolet, I'm far from experienced in anything grad related at an age of 22 soon to be 23, but I do know a little something about life and the nature of people. I think you hit onto something that was quickly dismissed in my opinion, and that is the competitive climate of academia. I don't think what you are feeling is a result of "public school indoctrination of wanting to be better than anyone else", but simply a very staunch reality of life, especially when you have other mouths to feed in addition to yourself. In this economic climate, no job is guaranteed, even for us science folks, but especially for those in humanities and social sciences were academic jobs are very scarce, it is important to look out ultimately for your own long-term career mobility first rather than the temporary cohesion or 'likability' within the cohort. After all, these are the same people you will be competing with for the exact same jobs, and to think that they will think of how nice you were or how much you've helped them when an opportunity arises to benefit them to the exclusion of you---oh buddy--not in a million years, BELIEVE me, been there, done that and got burned, badly. You don't want to learn that lesson now when it will affect you the most. This is not to say don't collaborate or share ideas, you should and it can only be to your benefit, but be strategic, kind and never put all your eggs in one basket, if you know what I mean.

Edited September 9, 2012 by BrokenRecord

[michigan girl]

Although I'm not enrolled in a PhD program, I love to collaborate on projects that can minimize the amount of time spent on tedious work (i.e., article summaries) or reduce the workload on a major project. It's all about maximizing your options without overburdening yourself. The nice thing about collaboration on assignments is that you can focus your attention on matters more important to you (e.g., part-time job, publication, presentation, etc.). .

[wildviolet]

I have known people to do this. In fact, I have taken classes where the professor would designate a person responsible for summarizing an article and then leading a discussion about it. Everyone else would skim over the article. Different person/people for each class meeting

This is exactly what we're doing in another class. In fact, each of us will be leading the discussion for a particular week, although I think the expectation is that everyone will still read all the articles.

[wildviolet]

The best and worst part is when you have that one person in your group that you just want to strangle...it's awful to have to deal with it, but you learn soooooo many fantastic interpersonal skills (that you will use in the future!)! haha!

It's interesting to look back now, and realize how 'dealing with people' was actually something I learned (and am still learning) to do in grad school!

OK, so I can't stand one particular person and she's requested to be my friend on FB. What to do? I can't very well deny since all of our cohort is getting on FB now. Plus, we have a FB social group for posting activities outside of class. Maybe I just need to get over my initial impression and try getting to know her better.

[wildviolet]

I like the idea of collaborating on article summaries. Reading articles can be incredibly time consuming and does not necessarily payoff, unlike seminar papers, which could potentially turn into publications.

I would be more hesitant about collaborating on papers--unless part of the course instruction is to do so--because when I work on papers, I am thinking about how I might turn them into publications.

But article summaries might be very helpful. I have a few class assignments that require this type of "teamwork."

Oh no... no collaborating on papers.

This is just talking about the assigned readings to understand what they mean. For example, each week we have three or more readings that are related to each other. The ideas are complex, and the task is to present a coherent argument or stance on a significant issue raised in the articles. After reading the articles for this week, I have a good idea of what I'd like to say, but I'm also a verbal person, so it helps me to "talk it out" before writing.

[wildviolet]

Wildviolet, I'm far from experienced in anything grad related at an age of 22 soon to be 23, but I do know a little something about life and the nature of people. I think you hit onto something that was quickly dismissed in my opinion, and that is the competitive climate of academia. I don't think what you are feeling is a result of "public school indoctrination of wanting to be better than anyone else", but simply a very staunch reality of life, especially when you have other mouths to feed in addition to yourself. In this economic climate, no job is guaranteed, even for us science folks, but especially for those in humanities and social sciences were academic jobs are very scarce, it is important to look out ultimately for your own long-term career mobility first rather than the temporary cohesion or 'likability' within the cohort. After all, these are the same people you will be competing with for the exact same jobs, and to think that they will think of how nice you were or how much you've helped them when an opportunity arises to benefit them to the exclusion of you---oh buddy--not in a million years, BELIEVE me, been there, done that and got burned, badly. You don't want to learn that lesson now when it will affect you the most. This is not to say don't collaborate or share ideas, you should and it can only be to your benefit, but be strategic, kind and never put all your eggs in one basket, if you know what I mean.

BrokenRecord--thanks for putting your voice out there! I really appreciate it. Be kind yet strategic. Got it!

[imonedaful]

2. Although our cohort has been awesome so far, I am concerned about someone stealing my ideas. Perhaps this stems from my competitive nature and the culture of American public schools to produce winners and losers. Perhaps I am worried about being competitive in the job market.

I too feel the need to compete. Graduate school is competitive. It was a competitive process to get in. It is competitive to get published, go to conferences, win accolades. It is competitive to get a job. So naturally, we always want to be the best. I have always been very independent in my collegiate studies. I would not even have someone else edit my English and research papers (unless it was the professor). I figured that if I learned it on my own I would learn it better. Collaboration at times can undercut your personal process. However, I will try, just not burn any bridges too soon in my career.

OK, so I can't stand one particular person and she's requested to be my friend on FB. What to do? I can't very well deny since all of our cohort is getting on FB now. Plus, we have a FB social group for posting activities outside of class. Maybe I just need to get over my initial impression and try getting to know her better.

The head of my department is encouraging everybody in our program to get on facebook and link up to our department site on there. All the students are wary because they don't want the head of the department looking at all their facebook activity. It is funny to me. Facebook use to be a safe space for students, now it has to be kept fairly professional since employers will look at it. Adding somebody on facebook is no major commitment. Go ahead and add them.

[TropicalCharlie]

The head of my department is encouraging everybody in our program to get on facebook and link up to our department site on there. All the students are wary because they don't want the head of the department looking at all their facebook activity. It is funny to me. Facebook use to be a safe space for students, now it has to be kept fairly professional since employers will look at it. Adding somebody on facebook is no major commitment. Go ahead and add them.

You can also create a second, strictly professional fb profile just for this purpose. Though I suppose that is what LinkedIn is for.

Edited September 10, 2012 by Charlie808

[wildviolet]

Most people I know have a LinkedIn account as well, but everyone seems to be using FB right now for socializing purposes. I'm on LinkedIn with recent PhD grads of the program though.

Anyway, so I sent out a mass email, set up a Google spreadsheet to share, and people are beginning to sign up for discussion groups. I guess people were just talking about it but had not done anything about it. They seem appreciative of the opportunity to organize for informal discussions of the readings. We start next week! I'll let you all know how it goes, but I think it'll be good. I'm not going to analyze too much--I just want to get a chance to summarize my thoughts and see if I'm understanding the readings the same way my colleagues are. I do think they're awesome, and we're not all in the exact same field, but... there's still competition for things like summer research fellowships, and I'm sure the faculty talk about who is outstanding in this year's cohort.

Ultimately, it's a strange contradictory mix of "we're all in this together but at the same time we're competing with each other."