Hello from our homes to yours!
We are now in day 2 of the national lockdown, and many people are adjusting to a new normal and a new way of working.
Teams around AUT are busy working on ways to keep our AUT whanau secure and, where possible, productive over the lockdown period. Here is a round-up of some new AUT resources available remotely for PG research students at the moment. This will evolve as we get more resources online, and we’ll keep you apprised of any updates.
PG workshop videos & online resources
Even if your research plans have been disrupted, you can still move forward with some upskilling and professional development. Some of the GRS postgraduate workshops are already offered via Zoom. (Check this planner to see which ones are available.) We are now creating short videos based on our postgraduate research workshops as well. These contain the most essential points from our workshops, so that even if you can’t attend the ones you need right now, you can still learn the basics. As they are available, they will be added to the new Postgraduate Research Online Resources page on the Student Digital Workspace. Available now:
- Presentation skills for your PGR9 Confirmation of Candidature
- Writing an abstract for a conference or symposium
- with many more to come
You can also use your AUT login to access LinkedIn Learning (previously Lynda.com). There you’ll find thousands of video tutorials and courses on technology, creative skills, and business strategies. Log in with your AUT email address.
Online research drop-ins
Dr Lyn Lavery, a long-standing friend of AUT and facilitator of our NVivo workshops, will be offering free online drop-in sessions for anyone who needs to ask a quick question about their research. These drop-ins, run through her company Academic Consulting Ltd, will be particularly helpful for those of you who may have had upcoming field work/data collection plans disrupted. If you’re needing to re-think your data collection schedule, are frantically switching to another data collection method, or have any other research-related issues as a result of recent disruptions, Lyn’s team will help with any questions you have (or even just be a helpful sounding board!). Due to high demand, time slots will be restricted to 10–15 minutes per person. If you’re interested, send Lyn’s team a quick email and they’ll let you know the available drop-in times and provide a link for the meeting.
You can also watch Lyn’s previously recorded webinars on all sorts of research topics for free on her website here: https://www.academic-consulting.co.nz/update.php#webinars.
R U OK? Live chat
You may have seen the R U OK? team around campus during orientation. They are a friendly group of student ambassadors who look out for our AUT whanau. They are now launching an online service via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RUOKonline/. If you are feeling abit uneasy, or need someone to connect with, you can live chat with the RUOK team from 11am-3pm, Monday to Friday.
Got questions?
You can contact the Graduate Research School over the lockdown period by emailing grs@aut.ac.nz.
The Student Hub team also remains available for general questions about study at AUT. All AUT students can contact the team by emailing studenthub@aut.ac.nz.
You can also check out the COVID-19 support for AUT students page on the SDW. This has lots of practical information on things like accommodation, finances, study tools, and more. (Note that this is a general resource and not postgrad-specific.)
And as always, the AUT app is full of useful information.
We’ll be posting to Thesislink throughout the lockdown with more on working from home and finding the best tools to get the job done remotely. Until next time, kia kaha researchers!
