This study explores how Italian PhD researchers are using emerging technologies and online resources during their doctoral studies. It aims to understand how these digital tools and online environments are affecting their learning experiences and academic practices. The researchers administered online surveys to 625 Italian PhD students across multiple universities. Preliminary findings show that the students generally take a pragmatic rather than innovative approach to using social media for academic purposes. They view online resources more as a place to access information rather than collaborate. The students' goals and tool usage may change over time based on their research progress, field of study, and support from their local institution. The study uses a grounded theory approach and concepts of learning ecologies and chronotopes to analyze how these digital scholars operate across

1. The Transiton from Student to Researcher in the Digital Age: Probing
the Affordances of Emerging Learning Ecologies of PhD e-researchers.
Antonella Esposito1, Albert Sangrà2, Marcelo Maina2
1
PhD student Doctoral Program Educaton and ICT (E-learning), eLearn Center, Open University of Catalonia (UOC), Catalonia
2 Edul@b Research Group, eLearn Center, Open University of Catalonia (UOC), Catalonia
Background
This research explores the extent to which the emergent
engagement of the Italian PhD researchers in the open Web is
affectng their doctoral journey. These new profles of
individual PhD e-researchers are seen as engaged with hybrid
(physical/virtual; insttutonal/self-organized) learning ecologies.
They move across them in order to draw and partly co-build the
respectve learning opportunites.
Objectives
This study is located in-between inquiries about digital learners in higher
educaton and empirical research on digital scholars at a doctoral level.
It aims to:
1) Add to the knowledge base of empirical studies on new forms of ICTs
appropriaton and academic practces of doctoral students.
2) Provide suggestons for future design of research training, considering
PhD researchers’ personal ecologies, along with networked scholarship
practces pioneered by well-established researchers.
The topic is to date under-explored in the Italian higher educaton setting.
Preliminary findings
The analysis of the e-survey delivered across the Italian universites
(625 survey respondents) allowed to draw some preliminary results:
The Italian doctoral researchers appear to endorse a pragmatc
rather than innovatve approach when they focus on academic uses of
social media.
➔
There is a general tendency to view the open Web more as a
repository of updated and varied content rather than as a venue for
networking and collaboraton.
➔
A variety of goal orientatons emerge from the open comments
received in the questonnaire. The orientatons are likely to change:
- when the phd work evolves;
- according to diverse subject areas;
- as the local research context provides support.
➔
Figure 1 – Elements of the theoretcal framework considered in this study.
Esposito, A., Sangrà, A. & Maina, M. (2013). How Italian PhD students
reap the benefts of insttutonal resources and digital services in the open Web. In
Proceedings of INTED Conference 2013 (pp. 6490-6500), Valencia, Spain.
Esposito, A., Sangrà, A. & Maina, M. (2013). Chronotopes in learner-generated contexts.
A refecton about the interconnectedness of temporal and spatal dimensions to provide
a framework for the exploraton of hybrid learning ecologies of doctoral e-researchers.
eLc research Paper Series, 6, 15-28.
Methods
The methodology is informed by a constructvist grounded theory
approach, in which the perspectve of learning ecologies (Barron,
2006) and the metaphor of chronotope (Bakhtn, 1981) play a role as
‘sensitzing concepts’. Three Italian and one UK universites were
involved as research settings to deliver two online questonnaires,
three cycles of one-to-one interviews and four focus groups.
Sequence of the Data Collection process
Figure 3 – The diagram above shows the use frequency of social media
in some common, individual-based academic actvites.
Figure 2 – The diagram above shows the selected tecniques for data gathering
and the respectve types od data they enable to collect over tme and across the
research settings.
Figure 4 – The diagram above shows the variaton of the goal orientatons
of the PhD students as arising from the open comments in the e-survey.
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