It was a bliss to see a PhD student of mine took the initiative to learn AMOS for running SEM. This reminds me of the good old day when I was pursuing a PhD in Warwick Institute of Education.
Back then, the Postgraduate Studies Institute conducted weekly courses or training programmes for all doctoral researchers. The institute was the training hub for Vitae (https://www.vitae.ac.uk/), where students from all universities located in the Midlands of England would come and join those courses. I considered myself as very lucky as I did not need to travel afar to take these courses, I rode on my red bicycle instead.
In the initial meetings with my supervisors, Sue and Sean walked through the Researcher Development Framework with me, guiding me to plan for my research training programme. A balanced and established academic researcher should have sufficient knowledge and research skills in every quadrant. Ideally, a PhD student should plan and arrange suitable training for himself or herself through the course of 3 years study. Herewith the framework
I attended almost all short and long term courses offered by Vitae in 2008 - 2010, and was chosen as one of the best doctoral student in the Midlands, England. Back then my intention was to learn as many as I can, so that I can teach postgraduate courses in UPSI upon the completion of my PhD. Ironically, until now, I have no experience of teaching any postgraduate course in UPSI.
I used to have several postgraduate students concurrently, while quite a lot of my colleagues do not have any student. After becoming a supervisor, I organised courses for my postgraduate students in 2013 - 2015 on every Friday and Saturday, and the courses were occasionally attended by other supervisors' students. But after awhile, even my own students did not attend those courses. Worse, my colleagues complained to me that I had negatively influenced their students--their students wanted to change supervisors. So, I learned my lesson and stopped offering those courses. I also discovered that, my courses were threatening existing trainers who charged students for similar courses. From that point onward, my supervision strategy changed to one-on-one basis. Only when my student wants and needs to learn specific knowledge or skills in research, I will guide him or her. If the student stops, I stop as well.
These are my personal experience and opinion, and they cannot be referred as a standard practice in UPSI or any other institutions. I just do what I believe is good for the student.
