Part of the School of Computer Science’s Information Management Group.
The Web Ergonomics Lab offers a range of Career Development and Training courses and sessions for the Research Staff and PhD Students. This occurs at both an informal laboratory level and at a more formal School and Faculty level.
Development and training for researchers occurs at both an informal laboratory level and at a more formal School and Faculty level. As part of the HCW Lab we offer informal training in journal paper reviewing and critique, statistical analysis, ethics and ethics applications, experimental design, and record and logbook keeping, as well as training on our instrumentation such as the eye-tracker and laboratory operations. Formal training and development needs are identified on a personal case-by-case basis as part of every researcher’s Performance and Development Review which occurs once per year. This is an opportunity to reflect and learn from what has occurred in the past year, to discuss current work tasks and objectives and future challenges along with training and development needs such as teaching, mentoring, reading, conferences, and delegate duties. If a more integrated program is required, the researcher is sent on the University’s flag ship New Academic Programme which is now available to all research staff. The program covers grantsmanship, knowledge transfer, IPR, teaching, self and student development, and research. Finally, ad-hoc training is available through the University wide Staff Training and Development Unit which hosts training and development courses that are available to all staff and provides excellent opportunities to develop skills in different areas.
Development and training for doctoral students occurs at the informal level as part of the HCWLab and takes the same form as the training for researchers. Additionally, students undergo formal supervision and training by their supervisor. Finally, formal training is provided at a School level in the form of three compulsory modules: Research Methods, Thesis Writing, and Transferrable Skills (covering subjects such as Communication, Presentation, and Team Working skills) which provide important input on conducting and writing up research. Additionally, there are a large number of academic courses available from our taught MSc modules or, if appropriate, modules taught by other schools in the graduate school.