Last week I delivered a half-day workshop at the Scottish Graduate School for Social Science’s Summer School. The workshop, “Building your academic reputation online”, was designed for PhD students at any stage of their studies. There were two primary goals for the day: (1) to get students thinking about the impact of online information on their academic reputations and (2) to provide students with a basic understanding of not only how to use social media to build and manage their reputations but also why they should.

The desired outcomes of the workshop included:

  • Increased awareness of how online information impacts professional and academic reputations – including how it may relate to job seeking and career development
  • A stronger understanding of how different social media platforms work, and what role they may play in the building and maintenance of academic reputation
  • A better understanding of online profile management, including potential benefits and risks

The first half of the workshop considered what reputation meant as well as how academics build reputation. The second half was then dedicated to discussing the different platforms that could be used for building reputation. If I had it to do all over again, I would have agreed to a full-day workshop. That would have allowed for more time on the practicalities of using social media platforms. It also would have provided more time to get into questions about privacy issues and the blurring between private and professional lives. Still, I think that the students found (at least some of) the workshop valuable.

You can view the slides from the workshop below or on my SlideShare account here. And please get in touch if you have any questions about the workshop or want to discuss academic reputation in more detail!

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