Community, Fellowship, Openness: Supporting Early Career Researchers through Open Educational Practices

Abstract

Open communities are an increasingly common feature of educational spaces. This article summarises the experience of a fellowship scheme for early career researchers in open education supported by The Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN), an international network to support doctoral candidates. Nine fellows over a three-year period were supported to conduct six-month personal projects to facilitate their academic career development post-doctoral studies. The fellowship scheme was structured into three, annual cohorts between 2020 and 2022. Results from qualitative surveys and interviews indicate a positive and meaningful impact of the scheme. A key aspect of this type of initiative is the support given by more experienced academics and peer fellows. The fellowship scheme enabled the sharing of research among other PhD students and early career researchers through regular webinars and to broader audiences at internationally recognised conferences. The results of this paper are of potential interest to those supporting doctoral researchers and organisations interested in running similar fellowships or other support schemes for doctoral researchers or other stakeholder groups.