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About KMi

Studentships


Studentships
The Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) is home to internationally recognised researchers in educational multimedia, collaboration technologies, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and human-computer interaction. KMi offers students an intellectually challenging environment with exceptional research and computer facilities. You will be joining a dynamic PhD programme which brings together students in KMi with their peers in the Computing department and Institute of Educational Technology who together make up the OU's Centre for Research in Computing.

There are Research Studentships in KMi for highly motivated researchers interested in pursuing a Full-time 3 year doctorate under supervision. KMi sees PhD students as critical to its mission, and awards Studentships (£12,978/year tax free for 2008/09), with no additional fees, compulsory examinations or teaching required. Participation is required in CRC PhD events and thesis milestones, as specified in the KMi Research Degrees policy. Additional training courses to develop your generic research skills are run across the OU, attendance at which is agreed with your supervisor.

We tend to give preference to candidates who have been KMi interns, or with whom we have worked in some capacity (e.g. doing your Undergraduate or Masters project with KMi). So check out the opportunities for Visitors and Research Trainee positions.

Application Deadline

Applications are currently being sought for the following PhD projects.

The deadline for application is 7th June 2012

How to Apply

Refer to the online prospectus at http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/research-degrees/ and download and complete the 10-page MPhil/PhD application form.

It is strongly recommended that applicants contact the named contact point for the project of interest to get more information about the project in question.

Applications should be sent by email to Miss Ortenz Rose, including a covering letter, a research proposal (a maximum of 2,000 words) and a full CV, giving contact details for two academic referees.

Your PhD Proposal

Studentships
PhD Proposals should address one of the PhD Projects. These have funding for 3 year studentships. If you wish to pursue your PhD part time, or have your own funding for full time study, you may write a proposal that addresses one or more of the core KMi research themes. See our research projects listed under each theme:

Narrative Hypermedia

Knowledge Management

Social Software

New Media Systems

Semantic Web and Knowledge Services

Multimedia and Information Systems

Key Information Links

Studentships
KMi-specific PhD info:

Open University Research School:

Open University info:

PhD Admissions Coordinator: Dr Paul Muholland - feel free to contact for advice about doing a PhD in KMi (email, telephone +44 (0)1908 654506).

General information: Ms Ortenz Rose, KMi Office (email, telephone +44 (0) 1908 654774, Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK).
 
The Open University
 

Social Software is...


Social Software can be thought of as "software which extends, or derives added value from, human social behaviour - message boards, musical taste-sharing, photo-sharing, instant messaging, mailing lists, social networking."

Interacting with other people not only forms the core of human social and psychological experience, but also lies at the centre of what makes the internet such a rich, powerful and exciting collection of knowledge media. We are especially interested in what happens when such interactions take place on a very large scale -- not only because we work regularly with tens of thousands of distance learners at the Open University, but also because it is evident that being part of a crowd in real life possesses a certain 'buzz' of its own, and poses a natural challenge. Different nuances emerge in different user contexts, so we choose to investigate the contexts of work, learning and play to better understand the trade-offs involved in designing effective large-scale social software for multiple purposes.