New Web Site Opens for Graduate Student Questions

Over the past year, Georgetown has worked with the online research database ProQuest to develop a graduate student networking site – Gradshare.com.

Geared toward Ph.D. students, the Web site is formatted in a question-and-answer structure. Students have the opportunity to pose questions to peer mentors on a wide range of topics from thesis funding to how to balance Ph.D. studies and family.

Along with the University of Washington, Seattle, Georgetown collaborated with ProQuest during Gradshare’s initial testing phase. Students from both schools offered feedback to ProQuest as it worked to perfect the site. In addition, Timothy Barbari, dean and associate provost for research of the Graduate School, met with Gradshare developers and gave an analysis of the site’s layout.

Seven more institutions, including the University of North Carolina, Charlotte and the University of Kentucky, then joined the project in the second phase of testing. ProQuest announced last week that Gradshare is now open to the public and free to all universities and students. Gradshare hopes to add 10 university partners every month it is open, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Barabri said that posing questions to peers anonymously is probably the most important aspect of the site.

“The benefits, in my opinion, are many, but the primary one is that students can seek answers to thorny questions anonymously. Many of these questions are sensitive in nature and may involve their mentors or faculty or fellow students,” Barbari said. “Having others help them work through issues is a real asset.”

-Carolyn Shanahan

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