Students can run into a variety of pitfalls during their doctoral degrees, and often the same ones as prior students have. This free 15-minute educational game is designed to walk students through a doctoral degree, one decision at a time - from picking your research question in Year 1 to defending your thesis in Year 4. The intention is to give a glimpse at the common issues that students run into, what effect it will have on the process (eg. delays), and show them the alternative courses of action. It may save the advisor from having to explain as much, or having to solve as many mistakes.
How It Works
You play through a series of realistic scenes drawn from real doctoral experiences. At each one you decide how to handle it, see the consequence of that choice, and watch four running scores shift: Research, Wellbeing, Advisor relationship, and Progress, along with the numbers of years that you've spent researching. There's no single "right" path - the point is to learn about the good and the bad decisions, so picking a worse option is fine too. Some choices trade a faster finish for a shakier thesis, or a smoother advisor relationship for slower progress. At the end you get a PhD Health Index out of 100, an estimated time to degree, and a short list of the lessons that mattered most in your run.What It Covers
- Scoping your research question - choosing something you can actually finish, versus chasing an idea that could "change the field"
- The literature review - what happens when you skip it, and what a proper one saves you from later
- Methodology and preregistration - locking in your analysis plan before you see the data
- Data management - the unglamorous habits (backups, version control, reproducible code) that protect years of work
- Managing your advisor relationship - communication, expectations, and what to do when outside opportunities pull you off track
- Conferences, isolation, and burnout - recognising when the problem is support, not aptitude
- Replication failures - what a result that doesn't hold up actually means for your timeline
- Writing, publishing, and the final stretch - turning years of work into a thesis and a defense
Example Scenes From the Game
Two of the twelve scenes, so you know what you're getting into:Year 1 – Choosing your question. Your advisor is happy to let you run with almost any idea in the lab's broad area. You've got three directions you could pitch as your thesis question:
- Pick a tightly scoped question you can actually finish in 4 years
- Pick the ambitious question that could "change the field"
- Let your advisor just tell you what to work on
Pick the narrow question, and the game tells you why: "Narrow, answerable questions are what finished theses are made of. You can always broaden the discussion later; you can't un-narrow a question that's eaten three years."
Year 2 – Designing your methodology. You're about to start data collection. A colleague suggests preregistering your hypotheses and analysis plan before you look at any data:
- Preregister the hypotheses and analysis plan
- Skip it, plans always change anyway
- Write a plan privately but don't formally register it anywhere
Preregister, and the payoff shows up later: "Locks in your plan before the data can bias your decisions. It's extra paperwork now, and it's the single strongest defense against accusations of p-hacking later."
