An online community of international scholars: enabling spaces for reciprocal academic and psychological support

COVID-19 and its imposed social confinement entailed a radical shift in research, supervision and learning in doctoral education. Heightened flexibility in delivery, sensitivity and compassion and greater reliance on technology sought to address not merely scholars' pedagogical but holistic needs, which became more prominent during the pandemic. Face-to-face doctoral supervision and academic events were conducted online to overcome hurdles presented by 'social distancing'. We examine how the dynamics of our group supervision for international doctoral scholars changed after shifting to online mode. We employed an autoethnographic approach to highlight evolving rewards and challenges in conducting online meetings with a group of international scholars. Focusing on this group is timely since the 'working-from-home' mode contributed to doctoral scholars' isolation and stress that they experienced. This paper: a) exemplifies the psychological benefits fostered by online meetings;and b) highlights creative virtual pedagogies and practices worth adopting even after the pandemic is over. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Innovations in Education & Teaching International is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)