June 23rd 2011

Social media (and more) in the Master thesis project

How can social media support students during their master thesis project?

Jolien Ubacht, Assistant ProfessorFaculty of Technology, Policy & Management,

section ICT

1

June 23rd 2011

Managing the MSc project

• Background: • Duration of the MSc project• Student survey• Different character as compared to following regular modules

• Taking the student as manager of his/her MSc project as a starting point: what does s/he need to be the project leader? And how can peer sharing of knowledge and experiences contribute to that?

2

June 23rd 2011

Current situation (1)• Website for formal information (OER, procedures, rules for composition of

graduation committee, contact details, “blue guide”, etc)• Blackboard for:• the module Master thesis preparation (6 EC)• the modules Master thesis project (30EC)

• Sections use own website or Blackboard for posting projects• Wiki for TPM Lexicon for Research Methods & Techniques (WO-sprint project)

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June 23rd 2011

Current situation (2)• Osiris for programme information (SVO)• No faculty platform for student interaction/support (some self-initiated communities

do exist)• No links to support environment (such as TUD Career Centre, Study advisors, Smart

Study, TU Library support)• No links to supporting learning material (such as Presentation Lab, Writing Lab, …..)• No central communication channel for graduation related announcements

4

June 23rd 2011

Taking a student perspective

• What information is required in which phase of the graduation project?

• How can students provide peer support?• How can s/he manage the graduation project taking

quality and time requirements into account?

5

June 23rd 2011

Improvements (idea phase)• One portal to integrate the diversity of information channels• To speed up finding a graduation project• To relate project to research themes (multimedia)• To support a smooth administrative process

• Enabling better planning of the 4 plenary meetings of the graduation committee• Project Planning Tool /timeline to support awareness of throughput of project

(alternative: in Osiris)

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June 23rd 2011

Improvements (idea phase)

• File sharing options between graduate student and supervisors(?)• Support students to exchange their knowledge & experiences

(theme related groups; social software)• Community building• Interactive map who is where doing what? (DCE example)

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June 23rd 2011

Next steps

• Design requirements for graduation portal• 3xO, BB-support, students, TPM-ICTO team• Flexible set-up for future applications

• Testing with graduate students• Embeddedness in the faculty• Parallel: new functions in Osiris for

monitoring/process-related issues of MSc project

June 23rd 2011

April 10, 2023 9