How e-learning makes writing a thesis easier for lecturers and students
In the Educatips column, Psychology lecturers share their most valuable insights on teaching. This month: Laura Nawijn and colleagues are designing an e-learning programme to improve the thesis supervision of clinical psychologists. ‘We offer students clear explanations and practical tools in an accessible way, enabling them to navigate their thesis process independently and with confidence.’
What does assistant professor Laura Nawijn like most about her job? Her answer: supervising theses. She explains: ‘Teaching and research come together really well here. Clinical psychology students are often highly interested in the subject of their thesis and they’re keen to delve into it, but there are times when they find it daunting. Then it’s good to work on it together with those students. And if, at the end, they say they enjoyed doing the research, that’s very rewarding.’
The best supervision
Together with her colleagues Joanne Mouthaan and Anne van Giezen, Nawijn has been working for some time on developing thesis supervision in a group format. Using GroupWise Thesis Supervision, groups of students are given general information about writing a thesis. What is the best way to organise your references? How do you write a strong introduction? And how can you set up the right search terms? ‘We offer students clear explanations and practical tools in an accessible way, enabling them to navigate their dissertation process independently and with confidence,” says Nawijn. 'With the right support, they gain a better understanding of what is expected of them and how to structure their work. This allows them to work in a more focused manner, while we as supervisors can concentrate on in-depth academic guidance.' Nawijn says that on the one hand you can see it as a kind of refresher and in-depth course, and on the other hand it’s an opportunity to exchange ideas with fellow students. ‘Writing a thesis is a solitary process. That’s why it’s good and instructive to hear from others how they go about it too.’ It also saves supervisors a lot of time giving general information about theses, so they can focus more on the content of a student’s research.
Online learning
Nawijn, Mouthaan and Giezen have been awarded a Grassroots subsidy to develop an e-learning module to further optimise thesis supervision. ‘Students’ needs with their master’s theses are very different,’ Nawijn explains. ‘For example, one may want an involved explanation about choosing an analysis method, while another remembers that from the bachelor’s thesis.’ This gave rise to the idea of using e-learning to make this kind of information available individually. Students can then decide for themselves whether they need more information on a specific thesis component. In addition, thesis processes are not synchronous for all students: some are still collecting data while others are already involved in analysing their findings. ‘We hope that with the e-learning programme we can adapt the general supervision better to the students’ individual progress. Students who are ready for it start working on it straight away, and those who aren’t ready can pick it up later. That allows us to spend more time in the meetings on joint feedback and practice exercises.’
The next step
The aim is for students starting their thesis in October to be able to use the e-learning programme. The lecturers, together with students, are therefore currently busy evaluating GroupWise Thesis Supervision and developing the digital module. Which components do students find valuable? What should be put into the e-learning course? And how do you motivate students to actually use the tool? Nawijn hopes that e-learning will not only be a means for lecturers to spend less time on general questions, but that it will also allow students to go through the thesis process more smoothly and experience more control and self-reliance. Supervising theses may well become an even more enjoyable part of Nawijn's job in the future.
Share your educa-tip?
Are you a lecturer at the Institute of Psychology and do you want to tell colleagues about how you teach? Or would you like to nominate an inspiring colleague for the next column? You can send a mail to news.psy@fsw.leidenuniv.nl putting ‘Educatip’ in the subject field.
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