Expectations of Research Students in Online Thesis Supervision for MPhil Programs
Exploring the expectations of postgraduate supervisees in online thesis supervision across five MPhil programs: Computer Science, Educational Leadership and Management, Business Administration, Mathematics, and Zoology. The study aims to investigate support, scheduling, resources access, communication, and feedback in the online supervision process.
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Presented by Dr. Sadaf Jabeen Prof. Dr. Munawar S. Mirza Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore
Introduction Supervision is providing a highly favourable learning environment to enable the research student to construct new knowledge grounded in the discipline s community of practice (Lessing & Schulze, 2002; Lee, 2009; Sze, 2007 ) This study intended to look into postgraduate supervisees expectations about supervision of research theses at MPhil degree program in an open and distance mode of education where both the stakeholders interact with each other in cyber space.
Literature Review According to Sidhu, Kaur, Fook, and Yunus (2012, 2013) postgraduates were only moderately satisfied with the supervisory practices of their supervisors. The main concern highlighted were having busy professionals as supervisors and Less knowledgeable supervisors in the field, research and research supervision receiving poor unconstructive feedback Insufficient time devoted to supervision (Attwood, 2009) The students expected that Supervisors must be : be able to provide expert knowledge and guidance in the field as well as research be friendly, supportive, respect human diversity and individual differences give students space to make mistakes and grow as researchers monitor students progress to ensure completion of research provide resources, information, timely feedback and guidelines of thesis writing (Engebretson et al.,2008; Bitchener, Bastrukmen & East, 2011 ) address academic writing problems (Wang & Li, 2008 )
Literature Review Scott (2009): gap between two different perspectives The supervisors and The supervisees in the manner in which both members work
Objectives of the Study Explore research students expectations belonged to five MPhil programs (Computer science, Educational Leadership and Management, Business Administration, Mathematics, Zoology ) about online supervision by their supervisors in terms of: (a) Support and guidance for actual thesis writing (b) Arranging schedules and meetings (c) Access to resources or logistic support (d) Developing working relationship and communication (e) Reviewing and giving feedback
Research Questions/ Hypotheses What do research students of five selected programs expect about online thesis supervision of their research work Is there any difference among the expectations of students belonged to different selected disciplines of study
Research Methodology Design Descriptive survey research design. Population 1118 Postgraduate (MS) students enrolled in five programs in Spring 2017. Sampling Sample was selected from following five MPhil/MS programs, having enrolment of more than 30 students: Computer science, Educational Leadership and Management, Business Administration, Mathematics, Zoology. Stratified random sample of 150 students, 30 from each of the five programs
Research Methodology (cont) Instrument Questionnaire Expectations of Research Students Scale (ERSS) having five subscales and 25 items was developed by the Researchers. Content Validity. 04 experts opinion; 06 items revised/reworded for language clarity, one item discarded . reliability analysis, Cronbach alpha 0.69 Final ERSS has five subscales (Support and Guidance in Terms of Actual Thesis Writing, Access to Resources, Schedule of Meetings, Timely Review and Feedback, Working Relationship/ Communication) and 24 items. Data Collection Instrument administered online as Google doc. Sampled (150) students approached repeatedly through email, Skype, ph.calls. 106 respondents; 06 incomplete Qrs discarded; 100 completely filled questionnaire considered final for data analysis. Response rate was 66.33 % . Data Analysis Mean, percentages, SD and ANOVA
Findings and Conclusion Table 1: By program Distribution of MPhil/MS Respondent Students Discipline Program F % Computer Science MS 20 20 Education Management sciences MPhil 30 30 MSBA 18 18 Mathematics MS 17 17 Zoology MS 15 15 Total 100
Findings and Conclusion (cont) Table 2: Expectations of Students about Online Time from the Supervisor per Week in Hours Online Time per week in Hours F % 1-2 50 50 2-3 31 31 3 and more 19 19 Total 100 100.0
Findings and Conclusion (cont) Table 4: Mean Distribution of Each Dimension of Expectations from the Supervisor (N= 100) Dimension of Expectations Support and Guidance in Terms of Actual Thesis Writing Access to Resources N Mean SD 100 20.64 3.91 100 13.46 2.73 Schedule of Meetings 100 19.75 3.61 Timeliness of Review and Feedback Working Relationship/ Communication 100 13.84 3.21 100 10.34 2.61
Findings and Conclusion (cont) regarding Each Dimension of Expectations Table 5: Homogeneity Analysis of Respondents Characteristics Levene Test of Homogeneity Support and Guidance in Terms of Actual Thesis Writing Statistic df1 df2 p 0.399 4 96 0.809 Access to Resources 0.885 4 96 0.476 Schedule of Meetings Timeliness of Review and Feedback Working Relationship/ Communication 1.416 4 96 0.234 0.891 4 96 0.473 0.265 4 96 0.900
Findings and Conclusion (cont) Table 6: ANOVA for Students Expectations Enrolled in Research Course Source of Variation Sum of Squares Expectations Support and Guidance in Terms of Actual Thesis Writing df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 127.533 4 31.883 2.147* 0.001 Within Groups 1425.635 96 4.850 Total 1553.168 100 Access to Resources Between Groups 81.286 4 20.321 2.948* 0.014 Within Groups 661.764 96 6.893 Total 743.050 100 Schedule of Meetings Between Groups 78.602 4 19.651 1.541 0.197 Within Groups 1224.210 96 12.752 Total 1302.812 100 Timeliness of Review and Feedback Between Groups 42.603 4 10.651 1.034 0.394 Within Groups 988.862 96 10.301 Total 1031.465 100 Working Relationship/ Communication Between Groups 12.919 4 3.230 0.463 0.763 Within Groups 669.635 96 6.975 Total 682.554 100
Findings and Conclusion (cont) Table 7: Post Hoc Analysis Regarding Mean Difference between Groups Mean Std. Dimension of Expectations (I) Program Support and Guidance in Terms of Actual Thesis Writing (J) Program Computer Science Difference (I-J) Error Sig. Education Management Sciences Zoology 2.24 1.14 .003 2.14 1.11 .006 2.94* 1.21 .017 Computer Science Management Sciences 2.61* Access to Resources Education .78 .001 1.92* .85 .027 2.11* Mathematics .89 .020
Results and Conclusion Major conclusions: 50 % students asked for 1-2 hrs per week of supervisors guidance. Most of the respondents expected that actual thesis writing is responsibility of both supervisor and supervisee. About half of the respondents believed provision of resources is supervisor s responsibility. Most of the students believed that to arrange schedules of meetings is supervisor s responsibility. More than half of the students believed that providing detailed & timely written comments on all written manuscripts is the responsibility of supervisor. About half of the students were of the view that that developing supportive working relationship is supervisors responsibility.
Results and Conclusion Respondents have high expectations about support and guidance in terms of actual thesis writing and least about developing working relationship between the supervisee and supervisor. Significant mean difference was found between the students on five programs on two dimensions of expectations i.e. support and guidance in terms of actual thesis writing and provision of resources. Respondents of Edu., Mgt., Zoology have higher expectations than students of CS about support and guidance in terms of actual thesis writing. Respondents of Edu. have higher expectations than CS, Mgt, & Math. students in terms of provision of resources by the supervisor. No significant mean difference was found among the opinion of students of 5 programs regarding scheduling meetings for seeking guidance of research, receiving timely feedback and developing working relationship.
Recommendations Majority of the research supervisees have more expectations and a higher level of dependence on supervisors, as they expected that four out of five elements of research supervision are supervisors responsibility. There is need of clarification of postgraduate supervision rules and regulations encompassing the diverse roles both parties have to take on in postgraduate study and supervision. A more comprehensive model for postgraduate research should be developed by the VU. Formal university-wide supervisory training followed by in-house sequential training over extended periods of time for supervisors is the need. The same is still limited at VUP. So it is recommended to arrange training for the supervisors for effective use of online communication mode, giving timely and meaningful feedback, developing strong working relationship irrespective of the distance. Students should also be educated and encouraged to work without much spoon feeding. More in-depth studies needed to be conducted to help bridge the gap between students and supervisors.
