ICT Support for the Thesis Process: A Case as a Literature Review

Abstract

Thesis supervision is one of the most complex and problematic pedagogical methods (Connell, 1985). Hansson and others discuss this complexity and show that the core activities of supervision require (an estimated) four to five times more effort per individual student than the payment/time allocated (Hansson, Larsson, & Wettergren, 2009). These authors also discuss the nature of thesis supervision and argue that large part of the process is dependent on communication. Communication is time-consuming and hence may be one of the reasons for this problematic state of affairs; maintaining the quality of communication is a challenge. The Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) faced this challenge when several theses were reviewed by the Swedish Authority of Higher Education (Bider & Jalali, 2016). The DSV had initiated a project to implement an ICT supported system for the thesis supervision process in 2011 in order to address the issue of quality. Sci-Pro, the thesis supervision support system, was launched in 2011 and has grown into a mature system during the last six years. There is a lack of comprehensive studies of ICT support systems; the aim of the current study is to conduct a literature review of the published articles about the DSV thesis supervision system to explore how ICT can support the thesis supervision process. The results of this study therefore offer benefits to individuals who intend to develop or use ICT support for the thesis process.