Dissertation
Key Resource
Graduate College Thesis & Dissertation Office
Doctoral students are strongly advised to look over the information from the Graduate College on a yearly basis. The individual student is responsible for knowing the procedures and policies related to the dissertation independent of conversations with the academic advisor or other graduate students. Should you have specific questions, please contact a member of the EdTech Doctoral Program Coordination Team.
N.B. In this document, the dissertation committee chairperson, also known as the Supervisory Committee Chair, will be designated as the “advisor.”
Description
The dissertation serves as a testament to the doctoral candidate’s ability to conduct original scholarship on an important question in educational technology, and to present and interpret the findings in a clear, logical, and appropriate form. The dissertation makes a significant contribution to the professional body of knowledge or practice. Generally speaking, the dissertation describes prior research, reports the investigator’s efforts, shows the relationship of the research to work that preceded it, reports on the findings of the research, and on the relevance of these findings to preceding work and to possible future work.
Process
The dissertation document must be prepared on the basis of the proposal document approved by the candidate’s dissertation committee, reporting on the research undertaken, and the results produced. The candidate with her/his advisor work together to have the final document to be submitted to the dissertation committee. Candidates should be aware that advisors need time to review drafts. Faculty usually need at least two weeks to be able to provide feedback. The candidate has the responsibility of assuring that all elements of the dissertation conform to appropriate standards as specified in the Graduate College Standards for Preparation of Theses and Dissertations, and in the current edition of The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
With permission of the advisor, the candidate will submit the final dissertation document and a link to the asynchronous presentation of the dissertation to the doctoral committee. The committee will read and provide feedback/comment to the advisor within two weeks. The advisor will communicate with the committee to decide if the dissertation is ready to be defended by the student. The advisor (representing the committee) and the student select the date for the final dissertation defense. It is the responsibility of the student and advisor to notify the Doctoral Program Coordination team (edtechdoc@boisestate.edu) of this date.
It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure that she or he is prepared for the defense meeting.
Dissertation Document
The dissertation document does not have one specific format that all students must follow. Because the doctoral program emphasizes educational innovation, variations to traditional dissertation styles and formats will be considered. However, innovative dissertation formats and styles, as with all dissertations, must be approved by the candidate’s committee, the Doctoral Program Coordination Team and the Graduate College.
It is the decision of the advisor and committee as to the format that must be followed, which is unique to each student depending on the type of dissertation s/he wishes to complete. Format should be decided not later than the research proposal defense meeting. In general terms, the dissertation should include an introduction to the research or study questions (or design), a justification of the research based on a review of current, scholarly literature, a detailed description of the method(s) to employed to carry out the dissertation, discussion of the results/findings from the data analysis (or design), and connection between results/findings and the existing literature (or designs) that includes future research and applications. A dissertation document does not have a prescribed length; the expectations for length should be discussed between the student and advisor. The candidate has the responsibility of assuring that all elements of the dissertation conform to appropriate standards as specified in the Graduate College Standards for Preparation of Theses and Dissertations (including following the dissertation template), and in the current edition of The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Because the doctoral program emphasizes educational innovation, variations to traditional dissertation styles and formats will be considered. Independently of the format, if human subjects are participants of the study, IRB approval document should be included in the dissertation document sent to the committee before the presentation.
DISSERTATION DEFENSE
General things to know
Students must apply for graduation very early in the semester in which s/he plans to defend. Deadlines are published on the Graduate College site. A student is not *obligated* to defend in the semester where s/he has registered to do so – the defense can be put on hold if necessary.
The dissertation defense has two parts: a public session, which may be attended by other faculty, students, experts, etc., and a private session, which includes only the student, the committee members, the Graduate Faculty Representative (GFR), and possibly one of the members of the Doctoral Program Coordination team (primarily there for technical support).
The Graduate Faculty Representative (GFR) serves as an impartial moderator of the defense proceedings. This person represents the Graduate College to ensure all procedures and policy are followed. The GFR does not vote on whether the student has passed the defense; s/he only facilitates the committee’s decision making process.
The student will work with the advisor to set an exam date, which should happen between the start and end dates of either the fall or spring semesters. The ONLY dissertation defenses in the summer session are those where each member of the committee has clearly expressed her or his desire to participate in the defense. This is a conversation between the advisor and committee members if the student has indicated interest in a summer defense.
Defense Preparation Timeline and Activities
At least 30 days before the exam date: The student submits her/his the copy of the dissertation (to the advisor only) that s/he wishes to defend. The advisor, after taking time to read it and possibly gather committee feedback, will determine whether or not it is ready to be defended. If it is, an exam date will be established. If the advisor feels the document is not ready, then s/he will work with the student to get it to a presentable format.
The student will work with the advisor to set an exam date, which should happen between the start and end dates of either the fall or spring semesters. The ONLY dissertation defenses in the summer session are those where each member of the committee has clearly expressed her or his desire to participate in the defense. This is a conversation between the advisor and committee members if the student has indicated interest in a summer defense.
Defense Preparation Timeline and Activities
At least 30 days before the exam date: The student submits her/his the copy of the dissertation (to the advisor only) that s/he wishes to defend. The advisor, after taking time to read it and possibly gather committee feedback, will determine whether or not it is ready to be defended. If it is, an exam date will be established. If the advisor feels the document is not ready, then s/he will work with the student to get it to a presentable format.
Once a defense date has been set, the following activities and timeline goes into effect:
The advisor contacts the Doctoral Program Coordination team to alert them to the defense date. A member of the team coordinates with the Graduate College to ensure the correct forms are completed, and also coordinates with Ed Tech department staff to schedule a physical space for the room. One of the coordination team members will also establish a virtual room and create a defense announcement.
The Graduate College staff will contact the student via email with a number of deadlines concerning submission of the final document, information about commencement, etc.
No later than two weeks before the defense date, the student must submit the final defense document to the advisor and committee members.
No later than one week before the defense date, the student must submit the URL for his/her defense presentation to both the advisor and the coordination team (edtechdoc@boisestate.edu). A presentation video is required even if the student has decided to do an in-person defense on campus. The URL will be made public on the defense announcement, as will a link to a web-based form so that comments/questions can be collected.
Dissertation Presentation
The candidate should not work on the presentation until advisor has approved final draft of proposal document
Should not be longer than 20 minutes (length can be negotiated with advisor)
Expected to be an engaging, narrated presentation of salient points, with particular focus on the results and the connections of them with the previous literature.
Because it is a video, students are encouraged to build in other multimedia elements rather than simply read presentation slides
Include a reflection of candidate’s learning due to the dissertation study/design
May or may not include video of the student her/himself
Will be available online for at least one week leading up to the proposal defense
Day of the Dissertation Defense
At least one day ahead of the presentation, the chair and student should meet in the virtual room to make sure it is working (unless the defense is in-person). The student and chair should also exchange phone numbers, as well as plan to either meet via Skype or GoogleChat if the Zoom Room fails.
At least 30 minutes before the presentation on the defense date, the chair and a member of the Doctoral Coordination Program team will meet to ensure the technology – internet connection, video, audio, etc- works and make alternative communication plans clear in case any technological difficulty occur during the meeting.
Order of Events
Members of the public will enter the physical / virtual rooms before the start of the defense session.
The GFR will call the meeting to order and explain the logistics to the audience and student.
GFR will introduce the chair.
The Chair will introduce committee members.
The student will give a brief introduction of him/herself (< 3 minutes, to include their professional title and employer, their educational background, etc.)
Starting 5 to 10 minutes after the session begins, the video defense presentation will be played.
The public attendees (F2F and virtual) may ask questions of the student. Questions from the public can be sent to candidate’s advisor before the defense meeting or typed during the presentation in the Zoom session, or even submitted via social media (ex., Twitter). The advisor will read the question(s) to the candidate during the defense. The candidate will answer those questions. The Q&A from public will take no more than approximately minutes.
The public session will come to a close: members of the public, either F2F or virtual, will be asked to leave. The defending student will log-out of the virtual session or (if present physically), s/he will be asked to leave the room.
During the break (approx. 10 minutes), the committee will discuss its questions, determine order of questions, etc.
At the appointed time, the defending student will rejoin the physical or virtual room and answer questions asked by the chair and committee members. During this time, the chair will take notes as to what changes might be required based on committee questioning.
When no more questions remain, there will be another break of at least 10 minutes. During this time, the student will again disconnect from / leave the room. During this time, the committee deliberates on the dissertation document and the student’s defense of it. The GFR facilitates the vote. All committee members are required to vote either pass or fail to the following:
The student presented the dissertation in an acceptable manner (Yes or No)
The student adequately answered questions posed during the examination (Yes or No)
The student has written a dissertation that is considered satisfactory for the Ed.D. degree pending any modifications that may be required by the defense committee. (Yes or No)
The final decision will be based on a majority vote. The Committee’s decision can be one of the following:
Approve “as is:” any revisions that the committee may recommend may be integrated into the document, according to the student’s discretion.
Approve with revisions for supervisor review: The committee may request revisions to be undertaken before the proposal can be approved. If these revisions are minor, can be undertaken by the student in consultation with the supervisor
Approve with revisions for committee review: If the revisions recommended are more significant, they may require final feedback from the committee.
Resubmit: If the committee deems that the proposal document provides an inadequate basis for the research proposed, it can request that the student delay further research activities (e.g., submission of forms for IRB approval, or data collection), and that he/she resubmit a revised proposal for defense. If this revised version does not meet with committee approval, the student’s enrollment in the program is also terminated.
The committee will decide the changes or revisions that are needed, if any; and the chair will have the responsibility to communicate the changes/revisions and to ensure changes are made to the document.
After the committee has made their final decision, the committee signs the appropriate document(s)
The candidate will then rejoin the room and the chair will inform the candidate of the decision. A later conversation may be necessary for any changes to the document are required.
Next Steps
In most cases, after the defense of the dissertation, the advisor and/or committee members will recommend certain changes be made to the dissertation document. The request for changes does not mean one has not passed, as the committee can indicate that the student has passed even if the document needs editing, revisions, etc. After the committee signs the form indicating the outcome of the defense (this happens on the day of the defense), the student then works exclusively with the advisor. When the advisor is satisfied that all changes have been made as per the requests by one or more committee member, the advisor then signs and submits the Final Reading Approval form.
At this point, more work remains for the student before the final dissertation is accepted and published by the university. The processes are outlined on the “Formal Format Review” page.
https://sites.google.com/a/boisestate.edu/edtech-edd-handbook/dissertation/final-review
Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). (2010). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
Concerning “EDTECH 693: Dissertation”
EDTECH 693 is not a “course” in the traditional understanding of graduate courses (ex., there is no syllabus, there are generally not strict due dates, it is variable credit in a given term, the grade is only “IP” until one defends the dissertation, etc.). When one enrolls in EDTECH 693, it is essentially a shell within which any number of dissertation-related activities can and should be completed. The expectations should be carefully negotiated with one’s advisor, including when and what kinds of feedback can be expected. The following statements hopefully help clarify many aspects of EDTECH 693: Dissertation.
The Ed.D./EDTECH program requires students to complete 11 credit hours of EDTECH 693.
The only way to get approval to enroll in 693 is *after* one’s successful completion of the Comprehensive Examination. One cannot be granted approval to take the final 693 credits until AFTER the completion of ALL required core and research courses, cognate courses, electives, and the Innovative Experience.
A student can take more than 11 credit hours of EDTECH 693 (in some cases is may be required, see below).
One can only earn 693 credit hours in the summer IF the advisor has agreed to supervise proposal/dissertation work OR the advisor has asked and authorized another committee member to do so on his/her behalf.
A student MUST be enrolled in at least 1 credit hour of EDTECH 693 during the semester s/he defends the dissertation.
Students are obligated to be enrolled in 1 credit hour of EDTECH 693 for any regular semester following the Comprehensive Examination, even if they are not defending a dissertation and even if they have completed all required 693 credits. This excludes summers, where enrolling in 693 is optional. Obviously if there is some extenuating circumstance precluding a students from doing *any* work on his/her dissertation, we’ll consider that.
Students are restricted in the total number of 693 credits they can take in any given term (Fall, Spring, or Summer); one can enroll in a maximum of 9 credit hours.
Because EDTECH 693 appears in the registration systems as VARIABLE CREDIT course (allowing one to register for between 1 and 9 credit hours in any given term), PLEASE check at registration to make sure the correct number of credits are selected (consult your electronic planning forms or contact the program coordinator).
The number of credit hours for EDTECH 693 for which one registers should be based on a consideration of how much work the student and his/her advisor plans on accomplishing in a given term AND, of course, the overall flow of the dissertation process with respect to enrollment. Generally speaking, 1 credit hour of graduate work = 50 hours of “seat time.” Please note that it is *highly* likely that between the creation of documents or part of documents, revision time, data collection, analysis, formatting of the dissertation, preparation for defenses, etc. will take much more time than what could be covered by 11 credit hours. However, those hours are really connected to *faculty* advising time. It’s important to keep in mind that students can expect to work on the proposal and dissertation elements outside of the 693 framework, but if one is expecting some degree of advisor feedback (as one should), then it’s important to be enrolled in 693.
Until the successful defense of one’s final dissertation, the grade issued at the end of any term is “In Progress” (IP). At the end of the term in which a successful dissertation defense was completed, a grade of “P” (Pass) is issued for that particular term’s EDTECH 693 grade. Then, once the Graduate College confirms that all is in order, it changes all other existing grades of IP in previously completed semesters of 693 to “P.” Please note that “IP” is issued if the advisor feels that satisfactory progress is being made toward the completion of the dissertation.
It is HIGHLY ADVISED that students work with their advisor to carefully plan what will be done in any given term in which they are taking 693. A planning document with a timeline is one place to start, keeping in mind all Graduate College dates for submission of forms, documents, etc.
If you have questions about EDTECH 693, please first contact the
program coordination team, edtechdoc@boisestate.edu
Graduate College Review
AFTER you successfully defend your dissertation
The format review is a formal review conducted after you defend, and after you’ve incorporated changes from your committee. When you have done this, you submit your dissertation to your advisor for Final Reading Approval. When your advisor agrees your document reflects all changes necessary, s/he will sign the Final Reading Approval* page. At that time, you should also have your advisor sign your Access Agreement for a Thesis or Dissertation*, as this form requires both your and your advisor’s signature.
Please note that these forms can be signed, scanned, and sent electronically. This is not a problem. In fact, your Final Reading Approval page can be signed here on campus (if your advisor is on campus), and sent via Interdepartmental mail. Either the EDTECH EdD program coordination team or staff in the Graduate College can help in obtaining signatures if need be.
After you have obtained final reading approval for your document, the required forms must be submitted to the Graduate College Thesis and Dissertation Office (TDO). You can do so by having someone mail them, drop them off (the TDO is located in River Front Hall 307) or send them as attachments to thesis@boisestate.edu. Once the forms are submitted, you will upload your dissertation document to ScholarWorks for the formal format review by the TDO. The link for ScholarWorks and instructions for upload will be shared with you by the program coordination team or your advisor.
During formal format review, the TDO staff will check the formatting of your document to ensure it meets standards and guidelines of the Graduate College, check that the citations listed in the references list match those in the text and ensure that they are in correct APA form, and perform a copyedit/proofread of your document (as time permits).
After the TDO conducts the formal format review, personnel there will send you the edited document as a PDF, as well as an updated, formatted .docx file (if needed) through the ScholarWorks system. You will receive an email when this has been done. You will then retrieve the items from the ScholarWorks system, update your document as needed, and upload your final submission to ScholarWorks.
When the TDO receives the final submission, staff again reviews the front matter and ensures the document meets basic standard. They prepare the document for the Dean of the Graduate College, who will read it and then provide the final signature for approval. By “prepare,” the TDO is double-checking the table of contents, list of figures, and list of tables, saving the document as a PDF to ensure all bookmarks work, and ensuring the electronic PDF page numbers match the actual page numbers within the document. In short, the TDO makes sure the electronic document that gets posted online matches what you wrote.
* Graduate College forms can be found at: http://graduatecollege.boisestate.edu/forms/