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What supervisor, student and programme practices can be seen to align with successful dissertation outcomes for online distance learners?

As a number of new online Masters programmes launch at the University of Edinburgh, and online distance learning (ODL) becomes more mainstream across the University, supporting part-time, online distance students through the latter stages of their studies becomes a matter of shared interest as well as a priority for individual programmes and supervisors.

This one-year project was funded by the Principal’s Teaching Award Scheme (October 2014-September 2015) to investigate:

  • what students want and need from their dissertation experience,
  • what connections exist between programme and supervisor practices and student outcomes,
  • how student and supervisor understandings and experiences of ‘success’ mapped onto available dissertation-related data on four ODL programmes, based in in Education, Law and Medicine.

A key output from the project was the ‘Dissertation Situations’ game, for programme teams and supervisors.

 

Images on the site: background image – ElvenEmma; header image: British Library