The following email is circulating around, asking for help collecting data for a study we are doing. I think this will provide some good insight for the field about the possibility of alternative formats for dissertations for our students. It’s part of a thesis by Rebecca Thomas, who is doing a fantastic job with it. Please help by circulating and taking the survey!
————————– Email below—————-
Dr. Peter Rich, Becca Thomas (a graduate student) and myself would like to invite you to participate in our study on “The Effectiveness of Alternative Dissertation Models in Graduate Education” by taking the survey linked below. As an incentive, each person who completes the survey, which should only take about 15 minutes, will be entered into a raffle with a 10% chance of winning a $20 Visa gift card.
In this study, we are surveying current students, alumni, faculty, and administrators of Instructional Technology programs who have completed either traditional or alternative dissertations. We hope to investigate the usefulness, benefits, and challenges of alternative dissertation formats, so we can help departments make informed decisions about pursuing alternative dissertation formats and help students in the field complete alternative dissertations more effectively.
This survey is an updated version of a survey we sent out in 2010. If you completed the 2010 survey and would like a summary report of our findings, please email us and we will happily send your our summary report. This new survey will build on the knowledge that we gained from our previous survey and extend it. We anticipate publishing these new results and will be happy to share a summary report of the data or draft of the article with anyone who completes the survey and requests it. We greatly appreciate your participation.
Link to survey for DEPARTMENT REPRESENTATIVES OR CHAIRS (about what your department’s policies and thoughts are on this topic): https://byu.qualtrics.
Link to survey for FACULTY, STUDENTS, AND ALUMNI OF DEPARTMENTS (whether you did traditional or alternative format dissertation, we want both!): https://byu.
Sincerely,
Dr. Rick West, Brigham Young University