Exploring Student and Supervisor Interaction During the SciPro Thesis Process: Two Use Cases

Common problems identified by students during their interaction with supervisors are too little instructions as well as infrequent and insufficient supervisor feedback. The SciPro system has been developed to tackle these problems. This paper describes, analyze and discuss the interaction between students and supervisors using the SciPro system. Through two use cases involving two supervisors and 38 bachelor and master students, the authors show that the structure implemented in SciPro supports and allows for different pedagogical approaches and supervision styles. Ten different types of interactions in the thesis process are identified. In order to explain why some students do not complete within the timeframe, the authors identify six categories of problems: 1) language skills, 2) inability to apply research methods, 3) ability for self-study, 4) lack of creativity, 5) limited knowledge about how to write academic work, and 6) lack of motivation. The collaborative stage of group-supervision may be one possible way to deal with the different type of support for the process of managing student theses.