Supervising and Writing a Good Undergraduate Dissertation

For an undergraduate student, a dissertation is a very large piece of work requiring careful planning, time management, critical thinking, conceptual work, and adherence to practices for completion. For the supervisor, it offers the opportunity to work with a beginning researcher to help them to develop sound research practices, stretch them and find their own voice. All of this needs to be managed carefully and pragmatically in a very short span of time – often less than a year, sometimes only a semester. This chapter engages with and offers research and experience based ideas for good practice in supervising undergraduate dissertations and projects, although many of the ideas and practices are also transferable to postgraduate supervision.

This chapter outlines a framework and processes that students as well as experienced researchers can draw on when setting out to conceptualize a research project. The framework, which identifies key aspects of a research project that need to be attended to, also represents an agenda for the activities of supervisors of student research projects. The content of the chapter is intended to provide ideas, information and guidance for both students and their supervisors that will help ensure that they can work together effectively on the basis of a common understanding of what is involved in this task. An emphasis is placed on the aspects of the research and the researcher’s own ‘position’ that need to be thought about and decided on before decisions about data, data sources, methodology, data-gathering methods, and data analysis procedures can be made. These interrelated aspects include the research topic, thesis and question; the case for undertaking the research; and the researcher’s paradigm, values, theory and ethics positions. Accompanying the framework are observations and suggestions about the nature of the thinking that competent researchers need to engage in as well as commentary about students’ understanding of the nature and purposes of research.

Between 2009 and 2010, ten final year students volunteered to take part in a small pilot study to monitor their dissertation experiences. This is a ‘warts and all’ account of that process. It includes the highs and the lows that students in their final year often face. The aim of the project was to highlight the students’ own expectations of the dissertation and follows their journey through the process. This project emphasizes the fact that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution to dissertation supervision and that the dissertation is still greeted with fear by many undergraduates, even those who are very academically minded. It also shows that although universities are attempting to address this anxiety by introducing research modules earlier in the degree program, the students often do not see the relevance of these at the time. The study concludes by giving some alternatives to the traditional dissertation thesis as suggested by the students themselves.

The purpose of this chapter is threefold. First, it provides an overview of the ethical principles involved in conducting research with human participants. Second, it addresses the principles involved in supervising undergraduate student research. Third, the chapter describes several ethical principles that govern the research process itself. The ethical issues regarding supervision include establishing a contract between the faculty supervisor and the student, dual relationships, incompetent supervision, inadequate supervision, supervision abandonment, intrusion of supervisor values, abusive supervision, exploitative supervision, encouragement of fraud, authorship issues and conflicts of interest. The ethical issues that students need to know include issues involving the recruitment of human participants, informed consent, debriefing, deception, avoiding harm, confidentiality, risk/benefit assessment, vulnerable populations, and ethical issues related to research methods.

This chapter provides practical support and guidance to students around the ethical dimensions of undergraduate research with human participants. Ethical considerations are perhaps the most important aspect of any research project involving human participants, especially as they speak of the rights of individuals and groups within society. Ethics in research is as much about the process as the final product and emphasis is put on maintaining integrity throughout the life-cycle of the project. Although ethical issues can be challenging, novice researchers are expected to conform to the same principles, standards and norms as more experienced researchers. With this in mind, the principles that guide ethical decision-making are initially outlined and their application to each stage of the research process is subsequently discussed. This discussion is further enhanced through the provision of expert tips and the use of audio clips from students illustrating how ethical issues can be managed within projects.

Increases in numbers in higher education coupled with a more diverse population including international students, has meant that tutors need to be responsive to a wider range of needs. The dissertation is arguably the most substantial piece of work a student produces during his/her degree; however, the supervision of undergraduates during this period and the relationship with the supervisor are in need of research as most effort has been focused on the postgraduate level. International students face the same challenges as their home domiciled peers but may face other difficulties associated with language and enculturation. However, there are many potential benefits for both staff and students which can be derived from the rich diversity which international students bring to university life. This chapter reviews some of the key literature in the area of supervision and, in particular, some of the issues surrounding supporting international undergraduate students. Based on the review, the author offers a number of recommendations for supervisors in higher education.

In this discursive chapter, an argument is established for revisiting how the undergraduate dissertation in the Arts & Humanities is placed within the whole of a program in the light of changes to the nature of being an early career researcher. Directed at academics, graduate teaching assistants and students, it provides the starting point for a discussion about how to redesign dissertation processes in such a way that students are enabled to play to their strongest researcher orientations. It does this by reviewing the situation of the dissertation in the light of the research-teaching nexus, changes to early career researcher discourses and experiences, and employability. It establishes as a key concept the importance of researcher orientations (towards: the theoretical, civic engagement, problem-solving policy, or anticipatory action and innovation) in student learning within a research intensive environment, and reviews the efficacy of the dissertation as an assessment type that materializes research-teaching linkages. The chapter suggests ways for reconsidering the dissertation within a set of pathways through the degree which plays to the researcher strengths of undergraduate students.

The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) defines undergraduate research as “An inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate student that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline.” This definition sets a high standard for students to achieve, but students have proven that, with appropriate mentoring and early support, they are capable of making original contributions to their areas of study. If we expect students to make an original contribution through their research, however, we need to begin preparing them early in their college or university programs. Students need to learn the research methodology and means of communicating research results that are used in their disciplines. Also, for students in many disciplines, it is very important to be able to clearly communicate results to an audience outside their discipline.

This chapter explores the emotional dimensions of academic writing, identifying its important emotional drivers and prohibitors. It highlights the difficulties associated with the writing process and emphasizes that the process is experienced often as a series of challenges and struggles to be navigated. By drawing parallels between the writing ‘journey’ and the features of Campbell’s ‘hero’s journey’ it provides a framework and language for supporting academic writing that could be helpful for supervisors and their students. Associated concepts including the paradoxes of academic writing and issues of genre and expression within disciplines are also explored. References cited in this chapter include the link to a video clip of the author discussing similar themes.

The outset of this chapter acknowledges the intrinsic tension in using an online community to support dissertation writing. Whilst it is envisaged that each individual student will have an individual supervisor/tutor, a carefully constructed and managed online learning environment can incorporate both individual and collaborative learning elements. Communities of practice (CoP) theory (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) and Wenger’s most recent work on digital habitats (Wenger, White & Smith, 2009) are combined to achieve an innovative reimagining of how, where and when learning takes place. This chapter proposes that some of the learning around the dissertation process might be supported within an online CoP in which undergraduates can learn from sharing each other’s practice (research, resources, writing), a form of social constructivism. Such a course would be predicated on tutors providing students with an explanation of both the expected approach to learning and eliciting explicit student ‘buy in’ to the synergistic collaborative learning approach which is at the core of such learning. The digital habitat consists of:

The Tools Landscape which is focused on how the course tools (blogs, wikis, discussion fora) support the rhythms and interactions of members of the course community of practice.

The Course Landscape which is constructed from the perspective of the course tutor, and is designed to assist the tutor in the practical business of course design. It is based on the roles of students and tutors in relation to each course component and the extent to which components are unique to one cohort or shared across cohorts.

This chapter discusses the use of online materials to enhance the student’s dissertation experience in an Irish Higher Education Institution. The project began in the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism in 2009 partly as a reaction to the fact that from that September, the final year students of all honors degree programs would complete a dissertation. This necessitated a more structured approach to the management of this process and also meant that supervisors would be supervising many more students than heretofore. As part of this new system, it was decided to investigate the possibility of developing online support materials which would be available to all students in conjunction with the support that their supervisor would provide. This chapter discusses the process by which the resources were developed, presents examples of materials that have been used successfully and engages in an analysis of how the success of such materials can be evaluated. The experience and views of students are also incorporated in the chapter as a key way of appraising the effectiveness of the online tools.

This chapter highlights how e-portfolios, specifically the Mahara opensource environment, may be used by students and supervisors to enhance traditional undergraduate supervision practices. Mahara facilitates a collaborative peer support model of supervision and provides a centralized and accessible repository of artefacts, interactions and outputs that may be utilized to support the undergraduate research dissertation as it develops. The chapter concludes with a set of recommendations on the effective application of Mahara to dissertation supervision.