Improving the Thesis Process :

Independent learning hype has created a lot of speculation in the educational systems regarding how to develop and provide further support for the learning process. As a part of improving learning process, the Department of Computer and Systems Science (DSV) at Stockholm University has developed a communication platform, called SciPro, to support final project courses in higher education. This paper contributes by critically exploring the emerged issues during the thesis process. The content analysis is done based on the questions that are asked from the ThesisSupport group, which is SciPro support group to help the users or participants. Since a vast majority of the queries in all categories have been related to the lack of exhaustive instruction for using the existing information in the system, a general subject is brought up, named Instruction. Based on the data analysis and by considering the Instruction, five main categories of significant issues have been explored and showed in the figures. The categories that are exposed are: Thesis initiation, Info-mail, Technical issue, Exemption, Supervision, and Final seminar, which are all connected to the core issue, Instruction. Moreover, some sub-categories are explored in some categories, based on the similar issues discussed in the emails. Based on the number of queries in each category, the percentages are calculated for each category and included in the figures and tables. In conclusion, some strategies are suggested to support the categories and iron out the potential and existing problems. The suggested strategies belong to two main classifications of support, which are development of the instructions and the communications, to enhance the autonomous learning process in higher education.