Designing a thesis tele-supervision system for postgraduate medical sciences students

Introduction: Today, progressing science and technology atall domains, including education and research, will bring newopportunities to resolve the communication and interactionproblems. The aim of this study was to determine potential factorsaffecting the thesis supervision and provide a web-based solution.Methods: This is a developmental study conducted in twotheoretical and technical phases at the Shiraz University ofMedical Sciences in 2017. The theoretical phase was performedin three stages, including literature review and investigatingthe existing studies and Delphi’s study based experts’ view aswell as identifying the thesis supervision status based on 200postgraduate students’ point of view. The technical phase hadtwo stages, including to draw processes and to design the physicaland logic schemes of the system. The Thesis Tele-Supervisionsoftware named SAHPAD was designed by C# and ASP. NETprograming languages.Results: The results showed that out of 40 potential factorsspecified at the first stage of theoretical phase by using experts’opinion, 13 items were selected as the main factors. According tothe results obtained from the students’ views at the third stage, thefactor of “accessibility” had the minimum score, i.e. 3.15 mean offour, which was the worst status.Conclusion: The designed system covered from the beginningto the end of the thesis workflow at its electronic frame with itsvarious capabilities such as the interaction of the research team todecide the title, draft the proposal, prepare for thesis defense,etc.