Could an Online Learning Environment be a Dissertation?

Submitted by platypus matt on July 23, 2004 - 11:30.

There's been debate for a long time about whether a novel or a film can be considered a dissertation. Obviously, most traditional or pragmatic-minded faculty will respond quite negatively towards such projects, arguing either that they do not represent valid research and scholarship or that they do, but other faculty (who may control hiring decisions) may not think so. Anyway, I wonder if those people who agree that a novel should be eligible as a dissertation would also agree that Charlie's DRUPAL site or my TIKIWIKI could likewise constitute a dissertation. What is your take on this?

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Clancy's picture

Justification

Submitted by Clancy on July 23, 2004 - 13:13.

I think it's reasonable to provide a long paper to accompany the project explaining the rationale, theoretical underpinnings, etc. But you might have been thinking along those lines anyway.




CultureCat

Or include traditional structure in site

Submitted by pmentzer@drupal.org on July 24, 2004 - 12:12.

I wonder if you could include your rationale, theory etc. as a section on the site itself. I think it would be a nice format to have a very robust site that also included a link to things like references etc. so that fellow researchers could hit a link and see not only what you did, but how you justified and researched it.

I'm at the Master's level, and am making a site as a directed research thesis project. Fortunately, my program has been open to my integrating the technology directly into my project format. I also wrote the traditional sections and did the lit review as part of my proposal, which was a good learning experience for me. There is some value in the traditional format, since it sort of forces you to address certain issues along the way in your research. In the end, though, I don't see why the structure of a dissertation couldn't be expressed very effectively through the new media online technology and publication format.

Precedence

Submitted by Michael Noble on August 4, 2004 - 23:31.

Hi. Having looked into such a question as part of my PhD process, I have to say one of the biggest questions you'll be asked is also "what is the precedence for this kind of thing?". One interesting candidate is Milkbar by an Adrian Miles, which is his PhD as an online dissertation. It inculdes the exegesis as part of the online content. Not quite an online learning environment but the argument could be made for precedence. Does anybody else have any examples?