Blended Learning Facilitation for Post Graduate Supervision

School of Education, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 2018

In 2010, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has become one of the Research University in Malaysia. Since then, UTM becomes a graduate-focused university with more innovative research-based postgraduate programmes offered. Undeniably, the role of the supervisor is critical in guiding graduate students to finish their study. Effective supervision is essential for supporting graduate research students towards the completion of their thesis. However, a previous study has found a high proportion of PhD students who fail to complete their studies in Malaysia. This study addresses the following research question: (1) What are the issue arises among postgraduate students during supervision? (2) What are the factors affecting a relationship between supervisor and postgraduate students? This study aims to identify the best practice relevant to effective supervision of graduate research students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. A meta-analys is research synthesis method was used in this study. Findings from this study provide critical data between postgraduate students and their supervisor during supervision. This study concludes that, academic incompetence, language, Malaysian culture, topic selection, monitoring progress, time management, scientific writing skills, emotional support and stress by supervisory system are the graduate students’ problems that usually delay their study or prevent them to completing. A few suggestions were also submitted to assist the graduate and supervisor in managing their affiliation and also on the improvement for future research.

Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal, 2020

The current global completion rate for postgraduates stands at 60 per cent, and one of the main problems cited is poor supervisory practices among postgraduate supervisors. Therefore, this qualitative study presents the views of nine PhD scholars on postgraduate supervisory practices from four universities in Malaysia. The thematic qualitative analysis categorized the supervisory practices into three main aspects, namely desirable, undesirable, and appalling practices. The findings of this study though not conclusive do shed some light on current supervisory practices. The findings imply that training and perhaps the call for accreditation of postgraduate supervisors is in order. Keywords: postgraduate study; supervisory practices; feedback; learning community; Supervisor-student interaction. eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativeco...

Supervision can be defined as a dynamic facilitative process that encourages a set of tasks and responsibilities which are performed in different domains. In research context, supervision involves supervisors’ and post graduate students ‘tasks and responsibilities in the supervision process. This paper will therefore concentrate on the four pillars of strengthening post graduate supervision namely: power relations, scholarship, practices and processes involved in being a supervisor. Power relations deal with the relationship between supervisors and supervisees. It focuses on how we go about creating an inclusive and participatory learning environment that enables students to acquire and further develop knowledge, methodological skills and writing practices during the research process. Scholarship deals with the strategies used to induct students into an academic community. It also deals with supervisors’ engagement with the scholarly academic community in order to develop a sense of being an effective supervisor. Practices in supervision refer to roles, responsibilities and activities of supervisors and students that enhance students’ development. Supervision processes involved in being a supervisor focus on the logistics of managing supervision with institutional requirements. The supervisors’ roles and students ‘responsibilities and expectations will be discussed under this pillar. Couching and mentoring in supervision as well as conventional and alternative approaches to supervision will be illuminated. Challenges in supervision and possible solutions will be discussed. Recommendations on how to improve the supervision process will be provided. It is hoped that this paper will shed more light on how supervisors should go about the supervision process. As a result, it is expected that supervisors will engage in effective and meaningful supervision.

International Education Studies, 2011

Research and supervision have become a vital process in the successful of postgraduate studies. Building an academic career path after Higher National Degree or Bachelor Degree needs intensive training and preparation. This culminates in writing of thesis or dissertation. In this process, the supervisor is designated to facilitate the student's research development based on good resources offered by the institution. At this stage, one of the most common complaints from research students concerns infrequent or erratic contact with supervisors, who may be too busy with administrative or teaching responsibilities, have too many students or be away from the university too often. The main objective of this paper is to expose what are postgraduate students' problems in research and supervision. The paper's thrust will be to highlight the importance of supervisory contribution to graduate study and to propose the best practice of supervisory inputs. Developing skills towards an effective supervision needs to be tackled in various ways. Effective supervision is essential to guide postgraduate students during their progress in postgraduate study.

Pushing Boundaries in Postgraduate Supervision, 2014

International journal of African higher education, 2022

Challenges Confronting Postgraduate suPervision at the national university of lesotho 23 spécifiques au contexte ou à l'institution. La Faculté d'éducation de l'Université Nationale du Lesotho a été confrontée à de nombreux défis pour proposer des diplômes de troisième cycle, avec peu de superviseurs qualifiés pour le grand nombre d'étudiants qui s'inscrivent dans ces programmes. Cette étude a exploré la nature des défis auxquels est confronté l'encadrement des étudiants de troisième cycle dans ce contexte. Elle s'est appuyée sur le paradigme interprétativiste et a utilisé une approche qualitative. Quinze superviseurs ont participé, dont neuf (trois professeurs associés et six maîtres de conférences) ont été interviewés. Six maîtres de conférences ont pris part à un groupe de discussion. Les directives relatives à l'encadrement des étudiants de troisième cycle ont également fait l'objet d'une analyse documentaire. Les résultats ont révélé que si certains superviseurs ont eu des expériences positives, d'autres sont frustrés. Cela est dû à un manque de formation et à un manque de clarté des procédures de supervision, ainsi qu'au faible niveau de connaissances universitaires et au manque d'engagement de certains étudiants. Il est recommandé de former les superviseurs. En outre, les directives de supervision devraient être revues et comparées aux meilleures pratiques dans le domaine. Mots clés : Supervision des étudiants de troisième cycle, constructivisme, pratique réflexive, directives de supervision, défis de la pratique de supervision 1. Introduction and Research Problem Postgraduate supervision is challenging in any context (Stephens, 2014; Boughey, van den Heuvel and Wels, 2017). Research and knowledge production continue to be the hallmark of higher education; however, in some contexts, systems are lacking to uphold this hallmark. Maistry (2017, p. 1) observes that the "neoliberal performativity imperatives that drive the strategic vision and mission of many higher institutions…have begun to shape the higher education project in particular ways". Wood and Louw (2018) concur and assert that the focus of postgraduate supervision is often graduating students in the shortest possible time rather than embracing the task as an opportunity to develop them as emerging professionals. Due to the rising number of students enrolling in postgraduate studies, most university teaching staff have heavy workloads (Bitzer

Emerging Techniques and Applications for Blended Learning in K-20 Classrooms, 2020

The uptake of blended supervision remains low in most developing nations. This chapter presents findings from a mini study on the perceptions of Kenyatta University graduate student supervisors and their uptake of blended supervision approach. The study adopted a mixed research design using eight supervisors purposively sampled. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data which were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings show that several challenges impede a positive orientation of supervisors towards a blended approach to graduate supervision. Findings indicated levels of reluctance in adapting the blended approach to supervision. The authors aver that lack of consistent efforts towards capacity building for supervisors' self-efficacy to enhanced use of the blended approach needs to be addressed. The results of this study will be used to inform supervisors' professional development initiatives in order to foster postgraduate student completion rates...

Trends in Nursing, 2016

Knowledge transfer is an inevitable process in higher education where research outputs are largely associated with the production of Masters' and Doctoral graduates. The supervision of postgraduate students at universities is therefore one of the core responsibilities of academics and is considered a measure of academic output. Supervision not only transfers research and related skills, but is also an intensive and interconnected form of educator-student engagement. The role of the supervisor in providing a supportive, constructive and engaged supervision process is important in the development of next generation practitioners who have the correct educational and skills mix to fulfil the future needs of the profession. The underlying principle of student support during supervision is that an experienced supervisor will be able to move through the learning processes with the student as this becomes appropriate. As the student gains competence in the basic skills of conducting research in a particular field of study, he or she will move to a deeper understanding of the nature and reality of that field. Research and, ultimately, high quality supervision of students, plays a pivotal role in the scholarship of discovery and the development of evidence-based practice.

SUN PRESS eBooks, 2014

The nature of supervisory relationship is dynamic that changes over the course of candidacy. Subsequently, the supervision demands of supervisees also change to help them in performing certain tasks at specific research stages. In this context, this research is proposed to investigate the supervision experiences of supervisees in four different research stages (i.e. Stage 1: developing synopsis, Stage 2: collecting data, Stage 3: writing thesis and Stage 4: submitted thesis). In the light of six supervision aspects (i.e. Project management, Intellectual support, pertinent research skills, Inter-personal communication skills, Workload management and Supportive skills) the quality of supervision was assessed from supervisees' perspective. Cross-sectional survey design was used to assess the supervision experiences of (N=422) supervisees in four distinct stages of research supervision. The data were collected from 12 public and private universities of the Punjab. For this study, a multi-sectioned, self-constructed Supervisor-Supervisee Relationship Questionnaire (Saleem, 2014) was used. The findings of the study highlighted the need to train the supervisors to manage their time not just in terms of teaching and supervision of research students, but also keeping the stages of their research in mind. By addressing the stage specific needs of supervisees the quality of supervision could be improved.