Arnaldo Manuel Pinto Santos
Paulo Nogueira Martins
José Paulo Cerdeira Cleto Cravino

Doctoral Work planning
Thesis planning
Doctoral Thesis

Upon completing this learning unit, the student should be able to:

• Identify the problems related with doctoral-level work on Web Science and Technology;
• Distinguish the various research questions of at least three subdomains of research;
• Specify in detail the state of the art on a specific subdomain of Web Science and Technology;
• Specify a doctoral research proposal that includes the research question(s) or problem(s) to be solved, the motivation, and a detailed and justified plan of the activities to be undertaken.

1. Doctoral work: major phases, their implementation, and related issues;
2. Studies of different subdomains of Web Science and Technology;
3. How to conduct a state of the art study: main phases, ways of gathering and processing information, formalization of research questions, characteristics of the final report;
4. Doctoral work planning: elements to present, format, supporting argumentation, time and resource planning, defence preparation.
5. Elaboration of a doctoral research plan in a subarea of Web Science and Technology, including the respective state of the art study to be presented and defended in public before a jury.

 

• Turabian, K. (2013). A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 8^th edition. Chicago, USA: University Of Chicago Press.
• Creswell, J.W. (2008). Research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches, 3^rd edition. London: Sage Publications.
• Pickering, C.M.; & Byrne, J. (2014). The benefits of publishing systematic quantitative literature reviews for PhD candidates and other early career researchers. Higher Education Research and Development, 33, 534-548.

Philips, E. (2000). How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and Their Supervisors. London, UK: Open University Press.

The evaluation encompasses a dimension of continuous nature based on the quality of the questions and problems that the student puts to the teacher/class; of the doctorate plan (including the state of the art study) and of its defence before an interim jury that will evaluate the relevance and feasibility of the proposed plan and its theme. The weighting factors and criteria of evaluation of the learning outcomes will be subject of negotiation between faculty and students.

The online teaching-learning process through the e-learning platform follows a collaborative learning approach. The student’s personal Computer is the individual laboratory space, for experimenting and developing the proposed activities, and the channel for communication and sharing within the virtual classroom.
The teaching-learning process shall follow an approach based on individual work assignments in the form of an intensive study of the area and its respective state of the art, and the participation, in virtual classroom, in the online collaborative learning process based on the discussion and critical analysis of the various topics of study. The teaching team conducts online tutoring orientation sessions to focus the study effort.