Thesis Workflow
Project Forum can be used as a project orientation platform, for example for master theses. It helps students in seeing what possibilities exist and who to contact to discuss concrete projects/theses. In Project Forum, the university is divided into Faculties, Departments and Research Groups. Each research group has multiple themes which represent the major research topics of the research group. Themes can optionally have concrete projects which can be used for projects which are already well-defined such as (for example) ready-to-choose thesis projects or previous thesis projects to provide some examples to students.
The information displayed for a research group is fully customizable by appointed staff members. The information displayed for the themes and thesis projects of a research group is fully customizable by all staff members belonging to the research group (Professor, PostDoc, PhD, Researcher, Secretary, ...). This reduces administrative hassle and makes the barrier low for people to define their themes or projects.
Overview
Student View
When going to their corresponding course on Project Forum, students are presented with information similar to the below (customizable per course/programme). They have two exploration options. The first is by going to a specific research group and looking at the offering they have. The second is by using the search functionality to find themes and concrete projects.
Research Groups
Every research group is free to fill their page as they see fit, but it will generally contain a description of their work and some related courses such that students can search for their favourites and find the group. All groups have an overview of themes which represent their major research topics:
Themes and Projects
Each theme has a description, a list of researchers involved in the theme and (if any are present) a list of concrete projects belonging to said theme. A concrete project looks very much the same but doesn't have any concrete projects listed.
Search
Students can filter and search for themes and concrete projects with the search interface. They can filter by research group and/or by researcher. When searching, the system makes suggestions for search terms based on available tags.
Expressing Interest
Students can press the "I am interested!" button, which brings them to a secondary page where they are required to give more information and when they intend to start their thesis.
The interest emails are sent to the email contacts of a theme (configurable) and are sent from the email address of the student. This allows staff members to reply directly to the email to start further communication. The student also receives a copy of the email that was sent.
There are limitations in the system to prevent the possibility of spam. Messages must be at least 60 characters long (has content), need to be confirmed (no accidents), are sent from the student's email (traceable) and students are limited to expressing interest in only 2 (configurable per course/programme) themes/projects (not spammable). If students want to express interest in more, they will have to revoke their interest in an existing theme/project which again requires an explanatory email.
Management View
When you log in on Project Forum with Single-Sign On, you should automatically get access to the research group you belong to (provided your Master Programme contacted EIP to add the required setup). If this is not the case, reach out to the secretary/management assistant/head of your group such that they can add you manually.
If you belong to a research group, then in the top right corner you will have the option to switch from the normal view to the management view (and back). The normal view has a blue-ish interface and the management panel has a white-ish interface, to make sure you always know where you are.
Dashboard
On the dashboard you can see all the themes and concrete projects where you are associated. You also have some quick buttons to navigate to themes and thesis projects here.
Research Groups
On the University tab, you have the option to view the research groups where you are a member.
When viewing your research group, you have the option to see and configure all information associated with it (if you are a manager in the research group).
Themes and Thesis Projects
Any person belonging to a research group (Professor, PostDoc, PhD, Researcher, Secretary, ...) can update all themes and thesis projects in the group. Use the overview pages under the university tab to see overviews or navigate to them through the respective research group or theme.
Associated Users
For a theme and thesis project you can choose who the associated users are. For each user you can specify whether that user is shown on the theme page for students, and whether that user receives the interest emails from students. This allows for flexible setups where, for example, emails go to the secretary but the full professor is the only person shown on the theme. This way, each theme can choose who handles interest emails separate from what the students see.
Interested Students
At research group, theme and thesis project overview pages you can see a list of interested students with an option to send an email. This can be used to send information to all interested students, for example for informing them of events that they may attend to learn more about a thesis in your research group or theme. Here you can also remove people from the interest list by marking their thesis as completed or by rejecting a student with a message.
Tags
Tags can be added to research groups, themes and concrete projects. These tags can be anything from course names to key concepts. Tags are used for search suggestions and improve searchability.
