Design of a Web-based System for Supporting Master’s Degree Thesis Research Process

摘要

Many universities in China use web-based systems to manage the training and administrative aspects of postgraduate program. The existing web-based thesis management systems only facilitate to monitor thesis management process rather than to support thesis research process. The aim of our study focuses on designing a web-based system to support the master’s degree thesis research process and knowledge sharing in it.With the design-based research method, the main steps and instructional model for master’s degree thesis research process are indentified and presented based on the analysis of practical thesis research workflow and relevant instructional approaches, such as problembased learning, cognitive apprenticeship learning and collaborative learning.According to the instructional model and the relevant literature, six principles for designing the web-based system to support master’s degree thesis research process are presented.A technology system is designed based on the principles with three key modules: research process, research group and knowledge sharing.A test with nine student users is designed to evaluate the software prototype of the system. The result shown that comparing with the old version developed by our team, the new system presented in this study is more effective to support the whole thesis research process, and easier to use from the view point of the student users.