Now the students no longer travel to their universities and colleges; they wake up in the morning and get ready for online classes or virtual classes where the teachers give lectures, just like in the real class; they take notes and even give exams online. This situation has also affected the students who are or were working on their dissertation writing tasks; instead of visiting the library or the campus, they have to work from home and visit the online archives. They do not even have to present their dissertation in person and interact face to face with the audience and committee. Due to social distance and fear of Covid 19, now the students have to work from home and also defend their thesis virtually.
It is because no matter what happens, the world has to move on; we cannot stop and halt the world, and the online platforms have made it convenient for students to keep up the academic process and continue with research even if the conditions are not so favorable. Platforms such as Zoom and PowerPoint presentations have made it very easy for students to do remote defense. Presentations with their visual appeal and befitting PowerPoint templates offer a perfect chance for students to defend their dissertation, complying with the social distance rule at the same time.
Preparing Defense and Observing Social Distance:
Here are some tips and ideas for students to prepare for the presentation of their dissertation in the most efficient manner:
Before setting up a virtual meeting, it is necessary to find the right platform from where you can host the meeting. There are several applications and software that can be used for the purpose, including Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, etc. and students can use them without paying for a given time, so it is best to get a paid version if the defense is lengthy or you do not want any connection issues. To ensure all the participants can see, hear, and speak, high-quality video is important.
Focus on the quality of internet connection because unless you have a stable and fast speed internet connection, things will not work out. Ask the audience for a check so that the meeting can go on without any hitch. Put other devices or applications on hold as it can reduce the internet bandwidth and create some problems with the connection. Keep with you an extra laptop, external webcam, and microphone so that you have a backup in case something goes wrong.
You must remember that the defense is the last step to all the hard work that you have put in writing a dissertation, and no one is as expert as you have spent weeks and months on it. Be confident, keep it formal and professional and make sure that you speak with the command, and it will give you the edge. Use terminologies relevant to the field, keep your body language alert and be ready for anything without any fear, and you will do well. There should be no extra sounds or movement in the room where you are holding the meeting, and the focus of the committee members should be on what you are saying.
Make sure to keep the committee members engaged in the presentation; they should not be busy on their phones or looking here and there just because they are bored and do not know what to do. Go through the defense again and again and see if it is interesting and engaging and good to keep the attention of the listeners. Use the best-designed templates with powerful backgrounds and color schemes, functional fonts with readable size to keep the audience hooked to what is going on at the screen. Preparing for presentation dissertation defense is an important task, and you must take it seriously even at the time of social distancing and impress the committee members with your hard work and efforts.
