Bachelor Thesis Log 21

November 23rd, 2010

Here is the third to last bachelor thesis report, about two weeks before the final submission of the thesis. Not much more will happen to the text. I'm still waiting for some feedback, but otherwise the rest is administrative: printing, binding, submitting, and so on. Today I'll briefly tell you what's in the last section I wrote, and then I'll get to the things that are relevant for the submission of the thesis.

Beyond Teachlets

This is the provisional title of the last section I wrote last week. It actually turned out to be another two pages in which I mentally remove the absolute core aspects of the teachlets from the concept and see what happens. Partly, this led to quite interesting methodological approaches, but partly the results were not too exciting (we take teachlets and remove the interactivity – oh look, we've invented the lecture…) up to obvious mental dead ends like educational methods without participants.

But I'm not bothered by the open ends, the section was already planned as a bonus and should only serve as a small outlook. And quite honestly: in the meantime, I'm also fed up with the thesis. It was a lot of fun, but I just don't feel like brooding over this text any longer, when it has already been feeling finished to me for two months. Well, now it's almost done officially too.

Submission Modalities

When I registered my thesis, I was given December 6 as the deadline – the day three months after the exam committee chair confirmed my registration. On this day at the latest, I have to hand in the printed thesis at the student office, paying attention to the opening hours. In my case, on a Monday, this is only possible in the morning.

The submission should be in triplicate, in written and bound form, as well as on CD. (The examination regulations speak of a “suitable electronic storage medium,” the information sheet of the student office says it should be a CD). Of course, this is stupid if you haven't burned CDs for years and have long since given away the dusty blanks. Capitalism to the rescue: at an electronics chain near me you can actually buy one blank CD (for 70 cents), which is what I did. Let's hope that nothing will go wrong during the burning process…

The declaration that I have not stolen any texts or concealed any sources is something I have also already written, of course including permission for the library to include the thesis in their collection. Since I won't be distributing any more pre-release versions, I've already cleaned up the document a bit: I've added the license reference and the corresponding metadata and removed the watermark. It all looks pretty clean and final already.

I will probably do the binding in the computer science library, since there is the possibility for students to do it for free. I have to hand in three copies, then I will probably make one for each of my supervisors and one for myself. Having amassed a total of 60 pages per copy, that's 360 printed pages, which is not negligible in terms of costs. Actually, I would also like to have them on bleached paper – I know, it's un-ecological, but more attractive. But my little inkjet printer won't be able to do it within a reasonable quality/cost margin. I'll have to find out what the university says about printing that much on the one A4 color printer they have. In terms of price, the method probably can't be beaten. If they give me the bird, I might have to look around for a good but cheap print shop to do it for me. Or do any of you know a better way?

Future

This time next week I will draw the cut-off line for the feedback. That means that Axel only has time to give me feedback until then. He has that on his mind though, I already got an email from him yesterday about it. I'll also get feedback from Jan, which I'm really looking forward to.

Next week I'll give you a short report on what feedback I got and what I already implemented or still need to implement. During the rest of the week, the printing and binding will take place. The last report I'll announce right now for one day earlier than usual: it makes sense to write the very last (promise!) report directly on Monday the 6th. I look forward to it. But first, until next week!