Thesis Director, School of Global Public Health

Description

The Thesis Director provides oversight of the entire process of the thesis including engagement with students, teaching assistants, and faculty.

Overview of Thesis I and II:

At GPH, the thesis is an original research inquiry to answer a testable question and is presented as a journal-style manuscript reporting results of data analyses (typically secondary analysis of an existing dataset) about a specific public health topic. In Thesis I, students develop and refine a research question, conduct a comprehensive review and analysis of the literature relevant to the topic of interest, describe methods, formulate a plan for statistical analysis, and develop a proposed timeline for the project resulting in the thesis proposal. In Thesis II, the focus is on completing the proposed thesis (conducting analyses, writing up the results, and presenting a discussion of the results, limitations and implications of the work.

Spring and Summer (preparation for Thesis I)

• Work with Academic Affairs to identify second year or advanced PhD students (must have completed candidacy exam) or DrPH students to serve as teaching assistants for Thesis I

• Update course materials (syllabi, Brightspace site, slides, data source document, assignments, rubrics, readings, guidelines for final products) and arrange guest lecturers for two lectures in the fall – citation management and IRB overview for all Thesis I sections

• Reach out to Thesis students in early August to remind them of the pre-semester activities they should complete/think about (i.e., dataset and research question [RQ]) 

• Meet with all instructors prior to start of classes (one and a half hours) to orient the course and review all assignments and required steps that occur during Thesis I (e.g., required vs. work-in-progress assignments)

• Attend EPI, BIOS, and SBS fall orientation sessions to provide an introduction to the thesis courses

Fall and Spring Semesters (Thesis I and II Management)

• Meet with all thesis instructors as needed, but at least one additional time to review progress and to monitor grading across sections

• Provide instructions and reminders for relevant announcements to instructors to disseminate to students. Also ensure announcements are sent to out by section instructors

• Monitor consistency of material delivered across sections, assignment and final grades, as well as turnaround time for release of assignment feedback and grades across all sections for consistency

• Communicate and problem-solve (via phone, Zoom and email) with individual instructors continuously throughout the semester for course-related questions or issues as well as critical issues with students or teaching assistants

• All communication, instructions, guidelines, and oversight of working hours for the TAs are under the direction of the thesis director

• Students who are in jeopardy of failing (failing is receiving less than an 83, a B, in the class) – need to be in contact with thesis advisor, faculty advisor and department chair

• Via email collect suggestions for changes to the course from all thesis instructors via email

• Advise instructors on Turnitin and AI issues

• Thesis I specific-tasks

• Assign faculty thesis advisors to all thesis students in BIOS, EPI and EPI based on RQ, methods, or department

• Thesis II specific-tasks

• Communicate with faculty via email re: thesis draft and final deadlines.

• Contact and provide additional guidance, as needed, to external thesis advisors

• Conduct two thesis info session for first year Master-level students – mid-April

• Send out data sources and pre-semester activities to Thesis I students - June

January-term (Preparation for Thesis II)

• Create a template for the Thesis II syllabus so that each instructor can create their own syllabus for their section. There should not be much variation. Deadlines for thesis draft and final thesis are the same across all sections.

• Edit and provide all lecture slides and accompanying materials (e.g., assignments, rubrics, readings, guidelines for final products) to instructors.

• Create the Brightspace Thesis I course site with all materials added to have the GPH IT team copy it for the other sections 

• Meet with all thesis instructors prior to classes beginning to review content and approach to Thesis II

Compensation: 

• 2 course buyout

Qualifications

• Must be a Full-Tim