United Kingdom 
COVID-19 pandemic has hit every sector in the world badly. It has also brought a substantial change in teaching and learning techniques. The teachers and students had struggled to turn over from face-to-face to online classes. Teachers are learning new techniques to figure out how they can provide the best online learning experiences. On the other hand, students are also working hard to cope with this change. What does this all mean to you? It means the requirements of dissertation projects are changing due to COVID-19.
Students who cannot go to laboratories for testing are worried about their projects. The teachers are also worried about how they can help students. During all this, one thing is certain teachers need to change the requirements of projects. The question is, what are those changing requirements. Those requirements are the focus of today’s article. So, you do not need to go anywhere else. Give this article a fine read, and you will know what you want to know. It will discuss how you can move forward with your research project during COVID. Before describing the requirements, let’s see the difficulties students face.
Difficulties in completing the Requirements Of Dissertation Projects
The postgraduate students are unable to perform lab experiments. They also face difficulties in conducting in-person interviews. Due to the restrictions, fieldwork has become almost impossible. Thus, collecting data for dissertation projects may be impossible for much of 2020 to 2021. The graduate students are concerned about their research projects. They are thinking about what will happen to the necessary academic work they have to complete. So, under these difficulties, students demand a change in the requirements of dissertation projects.
Changing Requirements
Undoubtedly, the CVOID-19 has hit the education sector very hard. The dissertation projects got delayed due to the impossibility of fieldwork. In these circumstances, the normal research trends have to get changed. So, a brief description of all the changing requirements is as follows;
Work from home
Work from is the first requirement of dissertation projects. Due to COVID-19, it is difficult for students to come to the university and do an experiment. Teachers have considered this problem for students. It is why they have allowed students to work from home. Students have to work from home on their dissertation projects. They have to communicate with their advisors through email and digital meetings. Due to this communication, they can create schedules on how they can make most of their time outside the universities. Along with the campus closure, students will not be able to travel. So they have to reschedule their visits regarding their project.
Systematic review and metanalysis
Students cannot go to laboratories to perform necessary tests. So, what else can they do during COVID-19? One other changing requirement is systematic review and meta-analysis. It means they should spend more time on literature searches. Spending time as much as possible on literature ensures a better understanding of the questions. This meta-analysis of the current knowledge during COVID-19 provides new higher-level evidence. It opens new perspectives to research the dissertation topic.
Moreover, students need to take help from libraries to perform this analysis. Online libraries can help students hugely in this. They can read and download the relevant literature from there. Hence, due to COVID-19, students need to perform systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which is also a requirement.
Focused literature review
Being unable to conduct the primary research, students can use secondary research. Students are adopting a more focused literature review technique. They know that they cannot go to laboratories to complete their research at least until the end of COVID restrictions. In this scenario, the situation requires a focused review of the current knowledge. Students can also adopt to send their reviews for peer review. Many journals in the COVID times asked the researchers to send their mini-reviews for peer-review. Those journals encouraged trainees to participate in this.
Such types of activities help students remain in touch with their dissertation. They work tirelessly on the literature review. Also, the submission of review for peer review is the changing requirements of dissertation projects. It is because students get to know about their mistakes.
Innovative methodology
Many students work on tech-based dissertation projects. It involves the development of new and innovative methods. For students working on such projects, their focus could be shifted to working on developing innovative technology. Due to COVID-19, they cannot go outside their homes. In such a scenario, students need to take up the simulation projects. They need to simulate the new and innovative technology and complete their dissertations.
Students can also write their dissertations based on creating conceptual diagrams. Students must remember that those diagrams should be practical. Working on an unpractical thing due to COVID-19 is not the changing requirement. You have to work on developing new technology that is practical and viable. Many journals upload articles that are based on simulations and conceptual diagrams. Students can take help from those papers.
Analysis of previously collected data
Working on previously collected data is called secondary research. Due to COVID-19, students cannot conduct primary research. Therefore, analyzing the previously collected data is also a changing requirement of dissertation projects. Students can visit the previously published experiments. This will help them immensely in creating a new hypothesis. They can use that data to test their new hypothesis. Students can create a good dissertation piece with a focused literature review and analysis of the previously collected data.
Mathematical modeling and computer simulation
It is something that is very in nowadays. Due to COVID-19, students need to switch to modeling and simulation projects. You only need some previously uploaded data and a computer to model something. The previously published data can be collected from the internet. There are huge databases on the internet that contain large amounts of data on different topics. This type of research can predict the impacts of something on society. The researchers use mathematical modeling to predict the future behavior of different things. All they need to use is software. Some of the particular software that does modeling are MATLAB and Excel.
There is also a potential problem associated with this requirement. Students may need some kind of training from their teachers before simulation. To solve this problem, students can use different online meeting software. They can learn using the software from their teachers online. Also, nowadays, there are tutorials available about every software online. Students can also make use of those tutorials.
Data mining
COVID-19 has restricted direct data mining. But online databases are wide open for students. They can make use of those databases to mine the data. The large amounts of data available online can help you discover the patterns in your topic. Suppose you are a student in the geo informatics program. To complete your dissertation, you need to go into the field and collect data which is not possible due to the COVID-19 restrictions. It is where you need to shift your gear from field-based data to online. You can use online databases that have satellite data of the area of your interest. Some of the notable databases in this field are Golvis by USGS and some other satellite data mining websites.
Remote human research
Along with science students, COVID-19 has also hit the students of social sciences. The main source of data collection for such students is human interaction. They interact with humans of different groups. They collect the data based on their behavior and psychology upon their interaction. Note that, due to COVID-19, such dissertation projects also need some changes.
The studies involving human research could be conducted through other means. Those means can be an online interview, questionnaires, or a combination of these two. Students can collect data on human behavior through these methods. Hence, it is a changing requirement of dissertation projects during COVID-19.
Switching the research area
It is also a changing requirement of dissertation projects during COVID-19. Students can switch if they cannot work on their original topics due to difficulties. They can switch from one field to another, which is easy to work on during COVID-19. For example, students can align their research with COVID-19 too. They can do their dissertation on the topic of “Impacts of COVID-19 on Education.” Students need to get their degrees on time, and they cannot do it unless they do something to finish their dissertations on time.
Conclusion
COVID-19 has affected the education industry badly. The halt in the education process has disturbed the research. Students could not go to laboratories to perform the experiments. It makes it difficult for students to complete their dissertations on time. Keeping this in view, students have to change the requirements of their dissertation projects. Some of the requirements are mentioned above. Hence, you need to read those points mentioned above if you are still facing the same issue.
