The School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs has official procedures for holding thesis examinations remotely. The School of Computing has established a set of guidelines for remote defences, but they do not supersede or replace the SGSPA' procedures.
Before the Defense
- Supervisor schedules Teams meeting, inviting committee and candidate.
- Candidate ensures they have high-quality microphone and internet connection capable of transmitting high quality voice and video. Supervisor ensures candidate's setup is of acceptable quality.
- Candidate and committee members may share phone numbers with chair/supervisor as an alternative means of communication.
- Candidate circulates presentation slides to all committee members in some commonly readable format (e.g., PowerPoint, PDF).
- Debby circulates distinguished thesis award form to committee with instructions to fill in and send to her.
Start of the Defense
- All members and the candidate enter Teams meeting. Any technical issues resolved.
- Guests are allowed if permission is obtained from all parties. Supervisors are responsible for obtaining everyone on the Committee’s permission (most importantly the student’s permission) to have guests enter the examination.
- Chair reviews defense procedures.
- Chair reminds members to mute their microphones when not talking.
- Chair reminds group that recording of session is prohibited by SGSPA.
- Candidate (and guests) asked to leave Teams meeting, but to monitor chat channel.
- Committee performs initial discussion.
- Supervisor uses chat to tell candidate (and guests) to come back into meeting.
Candidate's Talk and Question/Answer
- Candidate enters screen sharing mode, starts and shows presentation to committee.
- Following talk, question and answer proceeds as normal.
Deliberation
- Candidate (and guests) asked to leave Teams meeting, but to monitor chat channel.
- Committee deliberates as normal.
- Supervisor uses chat to tell candidate (and guests) to come back into meeting.
- Result communicated to candidate by chair.
Signing
- Chair (digitally) signs on behalf of all committee members and submits form to Debby.
- Master's defense form
- PhD defense forms
- Committee members send email to chair allowing this signing.