4.1 Topic proposal

The actual thesis work begins with submitting a topic proposal in the Wihi service. In the Wihi service, you can carry out the thesis in project form. Wihi creates a schedule for the thesis and divides it into different phases and tasks. Wihi acts as a joint project tool used by both you and your thesis tutor – a place where you can discuss and share files and where you can structure your work using a variety of tasks. Your tutor can see the progress of your thesis by following your progress with the tasks and by commenting on your work in Wihi.

Wihi assigns three phases that relate to actually carrying out the thesis as well as one phase that precedes these and one that follows them: Project plan, Phase 1: One third of thesis completed, Phase 2: two thirds of thesis completed and Phase 3: Thesis is ready for assessment. After phase 3, there is still the ‘Thesis assessment’ phase. When the principal thesis tutor approves phases 1–3 in Wihi, the thesis courses in the Peppi PLP are automatically marked as complete. See the courses section for how to modify your PLP (4.2.1).

The topic proposal for the thesis is made by filling in the topic proposal form in Wihi according to the instructions below.

1. Log in to Wihi (wihi.jamk.fi) using your Jamk e-mail address and password.

Wihi home page opens. If you have multiple study rights, select the degree program from the right to which your thesis relates (see Figure 1).

2. Click the Create a topic proposal button (Figure 2).

3. Fill in the form.

• Group members:
  • If you are doing the thesis together with one or several other students, invite the other students to this Wihi project (Figure 3). This allows them to participate in the guidance and communicate with the advisor. If you work individually, leave this empty.
• Thesis information:
  • In the ‘Thesis title’ fields, fill in the preliminary name of the thesis in Finnish and English (NB: for English programmes, write the name in English in both fields).
  • The specialisation may be, for example, a track or other study path for your degree programme (e.g. marketing within the Business Administration degree programme) or the broader topic area of your thesis (e.g. the elderly, marketing, quality management, the energy industry). If your degree programme does not have such options, leave the field blank.
  • Select the planned start and end date for the thesis
  • Select thesis type: Bachelor’s or Master’s assessment criteria.
  • Advising time preference: In addition, you can propose a time for guidance that suits you best (daytime, evening, or whenever).
    

• Describe the details of your thesis according to the pictures below. Give enough details, so that the reader can get a good understanding on what you are planning to do and how.

Figure 4. Describing the significance of the content and results of the work on the topic proposal form

Figure 5. Describing the planned tools and working methods on the topic proposal form

• If you have a client or a commissioner for the thesis, fill in their name and contact information in the next field (Figure 6).
• Describe in the ‘Readiness’ field the areas shown in Figure 6.
• By ticking the box under the topic proposal, you commit to complying with good scientific practice in your work and agree that your texts can be checked using the plagiarism detection program.

• Finally, click the ‘Submit’ button. You can also save the topic proposal as a draft and continue working on it later.
• The topic proposal will be sent to the degree coordinator for your degree programme (Wihi coordinator), who may request further refinements to the topic proposal before approving the topic. Information on issues requiring refinements and a notification of acceptance of the topic proposal will be sent to your Jamk email. At the same time the topic proposal is accepted, the coordinator assigns an advisor for your thesis. When this is done, the initial view for the actual thesis project opens (Figure 7).

On the right side of the initial view, below the ‘Tasks’ and ‘Information’ sections, you can see the details of the thesis (topic proposal), possible statements from stakeholders (usually the commissioner) and your tutor’s details.

In the middle of the view are the functions related to the different phases of the thesis project. These functions are the same at all phases of the thesis.