Milestone 5: Dissertation Proposal Presentation and Defense

Work with your dissertation chair to determine any specific instructions or guidance that he or she may have for you.

Once you have received IRB approval and once your dissertation committee has agreed that your dissertation proposal is ready for a defense, your dissertation chair will work with you and the dissertation committee to schedule a defense conference call.

Prepare a 15–20 slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation that summarizes the key information about your dissertation proposal. You do not need to restate your entire dissertation proposal in the presentation. Your dissertation committee has read your written work. During the defense, it wants to “hear” that you have “internalized” the research theory and design.

After introductions on the defense call, you will be asked to provide a 15–20 minute (about one minute per slide) overview of the research problem, purpose, question, theory, questions/hypotheses, and design. Your dissertation committee wants to see that you are “in control” of the research.

Following the presentation, the dissertation committee members may ask you questions about both the written dissertation proposal and the oral presentation. The members may also engage in discussions about needed refinements.

At the dissertation chair’s discretion, the dissertation committee will vote either during the call or after the call regarding whether the defense is successful and you can be allowed to proceed in executing your research design. Even if the defense is successful, you should expect to make some refinements to your work on the basis of the dissertation committee’s recommendations or requirements.
After the defense, the dissertation chair will again be your contact person during your data collection, data analysis, and the final writing of your complete dissertation.