Well, I DID IT!! I have now completed my MICM: Masters in International Communication Management. The final step was to defend my thesis. The structure of this was to give a 10 minute presentation, followed by around a half hour of questions from my assessors. It’s crazy how nervous I was, considering I know both of my assessors (one of whom was my thesis supervisor), and of course I totally know my topic back to front – but for some reason the situation made me even more nervous than presentations I’ve given to large groups!
But, it’s DONE! The photo above is directly afterwards, with my assessors Dr. Schelte Beltman and Michael Koenka. The defence took place at The Hague University of Applied Sciences on 19 July 2017. Though the manual says it’s a public defence, it reality, it’s not. It’s usually only you and the assessors in the room. I also had a third observer, someone who is training to be an assessor.
I believe I’m the only one who asked to film my defence. I took along my digital SLR camera and set it up on the side of the room. Funnily enough, during my presentation, I felt that my voice was so shaky that I didn’t think I’d be wiling to share it publicly! But in retrospect, it’s not too bad. That was both a combination of nerves and a cold I’ve been battling. Also, my set up wasn’t great, with my notes/slides set up to the side meaning I needed to look sideways a lot, and I’m standing in front of them if you’re watching the video. However you can still get the gist of it, and this 10 minute video is essentially a summary of my research:
While I was practicing, I also did a couple of screencasts. I was only allowed 10 minutes and found it really tough to cram many months of research and a 149 page thesis into that time! So if you are particularly interested (or bored!) you can see the original long version here:
and the revised shorter version here:
Both of these have the slides visible. So now, there is just the “fun” part left! After a nice summer holiday spending some time with my children, I am now going to don the gown and graduation cap this Friday and collect that all-important piece of paper! We also have a rehearsal on the Thursday and a pre-graduation dinner with all the THUAS Masters students, from all the 3 english language programmes (MBA, MICM and MFMC).
As I said in my defence, this is not the end! I see it as a (big) step in my career of education and elearning. If you’d like to get in touch in regards to my thesis/research, please connect on LinkedIn.
Renee
Zestee 
Well done!! It is a great day indeed!
Thank you! Yes, was very nervous but in the end was a great feeling to have finished. Renee