i'm sitting in my friend and colleague ivy's oral defence right now.
her research was on the effect of the cooperative learning strategy known as Group Investigations might have on learners of different academic abilities.
it is quite an eye-opening experience for me (as i thought it would :-P ).
the last time i was in attendance in anything quite as similar was back at the MIT in '98. that was a very different experience, in many ways. first, today's defence is a real viva, with four members of the viva team seated around a table. it's also a quasi-closed-door session, conducted in a meeting room, with only the viva team being allowed to ask questions (note that the viva team are distinct from the examiners - i didn't know that either :-P ).
wow... as i was typing those words, all the students seated behind were asked to leave the room. ivy too needed to leave.
as for the questions asked by the examiners, they were definitely not beyond what ivy could handle.
looking at her draft copy of her submission, i can see it came up to just over 200 pages.
eeks.
Technorati Tags: viva