The purpose of the Onboarding session is to help you become familiar with the Exam-Dissertation Sequence (EDS), including the process and requirements before you are officially ready to begin. However, the EDS Prework page links you to several admin updates in the community that provide additional detail.

Do not wait until you are officially ready to begin, as that will delay your progress. You also don’t need to be registered in order to begin.

The EDS part of our LDL website is where all of the “process” details can be found.

Key pages to review now:

Visit the different navigation menus early to know what is available; revisit them often while you are actively working on the EDS

Note that we regularly update the website, so it is important that you revisit it often.

Setting goals early can help you stay motivated during this more self-regulated and self-paced process. It is possible to get distracted or discouraged during this process, but not unsurmountable if you leverage the scaffolding and support opportunities that we provide.

The overall process will typically take a minimum of 2 years for someone who is working on this part-time.

Refer to the Milestone Deadlines page for a sample timeline.

Considerations

While you register for an 8 week (or 6 in the summer) term, you should expect that each major milestone may take you at least a full semester
The review and revision process takes time for each milestone
Request feedback early and often. Attending the group advising sessions is a great way to help you stay on track.
Data collection strategies and duration vary and are not known at the start of your exam-dissertation sequence; allocate at least a full semester for data collection
During the final steps, your full dissertation draft is due before the start of the semester when you hope to graduate. The review and revision process can take several weeks or months depending on the quality of your draft and faculty availability. If your work requires major edits, you will need to postpone your target graduation term.
The final defense deadline is not the end of the semester; it is usually about 6 weeks before the semester ends
Your final deposit is due about 3 weeks before the semester ends

Time Management Tips (just a few) (see ideas from your peers)

Set interim task-based goals, such as when to complete the updates, search for a certain number of scholarly sources each week, write a certain number of pages each week, etc.
Set time-based goals, such as working on something for at least 15 minutes a day and at least 3 hours consecutively at least once a week
Revisit your goals on a regular (suggested – weekly) basis so that you can adjust them based on circumstances that may impact your progress
Use a calendar and/or reminders on your phone or computer
Commit to a writing schedule
Join a writing group to help you stay on task

We use a single community on CGScholar (LDL Doctoral Dissertation Sequence) for all steps in this sequence, regardless of when you begin.

You will see posts from peers who started before you.
You are expected to complete the Admin and Individual Updates in order (the website provides direct links to each admin update in the order you should review them).

In the community you can:

View Admin Updates
Comment on Admin Updates
Post your own Updates
Comment on relevant peers’ Updates
View works that have been published by your peers

Quality Contributions and Connections

In the EDS, we don’t rely on analytics, but rather quality of contributions. While we encourage you to comment on peers’ Updates, strive to make your contributions relevant.
We encourage you to connect with peers who may have similar research interests, experiences, and/or are at a similar stage. We also encourage you to identify a mentor who is further along in the process. And this can be both virtually in the community, via text, and/or email and live through small group meetings or writing sessions

Complete the Exam-Dissertation Sequence Survey as close to when you are starting the EDS Prework as possible to provide us with a baseline of your perspectives. This survey is used to help us improve your experience and for research purposes. Your participation is greatly appreciated. We ask that you complete the survey again periodically (about two to three times a year) throughout our experience in the EDS.

Complete the EDS Prework at least one semester prior to formally beginning the EDS.
You are then welcome to start the General Field as soon as you have capacity. But please start with the Admin Updates. (And as a reminder, you don’t need to be registered in order to begin.)

Registering for courses in the EDS requires a form (you’ll see a message in the registration system that this requires instructor approval).

Become familiar with the registration process, including the required forms and when to complete them at the relevant times.
Within a few days (estimated) after you fill out the Seminar Request form, you’ll receive an email from the department with the instructions on how to register. Please note that in some cases your approval will be delayed if you have not completed all previous coursework.

Considerations

We only allow registration for one course (4 credits) at a time during the EDS.
Once you submit a work that is approved to advance to peer review you will be approved to register for the next course.
If you do not have a financial or employment-related (or any other) reason to register over the summer, it is advised that you register for the Fall, but begin working on the EDS in the summer. Summer registration does not contribute to “active” status, but Fall and Spring do. Because these courses take longer than 8 weeks, it is common that the registration dates rarely correspond to the dates when you are actively working on things. Fill out your EDS Progress report to help us know when you are “working” on something vs. “registered”.

This is a brief (5-15 minutes) session to check-in and ensure that you feel equipped to begin the EDS.
You are welcome to come prepared to discuss your tentative research question, but you will dig into this more while working on the General Field steps.
Contact Dr. Francis to arrange your initial individual advising session before you formally begin working on the General Field steps and after you have completed the EDS Onboarding steps.

Much of the work at this stage is self-directed. But we hold periodic workshops, peer group sessions, writing retreats, individual advising sessions, and weekly group advising sessions to help support you in this journey.

Workshops, peer presentations for prelim or final defense, peer group sessions are typically held on Mondays between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. CT
Group Advising Sessions are typically held most Mondays from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. CT and some Tuesdays from 9 to 10 a.m. CT.

Visit the Happening Now page on a regular basis to see the latest schedule.

While they are not required, you are strongly encouraged to attend the Group Advising Sessions by the time you are ready to officially begin the EDS. You are welcome to attend before that to see what they are like, such as at least one term prior to formally beginning the EDS. We find that students who participate in these have a higher completion rate and minimize the number of milestone revision cycles. Similarly, we recommend you attend the stage-specific workshops as you prepare for that particular step.

If you choose to not participate in the group advising sessions, but your work submissions do not meet our quality standards, you will be asked to attend these going forward.