Department of OMIS Organises Workshop on Thesis Process Digitalisation

The Department of Operations and Management Information Systems OMIS) at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) organised a workshop on Wednesday, 28th September 2022, at the UGBS Graduate Campus. The workshop which was moderated by Dr. Emmanuel Awuni, Senior Lecturer, UGBS had in attendance Dr. Altti Lagstedt, Principal Lecturer, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (UAS), Finland, Lais Oliveira Leite, PhD Candidate, University of Eastern Finland and a consultant at Eduix LTD, Finland. In attendance were some faculty members including Prof. John Effah, Dr. Eric Afful-Dadzie, Dr. James Mensah, Dr. Joshua Ofori Amanfo, Dr. Saviour Nubuor and some students from the business school. The workshop was part of a thesis management system piloted at the Business School.

In his presentation on "Thesis process digitalisation and capacity building supporting digitalisation,"  Dr. Altti Lagstedt stated that the three main goals of digitalisation are to create tools that are helpful and simple to use for all user groups, create data for decision making that considers the types of decisions that need to be made when they need to be made, and by whom, as well as what data is required at the operational, tactical, and strategic level, and finally improve the process by not only automating the existing one but also removing unnecessary tasks, bureaucracy, and bottlenecks. He subsequently took the participants through how Haaga-Helia UAS use “Wihi” an academic project management system, to digitalise the thesis process.

Taking her turn, Ms. Lais Oliveira Leite, an educational consultant for Eduix Ltd. based in Finland and also a PhD candidate gave a presentation on the theme “Standardising the Thesis Process with Wihi”. She mentioned that Wihi is an academic project management system created by Eduix Ltd. to digitise the thesis process of educational institutions She further added that it is designed for use by students, coordinators, and advisors and streamlines the thesis process while minimising manual labour. The software, according to her, can be integrated with an organization's most crucial systems and procedures, including student registries, plagiarism detection tools, and the organisation's archive and reporting systems. 

Subsequently, the participants were divided into groups of five for a practical activity where they concentrated on the different stages of the research process, including developing an understanding of the thesis process, formulating thesis problems, and choosing a thesis methodology. The groups concentrated on the outcomes for each phase, the tasks that students must complete with the help of their supervisors, and finally, the resources that could be used to complete the tasks. 

The team from Finland as part of their plans later paid a courtesy call to the Dean of the Business School to discuss UGBS support for thesis process digitalisation. The Dean expressed his appreciation for the pilot of the thesis management system at the business school. He thus acknowledged the impact the thesis management system will bring if it is fully implemented at the University of Ghana and other universities in Ghana.