Synchronous tutoring meetings

Upon request, students supervised by Pontus Johnson are offered weekly videoconferencing tutoring meetings over Zoom. In a typical session, each participant updates the group on their project, describes if there are any issues that require assistance, and poses some questions. Pontus will be available to respond to questions and comment on your project and progress. If you prefer to simply listen in, that is also possible. Some sessions may be cancelled or rescheduled. If so, that is communicated via ssas-students.slack.com.

For spring 2024, tutoring meetings are held Fridays at 10:00 from Jan 19 to May 31 on Zoom. There will be no tutoring on Feb 16, March 1, March 29, April 5, or May 17. Feb 23 is rescheduled to Feb 22 at 09:00.

Asynchronous tutoring

Beyond the weekly meeting, you may receive assistance from your supervisor over Slack (ssas-students.slack.com - ask your supervisor to register you if you are not already) or email. Much tutoring consists of reading and commenting on drafts of the thesis report. If you desire prompt feedback, please agree on a date for submitting your draft to your supervisor. That way, the supervisor can book the required reading time in the agenda, and thus provide very prompt feedback. Otherwise, response time will depend on how heavily booked the supervisor happens to be when the draft is received.

Weekly update

A good way to keep in contact with your tutor - in particular if you didn’t join the weekly Zoom meeting - is by submitting a weekly update (over ssas-students.slack.com or per e-mail), responding to these questions:

  • What has happened since last update?
  • What are your plans for the coming work?
  • Do you need assistance?

Your examiner

While the examiner assesses your performance and thus acts in a role of authority, your tutor is only there to assist. Thus, interaction with your tutor is completely voluntary. If you feel confident that you are on the right track, then you don’t need to participate in the activities above. If, on the other hand, you are not quite sure about the requirements on your project, or if you need technical, authoring or project planning assistance, then your tutor is available to help out.

Your program coordinator

Your program coordinator will be able to respond to questions about scheduling, report submission requirements, thesis presentation and opposition. Your tutor is typically not involved in these requirements and activities, which differ significantly between programs.