Managing the Undergraduate Research Process Through a Structured Online Supervision Platform: A Conceptual Framework
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24191/idealogy.v11i2.1007Abstract
Undergraduate research and design studio courses require students to progress through a sequence of exploratory, developmental, and reflective stages under the continuous guidance of a supervisor. In practice, this process is frequently managed through fragmented tools such as printed logbooks, e-mail correspondence, and verbal consultations, resulting in inconsistent documentation, delayed feedback, and difficulty in tracking a student's developmental trajectory across a semester. This paper aims to identify the essential process stages required to manage an undergraduate research or design studio project from initiation to completion, to develop a conceptual framework that structures these stages into a coherent, cyclical model suitable for translation into an online platform, and to propose a framework underpin the design of the GDC550 Logbook App prototype, as an instrument to collect empirical data on the research supervision process. The framework is derived from a synthesis of literature on technology acceptance, structured and gamified learning environments, cross-disciplinary creativity models, and collaborative supervision practices, and is organised into four interrelated phases: Registration and Supervisory Structuring, Structured Weekly Logbook Documentation, Milestone Review and Completion Verification, and Multi-Assessor Rubric Evaluation and Analytics. These phases are conceptualised as a cyclical rather than linear process, in which weekly risk-status indicators and rubric outcomes continuously inform subsequent supervision. The framework underpins the design of a working prototype, the GDC550 Logbook, an online supervision application developed for the Communication Design Studio 1 course, which operationalises the framework through a 14-week structured logbook with evidence and risk checklists, dual student-supervisor signatures, milestone review stages, a signature-gated completion summary, and a Course Learning Outcome/Programme Learning Outcome (CLO/PLO)-mapped, multi-assessor weighted rubric with automatic grade computation. The prototype will subsequently be used to collect empirical data on its usability and effectiveness. This paper contributes a theoretically grounded structure for designing digital research-supervision tools and offers implications for institutions seeking to standardise and digitalise undergraduate research management.
Keywords: Learning Analytics, Digital Supervision, Rubric Assessment, Educational Technology, Design Education.
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