Impact of ICT-assisted thesis writing on Student researchers’ psychological empowerment: Indonesian case

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) in the 4.0 industrial revolution is crucial for higher education. This mode is often assisted by the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), e.g. in the context of thesis writing. The ICT-assisted thesis writing is now a demand to empower student researchers. Thus, this paper attempts to evaluate the impact of the multimode thesis writing on the student psychological empowerment. Employing a case study, sixteen student-researchers from a private English college participated in this study. All participants had involved in multimode ICT-assisted thesis writing. Supervisor’ website, youtube, edmodo, and whatsApp were used to facilitate student researchers distance supervision. The data were gathered through questionnaires and a focused-group interview. The results revealed that the student researcher became voiced and more autonomous. They also felt more motivated for the thesis completion. Instead of having individual work, the student researchers engaged in a direct collaborative works. Thus, ICT-assisted thesis writing was empowering both for the supervisor and the student researchers. In addition, emerging issues and pedagogical implication were also discussed.