Examples of innovative electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) can be found on the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) Awards website. These ETD incorporate photos, video, music, data sets and software code and transform the genre of the thesis from a printed document to a form of research output that integrates text and multimedia to express ideas and results in a way that is more easily understood and more meaningful. Experiments are shown on video (to illustrate clearly the actions taken and to enable them to be reproduced more accurately), time-lapse photography is used to demonstrate how an action affects a situation, music is heard rather than described, data is input to show changing graphs and patterns of activity.
From a simple video to highlight issues in a role-play exercise through to the use of ‘cutting edge’ technology, once the concept of integrating multimedia is embraced the opportunities for improving the way in which research results are expressed in a thesis or dissertation are endless. Click here to see some examples in science and health related subject areas.
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