Topic outline

  • Welcome!

    In the second year of Master's Degree studies, the student is writing their Master's Thesis, 30cr. Department of Design's kick-off to the thesis process is the course Thesis Plan Orientation, 3cr. Lecturer Heidi Paavilainen is in charge of the independent study completion method instructed here.

    In the TPO, you'll learn all the necessary moves that designing and writing a Master's Thesis takes. During the course, you will write a Thesis Plan Proposal, with which you will present your thesis plans in your Programme/Major.

    There are four steps in the course:

    1. Your first step is to do a set of pre-assignments. Instructions can be found by clicking on the "hamburger" in the upper-left corner of this page and selecting "Step1: Pre-assignments" (link). The deadline for the pre-assignments is Friday, August 18th. You can miss this deadline, but then we, unfortunately, can guarantee only very limited feedback on your pre-assignments (e.g. notify misunderstandings).
    2. Next, do a set of assignments, instructed on their own page (link). These assignments familiarise you with your major's or programme's thesis idiosyncrasies and help you to think about and study the different matters and elements in your MA thesis. Do not forget to make use of the materials we have collected for you to utilise (link).
    3. After working on the assignments, you are quizzed about the results of your work. You can find the quiz on its own page (link).
    4. Based on the work that you have already done, you are well prepared to write your Thesis Plan Proposal. Submitting the 3-5 pages Thesis Plan Proposal is the last step of TPO course, and at the same time your first step towards completing your MA thesis (link).

    Please notice that the student has to have the TPO (2023-24) in their primary Personal Study Plan in Sisu in order to register and participate in the course. Registration opens 1.8.2023. Should you have any trouble in registering to the course, contact either study services or heidi.paavilainen@aalto.fi.