Pre-defense procedures / Post-defense & obtaining electronic signatures
Pre-defense adjusted procedures
Scheduling final oral defenses
The University’s normal practice of limiting the number of remote participants in defenses is suspended until further notice. The Associate Deans, Graduate Studies in the Faculties and/or Graduate Coordinators now have discretion to approve remote participation by multiple parties, as necessary, to achieve public health objectives. It must be verified that all participants have access to appropriate equipment/software.
At their discretion departments may allow audience at remotely held defenses provided they have measures to minimize distractions (e.g. restrict audience to the presentation portion only, no video, mute all microphones, ensure defense chair moderates audience participation, etc.). All students, faculty and staff have access to Microsoft Teams through Office 365; other remote conferencing software can be used as well (e.g., Zoom).
Students should contact their department for guidelines regarding scheduling the defense.
Per the graduate calendar regulations, at least eight days in advance of the defense date public notice of the defense must be posted in the academic unit (e.g. on the departmental website) and a copy of the notice received in the Faculty of Graduate Studies from the department (via email to svetlana@uwindsor.ca).
Remote defenses with Microsoft Teams - resources:
- Setting up Teams Meeting in Outlook from Webmail - step by step (pdf)
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Using Teams meetings for audio or video conferences (from ITS)
- Adding guests (e.g. external examiner) to a Teams meeting
- Teams resources from Microsoft
After the defense has been scheduled departments will continue to send the notice of defense to Graduate Studies (via email to svetlana@uwindsor.ca) at least 8 days in advance of the defense date. All other defense requirements remain.
Post-defense procedures
All post-defense steps of the final submission (deposit) will be completed by the student online or via email as per the deposit steps instructions. Review also:
- Instructions for departments: obtaining electronic signatures on the Report form for a major paper/ thesis/ dissertation defense.
- Instructions for students: obtaining electronic signatures from committee members on the Approval form.