Teaching
Supervising a thesis or dissertation
One tracking sheet per student, dated milestones, versioned reviews: supervise several projects without losing track of any.
The problem
MD theses, DES (specialty training diploma) dissertations, master’s projects, PhD theses: an academic hospital physician supervises several in parallel, each at a different stage, each with its own administrative deadlines.
Step-by-step method
- One sheet per project: student, topic, type, stage (question, protocol, data collection, analysis, writing, submission, defence), next deadline, blocking points.
- Dated milestones entered in the forward-planning table: topic registration, progress committee, defence deadline.
- Versioned reviews: each round of feedback produces a new, suffixed version (see the review guide).
- A monthly check-in: Claude lists the projects with no news for a month and proposes a follow-up message, for you to send yourself.
- Keep a record: each completed supervision feeds into the career file.
Deliverable
A supervision tracking table and follow-ups sent on time.
Starter prompt
Create a tracking table for the students I supervise: student, type of work, stage, next deadline, blockers. I will give you the list; flag whatever is behind the usual deadlines.