Dissertation Defense – DISS 990

CG • Section 16WK • 11/10/2019 to 04/18/2020 • Modified 09/05/2023

Course Description

DISS 990 facilitates the oral defense for a PhD in Theology and Apologetics candidate who has completed the dissertation under their supervisory team and is ready to defend their research and results.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Rationale

This course is the last step in completing the dissertation for the PhD in Theology and Apologetics degree. In DISS 990, the PhD candidate presents a clean copy of the dissertation to the chair and committee and schedules a time to defend the dissertation. The tasks for this course must be successfully completed so that the student may receive the PhD in Theology and Apologetics. Once the dissertation research and writing is completed, the student must present the results of that research in an oral defense (either on-line or in person). The candidate must also submit a publication-ready version of the dissertation to the Jerry Falwell Library for inclusion in the electronic dissertations collection. This course is designed to guide that process and other details related to graduation and degree conferral.

Course Assignment

Quiz

Before taking this quiz, the student will need to submit a Defense-Ready copy of the Dissertation to the Dissertation chair and committee. By completing this quiz, the student is requesting that the Dissertation Chair and Committee officially review the Dissertation for the Defense. This copy of the dissertation should be fully assembled, contain all elements of the dissertation as required by the Handbook, meet Turabian style requirements, and be free of spelling and grammar errors. (CLO: A)

The purpose of this assignment is to provide the final defense-ready dissertation document to the Dissertation Chair and Committee. This copy of the dissertation will be the one the study will defend in another assignment. This document must contain all elements of the dissertation as required by the Program Handbook, follow all matters of style as found in the latest edition of Turabian Style Guide, any PhD dissertation style guidelines as given in the Program Handbook, and be free of spelling and grammar errors. It must include any changes previously required by the committee and must be considered ready for distribution to the committee in preparation for the defense. The committee may require additional changes before or following the defense hearing. (CLOs: A, B)

The purpose of this assignment is to schedule a time for the student to present and to defend publicly the dissertation including research procedures and findings to the dissertation committee and academic colleagues. Detailed instructions for this assignment will be posted in the appropriate module. In brief, the student (with the help of the dissertation chair) will schedule a time to meet with the dissertation committee to discuss the completed dissertation. This meeting may last between 1 to 2 hours. (CLOs: B, C)

Quiz

The purpose of this assignment is to complete the graduation application process with the Registrar's office and to report that application process to the Dissertation Chair and to the Program Director. The quiz should be taken after the application for graduation is complete and has been reported to the Dissertation Chair and to the Program Director. (CLO: E)

 

Quiz

The purpose of this assignment is twofold: 1) to submit the publication-ready version of the Dissertation to the Liberty University Jerry Falwell Library, and 2) to complete the quiz acknowledging the completion of the dissertation publication. Part of this process will include any needed revisions given to the student by the Dissertation Committee at the defense. A final clean copy of the dissertation will be submitted to the Library. The quiz should be taken once the dissertation has been submitted to the Library in order to report to the Dissertation Chair and to the Program Director that the dissertation is complete.  (CLOs: C, D)