Finish Your Degree - 6 Key Lessons For Completing Your Study
What you'll learn
- Develop a habit of reading, thinking & writing which will set a very important foundation for success in your degree
- Set up your weekly supervisor status report so that you keep a regular discipline of progress and streamlined communications
- Plan and master your tasks throughout your studies from "To-Do" to "Done" to drive momentum and benefit from Kanban principles
- Support your study with a good proposal that sets the foundation for your degree and learn how to fix an existing proposal
- Learn writing practices that help you write for your reader and complete your reports & discussion papers with meaning & clarity
- Write & pass your final report, thesis or dissertation which will be your single biggest measure of success in your degree
- Principles and practices of Kanban boards and how to set yours up either physically or digitally to maximise your progress
- How to limit work in progress & achieve cadence in managing tasks to maintain consistent weekly focus on what matters most
- The 3 key objectives that a good proposal needs to achieve: The what, the why and the how of your study
- Learn writing practices like real nouns, real subjects, old before new, complexity last and how these make your writing clearer
- The 5 main sections of a final report, thesis or dissertation: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results, Conclusion
- The importance of writing early, often and well; practical techniques to making this an important part of your daily student life
- Learn which content from your proposal can go into your final report so that you "think with the end in mind" and start early
- The importance of writing discussion papers as a practical technique for writing often to document academic progress as you go
- What goes into your weekly supervisor status report: The 5 tasks you completed last week and the 5 planned for the next week
- Practicalities & benefits of a weekly progress report: How it helps improve your own discipline and improve supervisor interaction
- How to plan key phases of your degree on a week by week basis; see a demonstration of how I planned and wrote my thesis
- Demonstrations of each major section in my own final report; see a walk through of exactly what I put in my document
- How to write a good thesis statement as a north star that guides your study; I teach you an example from the wipeboard
- Download and see demos of my own successful PhD documents: Proposal, Proposal Presentation and Final Report / Thesis / Dissertation
Requirements
- There are no course requirements or prerequisites
Description
"Thank you for all the tips and techniques that you have provided in this course. It really helped me in completing my research proposal for my masters degree." - Rensche E.
"This course sounds fantastic just from looking at the introduction. I am confident that it will definitely build my success." - Jenna M.
"I thoroughly enjoyed this course! I am beginning a Masters's degree and the tips and advice presented in this course gave me food for thought and a structured study plan for me to use going forward. The demonstration/wipeboard lessons helped cement and clarify concepts or study tools. I feel more confident now moving forward with my degree having completed this course. Thank you very much!" - Caitlin V.
"This course was phenomenal. The content was high quality and practical, and I found a lot of value in the time I spent working through it. After completing it I feel more confident and excited about my academic journey. Thank you for this wonderful experience, I would recommend this course to every student!" - Chanel Cloete
This course is a premium masterclass in which I will teach you everything you need to know and prepare to get through your research based qualification with confidence and success. Avoid the stress that is often associated with a demanding period of your life, especially if you are studying part time or doing research for the first time.
Achieve confidence today by enrolling, learning and applying these 6 steps and then enjoy your degree rather than be stressed by worrying about whether you are well prepared. I've coached and taught postgrad students for 5 years and I draw on all my experience, as well as my own PhD, to provide everything in one place.
These are the top 6 most important aspects of academic student life that I see students struggling with and you can gain the advantage of my experience by going through these lessons. Learn what actually works from my experience and thousands of other students before you learn it the hard way with mistakes that can delay and significantly impact your studies.
In this course you will learn these 6 steps that will give you the confidence to complete your research based degree successfully:
Step 1: Develop a habit of reading, thinking & writing >> take action
Step 2: Set up your weekly supervisor status report >> take action
Step 3: Plan and master your tasks from to-do to done >> take action
Step 4: Support your study with a good proposal >> take action
Step 5: Learn writing practices for meaning & clarity >> take action
Step 6: Write & pass your final report, thesis or dissertation >> take action
The course also includes a downloadable PDF guide that highlights the key actions, insights and learnings for each of these steps. You will also be able to download my own PhD Research Proposal, PhD Research Proposal Presentation as well as my PhD Final Report / Thesis / Dissertation.
There are activities for each step so that you can take action and apply what you have learnt as you go to achieve your goals. Each step builds on the previous one so although you can select individual steps to focus on, it is also valuable to go through the steps in sequence. You will get the best results if you complete the entire course all together and put the principles and practices into action as soon as possible.
Review of Peter Alkema's course, Double Your Academic Writing: "I wish I had this course last year when I wrote my English papers and assignments. This has however assisted me now in emails and getting my point across better within my environment. The videos were interesting and captivated through the course. Very clear and precise."
Review of Peter Alkema's course, Finish Your Proposal: "Peter brings a wealth of experience from his PhD and presents it in a way that is easily accessible. Focusing on the fundamentals and then drawing those principles through to the final proposal. Especially useful are the real life examples from his own studies."
Review of Peter Alkema's course, Pass Your Thesis: "Thanks Peter, this is excellent. I have just completed my MBA, I so wish I had this lesson when I started my research project. I am contemplating a PhD, your lessons will definitely help me to decide whether or not I give it a go."
Review of Peter Alkema's course, Get Kanban Organised: "I have learned to compartmentalize and work systematically on tasks. It's less daunting when you tackle a task by breaking it down and tracking the progress rather than looking at it in its entirety"
Review of Peter Alkema's course, Transform Your Academic Performance: "This course was such a perfect match for my needs. Simple and practical, but yet contains so many useful techniques that i can see myself using as i embark on my PhD research journey. Thanks Peter"
Who this course is for:
- Students are typically doing research based study at any level
- Students who want to avoid stress during their degree
- Students that want to get prepared as early on as possible in their studies
- Students who need to address weaknesses in their academic performance
- Students who want a roadmap to know what they must do to be successful
Instructor
- 4.3 Instructor Rating
- 44,236 Reviews
- 192,271 Students
- 193 Courses
"What an amazing course! After finishing this course, I have confidence. Thank so much Dr Peter Alkema" ... "This is exactly the jump-start I needed. Very clear and concise"
I lead Digital Transformation & Architecture at ABB and I've been featured on CNBC Africa and won the Gartner CIO Of The Year in 2016. I founded and led the largest banking hackathon in South Africa which was published in 2019 as a case study by Harvard Business School.
I've taught over 100,000 students about technology, business, academics and self-development. In 2020 I completed my PhD at Wits University In Johannesburg. The study introduced a ground-breaking theory of Agile software development teams. My woodworking book was published in 2014 and has sold over 10,000 copies.
Olugbenga Gbadegesin: "Excellent delivery" / Lebogang Tswelapele: "This is what I have been longing for" / Paskalia Ndapandula: "Peter speaks with so much clarity" / Amantle Mangwedi: "It was straight to the point and the sections are cut into nice short segments which made it easier to go through" Kathy Bermudez: "Excellent material. Well organized..."
Werner van Wyk: "Thank you Peter, once again your lesson and course have given me so much knowledge and understanding" / Yvonne Rudolph "I really look forward to take everything i learned in action" / Josephine Mahlangu: "exactly what I needed to know, absolutely valuable and helpful for my personal growth"