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Responsibilities of the chair of the defence during a completely digital defence

The defence will still follow regular procedure as far as the situation allows for it. In addition to your regular responsibilities during a defence, there are a few additional points that relate specifically to a digital defence.

  •  A completely digital defence is conducted entirely in Zoom, so before the defence you must familiarise yourself with Zoom. 
  • You will lead the defence and must be the one to instruct the other participants on what happens when.
  • A technician will be there to help with the technical aspects of the defence, but will in general be a silent and nearly invisible participant. The technician is the host of the defence in order to manage it technically, but you will still lead the defence.
  • Two days before the defence you must take part in a practice session in Zoom, together with the candidate, a technician and, if possible, the opponents. The technician will set up the Zoom session. 
    • You should use the same equipment (camera, microphone) and location (office) for this test meeting as you will do during the defence. 
    • During the practice session you should spend some time explaining the regular procedure during a defence at UiO, and make the opponents aware of what is expected of them, how much time they have for questioning the candidate during the defence, etc. 
  • Keep in mind that using Zoom on a Remote Desktop does not work. You must have the Zoom desktop client installed on the laptop or computer you are using. Read more about installing and signing in on Zoom.
  • For the actual defence you must join the webinar using your personal link sent to you by the technician, no later than 30 minutes before the defence will start.
  • Make sure your microphone and camera work, and that you have a stable Internet connection.
  • The defence will be conducted as a webinar, which is somewhat different from a regular Zoom meeting. Read more about the differences here.
  • You will be a panelist in the defence. This means that you will be able to mute and unmute your own microphone, and share your screen if needed. 
  • During the defence your microphone should be muted when you are not speaking, to reduce background noise. Whenever you need to speak, you must unmute your microphone. 
  • Remember to announce breaks once in a while, just like you would during a regular defence.
  • Remember to still invite the general audience to ask questions ex auditorio. The technician will notify you if there are any, and you will invite them to either write their question in the chat or ask it out loud. 
  • When the defence is finished, you and the committee will need to leave the webinar in order for the committee to discuss and evaluate the candidate. The technician will invite you to a separate Zoom meeting where this will take place. Once the committee has reached a conclusion you must all return to the webinar, by leaving the separate Zoom meeting, and click you original (personal) link to the defence webinar that you received with the original defence invitation. Once you are back in the defence webinar you can announce the verdict of the committee to the candidate and the audience. (This does not apply if your faculty normally does not hold such a meeting before finishing the defence).
  • If the candidate decides to conduct the trial lecture live with the opponents in Zoom, you must be present for this.
  • If technical issues occur that simply cannot be resolved right away, you must pause the defence until the issues can be solved. If it still cannot be solved, the defence may need to be called off and rescheduled.
  • If you have any questions about digital defence, contact your faculty administration. 
Published Sep. 7, 2020 4:45 PM - Last modified June 27, 2024 2:30 PM
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