Wihi guide for students

Wihi is a communication and archive tool for thesis writers. It relays thesis related messages between students, thesis supervisors and project subscribers. Wihi processes thesis topic proposals, project plans, and thesis contracts. Wihi also processes different evaluation phases of a thesis, and it is the place where the thesis gets a final evaluation. Wihi works together with Humak’s online learning environment: Thesis (Bachelor). There you can find information about how the thesis process works for your specific degree programme. Familiarize yourself with the thesis manual and instructions in Humak’s online learning environment before starting your thesis process in Wihi.

Theses 15 ECTS points are logged into PDP through Wihi. This means you don’t need to separately register anywhere to start your thesis process. The thesis process is divided into three stages in Wihi (1/3, 2/3, 3/3). The first stage includes writing a topic proposal, a project plan and signing a cooperation agreement between the subscriber of the project, the thesis author and the supervising teacher. The second stage ends when the thesis is nearly done. The third stage ends when the thesis is finished and evaluated.

Each of the three stages involves different smaller phases. The different phases of the thesis process are saved in the Wihi view in the stage (1/3, 2/3 or 3/3) to which they belong. When one stage is completed, the view of the next stage opens. Note that when a supervisor comments on your thesis plan, for example, and then marks that phase as completed, the message remains in that stage and does not appear directly in the new view of the next stage that has opened for you in Wihi after completion. So examine the message fields in the different stages carefully so that the messages do not go unnoticed.

Go to https://wihi.humak.fi/

You will receive notifications from Wihi in your @humak.fi email as soon as anyone sends you a message or marks your credits there.

When logged into Wihi, you can click a question mark in the upper right corner of the screen for more instructions. For more detailed instructions refer to phases 1-5 in this guide. The image below illustrates the entire process.

First, check from the upper right corner that you’re proposing a topic for the correct degree programme. Some students might have access to Open University’s programmes, do not choose those.

The first page asks you to create a topic proposal. If you’re making a thesis in pairs or groups, the page has an option to add other students as participants (Invite group members) from the dropdown menu.

Give basic information about your thesis (title, schedule etc.). Some degree programmes do not have specialization options. If your degree program does not have one, just write the name of your degree programme.

Next, you’re asked to write a summary about the topic of your thesis. You have already made a preliminary plan during your studies in the “Development practices” course, which you can use as a basis for the summary.

The form of the topic proposal should be: needs, objectives, measures, results. Write the topic proposal thoughtfully, because based on the proposal your thesis topic is either accepted, or a request to supplement your proposal is made.

Project subscriber information is also added to the topic proposal. At the end of the page is a box, which you need to check in order to agree to comply with good scientific practices. Remember to press the submit button. If you’d like to continue filling out the form later, you can save it as a draft.

After you’ve sent the thesis topic proposal, a thesis coordinator will process it forward to your own thesis supervisor. The proposal is either accepted or a request to supplement it is made. You will be notified of thesis proposal acceptance in Wihi, so make sure to keep a close eye on the messages. You can read Wihi messages from your @humak.fi email, or straight from Wihi.

Please note that messages cannot be automatically transferred from @humak.fi email addresses to other email addresses. Note: if you’re working on a thesis with one or more partners, they need to accept a request to join your thesis group in Wihi, before the process can continue. Make sure other group members accept the invite to join your thesis group. Only after this can the instructor mark your topic proposal as accepted.

Once your topic proposal has been accepted and you have been assigned a thesis supervisor, you need to write a more detailed and expanded version of your topic proposal: a thesis plan. Instructions for a thesis plan can be found from the thesis manual. Send your thesis plan through Wihi to your thesis supervisor. The supervisor will accept your thesis plan, or ask that you make changes to it.

At all phases of the Wihi process, you can create different tasks and schedules for yourself in Wihi. The purpose of the assignments is to help you and your thesis supervisor to understand the process of your thesis. Tasks can include, for example, “acquiring a knowledge base,” “making a survey,” “contacting interviewees,” etc. When the task is done, and you make a note of it in Wihi, your thesis supervisor also receives the information. Assignments can only be created and marked as done by the student, not the supervisor. Wihi also asks for timetables for completing the different stages (1/3-3/3). This, too, is important to outline, as the schedule helps the supervisor to outline the student’s thesis completion goals. The given schedules do not affect when the thesis will finally be completed, i.e., the final implementation schedule may deviate from them.

A cooperation agreement is a three-way contract between the author of the thesis, project subscriber and the supervising teacher. Look up the details from the thesis cooperation agreement (Finnish or English) or from the thesis manual.

If you’re making a thesis for your own company, an agreement is not necessary. A thesis cooperation agreement is handled in Wihi like this: send a message in Wihi to the thesis subscriber and supervisor, and attach a filled-out agreement. You can attach the agreement to the message by first bringing the file to Wihi (click add file).

Important! Make sure to save the thesis agreement in PDF format and name it clearly in this style: Thesis Agreement [Client Organization] [Your Surname], for example, Thesis Agreement Company X Smith.

After that a “send for external comments” button appears below the file. When all participants have agreed to the contract through Wihi, the contract is accepted. The message chain serves as proof of contract, and it is archived in Wihi under “Statements by interest groups” (in Finnish “Sidosryhmien lausunnot”). The section will appear on Wihi after the first message is sent. Make sure to notify your supervisor as soon as you have received a message of confirmation from your commissioner since the supervisor will not get notified automatically.

After this phase you have completed stage 1/3 of your thesis, which will be registered to Wihi.

Various events, such as thesis workshops, are organized to help you with working on your thesis. Information about these events can be found from various tabs on your digital learning environment. There are a lot of tabs, and every student has access to them. Please take care to only follow the tabs of your own degree programme and educational structure.

When working on your thesis, different forms are needed to inform the participants of your research on the contents and ask for their approval for joining the research. If you are collecting personal data register information, you have to fill in a privacy statement form. You can find the different forms in the Student’s Guide on “Other forms needed for your thesis” (In Finnish on “Muita opinnäytetyön tekemiseen liittyviä dokumentteja“). Discuss with your thesis supervisor and make sure which forms are needed. Fill them out and save them in Wihi, except for the consent forms. You should store them, along with the data you have collected, securely yourself and destroy them once your thesis is completed and any related appeals process has concluded.

You can also ask questions from your thesis supervisor. When your thesis is close to completion, in its pre-check phase (different degree programmes and educational structures have different names for these), send it through Wihi to your thesis supervisor as a Word document. The maximum file size is 100mb. Take note that thesis return deadlines are strict. Make sure you know your degree programmes and educational structures deadlines.

After this phase you have completed stage 2/3 of your thesis, which will be registered to Wihi.

When your thesis is complete, upload it to Wihi as a single pdf/a file through the plagiarism checker integrated in Wihi. See the accessibility guide for how to customize your work to pdf/a form. The same guide also provides information on what else you need to do to make the thesis accessible. Before sending the file check that the file size is less than 100mb. Your thesis supervisor and a second evaluator will write a statement. The review points are the same as in the thesis manual. The review points in Wihi are as follows:

• Significance of the final project to the professional sector, emphasis 50%
• Generation of knowledge and competence, emphasis 30%
• Appearance and readability of the thesis, emphasis 20%

Thesis return deadlines are strict, be sure to find out what they are ahead of time. When returning a thesis compare the title of your thesis in Wihi to the title of your actual thesis to see that they match. If the title has changed, be sure to update the new title to Wihi as well. This is important because the thesis title in Wihi is the one that will be saved in PDP and the study register. The name of the thesis file should be in the format Surname_Firstname. 

Once your thesis has been evaluated (you will be informed of this via Wihi), add a Theseus link to your thesis to Wihi. A URN-link for your thesis becomes available after your thesis is published on Theseus by an informaticist. A link to your work is formed after you upload your thesis, but it doesn’t yet have the URN-address at the beginning of the link (http://urn.fi/). If you copy your link at this time, remember to add urn.fi to the beginning of the link, otherwise Wihi doesn’t recognize the link as genuine. Instructions on how to submit your thesis to Theseus can be found in the Student’s Guide under How to submit your thesis.

After you’ve added the link, your work will be archived in Wihi. Once this is done you can read your thesis evaluation. Save your evaluation in pdf format and add it to your degree certificate. Do this before you graduate, because after that you won’t be able to log in to Wihi.

Once your thesis has been graded, and you’ve completed the maturity test, your thesis is done. The maturity test is not done in Wihi. For more detailed instructions on the maturity test, consult your degree programmes and educational structures thesis supervisor.

After this phase you have completed stage (3/3) of your thesis, and it will be registered to Wihi and PDP.