It has been a tough 4.5 years, but the end is finally near! Last Tuesday I had my private defence, or “preliminary defence” (or viva for the Brits, I hear). In Belgium, this part is pretty much the scariest moment of your doctoral career: it’s the proper, final, oral exam. Sometimes it is an enjoyable chat where they (4 professors) treat you as peers for the first time, sometimes it’s a soul-crushing, head-ache inducing, exhausting emotional rollercoaster. Mine jumped around between these two extremes, with some of this:

Still, the experience was a good one. They do a good effort in making you doubt your work, and I walked away feeling more confident and proud of what we have accomplished these long years.

The public defence, where I get to bore the audience with 45 minutes of presentation, is planned on 6 July 2017. If you are in any way interested in Learning Dashboards, Learning Analytics, or just like free drinks and snacks, I suggest you come watch! If interested, do shoot me a message for the details (it’ll be in Leuven, Belgium)! Official invites will be sent in a few weeks…

Meanwhile, enjoy the slides of the private defence: