Industrial revolution to the rescue of postgraduate supervision curricula with user interfaces

Abstract

Interrogating supervision curricula and user interfaces influenced by industrial revolutions helps supervisors and students understand the research identities that drive their research actions. Supervision user interfaces have been influenced by the Fourth/Fifth Industrial Revolution (4/5IR) to integrate WhatsApp/Telegram, Zoom/Microsoft Teams, Google Scholar, ChatGPT, Grammarly, EndNote, and others as part of higher education institutions (HEI). User interfaces are resource spaces where humans interact with computer systems to produce research actions. Industrial revolutions such as the 4/5IR have divided curricula into structured, unstructured, and semi-structured. Findings indicate that structured and unstructured curricula have dominated supervision since the 1IR. The dominance has suppressed the semi-structured curricula driven by self-reflection. The suppression motivated me to conduct this study, which examines the industrial revolution that influences PhD supervision curricula with user interfaces. This study used the pragmatic paradigm, action research, and natural-driven curriculum rationale to frame document analysis, reflective activities, observations, focus group discussions, and semi-structured interviews to collect data. The study used purposive sampling with convenience sampling to select twenty postgraduate supervisors from an HEI in South Africa. A semi-structured curriculum concentrates on actions, beliefs, and the outcomes of supervision. Therefore, this study recommends applying a semi-structured curriculum that promotes and addresses natural needs.