FIT5016 Minor thesis - Semester 2, 2011

FIT5016 is an optional research/ thesis unit for FIT coursework masters degrees, taken in the final stage of the Masters Professional or Masters course. While FIT5014 is a 24-point unit taken in a single semester, FIT5016 is a component of the 24-point Minor Thesis taken over more than one semester, along with FIT5018 or FIT5017.
Before enrolling in the unit, students need:

1. to have prior approval from their course coordinator; and
2. to have reached agreement with a potential supervisor about a research area/feasible research topic for their Minor Thesis project.

Mode of Delivery

• Caulfield (Day)
• Clayton (Day)
• Gippsland (Off-campus)

Contact Hours

Regular meetings with supervisor(s) over the course of the unit enrolment

Workload

The workload in this unit is equivalent to a 6 credit point unit, i.e. 12 hours study per week.
Contact hours will consist of regular meeting with your supervisor.

Unit Relationships

Prerequisites

Students must be enrolled in a Faculty of IT Masters (Honours), Masters Professional or Masters (Minor Thesis) course or the Master of Information Technology degree; FIT5016 is to be taken in the final stage of the course.

In undertaking the Minor Thesis students must have: (1) their course leaders approval to enrol in the unit; and (2) completed/enrolled concurrently in FIT4005 IT research methods. In addition, the following rules apply:

+ in the Masters Professional and Master of Information Technology courses, students must have completed at least 24 points of level 5 units in their degree and attained a Distinction average on their Masters coursework; and
+ in the Master of Information Technology (Honours) degree students must have completed at least 24 points of level 5 units in their degree.

Chief Examiner

Campus Lecturer

Academic Overview

Learning Objectives

At the completion of this unit students will have -
A knowledge and understanding of:

• their research topic and the wider research domain.
• research approaches and methods, and how to resolve research problems and issues.
• well honed skills in critical thinking, analysis, evaluation and synthesis.

• have confidence in their ability to undertake independent research, and to plan and execute an individual research project.
• appreciate the significance and contributions of a research culture in both academic and workplace contexts.

• plan and undertake rigorous independent research;
• locate relevant research literature, and critically analyse and evaluate published research findings;
• identify open problems in current research and promising new research directions, and from this to define a viable research topic;
• develop a sound research design and feasible research project plan and schedule;
• communicate effectively research results in a variety of forms, including informal oral presentations, written reports, seminar presentations and poster presentations.

• communicate research ideas effectively in formal or informal contexts;
• collaborate effectively with others involved in a research project (supervisors, research colleagues, industry collaborators).

Graduate Attributes

Assessment Summary

Presentation and final thesis: 100%

Teaching Approach

Feedback

Our feedback to You

• Other: Supervisor meetings and seminar presentations.

Your feedback to Us

Previous Student Evaluations of this unit

Unit Schedule

*Unit Schedule details will be maintained and communicated to you via your MUSO (Blackboard or Moodle) learning system.

Assessment Requirements

Assessment Tasks

Participation

This unit forms part of the sequence of units comprising the Minor Thesis in the Faculty of Information Technology for students enrolled prior to 2011.

Students enrolled prior to 2011 will select a combination of units resulting in the required credit point total of 24 cpts.

The 24 credit point exit point is applicable to:

• Master of Information Technology (Honours),
• Master of Information Technology Professional,
• Master of Business Information Systems (Honours).

FIT5016 Minor Thesis is a unit with an enrolled value of 6 cpts and 0 cpt achievable, taken over a single semester but forms the first part of a sequence of units that together allow a student to complete a Minor Thesis of 24 cpts. 

These units include:

• FIT5016 Minor Thesis - 6cpts
• FIT5017 Minor Thesis - 12cpts
• FIT5018 Minor Thesis - 18cpts
• FIT5014 Minor Thesis - 24cpts

At the completion of the requirements for the thesis the following components of assessment will be completed:

• Research Proposal: 5%;
• Literature Review: 10%;
• Interim Presentation: hurdle;
• Final Presentation: 5%;
• Thesis (normally 10,000 - 20,000 words): 80%

These assessment tasks will be completed over the course of several units in the Minor Thesis program but the overall grade for the thesis will only be finalised on completion of either 24 cpts.

Please refer to the Unit Guides for FIT5016, FIT5017, FIT5018, and FIT5014 for a description of the assessment items to be completed over the course of the Honours Thesis.

The following components will be assessed during the course of this unit:

Research Proposal: 5%; Literature Review: 10%; Interim Presentation: hurdle.

• Assessment task 1

  Title:

  Research Proposal

  Description:

  Create a research proposal that clearly identifies the agreed research topic, identifies the problem being studied, and justifies the aims and significance of the project.
  
  The proposal should include a discussion of the research context and background, the proposed methodology, the research design and deliverables.
  
  The proposal should also be presented professionally with a standard of written expression appropriate to research publications in the field.

  Weighting:

  5% of the 24 cpt thesis

  Criteria for assessment:

  Overall discussion of research to be undertaken for the topic - /80

  Overall report writing - /20

  Total - /100

  Due date:

  Week 6, 3pm Friday

• Assessment task 2

  Title:

  Literature Review

  Description:

  Create a literature review based on the agreed topic which provides a critical review of the key literature in the content area. The argument constructed should be presented in a coherent manner with the support of an adequate number of relevant and correctly formatted references.
  
  The review should be structured in an appropriate scientific format, and be clearly and concisely expressed.
  
  The presentation should be of a professional standard and include a title page, a table of contents, page numbering and references.

  Weighting:

  10% of the 24 cpt thesis

  Criteria for assessment:

  Overall content, scope, depth of discussion - /70

  Overall organisation and presentation - /30

  Total - /100

  Due date:

  Week 14, 3pm Friday

• Assessment task 3

  Title:

  Interim Presentation

  Description:

  Provide a 20 minute summary of the current progress of your research project to your peers.
  
  The seminar will be scheduled in week 14 of semester.

  Weighting:

  This is a non-assessable hurdle requirement

  Criteria for assessment:

  Participation in a 20 minute seminar on the current progress of the research project is a hurdle requirement.

  Due date:

  Week 14 at a seminar time to be scheduled.

Examinations

Assignment submission

Extensions and penalties

Returning assignments

Other Information

Policies

Student services