FIT5551 Minor thesis part 1 - Semester 2, 2012

This unit is a research/thesis unit for FIT Masters (Honours) degrees, taken in the final stage of the Masters (Honours) course.

Before enrolling in the unit, students need 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)

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 meetings with your supervisor.

Unit Relationships

Prohibitions

FIT5014, FIT5016, FIT5017, FIT5018

Co-requisites

FIT4005 or FIT5185

Prerequisites

Students must be enrolled in a Faculty of IT Masters (Honours) degree.

Chief Examiner

Campus Lecturer

Academic Overview

Outcomes

At the completion of this unit students will have made substantial and measurable progress towards -
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.

Developed attitudes that enable them to:

• 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.

Developed the skills to:

• 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.

Although research projects are carried out individually, students will be part of a wider research group, with whom they will interact regularly, and participate in research seminars and discussions. At the completion of the unit students will have demonstrated the communication and teamwork skills necessary to:

• 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

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 FIT5554 (24pts).

Assessment Task	Value	Due Date
Research Proposal	5% of the 24 cpt thesis	Week 6, 3pm Friday in the first semester of candidature (or the first available week day previous to this date if the Friday falls on a University holiday)
Literature Review	10% of the 24 cpt thesis	Week 14 **, 3pm Friday in the first semester of candidature (or the first available week day previous to this date if the Friday falls on a University holiday) (** Students who are enrolled in a full time load but in only one 6 cpt thesis unit in the first semester of their Honours program may apply for an extension of up to 3 weeks to the submission date of this assessment task.)
Interim Presentation	This is a non assessable hurdle requirement	Week 14 in the first semester of candidature at a time to be scheduled.

Teaching Approach

Research activities

Feedback

Our feedback to You

• Other: Supervisor meetings and seminar presentations.

Your feedback to Us

Previous Student Evaluations of this unit

Unit Schedule

Week	Activities	Assessment
0	Students will research an agreed thesis topic under the guidance of their supervisor and will receive feedback on their progress through regular meetings with their supervisor.	Thesis Topic selection
1
2
3
4
5
6		Research Proposal 5% of the 24 cpt thesis. Due 3pm Friday in the first semester of candidature (or the first available week day previous to this date if the Friday falls on a University holiday)
7
8
9
10
11
12		Literature Review ** (Due week 14) 10% of the 24cpt thesis and Interim Presentation (** Students who are enrolled in a full time load but in only one 6 cpt thesis unit in the first semester of their Honours program may apply for an extension of up to 3 weeks to the submission date of this assessment task.)
	SWOT VAC	No formal assessment is undertaken in SWOT VAC
	Examination period	LINK to Assessment Policy: http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/ academic/education/assessment/ assessment-in-coursework-policy.html

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

Assessment Requirements

Assessment Policy

Faculty Policy - Unit Assessment Hurdles (http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/staff/edgov/policies/assessment-examinations/unit-assessment-hurdles.html)

Academic Integrity - Please see the Demystifying Citing and Referencing tutorial at http://lib.monash.edu/tutorials/citing/

Assessment Tasks

Hurdle Requirements

Non-assessable Hurdle - Interim Presentation (see Participation)

Participation

This unit forms part of the sequence of units comprising the Minor Thesis in the Faculty of Information Technology.

The exit point for the Minor Thesis is FIT5554 - 24 cpts and is applicable to:

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

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

• Research Proposal:(approximately 3000 words) 5%;
• Literature Review:(approximately 6000 words) 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 FIT5554 - 24 cpts.

Please refer to the Unit Guides for FIT5551, and FIT5554 for a description of the assessment items to be completed over the course of the Minor 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 (approximately 3000 words) 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 in the first semester of candidature (or the first available week day previous to this date if the Friday falls on a University holiday)

• Assessment task 2

  Title:

  Literature Review

  Description:

  Create a literature review (approximately 6000 words) based on the agreed topic, which provides a critical review of the key literature in the content area. The argument constructed should be coherent and supported by an adequate number of relevant and correctly formatted references. The review should be structured in an appropriate scientific format, and it should be clearly and concisely expressed. The presentation should be of a professional standard and include a title page, 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 in the first semester of candidature (or the first available week day previous to this date if the Friday falls on a University holiday) (** Students who are enrolled in a full time load but in only one 6 cpt thesis unit in the first semester of their Honours program may apply for an extension of up to 3 weeks to the submission date of this assessment task.)

• Assessment task 3

  Title:

  Interim Presentation

  Description:

  Provide a 20 minute (usually 15 mins present + 5 mins questions) 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 in the first semester of candidature at a time to be scheduled.

Assignment submission

Online submission

If Electronic Submission has been approved for your unit, please submit your work via the VLE site for this unit, which you can access via links in the my.monash portal.

Extensions and penalties

Returning assignments

Other Information

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