Course Title: Thesis Topic Development

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Thesis Topic Development

Credit Points: 12

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
INTE1024	City Campus	Postgraduate	620H Business Info Technology	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2006

Course Coordinator: Dr. V.K. Murthy

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 1459

Course Coordinator Email:kris.murthy@rmit.edu.au

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

This is a core course in the MBIT. International students studying in Melbourne are advised that it is preferable that they take INTE1009 in their second semester.

Course Description

The course seeks to have students explore a topic, issue, or problem in a business environment with an emphasis on an Iinformation technology aspect and report the outcomes of this investigation. Students will learn how to frame a research question, conduct a literature survey, and select suitable research methods to answer their research questions, and collect and analyze data. Emphasis will be placed on reviewing the range of IS research.

Likewise, attention will be paid to learning how to evaluate the validity and reliability of published research and considering what the ramifications of research are for business practice.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Students will participate in a case study evaluation of recent research. This participation involves assessment of research and drawing conclusions for business practice.
At the end of the course, students should be able to assess research, produce a well-developed research proposal, and manage a research project effectively.

At the conclusion of the course, students should be able to:
• Develop skills to investigate, choose develop and refine a focused research topic into a proposal.
• Appraise the major approaches to Information Systems research and the methodological choices that need to be made.
• Review the veracity of existing research and act on these assessments in a business setting.
• Assemble a state-of-the-art review from relevant literature.
• Understand the qualitative and quantitative approaches to research.
• Appraise ethical issues involved in the various stages of Information Systems research
• Understand how to manage a research project.
• Improve their academic writing skills.

Overview of Learning Activities

The course will consist of a mix of lectures and related activities.
Regular spot checks will be taken concerning student progress in assignments.

Overview of Learning Resources

Students will need to review:
• Prescribed text.
• Lecture notes.
• Access RMIT’ s Distributed Learning System (DLS) found at Online@RMIT.
• Use search engines and periodical indexes to locate relevant sources of evidence for their major assignments.

The course guide offers some starting points. Additional suggested readings will be mentioned in classes. Students, however, are expected to search widely for evaluation materials relevant to the aspects and contexts of the particular information systems that they have opted to assess. In particular, students should pay attention to research literature accessed through periodical indexes.

Students are required to purchase the prescribed text as it will be used starting from week 1.

Overview of Assessment

There are two tasks involving a case study report and a report on a research project, each worth 50% of graded assessment.