Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
instructor is an active participant. This project is undertaken as part of a research methods
course and is designed to provide concurrent practical illustrations of some of the theoretical
concepts being covered in the research methods course.
The major purpose of this group project is to provide a gentle, supportive, structured
introduction to information systems research. The introduction is relatively gentle, because
the instructor is an active participant in the research project. Students gain the benefit of the
instructor's experience, yet are full participants. In his report on the use of class research
projects, Clarke (1998) noted that the balance between students and instructor is important.
Students should not be expected to execute research perfectly or be seen as research
assistants to the instructor.
The approach proposed in this chapter encourages students to discuss and solve
problems in groups. This is not possible in their individual Honors projects but is important
to facilitate their learning and to prepare them for the fact that much information systems
research is done in teams.
Students are encouraged to contribute fully by providing the incentive that if the project
is well done, we will try to publish it at a conference. Having a publication record improves
a student's chances of admission to a Ph.D. program and improves their chances of obtaining
a Ph.D. scholarship.
This approach differs from that of Cunningham (1995), described in the previous
section, because the instructor is an active member of the research group. However, it is similar
in that the possibility of publication is provided as a performance incentive. It is also similar
to that described by Clarke (1998) in that the instructor is an active participant; however,
Clarke's projects were not intended to provide a general research grounding, rather, they were
to focus on raising awareness of empirical skills in HCI design, so the projects undertaken
only involved replication of existing work.
THE PROCESS FOLLOWED
The following section describes the general sequence of stages followed for each
project; these are also summarized in Table 1.
Students are first provided with an outline of a possible research area. This is brief (less
than two pages in length) and deliberately designed to be general, to allow students some
Table 1. Summary of project stages
1.
The instructor provides students with an outline of a possible research area.
2.
Students undertake a preliminary literature review.
3.
Group negotiation is used to decide the actual research topic and the research
questions to be answered.
4.
The research design is planned.
5.
The research project is carried out as a group.
6.
Data analysis is undertaken.
7.
Individual write-ups are done by students.
8.
A joint paper is written by the instructor using the student papers as a starting
point.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search