IFN712 Research in IT Practice

IFN712 Research in IT Practice

Assignment 2A: Research progress report

ASSIGNMENT TYPE: Research progress report

TO BE COMPLETED: Individually

DUE DATE: Saturday Week 8, 11:59pm AEST

WEIGHTING: 10%

DELIVERABLE: Written document (Portable Document Format)

Word limit 1600-2000 words

SUBMISSION METHOD: upload via Assessment 2, Assignment 2A.

LEARNING OUTCOMES CL01, CL02, CL03, CL04, CL05 & CL06

Overview

In this assignment you will provide an overview of the research progress made in your research project over the 8 weeks of the semester and outline what you do next in the final paper. Specifically, your task is to write a research progress report which convinces the reader that:

You have read and analyzed 10-15 quality research publications and identified a research gap or challenge to address. You have identified an important research problem worth investing time and resources to solveYou have identified a novel, answerable research question or two whose solution will make a substantial contribution to solving the proposed problem.

You have identified and designed a feasible, practical methodology for answering the research question, using contemporary tools and techniques and reasonable resources.

You have completed some tasks such as research design and data collection and achieved some milestones or obtained initial results or findings that will serve as evidence for answering your research questions.

You have realized and identified some challenges or difficulties encountered and have obtained ways to overcome these difficulties, and a detailed plan for future tasks, expected outcomes and tangible timeline to complete the project and assessments.

You have correctly listed your research references, which are real papers and can accessed by readers.

Specific requirements

Your submission document needs to include the following major sections and include the elements listed. Most important of all, the linkage and coherence between the different sections is a major assessment criterion for this assignment. Sections that do not fit together to form a logical overall argument will not receive a high grade, regardless of their quality in isolation.

Cover page

Assignment title: Scoping a research problem

Your project titleYour name and student number

Your cluster and tutor name

Your supervisors name(s)

Your major

Your project title should give the reader a clear indication of the nature of the research being conducted. This title can be modified from the project title used in assessment 1 which could be too broad.

Introduction (~ 300 words)

In this section you should briefly outline the broad background of the research, specific research problem or gaps or challenges, state your research aims and outline its objectives, and research questions. In the end of the section, provide a brief description of the progress report.

Literature review (~500 words):

This section is dedicated to review of the literatures or related work about your research topic areas. The section should have three components: introduction, body and conclusion.

The introduction of your literature review should introducethe purpose and layout(organisation) of the section. Your introduction should alsooutline your topic and provide an explanation ofthe scope of your literature review (what will be covered and what will not be covered) and what literature review approach will be adoptedIn the body of your literature review, youllpresent, analyse, evaluate and synthesisethe existing research. You follow one of four optionsfor organising your literature review (sequential, thematic, methodological and funnel approaches).

The conclusion is where youllpresent the key findingsof your literature review. In this section, you should emphasise the research that is especially important to your research questions andhighlight the gapsthat exist in the literature. Based on this, justify your own research by showing how it will help fill one or more of the gaps you just identified.

Methodology (~400 words)

In this section you must describe in detail the research methodology being used to answer the research questions or solve the research problem.

Begin with a brief overview. Start your methodology section with a concise introduction that provides an overview of the overall research methodology (see Week 5 and Week 6 lecture notes) you will be taking. This sets the stage for the reader and helps them understand the context of your research.

Specify your research design. Clearly state the research design you will be using. Depending on the research methodology you just chosen, common research designs include data-oriented (or survey-based), artifact-based, experimental/scientific research design, observational, case design (selecting the case (s) and case study), protocols for the systematic literature review, and more. Explain why this design is appropriate for your research objectives or research questions.

Describe data collection methods and materials for your design: Detail the methods and materials you will use to collect data. This can include steps of conducting surveys/interviews, experiments, observations, content analysis and steps of conduct a SLR. This can also include descriptions of artifacts algorithms, software, application or prototypes/equipment, or tools) to be used or developed. Explain why you've chosen these specific methods and how they align with your research goals.

Justify your data sources. Clarify the sources of your data. If you are using existing data, explain where and how you obtained it. If you are collecting new data, describe your settings of target population, sampling method, and sample size. Discuss how you will ensure data validity and reliability.

Explain data analysis techniques. Describe the analytical techniques and tools you plan to use to analyze your data. If you're using statistical methods, specify the statistical tests or software you will employ. Explain why these methods are appropriate for your research questions.

Make sure the descriptions are complete and yet are also as concise as possible, for example by referring to other works in the literature (including your own), that make use of the same or similar methods.

A brief estimate of what additional resources is needed and whether they are available for your project. Also indicate any special resources or equipment, or software tools that would be needed. It must be made obvious to the reader that answering the question is feasible with tools, techniques and resources available.

Progress to date (~400 words)

In the "Progress to Date" section, you provide an overview of the work you've completed thus far. It's an opportunity to update your audience on the status of your research and demonstrate that you are making meaningful progress.

Begin with the research objectives: Begin by restating the primary objectives or research questions of your project. This serves as a reminder to the reader about the goals you set out to achieve.

Highlight key accomplishments: Describe the significant milestones, achievements, or accomplishments you've reached since the start of the project over the past period. Focus on the most relevant and impactful aspects of your work. This could include:

Completed data collection: If you're in the data collection phase, explain how much data you've gathered, and any challenges or successes encountered.

Completed data processing or analyzing: If you are processing and analyzing data, discuss the methods/open sources/tools you have used, show any preliminary findings/results, or unexpected results.

Completed literature review steps in the conduct phase: If your project involves a literature review, mention the number of sources screened/included, reviewed and any insights gained.

Completed artefact development components: If you've developed or refined/improved an artefact, describe these advancements.

Completed experiment or field data collection: Detail any experiments or fieldwork conducted, including any equipment or materials used and obtained data sets and their quality.

Discuss challenges and setbacks: Be honest about any challenges, obstacles, or setbacks you've encountered during the research process so far. This demonstrates transparency and allows you to explain how you've addressed or plan to address these issues.

Include data and evidence: Whenever possible, support your progress claims with data, evidence, or visual aids. Charts, graphs, or tables can be particularly effective in presenting quantitative information. You may highlight of the significance of the results obtained made and reiterate the research questions.

Expected outputs and future work (~400 words)

In this section, firstly describe, in as much detail as you can, the expected tangible outputs your project will deliver at its conclusion. Your description must include at least the following points.

List and state the nature of the outputs. Such outputs may include data sets (produced by experiments, surveys or case studies), algorithms/models, software prototypes (produced to allow the capabilities of a proposed design to be evaluated), requirements or standards and guidelines (defining new ways of doing things), etc. The form of these deliverables should be clear, e.g., databases, written reports, software, physical prototypes, publications, etc.

For each output it must be clearly outlined the link or links between the steps in the research methodology and the corresponding output must be obvious.

Secondly, you must describe, in as much detail as you can, the new knowledge or contributions your project will deliver at its conclusion. In other words, what will we have learnt at the end of the project that we did not know when it began? Your description of must include at least the following points.

The kind of knowledge produced must be clear. This could be design principles, customer attitudes, growth rates, impacts, trends, causal factors, relationships or correlations be- tween variables, physical properties, system attributes, explanations, compositional properties, etc. The new knowledge should be of general value to practitioners and/or other researchers and must be distinct from the tangible outcomes above.

The value of the new knowledge with respect to solving the original research problem must be obvious. Also, where possible, it should be made clear how the knowledge could be useful in other situations or scenarios, apart from addressing your research problem.

Only describing tangible outputs and knowledge the project is guaranteed to deliver at its conclusion, assuming the research is completed successfully.

Finally, you should outline the future work planned for the project, including the tasks to be completed, the timeline of completion, and how these tasks are related the expected outcomes. The timeline may be also listed for deliverables instead of tasks/activities. You may use a table or Gantt chart to present the details.

References

Provide a list of all references cited in the previous sections in APA reference styles, or in your supervisors preferred style. See QUT Cite- Write (search on library page) if you need assistance with this format. All the references you cite must be of high quality, typically as evidenced by peer review. Listing the website links is optional.

Expression and Presentation

In this assignment, to receive a high grade, you will need to ensure that you meet important aspects of presentation and written expression. Ensure that you:

put your name, student number and title on the first pageprovide headings for the sections and match them to these instructionsprovide definitions for any technical termscheck your spelling and grammarUse the referencing style requested by your supervisorsubmit as PDFInspired in part by: Zina OLeary. Researching Real-World Problems: A Guide to Methods of Inquiry. Sage Publishing, 2006.

Submitting your assignment

The total assessment item is worth 40% of your overall grade for the unit. The submissions will be via the canvas assessment links which will be made available close to the deadline in week 8

Plagiarism & Late submissions

As per QUT policy, late submissions of assessment items or plagiarised contents in any of the sections will not be accepted for marking. Submitting the assessment item with texts that were generated by an ChatGPT or other AI tool is equivalent to the texts written by another person or obtained from the internet. Including any AI-generated references is considered as cheating. They are therefore liable for charges of academic misconduct including contract cheating, plagiarism and attempting to defeat the purpose of the assessment. You must submit your assignment by the deadline shown above. The submission link on Canvas will be disabled automatically once the deadline passes, unless you have an approved extension.

Getting advice

Teaching team and project coordinators will answer general questions about the assignments requirements but will not review draft assessments in detail, and will not answer "is this good enough?" style questions.

As in a real world scenario, you are expected to be able to reflect on the quality of your research proposal yourself, using the knowledge you have gained about the necessary qualities of a strong research argument throughout the semester from the lectures and tutorials.