ICT801 Advanced Research Topics in Information Technology Semester 1, 2025 Assignment Help

Assessment Overview 

Note: * denotes‘Hurdle Assessment Item’ thatstudentsmust achieve atleast 40% in thisitem to passthe unit. 

ASSESSMENT ITEM 1: This individual assignment will be delivered in two parts. In Part A, you will be required to first select a research topic aligning with your  chosen specialisation in the course and then develop a research question after initial literature review. In Part B, you will develop a full research proposal. ASSESSMENT ITEM 2: This individual assessment will have multiple deliverables. You will be required to write a mock research paper and a self-reflective journal  in the report. The research paper will include an abstract, literature review and a brief description of methodology that you have proposed to adopt in your  research topic. 

ASSESSMENT ITEM 3: In this individual assessment, you will be required to give a 10-minute presentation to fellow class members as well as a panel of  academics. There is no physical submission, you will be solely graded on your presentation and ability to answer questions from the panel.

Referencing guides 

You must reference all the sources of information you have used in your assessments. Please use the  IEEE referencing style when referencing in your assessments in this unit. Refer to the library’s  referencing guides for more information. 

Academic misconduct 

VIT enforces that the integrity of its students’ academic studies follows an acceptable level of excellence. VIT will adhere to its VIT Policies, Procedures and Forms where it explains the importance of  staff and student honesty in relation to academic work. It outlines the kinds of behaviors that are  “academic misconduct”, including plagiarism. 

Late submissions 

In cases where there are no accepted mitigating circumstances as determined through VIT Policies, Procedures and Forms, late submission of assessments will lead automatically to the imposition of a  penalty. Penalties will be applied as soon as the deadline is reached. 

Short extensions and special consideration 

Special Consideration is a request for: 

• Extensions of the due date for an assessment, other than an examination (e.g. assignment  extension). 

• Special Consideration (Special Consideration in relation to a Completed assessment, including  an end-of-unit Examination). 

Students wishing to request Special Consideration in relation to an assessment the due date of which  has not yet passed must engage in written emails to the teaching team to Request for Special  Consideration as early as possible and prior to start time of the assessment due date, along with any  accompanying documents, such as medical certificates. 

For more information, visit VIT Policies, Procedures and Forms. 

Inclusive and equitable assessment 

Reasonable adjustment in assessment methods will be made to accommodate students with a  documented disability or impairment. Contact the unit teaching team for more information. 

Contract Cheating 

Contract cheating usually involves the purchase of an assignment or piece of research from another  party. This may be facilitated by a fellow student, friend or purchased on a website. Other forms of  contract cheating include paying another person to sit an exam in the student’s place.

• By paying someone else to complete your academic work, you don’t learn as much as youcould have if you did the work yourself. • You are not prepared for the demands of your future employment. 

• You could be found guilty of academic misconduct. 

• Many of for pay contract cheating companies recycle assignments despite guarantees of“original, plagiarism-freework” so similarity is easily  detected by TurnitIn. 

• Penalties for academic misconduct include suspension and exclusion. 

• Students in some disciplines are required to disclose any findings of guilt for academicmisconduct before being accepted into certain professions  (e.g., law). 

• You might disclose your personal and financial information in an unsafe way, leaving yourselfopen to many risks including possible identity theft. • You also leave yourself open to blackmail – if you pay someone else to do an assignment foryou, they know you have engaged in fraudulent  behaviour and can always blackmail you. 

Grades 

We determine your grades to the following Grading Scheme: 

Assessment Details for Assessment Item 1: 

Overview 

Introduction 

Students will need to consider a research problem in Information Technology or Information  Systems. The problem could arise from many different fields, for example, medical, business,  science, engineering, hospitality, banking etc. … The selection of the research problem will need  to take place early, in session 1 or 2 as the first deliverable is in session 3. This is necessary given  the nature of the subject. All the remaining work throughout the semester will stem from the basic  research problem. The idea is that this Unit of Study will mimic the research process and provide  you with the understanding and tools to undertake future research. In the first session, we will  extensively discuss finding research problems and from there formulating research questions. This  then gives us the foundation for proceeding with the remainder of the unit. 

Deliverables 

Below is a brief explanation of each of the deliverables including submission guidelines and  deadlines, though the deadlines have already been given in Table 1 above. 

Topic Selection/Initial Literature Review/Research Question (10 Marks – Due session 3) 

The research question lies at the heart of your research project. After considering a research  problem (whatever the field of study) from there you will develop the research question. We will  discuss formulating research questions in sessions one and two, but within the research problem,  the research question focuses specifically on one aspect of the problem that you will undertake as  part of the research programme. 

Even if you have a good idea of your topic, you still need to read the existing literature to build  background knowledge and narrow down your ideas. In sessions 1 and 2 we will discuss how to  find research papers and identify the gaps in your selected area. You need to narrow down a broad  topic to specific questions. There are many ways to present the research question, and these will 

be discussed during the sessions. Submit your assignment in one document file by the due date  and time to the assignment drop- box. 

Full Proposal ( 10 Marks – Due session 5) 

The full proposal is a document that contains your entire proposal for the research to be undertaken.  These documents are normally required by academic departments before students are admitted to  undertaking research degrees such as a master’s research degree or a PhD. This document will  contain your research question from the previous submission but integrated into a coherent  document along with other components that will be discussed in class. A selection of references  that you will use in developing your research paper will also be included at this stage. 

The format of the full proposal can be found in the example document (Proposal.doc). Use this  document as a starting point to develop your full proposal and submit it by the due date and time  to the assignment drop-box.

Assessment Details for Assessment Item 2: 

Overview 

Introduction 

Introduction (10 Marks) 

The Introduction of the research report contains a full introduction to the research you have  undertaken. The Introduction normally contains a statement of the problem (including the initial  research question, the Significance of the problem, some historical background. The purpose, or  goal to be gained from a better understanding of the research question, statement of hypothesis,  any assumptions, and limitations as well as any possible ethical considerations. Perhaps also a  brief overview of the methodology. 

The format of the Introduction can be found in the example document (Report Introduction.doc).  Use this document as a starting point to develop your Introduction (add and delete sections as  appropriate). 

Submit this chapter by the due date and time to the assignment drop-box. 

Literature Review (20 Marks) 

The literature review gives the reader (and the examiner) the necessary background to understand  the study by citing the investigations and findings of previous researchers and documents the  researcher’s knowledge and preparation to investigate the problem. Studying the existing  literature is one of the essential preliminary tasks when you undertake a research study. This enables you to acquaint yourself with the available body of knowledge in your specific area of  research. “The literature review is an integral part of the research process and makes a valuable  contribution to almost every operational step” (Kumar, R. Research Methodology: a step-by-step  guide for beginners, 3rd ed, Sage 2011). The literature review will be discussed in class and 

examples are given, the literature review would normally constitute Chapter 2 in a research report, see suggested guidelines in (report.doc, chapter

2). 

The submission for the Literature Review has been divided into several sections so the Unit lecturer  can gauge the student’s progression on this important topic early. 

Methodology (15 Marks) 

In this section, you clearly outline what methodology you used in your research i.e. what you  intend to do and how you intend to do it. It must be written clearly so that it would be easy for  another researcher to duplicate your research if they wished. Most researchers will use one or more  of many well documented and acceptable methods understood by the research community. We  will discuss several research methodologies in different sessions, but there will be many others  you can choose from. You will choose a type of research design (e.g. experimental, correlational,  descriptive etc.) and the methods to conduct the research (experiment or survey etc.) 

The structure of a methodology chapter will be discussed in class and examples given. The  Methodology would normally constitute Chapter 3 in a research report, see suggested guidelines  in (report.doc, chapter 3). 

Submit this chapter by the due date and time to the assignment drop-box.

Full Research Paper (15 Marks) 

In this submission, you incorporate the previous three submissions into a final document and  submit by the due date and time. This submission will incorporate the Introduction, The Literature  Review, and the Methodology chapters into one document. This will give you a chance to take on  board any comments given by your instructor in the previous submissions, make corrections and  possibly recover some marks which may have been deducted in the previous submission. 

Your submission also containsthe full abstract. Thisis an extension of the initial abstract submitted  with the proposal document and summarizes the report including the hypotheses, procedures, and  major findings (you will not be conducting the research, so you won’t have any findings). The Full  abstract should be no more than one page. 

Submit this document by the due date and time to the assignment drop-box.

Assessment Details for Assessment Item 3: 

Overview 

Introduction 

Presentation ( 20 Marks) 

For this component, you will be required to give a 10 – 15 minute presentation on your research  report and answer any questions from the audience. The presentations will be conducted in a  symposium type setting after the end of the semester, typically in week 15. There is no submission  for this component of assessment, you will be graded on your presentation and ability to answer  any questions put to you. The structure of the presentation will be discussed during the semester  and a suggested format for the presentation will be made available in a sample set of PowerPoint  slides, see (presentation.ppt). 

As this component is based on your presentation, you will need to present your work to get any  grade for this component 

Submission guidelines 

All submissions are to be submitted through turn-it-in. Drop-boxes linked to turn-it-in will be set  up in the Unit of Study Moodle site. Assignments not submitted through these drop-boxes will not  be considered. 

Submissions must be made by the due date and time (which will be in the session detailed above)  and determined by your Unit coordinator. Submissions made after the due date and time will be  penalized at the rate of 10% per day (including weekend days).

As previously stated, this is a research subject and required a significant effort from you. There  will be a zero tolerance for plagiarism and the turn-it-in similarity score will be used in determining  the level if any of plagiarism. Turn-it-in will check conference websites, Journal articles, the  Web and your class members submissions for plagiarism. You can see your turn-it-in similarity  score when you submit your assignment to the appropriate drop-box. If this is a concern you will  have a chance to change your assignment and re-submit. However, re-submission is only allowed  before the submission due date and time. After the due date and time have elapsed you cannot  make re-submissions and you will have to live with the similarity score as there will be no chance  for changing. Thus, plan early and submit early to take advantage of this feature. You can make  multiple submissions, but please remember we only see the last submission, and the date and time  you submitted will be taken from that submission.

Assessment Rubric: