Unit Outline: ITEC810 Information Technology Project Unit
Semester 1, 2009
Convenor: Robert Dale
Prerequisites: A GPA of 2.5 or greater
Students should read this unit outline carefully at the start of semester. It contains important information about the unit. If anything in it is unclear, please consult the unit convenor.
About This Unit
ITEC810 is a one-semester four-credit-point project unit run by the Department of Computing in the Faculty of Science.
Depending upon a candidate's specialist stream, interests and employment circumstances, this unit may comprise literature research, a case study, a software project development, a project sponsored by the candidate's employer, or an industry internship. Candidates are expected to demonstrate initiative and independence in researching, executing and documenting a more involved ICT project. As a requirement of this unit students must participate in an Ethics Workshop and satisfy the related assessment requirements.
The unit allows you to bring together skills you have developed in other units to carry out a substantial piece of work; there is a strong emphasis on developing a range of skills besides the technical skills you will require to carry out your project, with a focus on both written and verbal communication, and project and time management. Assessment of the unit is based both on the quality of the work you do on the project, and on your performance with respect to these broader skills.
Other related units are ITEC808, ITEC809 and ITEC811. This Unit Outline serves for all four units; differences between the units will be noted where relevant. Note that ITEC808 and ITEC809 are four-credit-point units, and that ITEC811 is an eight-credit-point unit. See here for an explanation of the relationships between the units.
Teaching Staff
| Role | Name | Room | Office hours | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convenor, Lecturer | Robert Dale | rdale@science.mq.edu.au | E6A328 | Monday 8am-9am, Tuesday 8am-9am, Friday 5pm-6pm |
All emails related to ITEC810 should be sent to itec810-lect@science.mq.edu.au and must include your full name and your student id number.
Classes
Classes for ITEC810 are held fortnightly on Friday evenings from 6pm to 9pm in C5A 232. For details of specific classes, consult the Moodle website for the unit.
Note that classes commence in Week 1.
There are no separate tutorials or practicals for this unit. Classes involve a considerable amount of participation, and a proportion of the marks for the unit are allocated to both class and web participation.
Required and Recommended Texts
There are no recommended textbooks for the unit as a whole; however, pointers to relevant material will be provided throughout the semester. A list of all relevant materials will be maintained and accessible via the Moodle website for the unit.
Unit Web Page
The online presence for this unit is managed via Moodle. If you are enrolled in the unit, you should be able to see the site when you visit the Moodle website. The site plays a central role in the unit; it is important that you check it regularly (at least once a day) for any updates and new information. You will need your MQ student ID and password to access the site.
Expected Workload
If you are enrolled in ITEC808, ITEC809 or ITEC810, then the work you carry out in this unit during this semester is effectively worth 12.5% of your Masters degree, or four credit points; if you are enrolled in ITEC811, your work is worth 25% of your Masters degree, or eight credit points.
In a four-credit-point unit, you are expected to spend 12 hours on the unit for each of the 13 weeks in the semester. If we assume that three hours are spent each week either in class or directly related to class work (preparing reports and reading relevant materials for class topics), then you have 9 hours per week to spend on the project, for a total of somewhere around 115 hours. One way to think of this is that your project should be of a size that would occupy you full-time for around 3 weeks. All these numbers are doubled if you are enrolled in ITEC811.
It is absolutely essential that you are able to commit this amount of time to the unit; a failure to do so is likely to be reflected negatively in the eventual grade you receive. It is also your responsibility to raise with your supervisor early on any concerns you may have about the feasibility of your project given this amount of effort: if you think the project as specified requires more than the equivalent of working three weeks full time, you should discuss this with your supervisor and come to some resolution before you submit your project proposal in Week 3.
Technology Used and Required
You will be required to make use of, and therefore have ready access to, software for producing well-formatted documents with a professional appearance, and slide presentations displayable from a computer. The typical choices for these two software requirements are Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint respectively, although you are free to use alternative software provided you ensure the following:
- If you are not using Word, you must be able to provide all submitted documents in the form of PDF files. Files in Open Office format are not acceptable because of small but nonetheless significant incompatibiltiies with Word. Particulary if you are looking at future career in research, you are encouraged to consider using LaTeX.
- If you are not using PowerPoint, you must provide presentations for delivery as PDF files.
Expected Learning Outcomes
The primary focus of the unit is around the development of skills in the areas of critical analyis, problem-solving and communication.
A student completing the unit should be able to demonstrate the following:- an ability to survey a collection of literature or background information and draw out the key themes and issues;
- an ability to plan and execute a project from a brief initial specification through to a complete set of agreed outcomes;
- an ability to clearly present the results of work carried out in a detailed and appropriately structured report;
- an understanding of the importance of professional ethics, and of how to recognize and address ethical issues when they arise;
- an ability to give clear, concise and coherent verbal presentations;
- comfort in using computer-based presentation tools; and
- comfort in using computer-based document production tools.
Graduate Capabilities Developed
A primary aim of this unit is to assist the student in developing the skills required for a high standard of verbal and written communication, and an ability to manage one's time effectively.
Teaching and Learning Strategy
ITEC810 is taught via fortnightly classes in which significant class participation is expected of all students; the classes are therefore more like tutorials than conventional lectures, although portions of each class will have a lecture-like quality. Homework assignments will be set for each class; completion of these is compulsory, and all contribute to the final mark for the unit. Each time we meet, a randomly-chosen subset of the students in the class will be asked to verbally present their work.
Copies of the slides used for lectures in each class will be made available, but these are intended as an outline of the lecture only and are not a substitute for your own notes or other reading materials that may be assigned.
Topic List
See the Moodle website for the list of topics covered in the classes.Relationship Between Assessment and Learning Outcomes
| Learning Outcome | Corresponding Assessment |
|---|---|
| Demonstrated ability to survey a collection of literature or background information and draw out the key themes and issues | An appropriately-structured literature review in the relevant area of around 10 pages in length |
| Demonstrated ability to plan and execute a project from a brief initial specification through to a complete set of agreed outcomes | A three-page project proposal that outlinse the aims and objectives of the project, the approach to be taken, and a detailed timeline with well-specified deliverables; fortnightly report-backs on progress to the class and via the Moodle website |
| Demonstrated ability to clearly present the results of work carried out in a detailed and appropriately structured report | A final report on the project work of 30-40 pages in length |
| An understanding of the importance of professional ethics, and of how to recognize and address ethical issues when they arise | An essay addressing a question of professional ethics |
| Demonstrated ability to give clear, concise and coherent verbal presentations | Short presentations throughout the semester; a 20-minute final presentation at the end-of-semester workshop |
| Comfort in using computer-based presentation tools | Well-presented and appropriately formatted presentations throughout the semester |
| Comfort in using computer-based document production tools | Well-presented and appropriately formatted documents throughout the semester |
Your final grade will depend on your performance on each of the assessed items of work; see the Moodle website for details of all assessed work. All assignments should be submitted via the Moodle website by the specified deadlines.
All work submitted should be readable and well presented.
Since the class presentations are based on materials that are due to be submitted on the day the class meets, late submissions of work are not permitted. If you cannot submit on time because of illness or other circumstances, please contact the lecturer before the due date.
Examinations
There is no examination associated with this unit.
Plagiarism
Please refer to the Department of Computing Plagiarism Policy for the definition of plagiarism, advice on avoiding it and the penalties in place if you are found to have submitted plagiarised work.
University Policy on Grading
Academic Senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction. Your final result will include one of these grades plus a standardised numerical grade (SNG).
On occasion your raw mark for a unit (i.e., the total of your marks for each assessment item) may not be the same as the SNG which you receive. Under the Senate guidelines, results may be scaled to ensure that there is a degree of comparability across the university, so that units with the same past performances of their students should achieve similar results.
It is important that you realise that the policy does not require that a minimum number of students are to be failed in any unit. In fact it does something like the opposite, in requiring examiners to explain their actions if more than 20% of students fail in a unit.
Student Support Services
Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au.