GP Guide

Processes, Policies, and Procedures for the courses of MIS 405 Graduation Project I and MIS 406 Graduation Project II As of January 12, 2022

1. Introduction

The MIS Graduation Project courses, MIS 405 (8 ECTS) and MIS 406 (10 ECTS) are parts of a group research or design project that students pursue under the guidance of a department mentor. Graduation projects may include, but are not limited to, an entrepreneurship project, a real-world case study, a written assessment of a community-learning initiative, or a design project accompanied by an analytic essay (comprising background, aims, and technique) according to study area of the group's mentor. All questions about the graduation project(s) should be directed to the related Department Mentor.

Students interested in undertaking MIS 405 and MIS 406 should read all sections of the policy and procedures before submitting a proposal.

2. Planning

Graduation projects are student-generated. Generally they are an opportunity to continue a sustained line of inquiry that the students have already begun. A Graduation Project may grow out of a piece of work (an application production, a technology design, a real-world case study, a creative writing piece, a CLI project, etc.) a student has done in a course, tutorial, or independent study. It may also derive from questions or ideas spurred by a student’s meeting/colloquium. Successful graduation projects will involve significant preparation. As such students interested in pursuing a Graduation Project are strongly encouraged to consult with their mentors early in their undergraduate program in order to plan for appropriate coursework and research well in advance.

3. Timing

Graduation Project I (MIS 405) may only be undertaken in the fall semesters and Graduation Project II (MIS 406) may only be undertaken in the spring semesters. Generally, students will complete senior projects in their final year at MIS Department. In rare cases, students may complete their senior projects in their penultimate year. Students planning to graduate in June should plan to complete senior projects in the preceding year.

4. Credits

The MIS 405 Graduation Project I is a eight-ECTS-credit course of study and MIS 406 Graduation Project II is a ten-ECTS-credit course of study, requiring a minimum of eight and ten contact hours respectively between student group and department mentor during the course of the convening semester. The arrangement of contact hours will vary depending on the needs of the specific project and the students’ level of progress.

5. Requirements

While expectations for graduation projects will differ depending on the nature of the work undertaken, certain minimum standards apply generally. In particular, all senior projects require a written component; in general, senior projects should be accompanied by essays of substantial depth and length that address the project’s background (locating students’ projects within a larger design context), design aims (articulating students’ goals in mounting a particular project, and explaining how the actual project met those goals), and technical issues (such as technology chosen, infrastructure design, content creation, structural elements, etc), as determined and developed in consultation with department mentors. Projects should follow appropriate academic standards of documentation, argumentation, and analysis.

All projects will be individually assessed by department mentors on their own merits mentioned in the section 10. Evaluation.

6. Mentors

Student groups arrange to execute their graduation projects under the guidance of an MIS faculty member. In most cases, students are already acquainted with the department mentor who will be supervising the study. The department mentor should help the student clarify the graduation project proposal to ensure that it includes all necessary components. In the semesters that the graduation project is undertaken, department mentors meet regularly with the student to discuss readings and progress, as well as provide feedback on the development of the final product. At the end of the term, department mentors submit anecdotal grade reports that briefly describe and provide a final evaluation of the student group’s work to accompany the assignment of a letter grade. Department members are limited to supervising no more than one graduation project per semester.

7. Proposal

Only complete proposals will be considered. A complete graduation project proposal will include the following elements:

  • a. Project Description: The description should be approximately three double spaced pages, and should clearly state the proposed research question or design aim(s) of the project. The proposal must explain how the student group has prepared to carry out this project and how the students intend to complete the project within one semester. The project’s relation to the students’ ongoing work or area of concentration should be clear. The proposal should also clearly specify the expected output (i.e., a research paper, design project, real-world case) and discuss the specific methods with which the project will be completed. These criteria will be determined between the student group and the department mentor, and they will be used in evaluating the final project at the end of the semester.
  • b. Annotated Bibliography or Relevant Works: The bibliography should situate a student’s project within a body of work in their field. This should include books, articles, key documents, applications, cases, etc. Please provide the full citation and a short description of the relevance of each text or work to the proposed project (preferably in APA style).
  • c. Form: Complete Senior Project Proposal Form.

8. Registration

Proposals will be reviewed with an eye toward selecting projects of exceptional promise. The department mentor will evaluate proposals based on the following criteria:

  • clarity of project goal(s), mode of inquiry, and final product
  • project’s relation to concentration and course of study
  • feasibility of the project within one semester through an articulated timeline
  • clear articulation of student group/mentor relationship, including schedule of meetings
  • the degree to which the project would culminate in an original design or scholarly work

Please note that students are responsible for the course registration process.