GP Guide
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Only complete proposals will be considered. A complete graduation project proposal will include the following elements:
Proposals will be reviewed with an eye toward selecting projects of exceptional promise. The department mentor will evaluate proposals based on the following criteria:
Please note that students are responsible for the course registration process.