Department of Management Information Systems

GP Guide

Processes, Policies, and Procedures

411 Graduation Project I, MIS 412 Graduation Project II

1. Introduction

The MIS Graduation Project courses, MIS 411 (18 ECTS) and MIS 412 (18 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 411 and MIS 412 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 411) may only be undertaken in the fall semesters and Graduation Project II (MIS 412) may only be undertaken in the spring semesters. Generally, students will complete graduation projects in their final year at MIS Department. In rare cases, students may complete their graduation projects in their penultimate year. Students planning to graduate in June should plan to complete graduation projects in the preceding year.

4. Credits

The MIS 411 Graduation Project I is a eighteen-ECTS-credit course of study and MIS 412 Graduation Project II is a eighteen-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 graduation projects require a written component; in general, graduation 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 9. 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 three graduation projects 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 Graduation 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.

9. Evaluation

Each graduation project will be evaluated by the department mentor for its ability to meet project aims as delineated in the project proposal as well as the degree to which the final product exemplifies original interdisciplinary work. Successful completion of the graduation graduation will be noted in two ways:

(1) each student in the group will receive a letter grade awarded by the department mentor for the courses titled “MIS 411 Graduation Project I” and “MIS 412 Graduation Project II.”

(2) all graduation projects will also receive written evaluations from department mentors, submitted to the Chair's Office of MIS Department.

10. Deadlines

Graduation project proposals and final projects must be submitted according to the following firm schedule of submission deadlines:

Semester of MIS 411 Graduation Project I: Fall

Graduation project proposal due: The last day of the third week of the semester

Graduation project is due: In Final Exam period of the semester. -Exact date will be announced-

Semester of MIS 412 Graduation Project II: Spring

Graduation project proposal due: The last day of the third week of the semester

Graduation project is due: In Final Exam period of the semester. -Exact date will be announced-

11. Student Checklist

Complete the following by the appropriate deadlines:

a. Approximately two weeks prior to the proposal submission deadline

• Consult the GP Guide website for information and policies on designing your study.
• Identify and contact the department mentor with whom you would like to work.
• Discuss your group's graduation project plans with your mentor.
• Develop the description of the study and the annotated bibliography or relevant works.

b. Approximately one week prior to the proposal submission deadline

• Complete the Graduation Project Proposal Form, which will be sent to your group department mentor.
• Within a few days of submission of the form, follow up with your mentor to make sure he or shehas received the proposal.

c. Approximately one day prior to the proposal submission deadline

• Confirm with mentor that he or she has submitted his or her approval to MIS Department.
• If you have not received confirmation from your mentor that he or she has approved yourproposal, contact your mentor. Do not wait until the submission deadline to notify MIS Department for problems.

12. Proposal Form

• Student Group Number
• Name, Surname and Student ID for each student in the student group
• Year and semester of registration, Expected graduation year and month for each student in the group
• Undertaken ECTS credits in the semester for each student in the group
• Mentor Name and Surname
• Mentor E-mail
• Title of the project
• Project description
• Annotated bibliography or Relevant works

13. Mentor List

Prof. Erman Coşkun, PhD.

Prof. Abdulkadir Hızıroğlu, Ph.D.

Prof. H. Kemal İlter, Ph.D.

Assoc. Prof. Onur Doğan, Ph.D.

Assoc. Prof. Serhat Peker, Ph.D.

Assoc. Prof. Emine Uçar, Ph.D.

Assist. Prof. Ourania Areta, Ph.D.

Assist. Prof. Hunaida Awwad, Ph.D.

Assist. Prof. Fares Dael, Ph.D.

14. Selection

Graduation project student groups are established and their group members are selected by the MIS Department. Here is the selection process:

Step 1. Establishing a group (5-student group).

Step 2. Indicating group choices for mentors (3 options: First, Second, and Third).

Step 3. Scoring group's mentor selection (10 for First, 8 for Second, 6 for Third, 4 for other mentors).

Step 4. Creating an assignment problem for matching groups and mentors.

Step 5. Solving the problem to maximize groups' satisfaction (maximization of overall satisfaction).

Step 6. Assigning groups to mentors.

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