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2010/2011  BA-2YP  2nd Year Project

English Title
2nd Year Project

Course Information

Language English
Point 25 ECTS (750 SAT)
Type Mandatory
Level Bachelor
Duration One Quarter
Course Period Spring . Fourth Quarter
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Study Board
Study Board for BA in Information Management
Course Coordinator
Flemming Meier
Main Category of the Course
  • Organization

Taught under Open University-Taught under open university.
Last updated on 29 maj 2012
Learning Objectives
• Facilitate and qualify reflections on the epistemological and methodological perspectives of theoretical concepts and approaches from other courses, by relating these theories and approaches to a small number of issues and themes from the philosophy of science.
• Facilitate and qualify critical and constructive reflections on the challenges and choices of the research project work of the Second Year Projects; with emphasis on (1) formulation of problems / research questions, (2) integration of various theoretical inspirations into an interdisciplinary methodological approach and (3) execution of data analysis.
• Introduce to various kinds of data and the methods of collecting them
• Train skills in designing questionnaires, interview questions, observation guides and other means for data collection
• Facilitate a critical and constructive peer-reviewing process at the Pilot Exam in order to qualify the project reports and specifically the analyses and epistemological and methodological reflections carried out in the project reports.
Examination
Individual oral exam based on 2nd Year Project
Exam Period May/June
Examination
The examination of the 2nd Year Project consists of two examinations that are graded separately:
1) An oral, individual examination based on the project as such and
2) An individual written English examination of the Executive Summary submitted individually in connection with the 2nd Year Project. It is a summary of the project written in a concise, precise manner to a specific target group. The Executive Summary is a 1 page independent document.

The regular oral exam takes place in June, the re-examination is in August.
Prerequisites for Attending the Exam
The final project must contain two reports and an abstract: A project report, an executive summary and an abstract.
Course Content

The course is organized as four workshops each consisting of four ‘lessons’. At each workshop students work with a number of themes, such as:

  • What is epistemology and what is it good for?
  • What is phenomenology and what is hermeneutics? And in what ways may these approaches help investigate problems around the role of knowledge / information in organizations?
  • What are the elements of a good research question?
  • Realism and positivism.
  • Empirical fields: Problems and data collection in various kinds of organizations.
  • Contacting and developing collaboration with organizations, informants, resource persons and others.
  • How do we get the best out of our supervisor?
  • The social construction of reality.
  • How do we formulate goals for and plan our project work?
  • Data analysis: Interpretation, validation, answering research questions, reasoning, making an argument, discussing, concluding and reflecting on perspectives.
  • Interviewing: Who are good sources and why? What are good questions? What has to be taken into consideration when planning an interview?
  • What can we use from the various Second Year courses in our project work?
Teaching Methods
The course activities will vary from lectures and exercises over reflective conversations and group work to student group presentations and class discussions. There will be small assignments (for all students to work with) in relation to two of the workshops. The fourth workshop will be organized as a Pilot Exam where all groups have to present a short paper explaining about the project and the results (so far). Each group also has to review another group’s project as presented at the Pilot Exam. In addition to the four workshops of the IRM course a specific workshop on quantitative data collection, analysis of quantitative data and statistical analysis is organized.