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Q: You have asked for a research plan. What is this research plan for?
Answer: The plan has to be for a realistic research project. The idea is that you create a realistic plan for a realistic research project approximately the size of a typical master project. You can of course use your master thesis or autumn project as an example, but it is not a requirement. It is your choice.
Q: We are 2/3/N students writing our master thesis/specialization report together. Can we deliver one research proposal?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: TDT39 requires one individual deliverable per student. Delivering the same deliverable as your friend will be counted as plagiarism. There are some issues to clarify here.
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- One or both can choose to design ad write a proposal for other research studies than your thesis.
- Both can take the thesis research problem as the starting point, but diversify the research questions.
- Both can take the thesis research problem as the starting point, but diversify the research design.
Q: I have already taken IT3010. Can I also take TDT39? (or the other way around)
Answer: No you cannot. IT3010 covers TDT39 and more. You can take only one of the courses.
Q: I am a student in [another department|another faculty] than [IDI|IE]. Can I take TDT39?
Answer: As long as you are allowed to register to the course it is OK with us. Some disciplines use different research strategies and data generation methods than those covered in this course. But the general framework in our textbook should be useful also for other disciplines. Remember that we cannot adapt the course to other disciplines than ICT. This means that if you write a research plan for e.g. psychology or medicine you risk to get a bad grade. Follow the framework and the conceptual model in the syllabus.
Q: Can I send my draft plan for feedback
Answer: Yes. We will announce deadlines for intermediate versions of your research plan to be reviewed by course staff. Follow the course web page.
Q: Can my research plan be longer than 3 pages? Or more than 1200 words?
Answer: No. Anything that goes beyond these restrictions will be ignored when grading. We need to have these restrictions due to the high large number of students and the need to be fair.
Q: On the day of the exam [I have other exams|I am not in town|I cannot meet]. What do I do?
Answer: There is no need for physically showing up. The research plan can be sent by email on up to the day of the exam, no later than 16:00CET.
Q: Where is Blackboard folder for TDT39?
Answer: We don’t use Blackboard in this course. However, we are experimenting with MS Teams. See the front webpage of the course.
Q: Will I be self-plagiarizing if I reuse my research plan in my project report or master thesis?
Answer: NTNU's rules against cheating on exams apply also in this course. In general, you should use your own published/delivered text as you use other people's text, meaning you have to cite, give credit, use quotations properly, etc. See guidelines from NTNU library on how to use sources in your own writing.
Q: I don't have MS Office on my computer. How do I deliver the assignment
Answer: Use other systems, e.g. LaTeX, no problem. But keep the format of the template for research plans. This format is mandatory and strict. Make sure that your front page has all the information from the template. And yes you can deliver PDF.