Enrolment options
Course Description
This course introduces ICT undergraduates to research methodology through a practical, artefact-centred approach. It explains how research begins with meaningful ICT problems and develops into clear questions, objectives, literature reviews, research strategies, conceptual frameworks, measurement instruments, sampling plans, data collection procedures, artefact evaluation, system testing, user acceptance testing, data analysis, proposal writing and final reporting. Particular emphasis is placed on Design Science Research, where students develop and evaluate systems, applications, models, algorithms, IoT solutions, prediction systems or AI-based prototypes. The course also covers survey-based user studies, ethical use of AI tools, academic writing, presentation and artefact demonstration professionally and confidently.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
- Explain the fundamental concepts, principles and purposes of research methodology in ICT, Information Systems and computing contexts.
- Formulate ICT research topics, research problems, aims, objectives and research questions suitable for undergraduate artefact-based and survey-based studies.
- Conduct literature reviews by critically examining journal articles, conference papers, existing systems, technologies, algorithms, datasets and evaluation methods.
- Select appropriate research strategies, especially Design Science Research, survey research, experiments, case studies and mixed methods, based on the nature of the research problem.
- Develop conceptual or theoretical frameworks and formulate hypotheses for user acceptance, system success and ICT.
- Design research instruments, sampling procedures and data collection plans while applying principles of measurement, scaling, reliability, validity and research ethics.
- Evaluate ICT artefacts technically and from the user perspective, analyse research data using appropriate techniques, and communicate findings through proposals, reports, presentations and artefact demonstrations.