Nailing Your Thesis

Description

This class teaches you how to perform research. According to the Informatik Prüfungsordnung your Bachelor or Master thesis has to be scientific work, and this class teaches you how to do it. The class consists of a weekly lecture (2 SWS) and weekly exercises (2-4 SWS). If you decide to write a research paper, the class can also be used for the Praktikum module (Bachelor) or Projekt module (Master), totaling 10 ECTS.

The weekly lecture discusses the following topics:

• Hypothesis generation and validation; qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Writing a paper/thesis and publishing it; peer reviews, evaluations, and publications
• Science and the scientific community: What it takes to become a scientist There are two types of weekly exercises, focusing on different aspects of doing research:

• Method exercises, which review and exercise research method applications
• Computer exercises, which teach tools and software to do empirical research The weekly exercises apply what you learned in the lecture part to a particular research topic. The research topic changes each semester and is described in the Nailing-Your-Thesis Praktikum/Project section elsewhere. Typically, it has to do something with open source and software engineering. The first class meeting will present the available research topics.

As part of the exercises, students will be given the chance to create a research hypothesis, develop a validation strategy, carry out the validation, and write up the results as a research paper, just like they would do for their Master Thesis. We will provide the data and help with the hypothesis creation and validation process. This exercise work is probably a student's best preparation for a successful Bachelor or Master Thesis.

The class language is English and a research paper will have to be written in English. The exercises will involve both qualitative and quantitative data analysis; thus, math and programming skills are needed.

Studienplan and Grading

Students can participate in this class in different ways:

• Praktikum , Bachelor (Informatik): 4 SWS, 10 ECTS. Fulfills the requirements of the Informatik-Bachelor-Studium module "Praktikum". Grading will be based on active class participation and the research paper being written.
• Projekt , Master (Informatik): 6 SWS, 10 ECTS. Fulfills the requirements of the Informatik-Master-Studium module "Projekt". Grading will be based on active class participation and the research paper being written.
• Lecture + method exercises: 4 SWS, 5 ECTS. Students will receive an "Benoteter Schein" or an "Unbenoteter Schein" for the class upon successful completion. Successful completion is based on active participation in the class exercises. More Information

• Class schedule: http://bit.ly/bcvFhh
• Materials: http://www.studon.uni-erlangen.de/crs149033.html