Course Description & Goals

This course focuses on information systems (IS) research and the nature of the discipline. Students will start by looking at the nature of the field. This is then followed by a critical examination and evaluation of contemporary IS research on a variety of topics, including ontology and epistemology. The idea is to give you a broad understanding of how design and conduct your own PhD research in the IS field.

The academic goal of most graduate students in the medium term is to complete a unique research project, namely their PhD dissertation. Therefore, the doctoral programme in the IS is designed to prepare students for doing research. A basic grounding in the concepts underlying research in the discipline is essential if students are to succeed in completing the doctoral programme.

This course is designed to introduce doctoral students to IS research in general, but specifically to ontological and epistemological issues related to research design. In addition, students need to understand the nature of IS as a discipline and current research issues and themes.

Registration

Students of University of Jyväskylä register to the course in Sisu (course TJTJ7704).

For others:

Open until May 1st.

After registration please fill the following form and send it as pdf file by email to office@inforte.jyu.fi: https://inforte.jyu.fi/events/materials/registration-form-1

Learning Outcomes

1) The student will have a good knowledge and understanding of how research within the field of information systems is conducted

2) The student will gain competence in critiquing IS research articles published in some of the leading academic journals and conference proceedings

3) The student will have a good knowledge and understanding of ontological and epistemological issues related to information systems research and can apply these to their own PhD research proposal

4) The student will gain competence in critical thinking, and analysis and synthesis of academic sources

Lectures and Assessment

No lectures will be given. The course is offered as an independent study and materials are available in the Moodle site for the course.

The course will use online only class workshop format, it is organized as an independent study course, and not as a series of lectures. Please also refer to the additional handouts about the University’s policy on plagiarism. In this course, we will use turnitin.com, a software application, to assess your written work. The outcome of this assessment will be taken into consideration for your final grade in the course.

The purpose of the take home exam is to familiarize the doctoral students to a wider range of knowledge in the area of information systems research, which has been covered in class. The extended reading list is provided in the appendix of this course outline. The exam will be ‘take home’ exam and it will assess how well the students have understood the given material and how they can apply the theories and concepts for a given research problem or objective. Instructions for the submission deadline etc. will be given separately during the course.

The take home exam is available in Moodle course site and it can be submitted throughout the academic year. There is no specific deadline for submission.

Course Advice and Prerequisite

It is advisable for students to have completed several research methods courses (cf. INFORTE’s course offerings etc.) and/or in the process of completing a course in philosophy of science before enrolling to this course. Information Systems Research course is a substantive overview of research in information systems, not a research methods course. Students should also be enrolled (or have already completed) to Postgraduate Seminar during the academic year when taking the course (at their home university).

Credits

3 ECT. The compeleted credits will be in Sisu student information system. Instructions to get a transcript of records: https://www.jyu.fi/en/study/pursuing-studies/transcript-of-records