IN3280 – Researcher Track I

Course content

This is a bachelor's course for those who find research exciting. The course consists of joint sessions with theory and practical problem solving, as well as a project assignment. The theory part provides an introduction to research (issues, methods, ethics, reproducibility, literature search and reading) and research dissemination (article writing, posts, and presentation). The project assignment consists of project planning, project implementation and project reporting.

Learning outcome

After passing IN3280, you can plan, carry out and evaluate a research assignment that is part of a large research project, including being able to:

• familiarize yourself with the professional literature within an area
• formulate research questions
• choose research method and plan research assignments
• prepare material for the research
• collect, analyze, document and archive data
• evaluate findings in relation to other research literature
• make a good poster and hold a presentation of research data
• assess ethical aspects of a research report

Admission to the course

The course is available to students admitted to Forskerlinjen informatikk who has completed at least 120 ECTS in Informatics: programming and system architecture or Informatics: design, use, interaction.

Applicants are ranked by grade point average (B), cover letter and interviews. Relevant candidates will be called in for an interview. The course is for students belonging to Informatics: programming and system architecture and Informatics: design, use, interaction that follows standardized study progression and is in their fifth semester.

Teaching

The teaching activities of the course consists of joint gatherings. The course begins in August and extends over the autumn, spring and summer semesters.

Submission of mandatory assignments is required. The mandatory assignments must be approved prior to the summer semester. Read more about requirements for submission of assignments, group work and legal cooperation under guidelines for mandatory assignments.

Teaching activities in the course and participation in the gatherings is mandatory. Mandatory assignments must be approved before the summer semester. You must participate in a minimum of 80% of all teaching activity in order to take the exam. If you are away more than 20%, you must show a doctor's statement.

Examination

The exam consists of:

• written project report, counts 70%. This must be in English.
• oral presentation of the project with subsequent discussion, counts 30%

Both parts of the exam must be passed.

Two students may collaborate on report and presentation. In that case, the students must explain the collaboration as part of the oral examination. Collaborating students can get different grades.

During the summer semester, students write a project report in research under full-time supervision. This assignment may include fieldwork outside the Oslo area or abroad. The students will receive a scholarship for the summer semester of NOK 50 000,- from The Research Council of Norway (Norges Forskningsråd) after mandatory assignments have been approved.

Examination support material

During the work with written project report: Any.

During oral presentation: The student's own report and presentation material.

Language of examination

The project report must be written in English. The oral presentation may be in Norwegian or English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Resit an examination

Students who can document a valid reason for absence from the regular examination are offered a postponed examination at the beginning of the next semester.

Re-scheduled examinations are not offered to students who withdraw during, or did not pass the original examination.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.