BIS 4402 Coursework Description, Autumn 2006
Deadline:8th of January 2007
The coursework is to write a roughly 3000 word hypertext essay on a
research topic in Knowledge Management. Students will be expected to
put into practice three techniques from the module: hypertext, learning
communities, and mind mapping.
The topic can be anything in the area of Knowledge Management.
It can be one of the topics of one of the week's discussions, a part
of one of those topics, or a topic of your own interest. It does have
to be in the area of Knowledge Management. If you are concerned that the
topic is valid, please feel free to discuss it with the module leader.
You should describe the state of the field in the topic. You should
provide a background, a description of the current state, a description
of methods, and a description of current active research questions.
The essay needs to be written in some form of hypertext, and have
a linear translation. Typically this will be HTML, but an XML
document is also fine. It is entirely acceptable to use an HTML
generator, though linking different pages can be difficult. A linear
translation means that the whole essay needs to be able to printed in
one long document that makes sense. So, the essay needs to come in two
formats: (1) hypertext format, and (2) traditional linear book format.
As part of this work you need to develop a
learning community .
This learning community can be anything from people you have spoken
with to a on-line community that you have started. You need to
document this learning community and provide
links (conceptual or hypertext) to the learning community in your
essay. In the case of an on-line community, it is self documenting.
Verbal conversations could be transcribed and put in an appendix
to the essay.
You also need to provide a cognitive map or mind map of the area
of the topic. A simple picture will do and it may be scanned from a
hand drawing.
The essay should explore a topic that interests you. You should
use three techniques developed in the module, hypertext, learning
communities and mind maps. You should also use standard essay skills
including critical thinking and good referencing.
Marking Scheme:
percent | criterion |
10 | use of hypertext |
10 | use of links |
10 | cognitive map |
10 | use of references |
10 | development of learning community |
10 | reference to your learning community |
10 | background of topic |
10 | description of state of topic |
10 | description of open questions in topic |
10 | description of use of topic |
Submission:
You can either submit the essay on a floppy disk or other media, or
you can put it on the web and submit the URL; either way please submit
a sheet of paper stating your name, ID, word count and whether I can
publish the paper on the course web site. I would like to publish
these essays on line so that other's can look at them. If you are
willing to have this done, please say so on the submission sheet. If
you would like it to be anonymous, that would also be ok. Your mark
will not show on the web. Submit the essay to the student office, by the
8th of January 2007.