Learning in this course depends on:

  • Taking full responsibility for your own learning and project development activities
  • Regular and timely consultation with your project/thesis advisor and course instructor
  • Participation in the scheduled class meetings
  • Steady progress to achieve the planned learning milestones.

The project development work will unfold iteratively, with regular feedback loops. It will encompass:

  • Research and development of computing artifacts that accomplish the project/thesis objectives
  • Writing of your project paper or thesis manuscript that describes your work and outcomes.

Your project development work will also include:

  • Collaboration with peers
  • Regular interactions with and feedback from your project/thesis advisor and course instructor.

Note: Whether you are in the Master’s Project or Master’s Thesis course, we will refer to your work in the course as project development work. The final artifact that documents your project devekionment work is a project paper for the Master’s Project course or thesis manuscript for the Master’s Thesis course.

Class Communication (priceless)

Discord platform and channels are used for general or topic-focused discussions (texting, voice, and video chat) among all class members. Zoom sessions are used for the scheduled class meetings. We’ll use, discover, and share tools that these platforms have to maximize the effectiveness of our communication.

Class Meetings (10%)

The course semester has 15 weeks with five 2-hour scheduled class meetings. These class meetings are structured to create a learning environment supportive of your project work. Your responsibility is to be on time, participate in class discussion, share your progress, give feedback, ask questions, and reflect on your learning and project work.

Course instructor evaluates this course requirement.

Writing Artifacts (20%)

Writing and revising drafts of your project paper or thesis manuscript is an iterative process with three milestones:

  • Outline (4%)
  • First draft (8%)
  • Almost final draft (8%).

You’ll develop these drafts using the Overleaf platform and the Overleaf project set up for your project paper/thesis manuscript. The Overleaf project will be shared with your project/thesis advisor for easy communication and collaboration.

The course instructor will guide you through this writing process and evaluate the three iterations of drafting your project paper/thesis manuscript.

Work Progress (10%)

  • Weekly progress uses OneDrive, GitHub Project Board, or other means of sharing to help you
    • Plan your work
    • Prepare for your meetings with your project/thesis advisor
    • Manage project development activities.

Your project/thesis advisor will assess your work progress.

Presentation (10%)

You’ll present your master’s project or thesis to your peers, project/thesis advisors, and other guests. Thesis committee members will participate in the presentation of the master’s theses. Presentations are open to the public and announced to the department community. A presentation announcement includes project/thesis title and author, presentation date, location, and abstract. Copies of the announcement are posted on the 1st floor and communicated via email to all graduate students and department faculty members.

Course instructor and your project/thesis advisor will assess your presentation.

Computing Artifacts (20%)

The GitHub org associated with this course, https://github.com/master-projects-theses hosts the remote repositories of the project/thesis computing artifacts you develop and manage using the GitHub Project Board and git feature branch workflow.

Your project/thesis advisor will evaluate this component of your project.

Project Paper or Thesis Manuscript (30%)

Master’s Project: Your project advisor will evaluate your project paper.

Master’s Thesis: Your thesis advisor and thesis committee members will evaluate your thesis manuscript.