MURDOCH UNIVERSITY

ICT615 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH METHODS

Assignment 1

Submission instructions: You should submit your assignment using the ICT615 LMS site. You can
receive email notification that your assignment has been received. Late submissions will be penalised at
the rate of 10 marks per day late or part thereof unless prior approval for an extension has been gained.

You should submit your assignment as a one word-processed document. So your work doesn't get mixed
up with others’, use a filename which follows the convention: Unit Code, Assignment Number, and your
Student Number. e.g. ICT615Assign1-12345678 . You must keep a copy of the final version of your
submission and be prepared to provide it on request.

The University treats plagiarism, collusion, theft of other students’ work and other forms of
dishonesty in assessment seriously. Instances of academic misconduct include Submitting work that has
been produced by someone else or either in part of whole using Artificial Intelligence tools. For
guidelines on honesty in assessment including avoiding plagiarism see
https://www.murdoch.edu.au/mymurdoch/support-advice/student-admin/complaints-appeals/academic-
misconduct-process
Your submitted assignment will be checked for plagiarism by Urkund/Ouriginal and other scanning
programs.

A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic (in journal articles,
conference proceedings, books and other relevant sources) by recognised researchers.
Understanding the prior research on a particular topic is the basis of most new research.
Researchers must know what has been studied, discussed and recommended by others in
related areas.

In this assignment, you will review the published literature on given topics and write a
literature review that synthesizes what you have found into a summary of what is, and
is not, known on the topic.

This assignment is intended to:

• Help you to understand the basics of a topic that we will explore for the remainder of the
semester. It will serve as a starting point for the introduction section of your research
project
• Provide you with practise finding peer reviewed, recent articles about the related topic.
• Allow you to organize your ideas about the topic in a meaningful way (including both
synthesis and critical analysis).

➢ This is an INDIVIDUAL assignment.

➢ This assignment is worth 20% of your final grade

To Do

Choose Research Topics: you can choose one research topic below to find problems to solve
and build research questions to answer using the dataset.

1. User security behaviour: Information technology security is an increasingly

important research topic. Although organisations spend large amounts on technology

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 that can help safeguard the security of their information and computing assets,
increased attention is being focused on the role people play in maintaining a safe
computing environment. This issue is important both for organisational and home
computing

2. Social media and emerging technologies for learning: In today's rapidly evolving
digital landscape, the integration of social media and emerging technologies in
education has become increasingly prevalent. From online learning to mobile
learning, emerging technologies are being used to potentially enhance teaching and
learning experiences. However, the impact of these technologies on student
engagement and academic performance remains a topic of significant interest and
debate. It is important to examine the impacts of social media and emerging
technologies in higher education learning settings.

3. Online piracy: With the spread of educational informatization, the era of online
education began in earnest. In particular, as online education becomes more active, it
is being proposed as a measure to improve public education and reduce private
education expenses. On the other hand, online educational contents are contents used
for educational and public purposes, but at the same time, it is important to create a
transparent and reliable educational contents service environment through
indiscriminate piracy prevention and systematic copyright management.

Search Articles: To successfully complete the assignment, you must begin searching for
relevant literature as early as possible as it requires times to search and review the articles.
Start by searching Murdoch Library with keywords related to your topic. The skills has
covered in Week 2 will be valuable.

Find at least 10+ relevant articles (at least 15 relevant articles to get higher marks). To qualify
as a source of information that you can use for the assignment, these main articles must report
results of empirical research (i.e. not just authors’ opinions). The research results can be
either qualitative or quantitative in nature. Each article must also:
• Have been published in a refereed journal or conference proceedings
• You may obtain resources and articles online
• Have an extensive references section.

After reading each article, you should think about how they all fit together. Your review
should be organized by concepts, such as findings, rather than by sources of information. Do
not proceed through the articles one-by-one.

Synthesize reviews: Your literature review should include an introduction, a main body that
reviews the literature (and which you may choose to subdivide further), and a conclusion
(which includes your own evaluations and critiques). The Library has some resources that
you might find useful if you are unsure as to how to write or structure an review- see
https://www.murdoch.edu.au/library/support/support-for-researchers.

Format Guidelines
• Give your literature review a title that clearly reflects the content of your review.
• Include an introduction section that states the purpose of the review and a conclusion
section. Include other sub-sections to help structure your work.
• Double-space your review and use 12-point font.
• Your review should be between 1000 and 2000 words in length.
• Include appropriate citations throughout the review and a list of references at the end.
Referencing should be in APA style.
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 • Your review should include a minimum of 10 sources of information.

Assessment Rubric
Mark is distributed across 4 major criteria *

Criteria HD (99%-80%) D (79%-70%) C (69%-60%) P (59%-50%) N (49%-1%)

Has a clear title Has a clear title Has a clear title Has a title Has a very
Structure is clear Structure is clear Structure is clear Structure is clear general/ambiguous/erro
Excellent introduction: Good introduction: Reasonable Has introduction: neous or No title
has external sources to Discuss the importance of introduction: state the objective of Structure is not clear
Structure strongly support the issues; clearly state the Discuss some the review No introduction
& importance of issues; objective of the review. background; clearly number of issues Incorrectly formatted
Argument clearly state the objective well written/presented state the (e.g. doesn't address paragraphs (too long,
Developme of the review and points link and are objective of the all of question, lacks short, missing topic
nt Structure and argument is pertinent to topics at review depth/ breadth, non sentences per para etc).
(15%) of the highest academic hand. some minor issues consistency of Non logical flow of
writing standard at a with structure, but supporting evidence, information
postgrad level overall fine structure lacking)

Select Select Select 15 Select Select less than 10

15+journal/conference 15+journal/conference journal/conference 10+journal/conferen journal/conference
Identified appropriate Identified appropriate Starting to ce Reporting some
material and synthesised material and synthesised synthesise research Simply reporting the studies; hard to follow.
the research findings well. the research findings well. results, but some results of one study Discussions are largely
Clearly describe how each Provide recommendations sections still read after another. personal opinions or
Content category is related (a for future studies like reporting the Provide summaries feelings and
Identificati research framework is Discussions display an results of one study and conclusion demonstrate little or no
on of highly preferred). excellent level of critical after another Discussions repeat understanding of the
relevant Critically evaluate the thinking and excellent Discussions display and summarize topic and/or the
material study, identify the gaps, understanding of the a good basic, correct required readings and
and provide studies and underlying understanding of the information and underlying concepts.
Synthesis recommendations for concepts. studies and good demonstrate a basic Do not have
of research future studies (with the understanding of the understanding of the conclusions
findings support of the literature) underlying concepts topic and/or the
Discussion demonstrates Provide summaries studies and
Evaluation critical thinking in and conclusion underlying concepts.
of findings arguments and clear
understanding of topics.
(65%)

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 Select Select Select Select Select less than 10
15+journal/conference 15+journal/conference 10+journal/conferen 10+journal/conferen journal/conference
Discussions integrate Discussions integrate ce ce
exceptional quality, excellent relevant, current Basic evidence of Discussions show little
relevant, current research research to support Discussions linking discussion to or no evidence that
to support important important points. These integrate good readings or relevant readings were
points. These are are appropriately and research but some research or completed or
appropriately and correctly cited with few may not be relevant inappropriately cited understood. Statements
correctly cited with no errors or current. or poor level of not supported by
errors. A complete and Appropriately cited evidence used. reference to the
Referencin A complete, consistent, consistent reference list is but with some errors Sources are poorly readings and/or
g & Use of and accurate reference list provided for all sources, (5-10 errors) cited. (10-15 errors) relevant research.
Sources is provided for all with only minor A complete and A mostly complete, Sources are poorly
(10%) sources, following the inaccuracies, following mostly consistent consistent, and cited with multiple
APA format . The in- the APA format . and accurate accurate reference errors or not cited (˃15
text citations accurately reference list is list is provided for errors)
match the end-text provided for all most sources, Cannot identify the
citations. sources, following following the APA format. Lacks
the APA format . format. complete, consistent,
and accurate references
for all sources,
following the APA
format.

Has no grammar Has few grammar/ Has a few grammar/ Has quite a few Has many grammar /
/spelling errors spelling errors spelling errors but grammar / spelling spelling errors,
All discussions are free of All discussions are does not impact errors, hard to hard to follow
grammatical, spelling or largely free of Reading follow sometime. Discussions contain
punctuation errors. The grammatical, spelling or Discussions contain Discussions include numerous grammatical,
style of writing is concise punctuation errors. (˂5 some grammatical, several grammatical, spelling or punctuation
and succinct and makes errors) The style of spelling or spelling or errors (˃15 errors). The
all the relevant, salient writing is concise and punctuation errors. punctuation errors style of writing is either
Presentatio points. Within allocated makes most of the (5-10 errors). The that distract the too wordy and/or
n and word count. relevant, salient points. style of writing may reader (10-15 makes none of the
writing Within allocated word be too wordy at errors). The style of salient points. Word
proficiency count. times, go off topic, writing is either too count either under or
or lack the salient wordy, goes off over allocated 500
(10%) points. Within topic or lacks the words +/-10%.
allocated word salient points. Word
count. count either under or
over allocated 500
words +/-10%.

* Marking is based on 7 levels of achievements as follows:

(HD- Full mark) HD (>80%), D (>70%) C (> 60%) P ( 50%) N (Fail >0%) N (Fail 0%)