Class Time: MON 2:30-5:30pm @ Westgate E208
Instructor: Dongwon Lee (dul13)
Office Hour: MON 9-11am @ https://psu.zoom.us/j/6076950926 or visit the instructor's office @ EBIH 413E
TA: Mahjabin Nahar (mfn5333)
Office Hour: THUR 10am-12pm @ https://psu.zoom.us/j/5728950738 or visit TA's office @ EBIH 413
IST 501 is one of the foundation courses for Ph.D. students in the College of IST. One course goal is to expose new graduate students to the breadth of interdisciplinary research and associated research methods underway in IST. Another goal is to learn about and practice essential scholarly research practices such as writing a literature review, developing research questions, building a research argument, selecting research methods and presenting work in written and oral formats. Overall, the course will help the first-year doctoral students prepare better for their qualifying exam to take at the end of year 1 (short-term) and carry out their own independent research in the chosen fields (long-term).
The semester-long project in the course is to develop a scientifically grounded research scholarly paper (SC) that emerges from a synergistic review of related literature. You will write proposal incrementally with multiple submissions over the semester, including an abstract, introduction, literature review, research questions, potential research methods and bibliography. You will receive feedback as different sections are written with revisions expected in later drafts.
You will submit a final paper at the end of the semester. In related activities, each of you will be part of a team to discuss the course topics with a focus on interdisciplinary perspectives. You will also present your paper as part of a poster show in the final week of class. Although each of you may focus on one or two methods discussed in the course, IST is committed to instilling an interdisciplinary mindset regarding your own and your colleagues’ research activities. This mindset is a defining feature of the doctoral program in IST.
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
Describe the breadth of multi-disciplinary research areas in the College of IST;
Produce a scholarly research proposal;
Identify and select among suitable research designs (with rationale) for different problem types;
Formulate and present research design, data analysis, and evaluation techniques for research projects;
Present a cogent argument, in written and oral forms, for a selected research design.
The Creswell & Creswell book (Creswell & Creswell, 2017 or other edition is also fine) offers a general research methods framework as well as specific methods guidance for the course. We will read several chapters of this book so please have the book ready.
Other Informatics research and method contents will be supported by scientific articles and other readings available online (or to be provided by the instructor).
To promote interdisciplinary discussion, you will be part of a “study team.” Most teams will have four members. Your team will enjoy in-class team discussions; these will expose you to other students’ ways of thinking and help you prepare for cross-disciplinary writing assignments. The discussions should help you think about how the course ideas are relevant to your own emerging research identity and activities.
Please note the following policies:
Course submissions: All assignments must be submitted as specified using the Canvas course site.
Academic honesty: Plagiarism in any form is banned and will result in a straight Fail grade. On occasion you will be asked to submit assignments and in most cases the expectation is that you will work on your own, so pay attention! Please refer to the University’s academic integrity policy for more information.
ChatGPT or other AI tools: Many tasks in this course are to prepare you for your qualifying exam at the end of year 1, where currently the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT or other language models is NOT ALLOWED as long as its usage is declared explicitly. As such, the use of ChatGPT or other language model based AI tools is also NOT allowed in this course. If in doubt about specific tool's use, please check with us before you use it.
Readings: You are expected to complete assigned readings before the class session for which they are assigned. Class discussions will often be based on these assignments, and you will not be able to participate fully if you have not done the reading.
Late submissions: One late submission of up to one week will be accepted without a need for excuse; however please notify TA that you are taking advantage of this policy so that she can make a record. Other late submissions will receive a 10% deduction for each day they are late, up to one week (-70%). One week after the assignment due date, the assignment will be closed; anyone with no submission will get a zero.
Class attendance: Please make every effort to attend each class session and please arrive on time! Late arrivals are a disruption to everyone. On rare occasions when you cannot attend a class or need to arrive late, please send an email in advance notifying the instructor.
Course communications: Please use the PSU email (not Canvas email) of the instructor or TA to ask for clarifications or explain details about your own situation. To receive our response fast, start the subject line of your email with “IST501:”, then we will aim at responding within hours during weekdays (unless we are traveling).
15%: Participation: attendance and engagement in course activities (e.g., course diary, personal website)
25%: Reflection papers (5 brief papers, 5 points each)
10%: Thought-provoking individual presentation of a research paper
50%: Scholarly paper
5%: Scholarly paper 1 (Title, Abstract)
5%: Scholarly paper 2 (Intro, Outline, Bibliography)
12%: Scholar paper 3 (First Draft)
8%: Scholarly paper 4 (Poster)
20%: Scholarly paper 5 (Final Draft)
Grades will be assigned based on the following scale:
A: 93% to 100%
A-: 90% to 92.9%
B+: 87% to 89.9%
B: 83% to 86.9%
B-: 80% to 82.9%
C+: 77% to 79.9%
C: 70% to 76.9%
D: 60% to 69.9%
F: less than 60%
A portion of the grade for this course is directly tied to your participation. Successful participation includes reading required materials prior to class, so that you are prepared to join in class-wide or team discussions. It also includes reflecting on your own reactions and thoughts about research throughout the course
As a means of tracking your participation and reinforcing the new material that you are encountering, I am asking that each of you maintain a course diary. In the diary you should write 1-2 paragraphs about each class session that you attend. Your reflections can be quite personal and informal; I will not grade them for writing quality, but rather look for "evidence" that you are thinking about the topics. For class sessions that you miss, please include an entry that explains why you could not join the class on that day.
As additional input into your participation, at the end of the semester I will ask you to summarize your own and other team members’ participation in the study group activities.
Each student will present one peer-reviewed research article; the topic of the paper will not necessarily match the presenter’s personal interests or expertise. Papers will be drawn from a set of possible papers listed for a given topic. The date and paper for your individual contribution will be “first come first serve,” using a Google Doc sign-up sheet (info to be given). Anyone who fails to claim a slot will be assigned by the instructor.
During most class sessions, you will spend part of class in small group discussion, with the primary goal to expand your cross-disciplinary understandings. To facilitate this, I will form the teams, so that I can connect you with students who have complementary research interests and backgrounds. Your discussions give you a chance for more informal and peer-mediated thinking about course topics and will help to prepare you for the various writing assignments that reflect on course topics.
The goal of the scholarly paper is to (1) delve deeply into the literature that supports or suggests the research interests that you hope to pursue in your doctoral studies; and (2) develop and practice the skills involved in writing scientific research papers.
This includes a literature search, identification of relevant published work, reading and synthesizing that material, and developing creative ideas for research that builds on that literature. It also involves good use of written communication at both a high level (e.g., paper organization and formatting) and low level (e.g., paragraph structure, sentence structure, grammar and spelling).
The paper will emerge from a semester-long process, with multiple deliverables along the way that will be graded with feedback. A final draft is due at the end of the semester. On the final day of class, we will organize a poster exhibit presenting your paper.
According to the Penn State Principles and University Code of Conduct: Academic integrity is a basic guiding principle for all academic activity at Penn State University, allowing the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest, and responsible manner. In according with the University’s Code of Conduct, you must not engage in or tolerate academic dishonesty. This includes, but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, fabrication of information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person, or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. Any violation of academic integrity will be investigated, and where warranted, punitive action will be taken. For every incident when a penalty of any kind is assessed, a report must be filed.
Plagiarism (Cheating): Chatting over your ideas and getting feedback on your writing from friends are NOT examples of plagiarism. Taking someone else's words (published or not) and calling them your own IS plagiarism. Plagiarism has dire consequences, including flunking the paper in question, flunking the course, and university disciplinary action, depending on the circumstances of the office. The simplest way to avoid plagiarism is to document the sources of your information carefully.
Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University’s educational programs. Every Penn State campus has an office for students with disabilities. Student Disability Resources (SDR) website provides contact information for every Penn State campus. For further information, please visit Student Disability Resources website.
In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation: See documentation guidelines. If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus disability services office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with us and discuss the accommodations that you need. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.