THT390 Preparations for the master's thesis
Credits (ECTS):5
Course responsible:Vegard Nilsen
Campus / Online:Taught campus Ås
Teaching language:Norsk, engelsk
Course frequency:Annually
Nominal workload: The nominal work load for a 5-credit course is 125 hours, distributed approximately as follows:
Teaching and exam period:This course starts in the autumn parallel. This course has teaching/assessment in the autumn parallel.
About this course
The purpose of this course is to provide a practical introduction to the planning and implementation of a small research project, such as a master's thesis. Through independent work under supervision, the students will carry out a preliminary project related to their own planned topic for the master's thesis. The course is mainly aimed at students in water and environmental engineering, but it is also open to other students.
Topics covered in the course are:
- The purpose of the master's thesis
- Development of a good problem statement and good research questions
- Planning the use of relevant methods
- Literature search, reading research papers, reference management, citation practices and plagiarism
- Managing one's own research data
- Structuring research reports/master's theses
- Language, writing tools and writing tips
- Regulations and guidelines for master's thesis work, including privacy rules
- Professional and research ethics
- Use of artificial intelligence in research and writing
- Time budgeting, supervision routines, managing problems and unforeseen events
- Presentation technique
Learning outcome
Knowledge:
- The student has knowledge about essential aspects of planning, carrying out and reporting research, including regulations and guidelines
- Through literature search and reading research literature, the student has acquired in-depth knowledge on a chosen, narrower topic
Skills:
- The student can conduct a literature search and navigate through the professional and research literature
- The student can identify and formulate meaningful research questions and choose relevant methods to answer the research questions
- The student masters the most important functions of selected writing tools and reference management tools, and can follow good citation practices
- The student can manage research data in accordance with regulations and guidelines
- The student can structure a technical or research report in an appropriate way and has training in using language that suits the genre
- The student can use artificial intelligence in an academic context in an appropriate way, and reflect on ethical aspects of this
- The student can present academic content and research plans in oral form
General competence:
- The student has gained experience with reflecting on professional and research ethics within their own subject area
- The student has gained experience in structuring a technical or research report
- The student has gained experience with oral presentation of academic or technical content
Learning activities
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