Introduction

Students who have completed 12 units or more of third-year Computer Science subjects with a credit average or above are eligible for admission to the Honours program in the Department of Computer Science.

If you meet the eligibility criteria and undertake the Honours program it will provide you with an opportunity for in-depth study and individual instruction in the principles and methods of scientific research, from the acquisition of knowledge in a specialised field, through to the recognition and evaluation of questions, the framing of hypotheses, the design of algorithms, software and experiments, the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, and the reporting of research results.

The Honours program in the Computer Science Department has two components: 12 units of course work and a 12 unit project. The project includes training in research techniques and principles, and experience in the written and oral communication of scientific information.

The coordinator of the Computer Science Honours program in 2005 is Dr. Bruce Litow (Room TG150 in the TESAG building, 815844, bruce@cs.jcu.edu.au). All queries concerning information in this guide should be directed to him. There is also a World Wide Web home page for the Computer Science Honours Program.

GENERIC REQUIREMENTS: ACADEMIC BOARD POLICY

1. A comprehensive Honours Booklet (this web site) must be must be produced by the School. It must describe: content and structure of the course; selection and admission requirements; assessment; examination and grading processes, including appeals procedures; time penalties; and supervision.
2. Full-time Honours courses where students wish to be considered for an APA should be timetabled so results will be finialised by 30 November. The normal data of finalisation should be published in the Honours booklet. (This appears in the timetable).
3. Penalty for late thesis submission shall be computed as
   Percentage reduction = (0.1 x days)^2
   where days include part-days, weekends and holidays.
4. The SIT Honours thesis component is 50%; and the coursework component is 50%.
5. SIT requires two (initial and final) oral presentations. See timetable.
6. The thesis will be examined by two lecturers in SIT. The supervisor(s) is excluded from thesis examination. Each examiner must provide a written report to the SIT Honours convenor.
7. Criteria for marking of all assessment items must be published in the Honours booklet.
8. SIT has a moderation plan, which follows this AB requirements list. This plan includes the university grading scale.
9. All assessment marks will be reviewed by a School-wide meeting (Examiner's meeting) before assignment of a final grade.
10. The overall weighting of assessment items is given in the Honours booklet. No single item determines the final grade.
11. Examiners should use the full range of marking to differentiate between weak and outstanding students.
12. A selection of Honours theses will be sub,itted to external review once every five years for benchmarking purposes.

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MODERATION OF HONOURS RESULTS

Assessment consists of two parts: four three-unit subjects and a thesis.

Evaluation of all marks is carried out at a meeting convened by the Honours coordinator.

1. Subject marks as percentages are added and the average is the coursework mark.
2. Literature Review is marked by the supervisor.
3. The initial and final seminars are marked by consensus, initially based on an average mark, with the final mark being obtained at meetings, held immediately after the respective seminars.
4. A student's supervisor is excluded from examining the thesis.
5. A temporary replacement for the meeting's convenor is to be named by HoS at any time one of the convenor's students is the subject of a consensus evaluation.
6. Each thesis is marked by two examiners. If the spread is less than or equal to 10%, the average is used as the final mark. If the spread exceeds 10%, the thesis is read by a third examiner. If the spread of all three marks is less than or equal to 15%, the average is used as the final mark. In the event the spread exceeds 15%, the final mark is arrived at by consensus at the evaluation meeting.
7. The overall mark is the average of the final coursework mark and the marks from the four pieces of thesis related work.
8. If a student's overall mark is within 1% of the next higher grade, a reevaluation by consensus is undertaken.
9. Full minutes of meetings will be recorded.