FIT4005 IT Research and Innovation Methods
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · S2 2026FIT4005 Overview
- Level 4 unit
- Semester 2 2026
- Co-taught with FIT5125
- Two assignments and weekly quizzes
- Moodle unit site
FIT4005 IT Research and Innovation Methods at Monash University equips you to design, carry out and report research and innovation work inside an IT organisation. It is taught together with FIT5125 on one shared Moodle site, so both cohorts follow the same weekly materials, studios and quizzes.
- Assessed by Two written assignments and best eight of ten studio quizzes
- Hardest step Turning one interview into defined codes and themes
- How to prepare Justify every method choice against the research question
How FIT4005 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Written: Assignment 1 | 40% | Individual; three tasks covering Weeks 1 to 6: research ethics slides (10 marks), a closed-question survey with rationale (10 marks), and a recorded interview with a coding scheme (20 marks); due Monday 14 September 2026, 11:55 PM |
| Written: Assignment 2 | 40% | Covers Weeks 7 to 12; due Monday 2 November 2026, 11:55 PM; the task brief is released on Moodle |
| Quiz / Test: weekly studio quizzes | 20% | Five minutes and one attempt in each studio; Weeks 1 and 2 are practice; the best eight of the ten graded quizzes from Weeks 3 to 12 count |
What FIT4005 covers
Twelve chapters follow the twelve teaching weeks, from framing a research question and planning ethics through interviews, statistics and intellectual property to the design methods that carry an idea to delivery.
What Research Is and Why Methods Matter
Research as systematic knowledge creation, the research process, basic versus applied research, and why every method has limits02Research Ethics Across the Research Pipeline
Ethical codes, the National Statement principles, dimensions of human research, data custodianship and ethics at each stage03Searching and Reviewing the Literature
Purpose and types of review, thematic structure, synthesis matrices, backward and forward search and indicators of quality04Designing Surveys and Questionnaires
When a questionnaire fits, sampling, closed question formats, Likert and ranking items, and repairing faulty questions05Planning and Conducting Research Interviews
Structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews, schedules, prompts and probes, consent and interviewer skills06Thematic Analysis of Qualitative Data
Qualitative approaches, Braun and Clarke phases, semantic and latent codes, reviewing and defining themes07Configuring a Research Study
Research question properties, gap-spotting and problematising, mixed methods, triangulation and resourcing a plan08Descriptive Statistics and Data Visualisation
Datasets and data sources, centre and spread, outliers and skew, chart choice and data storytelling09Inferential Statistics and Hypothesis Testing
Population and sample, probability and non-probability sampling, hypothesis tests, variables and study design10Intellectual Property in IT Innovation
How research creates IP, prior work versus new work, publication and ownership, and patent filing in practice11Discovering and Defining Design Problems
Design versus research, the Double Diamond, design research in context, affinity clustering and root causes12Developing and Delivering Design Solutions
How Might We questions, divergent ideation, convergence criteria, prototypes, minimum viable products and agile deliveryThe twelve weeks move through four families of method: framing research (why methods matter, ethics, the literature), qualitative methods (questionnaires, interviews, thematic analysis), quantitative methods (configuring a study, descriptive and inferential statistics), and communicating and protecting new knowledge (intellectual property and the design methods of the Double Diamond).
The grade comes from two written assignments worth 40% each and weekly studio quizzes worth 20%.
Assignment 1 draws on Weeks 1 to 6 and has three tasks: ethical risks across a research pipeline, a closed-question survey with a rationale, and a recorded semi-structured interview with a two-level coding scheme. Assignment 2 draws on Weeks 7 to 12. Each quiz is five minutes in the studio, and the best eight of the ten graded quizzes count.
What the unit rewards throughout is justified choice: naming the method, tying it to the research question, and stating what it cannot tell you.
Worked example · free
Plan a mixed-methods evaluation of a new campus app feature
- +1Split the aim into two questions: how students experience the planner (meaning and trust) and whether planner users schedule study differently (a measurable comparison).
- +1Answer the first with semi-structured interviews of about 15 to 20 minutes, a schedule that moves from a warm-up to direct questions, and prompts for recent examples.
- +1Answer the second with app logs: compare study sessions per week for students who use the planner and students who do not over the same weeks, and describe both groups with medians and interquartile ranges before any test.
- +1Analyse interviews thematically: semantic and latent codes, grouped into themes that are reviewed against the data and defined as claims.
- +1Plan ethics stage by stage: voluntary recruitment without pressure from teaching staff, consent that explains recording and withdrawal, de-identified logs, and aggregated reporting.
- +1State limits: planner users may already be more organised, so log differences may not be caused by the feature; interviews explain reasons but do not show how common they are.
Key terms
- Research question
- A specific, clear, relevant and feasible question that guides the research process and decides which data and methods are needed.
- Research ethics
- The principles and practical safeguards that protect participants and data, built on merit and integrity, justice, beneficence and respect.
- Data custodianship
- The responsibility for storing, protecting and managing collected research data, including how it is treated once the study closes.
- Literature review
- A structured account of prior work that sets context, synthesises findings by theme and identifies the gaps that motivate new research questions.
- Closed-ended question
- A questionnaire item with predefined answer options, such as yes or no, multiple choice, a Likert scale, a rating scale or a ranking.
- Semi-structured interview
- An interview guided by a schedule in which the interviewer may skip, rephrase, reorder or add questions and prompts in response to the participant.
- Thematic analysis
- A qualitative method that codes data and develops themes capturing patterns of meaning across a data set, following six phases.
- Triangulation
- Combining findings from several sources or methods so that the weaknesses of one are offset by the strengths of another.
- Inferential statistics
- Statistical methods that use a representative sample to draw conclusions about a wider population, usually by testing hypotheses.
- Double Diamond
- A design process model with four phases, Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver, alternating divergent and convergent thinking.
FIT4005 FAQ
How is this unit assessed?
Two written assignments carry 40% each and weekly studio quizzes carry 20%. Assignment 1 covers Weeks 1 to 6 through three tasks on ethics, survey design and interviewing with coding. Assignment 2 covers Weeks 7 to 12 and its brief is released on Moodle. Only the best eight of ten graded quizzes count.
What does Assignment 1 ask you to produce?
Task A is four slides naming the two most significant ethical issues at each research stage with mitigations. Task B is a Google Forms questionnaire of closed questions with a rationale of at most 500 words. Task C is an interview schedule, consent form, a recorded 15 to 20 minute interview, a two-level coding scheme and a 600-word rationale.
How do the weekly quizzes work?
Each quiz runs in the studio with a password, a five-minute limit and one attempt. Weeks 1 and 2 are practice runs. From Weeks 3 to 12 there are ten graded quizzes and the eight highest scores count, which allows for a missed studio or a poor result without special consideration.
Can generative AI be used in the assignments?
The Assignment 1 brief permits it for generating initial ideas, locating information and improving clarity of writing. Each task submission must include a note naming the tools, the purpose and the output included. Validate every response yourself, because originality is part of how the work is judged.
Do students enrolled under the co-taught code study different content?
The unit materials show the two codes sharing one Moodle site, identical learning outcomes and synopses, the same weekly studios and quizzes, and a single assessment table, so the content and tasks described in this guide apply to both cohorts.
How much statistics is involved?
Two weeks focus on statistics, and the Week 8 lecture describes its approach as conceptual and practical rather than mathematical. Expect to compute and interpret means, medians, spread and outliers, choose suitable charts, and reason about samples, variables and hypothesis tests rather than derive formulas.
Which chapters matter most for Task C of Assignment 1?
Task C combines two weeks. Chapter 5 covers interview types, schedules, prompts, probes and consent, and Chapter 6 covers thematic analysis with codes and themes. Plan the schedule with the coding in mind, because Task C is worth half of the Assignment 1 marks.
How to prepare for the assessments
Treat the unit as a toolkit of justified choices. For each week, write one sentence on what the method is good for and one on what it cannot show; those sentences become the rationale paragraphs both assignments need. Build Assignment 1 in the order the weeks run: ethics before collection, the questionnaire from mini-topics, and the interview schedule with the coding scheme in view.
Arrive at each studio having done the pre-workshop material, because the five-minute quiz follows the week's distinctions closely. For the second half, practise reading data before testing it: describe centre, spread and outliers, then ask whether the sample can support a claim about the population.
Finish with intellectual property and the design weeks, since Assignment 2 is the only written task that lists the intellectual property outcome.
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