INFM 211 Informatics Culminating Project Capstone Course

Description

All Informatics students are required to complete a culminating project for the MS in Informatics degree program. The culminating project demonstrates mastery through the application of knowledge and skills developed in the Informatics program. Students select from two options: (1) an Organizational Consulting Project with a real-world partner to address a specific Informatics-related problem; or, (2) a personal e-Portfolio that presents a program-based assessment of all program learning outcomes (core competencies) learned during the MS in Informatics degree program.

Qualifying for the Informatics Culminating Project

To qualify for the Informatics Culminating Project, you must:

• Be matriculated in the MS in Informatics degree program;
• Remain in good academic standing (3.0 CUM GPA or above);
• Meet the following Prerequisites: Successful completion of 9 required courses: INFM 200, INFM 201, INFM 202, INFM 203, INFM 204, INFM 205, INFM 206, INFM 207 and INFM 208.

e-Portfolio

The e-Portfolio fulfills the culminating project (capstone) requirement for the MS in Informatics degree program. The e-Portfolio presents a program-based assessment which ensures that each student demonstrates mastery of all program learning outcomes (core competencies) before graduation.

The INFM 211 e-Portfolio provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate competence in each of the Program Learning Outcomes (core competency areas) for Informatics professionals.

An e-Portfolio is an electronic portfolio presentation, which enables the student to incorporate multimedia files of different types into the portfolio and demonstrate mastery of basic technological skills and the ability to organize information in an online environment. A portfolio showcases the discussion and collection of evidence you have selected and organized to demonstrate and display your knowledge, skills, abilities, accomplishments, and achievements over a period of time. It serves as evidence of the work you have done and can do and accomplishes the following goals:

• The process of developing the portfolio enhances the learning process.
• The resulting portfolio demonstrates your understanding of professional competencies.
• Both faculty and students can measure individual and group progress toward learning objectives.
• Students can reflect on their MS in Informatics experience to identify individual strengths and develop a professional growth plan.

Successful Completion of the INFM 211 e-Portfolio Project demonstrates student competency in all MS in Informatics Program Learning Outcomes (core competencies)

Organizational Consulting Project

The Organizational Consulting Project (OCP) fulfills the culminating project (capstone) requirement for the MS in Informatics degree program. This is a practice-based project where each student demonstrates problem-solving and analytical abilities as well as project management and self-management skills. Each student will liaise with a client to identify a project, gather data, diagnose issues, and implement solutions.

Students are expected to identify a real-world partner for their Organizational Consulting Project. Students typically develop a relevant project at their place of employment, a volunteer setting, within their professional networking community, or with another applicable organization. The e-Portfolio option is available to students who are unable to provide a real-world partner.

Students are required to identify their organizational consulting project partner during the semester prior to enrolling in INFM 211, and notify the OCP instructor of their project objectives prior to the first day of the INFM 211 semester start in order to begin this course.

Project Examples

• Information architecture review of a web site with redesign proposal (focusing on content, users, and context of use);
• Using design thinking and interaction design concepts to prepare a web-based training program;
• Improvement plan for client management system used for managing and accessing associated records (e.g. patient health records or user profiles);
• Informatics usability review and recommendation;
• Data/information management program design;
• Creation of a training manual for a data-driven scenario;
• Initial data/information policy development;
• Existing data/information policy improvement plan;
• Data mining process (identify topic and evaluate data results);
• Review of specialized use of data/information repositories or content management systems;
• Informatics-related software evaluation and testing;
• Network and data repository security;
• Improvement plan for client management system and managing or accessing associated records (e.g. patient health records or user profiles);
• Use of information/data visualization in a specialized context;
• Information/Data management compliance with local, national, and/or global laws and regulations;
• Information/Data assessment used to evaluate and improve on a current project.

Organizational Consulting Project Deliverables

• Completion of status updates in INFM 211 course discussion forum;
• Completion of Organizational Consulting Project report;
• Completion of project presentation to client (project sponsor) and OCP instructor;
• Notification by project sponsor that project has been completed (OCP instructor acts as project sponsor in a mock scenario);
• Approval by OCP instructor that all requirements of INFM 211 have been met.

The INFM 211 Informatics Culminating Project will take place over a 10-week period. Students will regularly provide updates to their Instructor and have opportunities to provide feedback and support to peer students in the weekly discussion forums. All course requirements must be completed by the last day of the 10-week course. Students are expected to spend a minimum of 135 hours on their Informatics Culminating Project.

Organizational Consulting Project Report

The Organizational Consulting Project Report will be shared with your client (project sponsor) and the OCP instructor. The report will describe your identified problem, the situational environment, project methodology, outcomes and recommendations. Completed reports should be between 15-20 pages and developed in consultation with the OCP Instructor. The use of APA formatting is required.

Organization Consulting Project Reports must include several key components:

• Problem Statement
  • Understanding, developing, and framing the problem
• Issue Diagnostic
  • Decomposing key questions in separate lines of inquiry
• Workplan
  • Creating a plan with key milestones, task, timeline, and progress indicators
• Interviews
  • Gathering research from primary and secondary sources
• Insights
  • Synthesizing and creating insights from qualitative and quantitative data
• Information Visualization
  • Crafting key messages and themes in a storyboard fashion

Your final product should be organized as follows and contain the following elements:

Organizational Consulting Project Presentation

Create an Organizational Consulting Project Presentation to share with your client (project sponsor) and OCP instructor. The topic choice should directly relate to the project scope, experience and outcomes described in your Organizational Consulting Project Report. You may use any presentation tool to prepare and present your presentation, as long as it can either be viewed when uploaded or a link can be provided for access to the project sponsor and OCP Instructor. Some options include: PowerPoint, a YouTube video, a slideshare presentation, a Prezi, or another presentation tool. The presentation should be between 5 and 10 minutes in length, preferably narrated but a written script is acceptable if recording isn’t an option.