Colloquium
MBI Colloquium
The Master of Business Informatics (MBI) colloquium is an event in which students of the MBI program discuss their master's thesis research. During the discussions, students help one another with challenges they have found during their research.
To support the master’s thesis research, plenary discussions will take place about specific topics that students often encounter during their project. Examples are ‘do’s and don’ts of case studies’, ‘what not to do during literature review?’, ‘how to hold a proper interview?’, ‘the best thesis defense of my life!’, ‘how to manage my supervisor?’.
During the MBI Colloquia, there is also time to meet fellow MBI Students. The research phase of the MBI course is an intensive individual project and it is good to share experiences with one another. Colloquiums occur every 2 or 3 weeks on Mondays, 9:30h-12:00h. The planning for the MBI Colloquium can be found on the INFOMCBI Blackboard site.
After finishing the MBI Colloquium, 3 ECs will be awarded. Participation in the MBI Colloquium is one of the requirements to graduate from the MBI program.
The MBI Colloquium is organized by Jens Gulden and Nico Brand, who are reached at mbi-colloquium@uu.nl.
As a student in the MBI program you are invited to join the colloquium from the second study year on. It is not necessary to have started the thesis already. Joining early might help you find an interesting topic and provide you with more background information about setting up proper research, so you can have an easy beginning of your research project.
Before joining the MBI Colloquium you must register yourself for the course INFOMCBI in Osiris. This is necessary for awarding the ECs. Once you are registered in Osiris you will automatically be added to the Blackboard site of INFOMCBI (can take up to 24 hours).
The discussions during a colloquium session can be set up in different formats. One format that will be used regularly is that students who present will host a discussion for groups of 4 to 6 participating students for about 30 minutes. After the first discussion round, a 2nd or 3rd round can take place with other participants by rotating the groups.
In between the student-hosted discussions a plenary discussion can take place about research-related topics. These discussions will be facilitated by colleagues from Utrecht University.
For some discussion topics, another structure may be followed. For example for the ‘the best thesis defense ever’ colloquium, students will be asked to prepare a presentation. During this colloquium more than 4 students can practice their thesis defense.
Almost every colloquium will have some discussions. If you would like to discuss a topic of your research you can register yourself via Blackboard. Also, mention your topic as specifically as possible, so other students know what they can expect.
To encourage the discussions invite also your 1st and 2nd supervisor.
The idea of hosting a discussion is to bring in an issue that has to do with one’s own research. This can be right at the beginning of the research (e.g.: how do I come up with a good research topic?) or it can be during the long proposal phase (e.g.: what is a good research method for this research question? Or how do I know my research questions are valid?) Or it may have to do with conducting the research (phase 2), for example: how do I work out my interviews? How do I set up my survey?
As you can see from the topics mentioned above, the content and format of colloquium presentations can be diverse, and you are free to choose any variant as long as your audience and you as a researcher benefit from it.
Other research-related topics can also be shared. Research Hints & Tips are a good idea for discussion. For example, if you've found a good citation tool, you can host a discussion to share your findings with other students.
Symposia might be another source for hosting a discussion. If you have attended an interesting academic symposium and you would like to discuss some findings, that would also be an option.
At the end of the colloquium, we ask the students who have led a discussion if they would like to give a summary of their discussion (the takeaways).
The MBI Colloquium is an important part of your master’s research thesis. It will help you to learn how to perform research and prepare you for writing a sound thesis and giving a good thesis defense.
When you start your master’s research project it is mandatory to visit the MBI Colloquium for the first half year (2 periods). This will be 8 or 9 MBI Colloquia. Attendance will be registered via an attendance list at the end of each colloquium session. On the Blackboard site of INFOMCBI, you can see the number of MBI Colloquia you have visited.
During the first half year, it is required that you at least host 1 discussion. This will also be administered on Blackboard.
When you have hosted a discussion and attended the MBI colloquia for half a year, contact the MBI colloquium coordinators shortly by email to get 3 ECs registered for the INFOMCBI course in Osiris. After this half year, you are of course welcome to continue visiting more MBI Colloquia.
The final thesis defense is independent from the colloquium. Students organize it themselves. See Thesis project.
Colloquium participants should visit 2 or 3 thesis defenses to prepare themselves for their own thesis defense. Therefore, the time and place of thesis defenses should be entered in the MS Teams calendar in the “General” channel of the “MBI Colloquium” team by the presenting student.
Everything else about the final thesis presentation is up to the student and the supervisor(s), the colloquium organizers are not involved and will not take part in the thesis defense.