Colloquium

The Master of Business Informatics (MBI) colloquium is an event in which students of the MBI programme 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 programme.

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 programme 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 8 to 10 participating students for about 30 minutes. After the first discussion round, a 2^nd round can take place with other participants by rotating the groups.

Before or after the student-hosted discussions a plenary discussion can take place about research-related topics. These discussions will be facilitated by staff members from Utrecht University.

You can sign up for hosting a discussion via Blackboard. Each MBI Colloquium has 4 available slots. Mention your topic as specifically as possible, so other students know what they can expect.

To encourage the discussions invite also your 1^st and 2^nd supervisor.

Don’t wait too long to sign up for a discussion. Not all students can host a discussion at the end of their research at the same time. As a  rule, you should:

• Have hosted a discussion in Part 1 of your research (writing the Long Proposal)
• Or, at the end of Part 1, you have signed up for a discussion during Part 2. 

The idea of hosting a discussion is to bring up an issue about your 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 in Part 1 (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 (Part 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.

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 defence. During your master’s research project, it is mandatory to visit the MBI Colloquium at least 9 times. In the 3 periods that will take up your research about 14 MBI Colloquia will be organized.

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. If a student didn’t attend 9 MBI colloquia, the student is requested to join the MBI colloquia even after the thesis defence presentation.

Hosting a discussion is mandatory. This will also be administered on Blackboard.

When you have hosted a discussion and attended the MBI colloquia 9 times, contact the MBI colloquium coordinators by email to get 3 ECs registered for the INFOMCBI course in Osiris.

The final thesis defense is independent from the colloquium. Students organize it themselves. See Research 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.