Confused with your thesis or final project? Don’t worry, everyone has experienced it. Enjoy and color the final campus life by making a good and quality final project. It’s a shame that our four-year learning process ends with a low-quality final project or even dirty it by hijacking other people’s thesis. In general, the final project should be in the form of research, although some majors require that product design is sufficient. This series of articles is a must-read for students who are working on their final project.

Slightly repeating what I wrote in the article about the nature of truth and the nature of research. The essence of research after all is to ?solve the problem at hand?. Research is a translation of English ?research? which literally means: re (return) and to search (search). T. Hillway summarizes the definition of research as ?a study conducted by a person through careful and thorough investigation of a problem, so that an appropriate solution to the problem is obtained.

Before going any further, let’s first discuss the types of research. In essence, this type of research can be viewed from several points of view.

1. Application Level (Basic Research, Applied Research)
2. JTypes of Information Processed (Quantitative Research, Qualitative Research)
3. Treatment of Data (Confirmatory Research, Exploratory Research)
4. Objectives (Description Research, Correlation Research, Experimental Research)

If we describe the relationship and overlap between types of research, the simplest form will be as below (rewritten from Ronny Kountur, 2007). In general, each study gives a trend effect to the type below. For example, descriptive research is usually qualitative and explanatory in nature. On the other hand, experimental and correlation research usually uses quantitative data processing and is confirmatory in nature.

Computing majors (informatics engineering, information systems, computer science) are usually applied research (not basic research) with quantitative data processing properties. Research is more towards confirmatory (not exploratory) by testing hypotheses or conceptual frameworks that have been determined. And the purpose of research is usually to see the correlation between the variables studied or to conduct an experiment.

There are actually only four stages of research:

• Identification (Discovery) Problem
• Hypothesis Formulation
• Hypothesis Testing and Analysis
• Conclusion

If we convert it into the structure of the final assignment, maybe the stages of the research will be divided as shown in the table below:

Keep in mind, the final project in some fields of science may not be in the form of research, but only in the form of product design. Examples of product design for example :

1. Building or Machine Design
2. System Design
3. System Development Without Prior Problem Identification
4. Business Strategic Planning

So the implications of the above, some of the activities below are not included in research.

• Developing portal site
• Develop personal website
• Develop information system
• Developing learning multimedia

For those who are writing a thesis on the development of information systems or learning multimedia, don’t stress first. Product design can be used as research when a product is made because of a ?a real problem or need?. But don’t forget, the product must also be tested with several parameters, and then analyzed to what extent it can prove to be able to solve the problems that were set at the beginning.

Nah contoh pengembangan situs portal yang termasuk penelitian misalnya dibawah:

• Title: Developing a High Traffic Portal Site with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques
• Problem Identification: Portal site is low on visitors
• Hypothesis Formulation: SEO techniques can increase site traffic
• Create a Concept Model or Framework: Do a literature study on SEO and formulate the right SEO model and technique for the portal site that is being built
• Hypothesis Testing: Apply the SEO model that has been created. Test parameters in SEO model
• Analysis of Test Results: It is proven that the SEO model we developed can increase portal site traffic

Development of research-based learning multimedia, for example:

• Title: Real Constructivism-Based Learning Multimedia for Formal Language Courses and Automata
• Problem Identification: Formal Language and Automata courses are difficult to understand for students with conventional lecture systems, new techniques must be adopted to understand them to students
• Formulation of the hypothesis: Multimedia learning should be made based on the theory of real constructivism to facilitate student understanding
• Create a Model or Concept Framework: Do a literature study on real constructivism and formulate a specific model for the learning multimedia
• Hypothesis Testing: Apply with classroom action research (action research)
• Analysis of Test Results: It is proven that multimedia based on real constructivism can improve students’ understanding

It should be noted that research begins with the problem and ends in solving the problem. The quality of research is determined by the quality of the ?problem? studied, not because of the height of the technology used. International journal reviewers make ?research problems? as the main parameter of the review process. Try to choose a ?research problem? the original we found. Researching problems that have been researched by other people makes us have to make comparisons with other people’s approaches.

Ok have you started to understand? Now how do you actually find or identify the problem?

We can find problems through literature studies, both from papers in scientific journals or conference proceedings. For D3 and S1 levels, it is also possible to identify this problem from articles in text books, scientific magazines, seminar proceedings or newspapers. The second way to find problems and actually the best way is through field observations. No need to be too complicated, just focus on the problems that are around us. If we are students, now pay attention, students, lecturers or campuses have what problems have not been solved and can be solved with information technology. This is if we are in the computing department, the problem may be different in another department. This field observation can also be done by attending industry exhibitions, book reviews, etc. The point is to pursue this research problem from anywhere, and don’t forget that this research problem is really a problem that must be solved, not a problem that we make up.

Oh yes, the problem we are aiming for can come from 3 things:

• Problems that exist in humans themselves (People and Problems)
• Problems in the way and structure of work (Program)
• Phenomenon (Phenomenon)

Ok, do you understand more? Then how can we determine which references for research are valid?

Especially for literature review (literature study) when compiling hypotheses and conceptual frameworks or models, try to use scientific (international) journals. The order of the best for the field of computing is:

1. Scientific journals published by IEEE and ACM
2. Scientific journals published by other scientific associations. Usually it can be obtained from elsevier.Com, EBSCOhost.Com or sciencedirect.com
3. Proceedings Conference (preferably published by IEEE Computer and ACM)

If we have a plan to play at an international level, try not to use Indonesian scientific journals, even though they have been accredited by Dikti.

No money for scientific journal subscriptions? Or is there no online journal available on campus? No need to worry, you can use one of the many free scientific journals that I have written in full in the previous article. At least that must be visited by poor students but have a passion for research like professors are:

• http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/
• http://www.doaj.org/
• http://scholar.google.com/
• http://libra.msra.cn/
• http://www.jstor.org/

Still not stuck too? I understand better if I tell you with many examples. Follow the next series of this article

REFERENCE

1. Ronny Kountur, Metode Penelitan, Penerbit PPM, 2007.
2. Burhan Bungin, Metodologi Penelitian Kuantitatif, Kencana Prenada Media Group, 2005.
3. Moh. Nazir, Metode Penelitian, Ghalia Indonesia, Agustus 2003.
4. Sulistyo-Basuki, Metode Penelitian, Fakultas Ilmu Pengetahuan Budaya Universitas Indonesia, April 2006.