Information Technology in a Global Society subject report · May 2017

May 2017 extended essay reports Page 1 ITGS Overall grade boundaries Grade: E D C B A Mark range: 0 – 7 8 – 15 16 – 22 23 – 28 29 – 36 The range and suitability of the work submitted The ITGS extended essays submitted for the May 2017 session covered a wide range of research topics. The chosen topics were generally suitable, lending themselves to appropriate primary and secondary research, although they were not always properly explored. Popular areas of research as in previous sessions dealt with social networking, Internet piracy, identity theft, and the Internet itself. Unfortunately, in cases such as these, where the choice of topic was based on the selection of something “easy” to research, the investigation tended to be very superficial. On the other hand, it was observed an increase of essays in topics covered in ITGS HL, such as Artificial Intelligence, and topics with a strong component of Computer Science, such as Blockchaining. In many such cases, the emphasis was too much geared to Computer Science instead of ITGS. Candidates writing essays in ITGS must keep in mind that the essay should cover all areas of the ITGS triangle (IT systems, social and ethical issues, and areas of impact) and avoid covering only one of these areas. Many essays investigated the application of systems in the running of businesses, legal systems, aviation, using ICT tools in school, engineering, medical systems and so on. These were generally appropriate if they were locally focused with candidates having access to personnel in the businesses investigated, but were weak where access was not possible or the investigation was too broad. Some essays were peripheral to ITGS and some were very vague, indicat ing a failure to grasp the purpose of an extended essay in the subject being studied. Especially when dealing with social networking, there was a lack of appropriate secondary sources and an over reliance on