Module Assessment: Coursework and Exam, Learning Outcomes, Research Design, Ethical Considerations,

This module is assessed by one piece of coursework and one exam.  

The proportion of marks for the Assignment is 60%

Learning Outcomes for the module:

1 Source and read academic literature and be able to critique its purpose and value

2 Construct a well referenced and critical review of literature

3 Design, carry out and report an experiment or survey

4 Demonstrate an awareness of a variety of different research methods

Coursework – DUE DATE 8th January 2021

Your Coursework Task is to:  Carry out an independent research study (survey) that answers ONE OF THE RESEARCH questions that will be posted to Blackboard for you to choose from.  You will need to specify which of the Research Questions you are answering.  To do your research you should:

·Read around the topic chosen and collect up references

·Formulate one or more hypotheses that you will aim to answer with your research

·Collate the references you have found into a coherent literature review that takes the reader towards the main aims of your study

·Create a survey that can gather data that can answer at least one of your hypotheses

·Collect in data from module students

·Organize the data into tables of results and charts that show your findings

·Apply statistical tests and report averages and so on as suits your data

·Draw some conclusions and compare your findings with similar or competing findings form the literature where appropriate

Your Research should be written up as a four-page paper using the template on Blackboard

This research paper should include:

A succinct abstract

Introduction / Background literature (circa half a page with between 5 and 10 references)

Research design

Consideration of sampling, survey design, the use of data

You will be able to hand in a draft on or before the 13th December for three-line feedback.  NOTE that there will be no tutor support over the period of time when the UNIVERSITY IS CLOSED for the Christmas break. So, you are advised to plan your work schedule and manage your time well.   

Ethics

For any type of research, as soon as you have designed your approach you will need to complete the Ethics Checklist (this will be made available on blackboard) by the 30th November.  Given the ongoing pandemic, you are required not to collect any data by face to face meetings but to make use of digital platforms instead.

Learning Outcomes for the Module

Survey

Your research must be done with UCLan students using a survey that will be distributed online.  The survey link must be posted to Blackboard by the 30th November.

Notes for UCLan Preston Students

To get a PASS GRADE - Your survey has to be done with students from the course only – an ethics checklist must have been submitted to Blackboard ahead of submission.  You will normally be expected to share data and your used survey with several other students – their names (or G numbers) must be listed in the acknowledgement section of your paper.  Your SURVEY must contain at least 9 and no more than 12, questions and must be completed by at least 11, and no more than 25, students. You must include a table of key results with your write up. Your survey must be accessible on Microsoft Forms.

Additional notes

The instructions within the ACM template noted above must be followed.  For a PASS GRADE you MUST include an abstract of between 100 and 200 words – this should not include any references. This should clearly explain what you did, how you did it, what you found. Do NOT include any supplementary material (e.g. videos – these are not part of our work)

You should aim to reference between 5 and 10 works – the appropriateness is more important than the number Books, journals and conference papers should be referenced in the appropriate way – marks may be lost for sloppy referencing of these three items.  For a PASS GRADE - Each reference in the list MUST BE referred to in the text.

Constructing your work

You are only allowed four pages.  As a guideline the first page should cover the introduction and the literature, the second two pages should cover the survey and the results, and the last page should be the discussion / conclusion and the references.

Writing up the study

When writing up your study you need to ensure that the reader knows exactly what you did, exactly what you measured and can easily find and interpret the results.  Use Method, Procedure and Results as headings to help you structure this.  

Additional Marks

Within the general marking bands there is scope for some diversity around the literature, the research design and the interpretation.  If you consider that you have done work that merits additional marks – this must be clearly stated and identified on hand in.  Add any such detail on a fifth page.

Coursework: Independent Research Study

Draft

As outlined above it is possible to send a draft of the final paper - this will be read over – not critically marked – and will highlight what could be added, improved, altered will be given – this will be ten minute read over.  

Timing

The work should take you between 40 and 80 hours.  

Late submissions

To hand in work late and NOT incur the standard penalty (which is that your work will be capped at 50%) you MUST have an official extension.  You are strongly advised NOT TO MISS THIS HAND IN.

In the event that the work is handed in late (with or without an official extension), as well as the possibility of a penalty being applied, bear in mind that your grade may not roll forward to the board and this may affect visas, continuation, placements and graduation.  

Submit EARLY and plan your time well.

HOW TO SUBMIT

The ethics checklist, the link to your survey, any work for feedback, and the final submission should be submitted through the blackboard web portal.

CHECKLIST

Ethics checklist uploaded

Survey designed and tested (with between nine and twelve questions)

URL of survey uploaded

Other users of the same survey named in Acknowledgments section of paper

100 – 150-word abstract included

Survey has between 11 and 25 responses

Paper written with a method section, a results section, and a discussion / conclusion section

A table showing some results is included

References align to citations and are in order

Paper is in the right format and is less than four pages

Grading Criteria

Marks will be awarded based on the learning outcomes highlighted above.

To obtain 50%, you must have:

·Submitted a paper that meets the all the PASS requirements above with appropriate referencing, a method section, results that align with the method and a discussion / conclusion appropriate to the work.  

·Evidenced an understanding of scientific method.

To obtain 60%, in addition to the above, you must have:

·Evidenced a good understanding of scientific method

·Included descriptive statistics / graphs as appropriate

To obtain 70%, in addition to the above, you must have:

·Submitted work that can clearly be understood and that could, by virtue of how it is reported, be replicated

·Reflected on your results in the light of other published work

To obtain 80%, in addition to the above, you must have:

·Written with authority having backed up all your comments with evidence

·Shown a high level of understanding of analysis of data and included statistical tests as appropriate