WHAT FACTORS ARE IMPORTANT TO UEL UNDERGRADUATES TO HELP THEM TO LEARN EFFECTIVELY ON THEIR COURSES?

13 Jun WHAT FACTORS ARE IMPORTANT TO UEL UNDERGRADUATES TO HELP THEM TO LEARN EFFECTIVELY ON THEIR COURSES?

What factors are important to UEL undergraduates to help them to learn effectively on their courses?
The paper is based on the following instructions:

Assessment Guide
Assignment Two
Small-scale research

HR 3010
Researching in Business and Management

Semester A
2013/2014

Assessment Guide
Summary

This is individual work. Weighting: 60%

Word count: 2500
Submission deadline:Monday December 16th 2013

This Assignment is designed so that you can demonstrate these learning outcomes:

• Identify and apply appropriate research methodologies
• Construct and implement a realistic research timetable
• Deliver a presentation on a chosen research topic
• Critically reflect on data produced
• Critically reflect on the ethical considerations of your chosen research topic

Submission procedure:

You should submit the assessment electronically via Turnitin before midnight on the day of the deadline. You will find more details for your Turnitin submission in ‘Assignment Instructions’ on pages 7.

Return of feedback and marked work:

It is important that you read and understand what is said about your work so that you may improve your future assessments. You will find feedback on the assessed work on Grademark in Turnitin. You can also discuss the feedback with your seminar tutor. Generic feedback on the assessment will be given in seminar sessions, though you will probably have to make an appointment with your tutor to get individual comments on your assessment.

Details of the task:

A small-scale research project (2500 words) and presentation slides to summarise the research design and findings

You are required to conduct a small-scale research project employing at least two different data collection methods (e.g. questionnaire, observation, interview, etc.) and analyse your findings.

You need to choose ONEof the research questions from below for your small-scale research.

How effectively are UEL undergraduates planning their future lives and careers?

OR

What factors are important to UEL undergraduates to help them to learn effectively on their courses?

Guidance Notes
You are not required to write a literature review in this assignment, although that will be an important stage in your final management project. However, you may find it useful to scan one or two books or articles related to the subject of the research. This will give you some important pointers in planning your data collection. In other words, this might help you decide which questions you need to ask in questionnaires and interviews, or what to look for when you are carrying out observations.

For your researchyou should collect data from UEL students only. In your analysis you need to first justify your research methods and explain why these have been preferred to alternative methods. You should also explain your sampling method and how you arrived at the sample of students. You need to show your findings in qualitative (numerical) and/or qualitative (non-numerical) data with your commentary. You need to analyse the data in a way shows how it is relevant to your question. You should demonstrate how your analysis serves to answer the question.

You should reference research-methods books like your core text, Collis and Hussey (2009), to demonstrate the background reading you did to justify your choice of data collection and sampling methods.

You also need to attach presentation slides to your appendices. You will not need to make any presentations, but you will need to create PowerPoint or Word slides to summarise your research, as if you hadto deliver a presentation. You should have no more than 6 slides. For example, you can have 1- Small scale research topic/question, 2- Brief introduction/significance 3- Methods used, sample and limitations, 4- Main findings, 5- Main discussion points. 6. Conclusions and limitations.
You must have one document including the slides to submit to Turnitin.

Structure
The Portfolio should contain the following:
Part One – small-scale research project
• Title page with the details of your chosen research question
• Contents page
• Introduction to the topic and research methods
• Findings – set out your data from each method of data collection and comment on the data
• Analysis and conclusion – develop the themes that have emergedacross the questions and from different data collection methods. How have you answered the research question
• Reference List – mainly research methods texts
• Presentation slides in handout format

NB. More detailed ‘Assignment Instructions’ follow the assessment criteria on page 8. That section will tell you about presenting your work, where to find skills advice, the rules about the word count, using Turnitin and submitting your work.The section is very detailed but it is important that you have studied these details before you submit your work. You will also find the guidelines in case you have to claim extenuating circumstances, do a re-assessment or make an appeal.
Assessment criteria

These are the criteria we use to assess your work, but it is important for you to use them as a checklist as you are writing and before you submit. Under each criterion below, we have set out some features that we are looking for in your work. Does your assignment have the following features?
Assessment Criteria for Assignment 2
Application of Appropriate Techniques (30%)
Did you:
Employ at least two different research methods?
Explain how you arrived at your research design?
Explain how you collected and recorded your data systematically?
Include quantitative data sheets in the appendix?

Logical Sequence and Development (20%)
Did you:
Introduce the research?
Include a section on research methods?
Include a section to show your findings?
Include a section of broader analysis?
Include a conclusion?
Include a reference list?
Include Presentation slides in handout format?

Evidence of Background Reading (5%)
Did you:
Citeresearch-methods books in the text, using author surname/s and date
to explain and justify your research methods?
Include page numbers in in-text references where you have used a quotation?
Have a reference list at the end, using Harvard-style layout?
Include all the in-text references in the reference list at the end?
Refer in the text to all references shown in the reference list?
Not rely on questionable Internet sources?

Appropriate Depth of Critical Analysis (40%)
Did you:
Justify your chosen data collection and sampling methods and explain why these have been preferred to alternative methods?
Present your quantitative findings clearly and systematically, using charts and graphs?
Present your qualitative findings clearly and systematically using a rigorous structure?
Comment on the interesting and surprising aspects of your findings?
Analyse the data using a variety of variables?
Analyse your overall findings comparing qualitative with quantitative data?
Conclude with your insights into the research question and how far you have answered it?
Summarise you research thoroughly but succinctly in your Presentation slides?

Writing and Presentation (5%)
Did you:
Use accurate spelling and grammar?
Present your writing attractively and consistently?
Present the PowerPoint presentation handout attractively and clearly?

Assignment 2
Typical performance at different mark bands:
Classification Mark (%) Description
1st 70-100 Provides a highly focused, well-planned piece of research with very clear justification of sampling and data collection methods and good evidence of background reading. Presents and analyses findings in a very rigorous and systematic way with coherent conclusions. Excellent use of PowerPoint or Word to summarise research in a presentation slides.

Very well organised and presented with almost perfect spelling and grammar. Referencing almost perfect

2:1 60-69 A focused and planned piece of research, with some justification of sampling and data collection methodswith evidence of background reading. Presents and analyses findings with some rigour and reasonably systematically with conclusions drawn. Good use of PowerPoint or Word to summarise the research. Mainly well-referenced

Well written and presented. Mainly accurate in spelling and grammar.
2:2 50-59 A reasonably clear justification of methods and analysis. Findings shown clearly. Maybe not so rigorous in analysis. Conclusions may not be well enough developed or fully coherent with the findings. References used, but may be some inaccuracy. PowerPoint slides summarise the research, but may have deficits in content or be less well presented

Reasonably clear and accurate presentation. Mainly well-referenced but maybe with some flaws.
3rd 40-49 Provides some account of the research methods used. Some findings are presented and some attempt is made to comment on the findings, but further analysis may be weak. PowerPoint or Word slides to summarise the research may have problems or be absent. References may be inadequate or inaccurate

Adequate presentation, but there may be some errors of spelling and grammar.

Fail

Methods not covered in enough detail. Research does not appear to have been carried out systematically. Research findings presented haphazardly with little comment or analysis or coherent conclusions. References inadequate. PowerPoint or Word slides to summarise the research, missing or inadequate.

Assignment Instructions
Presentation
Your work should be word processed in accordance with the following:
• Font style, Gill Sans MT, font size 12
• 1.5 line spacing.
• The page orientation should be ‘portrait’
• Margins on both sides of the page should be no less than 2.5 cm
• Pages should be numbered
• Your name should not appear on the script.
• Your student number and Turnitin ID should be included on every page.

Skills Advice
Refer to your material provided in your skills modules to make sure that you have conformed to academic conventions. Pay particular attention to:
• Your introduction,
• Your conclusion,
• The use of headings Paragraph structure

Do refer to Info skills at http://writeitright.uelconnect.org.uk/home/
and http://infoskills.uelconnect.org.uk/

Referencing.
The university expects students to use Harvard referencing as specified in the book ‘Cite them Right’.
• Refer to http://www.uel.ac.uk/lls/support/harvard.htmfor further advice and a link to an online version of Cite them Right
• You should be careful to include citations within your work as well as a reference list at the end. Unreferenced work will fail.

Word Count
Your word count should not include your reference list. You should provide your word count at the end of your report.
Exceeding the word count by more than 10% will result in a penalty of 10% of your marks for your work.
If your work is significantly shorter, then you will probably have failed to provide the level of detail required.
Submission to Turnitin of Work Submitted for Assessment

Our policy on the use of Turnitin recognises the educational desirability that all of our students should enjoy the opportunity to self-submit their work to Turnitin (before submitting for assessment). We also recognise that Turnitin Originality Reports will sometimes assist in the identification of plagiarised work submitted for assessment.

Work that is submitted to Turnitin generates a Turnitin originality report, showing which parts of it have been reproduced from which sources. The system compares submissions to material that is to be found: on the world-wide web; in its database of previous submissions; and in its growing number of databases of published articles. You should not assume that a Turnitin originality report with a low similarity index is evidence that the piece of work concerned is free from plagiarism.

Our policy provides that a Module Leader may decide, in accordance with the policy of RDBS, that all student submissions for a particular component of assessment should be submitted to Turnitin, provided that the relevant Module Guide includes a notice to that effect.

Notice is hereby given that all submissions of reports for this Module must be submitted to Turnitin. Detailed guidance on how to submit your work to Turnitin will be made available on this Module’s UEL Plus site.

If you fail to submit your report to Turnitin, in accordance with the guidance on the UEL Plus site, you will be awarded a mark of 0 for the component.

If you have any questions about Turnitin, you should go to “Frequently Asked Questions” at http://www.nlearning.co.uk/faqsearch.php?sol=turnitin. If you have any further questions, please email the Head of Student Compliance and Responsibilities
Submission
The material that you submit to Turnitin will be marked. The deadline applies so you are advised not to submit after **** because it could take some time for your submission to upload, and the delay could cause the work to be received after ****. A late submission will receive a mark of 0.

Please be aware that the Turnitin site will advise you that late submissions are accepted. This is only for the purposes of allowing students who are claiming extenuation to submit their work.

Please read the material in the submission folder and make sure that you attach the feedback sheet as requested and save the document using the format for the name of the document as specified.

Extenuating Circumstances

Extenuating Circumstances are circumstances which:

• impair your examination performance in assessment or reassessment, or
• prevent you from attending for assessment or reassessment, or
• prevent you from submitting assessed or reassessed work by the scheduled date

If you need to apply for extenuating circumstances please find the relevant information at:
www.***.ac.uk/qa/documents/extenuatingcircumstances.doc

Re-assessment Work

You will need to retrieve this assignment if any of the following occur during the semester:
• You fail to achieve 30% or more for this assignment
• You fail to achieve 40% for the module and you failed to achieve 40% or more for this assignment.

You will be expected to complete a similar piece of work for your second attempt. Your assignment brief will be available on UEL Plus by April 30 2012

Student Appeals

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