You are to carry out a small research study, using a survey to gather data from participants. The results of this survey then need to be presented in the form of an academic research paper.

Learning outcomes assessed

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 a simple experiment or survey

4. Critically evaluate different research methods for given situations

1. The Topic

A list of topics has been posted to Blackboard. ONE of these topics needs to be selected. The survey needs to address this topic.

If you wish to develop your own topic, you need approval from your module tutor. Any work submitted on a topic that has not been approved will fail.

Students can work in groups on the same topic.

You should read around your topic, in order to develop a hypothesis (or several) which can be tested by your survey. Within a group, students may have the same or different hypotheses.

2. The Survey

Students can develop a survey as a group. You can use your discussion groups from the seminar classes, or choose other students to work with. A discussion space will be set up on Teams to allow students to find groups. You do not have to work in groups, but this will make it easier to find respondents.

The survey must contain at least 9 and no more than 12, questions.

You need to create the survey using Microsoft Forms, so that it can be distributed to participants.

Participants can only be other students on the Critical Analysis module at UCLan. You can fill out your own surveys, and the Teams space can be used to recruit other participants.

Your survey must be completed by at least 11, and no more than 25, students.

3. Ethics

Once you have decided on your survey questions, each student must read the ethics guidelines and complete the ethics checklist on Blackboard, to confirm that you understand the ethical requirements of collecting data. Your survey is expected to follow these guidelines.

If students have not completed the ethics checklist, or there is evidence of not following them, they will fail this assignment.

4. The Research Paper

The research paper must be individual work. This cannot be completed as a group. Although students may have the same survey questions and data, they are expected to write their own individual report, including their own analysis of the data. Students on the same topic may have worked together to find suitable papers for a literature review, but each student is expected to read papers individually and draw their own conclusions.

The paper must follow the format specified in the ACM template that is posted on Blackboard. This specifies the sections that should be included (e.g. abstract, introduction, literature review, method, results, discussion and conclusion). The paper should be no more than 4 pages, not including the references.

The paper is expected to present an introduction to the topic and literature review of related academic work. You should aim to reference between 5 and 10 good quality sources. The research question and hypothesis should be identified clearly. The survey design and method should be explained. A table of key results must be included. The data gathered should be analysed to see if your research question can be answered.

In the acknowledgements section of your paper, please name any other students who used the same survey.

Further guidance on developing your research paper will be provided in the seminar classes.

MARKING CRITERIA

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

To obtain 50%, you must have:

·         Carried out a reasonably well-planned study using a survey and documented it in an appropriate way including reasonable background literature, an understandable structure and appropriate use of citations and references.

·         Evidenced an understanding of scientific method, of the impact of methods and of general research rigour.

·         The topic must be one of the approved topics as specified in section 1 above.

·         The survey must meet the requirements specified in section 2 above.

·         The ethics checklist must have been completed as specified in section 3 above.

·         The research paper must meet the requirements specified in section 4 above.

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

·         Clearly critiqued the findings from your work by appropriate referencing to other studies

·         Presented your findings using descriptive statistics and charts as appropriate

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

·         Submitted work that is of publishable quality in terms of structure and clarity.

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

·         Applied appropriate statistical tests to the work and reported the findings in an appropriate way

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

·         Written work that, as a complete article, is worthy of publication in a peer reviewed academic venue

UNFAIR MEANS

Students are allowed to work in groups to choose a topic, develop a survey and gather data. Sharing data within your group will not be seen as unfair means, though you are expected to acknowledge students you have worked with in your paper.

The research paper needs to be individual work. Sharing your writing with other students or allowing them to copy your work is a breach of academic standards and will be treated as unfair means (collusion). The writing in your paper is expected to be your own, and not copied from any sources or prepared by anyone else. Where you are using ideas from other sources such as academic literature, this needs to be clearly cited. Using someone else’s words or ideas without appropriate citation is also unfair means (plagiarism).

The data is expected to be gathered from real participants. Presenting data which is not true and has been made up is also a breach of academic standards (fabrication of data).

Any suspected use of unfair means will be reported appropriately, and can lead to students being called for a hearing. Where the panel agrees that a case of unfair means has taken place, a penalty will be applied and the matter will be noted on the student’s record. Students are expected to have read and understood the information given on unfair means, and taken appropriate measures to ensure that their work complies with this. Please contact the student coaches if you need any more information on this.

LATE WORK

Late work can be submitted within 5 working days of the deadline for a maximum grade of 50%. Work submitted after this time will receive a mark of 0% unless an extension has been approved. To apply for an extension, apply for mitigating circumstances using this link:

https://msuclanac.sharepoint.com/sites/StudentHub/SitePages/Mitigating-circumstances.aspx

Mitigating circumstances can only be approved by the central university admin team or by the Year Tutor, not by module tutors. Please do not email your module tutor asking for an extension, as they will be unable to grant this.

The preparation for this assignment was provided in the lecture materials and seminar activities in weeks 1-6 of semester 1.

Assessment Release Date:  18/11/2021

Assessment Deadline Date and Time: 07/01/2022 5pm.

Please note that this is the final time you can submit – not the time to submit!

Do not contact module tutors to request an extension, such requests will always be refused.    

If you feel you need to apply for an extension/have mitigating circumstances you need to follow the correct university process detailed at https://www.uclan.ac.uk/students/support/extensions.php   

Your feedback and mark for this assessment will aim to be provided within 15 working days after submission.

Ensure that the ethics checklist is completed on Blackboard. Each student needs to do this individually.

Submit the individual research paper to the Turnitin link on Blackboard.

·           Assignment support will be provided in the CO4820 seminar classes during timetabled hours.

·           For support with using library resources, please contact SubjectLibrarians@uclan.ac.uk. You will find links to lots of useful resources in the My Library tab on Blackboard.

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·           To access mental health and wellbeing support, you can email wellbeing@uclan.ac.uk, call 01772 893020 or visit our UCLan Wellbeing Service pages for more information.

·           If you have any other query or require further support you can contact Student Support in the Student Centre.  Speak with us for advice on accessing all the University services as well as the Library services. Whatever your query, our expert staff will be able to help and support you. For more information, how to contact us and our opening hours visit https://msuclanac.sharepoint.com/sites/StudentHub/SitePages/Contact-Us.aspx

·         If you have any valid mitigating circumstances that mean you cannot meet an assessment submission deadline and you wish to request an extension, you will need to apply online prior to the deadline.