Advantages and disadvantages on online learning

Assignment title: Report on ‘The Advantages of Learning Online”
Weighting: 60%
Faculty responsible: Mr. Dragos Brad
Programme: BBA1
Course name: Business Communication
Course number: GEN1432
Hand-out date: Week 12
Hand-in date for Turnitin: Week 14 – Sunday, May 31st, 2020 by 10:00 PM
Assignment Overview: Students will prepare an objective comparative report discussing the advantages
of learning online (i.e. being engaged in online learning as opposed to future benefits brought about by online
learning). The report requires students to present an unbiased overview of the various immediate benefits
of learning online based on recent data. The research should include both primary sources (i.e. students’
own experiences with online learning during these times) and secondary sources (i.e. news articles or
journal articles). Preparing the report will involve first identifying relevant and reliable news sources using
research websites such as the ones provided. Adequate APA style referencing using in-text citations should
be used.
Overall aim: For students to learn how to select sources, extract information, and present it in a
straightforward and understandable form within a report.
Learning outcomes:
1. Conform to academic and professional standards of communication.
2. Review, organize and communicate ideas with clarity and confidence.
3. Reason and argue with convincing evidence.
4. Reference using the APA method.
Organisation and methodology:
Write a report on the topic above while abiding to the following requirements.
1) The report should present the information clearly and highlight any contradictory information.
2) The selected topic should be considered of interest to a general educated audience. Consequently,
obscure or highly specialized topics such be avoided.
3) A minimum of three different sources should be consulted and referenced.
4) The referencing format must be APA style (7th edition) which is discussed at length at owl.purdue.edu.
Word count: 900 – 1000 words (excluding references)
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Resources available:
The following sites ought to be consulted to identify interesting, reliable, and relevant news articles about
the topic.
To identify articles for your report:
• www.allsides.com and its search function.
It provides balanced and diverse perspectives from all sides of the ideological spectrum.
• www.theconversation.com and its search function.
It is an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community.
• www.pewresearch.org and its search function.
It is a non-partisan fact tank informing the world about issues, attitude and trends shaping the
world.
Other potentially useful sites:
• www.medialandscapes.org
It offers expert analyses of the state of media in various countries. It includes names of notable
print and electronic media for select locations.
• www.newspaperindex.com/
It indexes the most important online newspapers and other news sources throughout the world.
• LRM library available through Moodle.
Of particular interest are the E-library and E-databases available via the E-resources link. To
narrow the articles returned, use filters to display only recent, full-text, newspaper articles.
Assessment tasks & weighting:
Sections/Score EXCEL (100) GOOD (80) AVERAGE (50) FAIL (40)
OPENING
STATEMENT (10%)
There is a clear
introduction stating the
purpose of the report.
The introduction is clear
but contains too much
information
The introduction is
somewhat vague and
does not specify the
report’s purpose.
There is very little in the
way of an introduction
BODY
ARGUMENTS 60%
The body section of the
report is well organized
and presents clear
information on the topic.
Statistics are well
presented and relevant to
the topic.
The body section of the
report is well organized
and presents clear
information on the topic.
Statistics are used but
may not explain their
relevance to the topic.
The body section is not
well organized or does
not present the
information clearly. The
report may lack some
statistical information to
back up
The body section is not
poorly organized and
does no present the
information clearly.
There is little or no
statistical information to
support the arguments
CONCLUSION 10%
The concluding sentence
either creatively restates
the idea in the topic
sentence or creatively
summarizes the ideas
presented in the
paragraph.
The concluding sentence
restates the topic
sentence or summarizes
the ideas in the
paragraph.
The concluding sentence
repeats the topic
sentence or repeats ideas
in the paragraph, or the
concluding sentence
begins new idea.
The concluding sentence
is missing.
MECHANICS 10%
Essay evidences fewer
than 5 punctuation,
capitalization, spelling,
and grammar errors.
Essay evidences fewer
than 10 punctuation,
capitalization, spelling,
and grammar errors.
Essay evidences fewer
than 15 punctuation,
capitalization, spelling,
and grammar errors.
Essay evidences fewer
than 20 punctuation,
capitalization, spelling,
and grammar errors.
REFERENCES
(10%)
Based on Turnitin’s
Originality Report, all
references were included
and there were no
mistakes in reference
formatting style.
Based on Turnitin’s
Originality Report, all
references were included;
however, there were
over 5 mistakes in the
reference formatting
style.
Based on Turnitin’s
Originality Report, all
references were included;
however, there were
over 10 mistakes in the
reference formatting
style.
Based on Turnitin’s
Originality Report, not all
references were included
(see Plagiarism Section).
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Common skills: assessed (bold) or developed (italics):
MANAGING AND DEVELOPING
SELF
1.Manages own
role and
responsibilities
2. Manages own
time in achieving
objectives.
3.Undertakes personal
and career
development
4. Transfers skills
gained to new and
changing situations
and contexts.
5.Uses a
range of
thought
processes
WORKING WITH AND RELATING
TO OTHERS
6.Treats others’
values, beliefs
and opinions with
respect
7.Relates to and
interacts
objectively with
individuals and
groups
8.Works effectively as
a member of a team
COMMUNICATING
9.Receives and
responds to a
variety of
information
10.Presents
information in a
variety of visual
forms
11.Communicates in
writing
12.Participates in oral
and non-verbal
communication
MANAGING TASKS AND SOLVING
PROBLEMS
13.Uses
information
sources
14. Deals with a
combination of
routine and nonroutine tasks
15.Identifies and
solves routine and
non-routine problems
BECOMING NUMERATE AND
USING TECHNOLOGY
16.Applies
numerical skills
and techniques
17.Uses a range
of technological
equipment and
systems
Special instructions:
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is the act of presenting another’s ideas or words as one’s own. Cheating includes, but is not
limited to, the intentional falsification or fabrication of any academic activity, unauthorized copying of
another person’s work, or aiding and abetting any such acts.
Particular care must be taken when presenting information that has been obtained from an internet site.
Should this information not be correctly referenced then you are guilty of plagiarism and will be penalised
accordingly.
With respect to projects/assignments, faculty reserves the right to randomly call upon any student and ask
them to defend their work orally.
Any assignment/exam which is found to contain plagiarism will automatically be awarded a grade of 0, and
an e-mail will be sent to the student or the student’s parents/tutors/sponsors. Depending on the
circumstances, additional penalties could be imposed (see LRM Academic Regulations, Section 11).
Statement of authorship
Following the title page of your assignment there should be a page on which you sign a statement that the
work included in the assignment is your own work except where appropriately referenced. The following
statement should be used:
Statement of authorship
I certify that this assignment is my own work and contains no material which has been submitted as part of an
assignment in any institute, college or university. Moreover, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no
material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the
assignment.