MOD002695 Research Methods

Guideline for Online Submission:

Organise your report as a single report and save it in a .pdf or .docx file that includes your SID in the file name, e.g. ‘SID_XXXXXX’. Include your SID on the front page of your submission.
If you have questions about this assignment, please send these to the module leader: [email protected]
Submit the assignment to Turnitin by 2 pm on 2nd May 2021. Please note that you are not allowed to upload multiple files to Turnitin and that there is a file size limit of 50 MB.

Section 1. Assessment Overview

Project proposal report (80%). Report your project proposal, research, literature review and plan of action. This will provide the essential starting point for your PGMP.

Section 2. Project Proposal Report (80%)
The Project Proposal should be no more than 3000 words. The major part of the reflective journal will have been completed during the module as part of your formative work. Both these need to be combined along with power point slides from your presentation into a single document for submission to the online Turitin GradeMark submission process.
Mark scheme for Project Proposal (80%)
You are required to write a research proposal on a topic of your choice. It is advisable that this should match your final dissertation. You should format your report around the following key aspects:
1    Provide a suitable title for your work and briefly describe the hypothesis that you intend to demonstrate, prove or test.
2    Explain, backed up by the relevant academic literature, why you propose to carry out research on the chosen topic. This should involve a review of the relevant literature and the current practice to put your project in context and establish a justification for this work.
3    Describe your research methodology and approach. Back up your decision with suitable references supporting methodological and design process.
4    Describe the key technical aspects of your project, outlining the experimental procedures, design of any software, data collection processes and tools to analyse data.
5    Include a Gantt Chart of the proposed activities required to successfully complete the proposed research within the time framework. This must be accompanied with brief descriptive text to provide details for your key milestones and deliverables.               
6    You should make it clear whether your proposed research will require ethics approval. Include the ethics checklist and online ethics-training certificate in your list of appendices.
7    Provide a report format with contents list, numbered headings and sub-headings and correct use of Harvard style references.
In general, assessment criteria will include:
Quality of argument

Does the work show the ability to reason, analyse and integrate elements?

Critical reflection and synthesis

Does the work demonstrate powers of critical reflection?

Evaluation

Does the work involve analysis of the relative importance of the different aspects or events described?

Attainment of university graduate generic outcomes

Does the work demonstrate understanding of the concept of being a postgraduate and is it written in a manner appropriate for postgraduate level?

Structure of the work

The presence of clear and sound objectives / identification of clear research question
Evidence of critical evaluation of the work of others
Evidence of proposed analysis, either from theoretical framework or empirical or both
Logical structure and argument
Relevance and depth
Summary/conclusion with clarity and conciseness

Presentation of work

The quality of text, writing and use of tables and figures
The quality and relevance of the bibliography, including evidence of wider reading