Professional Skills and Research MethodsSchool of CTN

Faculty of
Technology, Engineering and the Environment /

Profesional Skills

and

Research Methods

Description of Module

This module addresses both the theoretical and practical skills, with appropriate research papers, necessary for students to undertake a written piece of work in a particular area of Computing. This module focuses on the understanding and application of Professional Skills and Research techniques with a view to enabling the student to appreciate the issues concerned with undertaking a small research topic and to present the findings at the Poster Fair held at the end of the module. Additionally, students will have an opportunity to carry out group work in the form of peer reviewing of Academic Posters.

The Peer Assessed Poster is an important component of the coursework whereby students are given an opportunity to work in small Action Learning Sets (ALS) to review and mark Academic Posters.

Aims

The module aims to give students an understanding of the theory and principles underlying the project component of the master’s programme.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the module the student should be able to:

Learning Outcome / Learning and Teaching Methods
On completion of the module, the student should be able to:
1. justify and apply appropriate research concepts to a Computing related topic; / The delivery and assessment of this module will involve the writing of an academic research paper.
Students will enhance their knowledge and professionalism, and research skills, by selecting and applying appropriate research methods, introduced in the module, in order to write a research paper and to present it.
This module aims to prepare student for their dissertation at masters level. Additionally, students will design an Academic Poster.
2. identify, justify and plan an approach to writing an article;
3. compare and contrast the strengths and the limitations of a variety of research methods, and the choices and trade-offs that need to be made in designing a research paper;
4. recognise and comprehend professional and ethical practices in the IT and Telecommunications industry, including professional networks, code of conduct and standards.
5. critique and summarise key issues of Computing research for the masters level project.

Mode of Assessment

The module is divided into two key deliverables:

  1. An article
  2. Academic Poster

The Article is individually written and marked accordingly. Each Action Learning Set (ALS) will be required to Peer Review the Academic Poster

Assessment Details

An individual component comprising of an article written individually and to be weighted at 50% of the module marks. This will require students to work indivudally to research and write a small article, and to design an Academic Poster to be presented at the School Research Fair at the end of the module.

The assignment will have a number of components that need to be met (Article Title, Literature Review, draft article, final article and Academic Poster) and appropriate deliverables associated with it.

Study mode / delivery method(s)

The module will be delivered through a combination of lectures, which will be used to identify and explain key issues, and seminars that will adopt a problem-based approach to learning using journal articles in conjunction with case studies and presentations to enable learning through research and experience.

Summative Assessment

Student will be required to submit two deliverables for this module. The first part is in the form of an article, the second part is a peer reviewed poster.

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Professional Skills and Research MethodsSchool of CTN

Assignment – Research Article

Overview

There are a number of parts to the assessment of this module and this document lays out the assessment requirements and details the coursework assignment tasks. The coursework overall is 100%.

Part 1 –

Article Title

Literature Review

Draft Article

Part 2 –

Research Article

Academic Poster

This module’s assessment consists of two parts – a research article and an Academic Poster. You may work with your fellow students and indeed you will find it helpful to discuss the work with other students.

Part 1: Article is 50%

Part 1.1 – Research related article of 3000 - 3500 words

Part 2: Academic Poster is 50%

Part 2.1 – Academic Poster (peer assessed Poster – group work)

Learning Outcomes Assessed

The intention is to cover the module learning outcomes in this assessment. See module outline for details of aims and learning outcomes.

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

1. produce a research article on a Computing area

2. design and present an Academic poster

Time Management Advice

A single module requires about 150 hours of work made up of seminars/ lectures/ practical work etc. Some students will be able to do the work more quickly than others but remember it is quality that matters, not quantity. You should spend some time ensuring that you are familiar with the techniques and ideas that are implicit in the assignment. Do not confuse effort with achievement. If you work on the wrong objectives you will not get a good mark.

Assignment Information

The word limit is set at 3,500 words, do not submit work that is far beyond that set out in this document, maybe penalised for too many words.

These remarks should be seen as a guide. Some people through judicious use of language and well-focused and structured design may be able to achieve more with less. You must structure the material for your reader. Do not confuse quantity with quality. With this in mind you should produce an article that covers all the major points described in the assessment briefing.

Some Notes

  1. Paper size must be A4 with 30 - 35 mm binding margin, 25 mm top and bottom margins, 25 mm outside margin
  1. All pages must be numbered (as shown below)
  1. Printed (body) text should be 11 point, Arial font (or equivalent)
  1. Headings should be 14 Point, Times New Roman font (or equivalent)
  1. Completed work must be bound with no loose pages preferably by two staples in the left hand binding edge of the page or firmly inserted into a cover.
  1. The pages should be laid out in portrait orientation.
  1. A contents page should be inserted at the front after the summary page.
  1. Do not exceed the word limit - any excess will be penalised.
  2. Size A1 is the requirement for the Academic Poster.

Reading list for Professional Skills and Research Methods

This reading list is to give some indication of the sort of material we need to cover in this module. Copies of some of the articles will be provided

Cottrell, S. (2008) The Study Skills Handbook,.2nd ed. Palgrave Macmillan.

Howard, K. and Sharp, L. (2002) The Management of Student Research Projects.Gower Press.

Neuman, W.L. (2006) Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, 6th edition. Pearson Education.

Oates, B. (2005), Researching Information Systems and Computing, Sage Publishing.

Veal, A.J. (2005). Business Research Methods: a Managerial Approach. (2nd Edition). Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest.

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