Staffordshire University
Business School
代写留学生作业Module Code Number: BLB00015-3
Module Title: Research Methods
Site: Stoke, Stafford
Semester: 1, 2007/2008
Module Leader: Malcolm Ash
Assessment Tutor: Malcolm Ash
Assessment Type: Assignment – Individual report
Assessment Title: Research Project
Weighting: 80%
Written by: Malcolm Ash
Moderated by: Internal Scrutiny Panel External Angela Carroll
Additional attachments: None
Date of issue: Week commencing Monday 22nd October 2007
Submission Date: No later than:
Noon Monday 7th January 2008
You should hand in one copy of your assignment by the time and date above to the appropriate ‘hand-in location’ at the Business School Receptions on either the second floor Brindley Building, B227 or K166, Octagan, Beaconside. The Brindley reception is open Monday to Thursday 9.00am to 6.00pm and Friday 9.00am to 4.30pm. The Octagan reception is open Monday to Friday 8:45am to 4:30pm. Fill in the Business School front cover (staple together with your assignment). This must be date stamped. MAKE SURE that you fill in all the relevant details on this form (these are given above!). One copy of the front sheet, date stamped, will be returned to you by the Office. This is your receipt, keep it. You can submit work by post, but you must send it recorded delivery, it must be postmarked two days before the deadline date and a copy must be kept by you in case it is lost in the post. Faxed assignments will not be accepted.
Assignments must be submitted by the due date. The only circumstance in which assignments can be submitted late is if an extenuating circumstances form is submitted at the same time. In these circumstances work may be submitted up to 10 days late only. If the extenuating circumstances are upheld, the assignment will be graded, otherwise a ‘0’ will be awarded.
Ethics form:
You cannot undertake any primary research before your tutor has signed your ethics form.
Your form should be completed, signed by both you and your tutor prior to you attempting any primary interview research. This ensures that the Universities ethics procedure has been met and that you get feedback on your proposals before you attempt any interview research
Maximum Word Length: 1600 plus appendices
State the number of words used at the end of your assignment. You may include diagrams, figures etc. without word penalty. A sliding scale of penalties for excess length will be imposed according to the amount by which the limit has been exceeded.
1-10% excess no penalty
11-20% excess 10% reduction in the mark
21-30% excess 20% reduction in the mark
31%+ excess the work will be capped at a pass i.e. 40% or grade point 4.
NB. None of the above penalties will be used to change a student mark which is above the pass mark, to one that is below the pass mark. Therefore the maximum penalty for exceeding the word limit will be a reduction to a pass grade.
This assignment will assess these learning outcomes:
1. Knowledge of the main methods of enquiry in business and management and an ability to critically evaluate these
2. Responsibility for learning and demonstrate independent learning skillsTask
You are to devise a research project, to conduct pilot research, and to analyse your results on one of the following topics:
• Student impressions of the University brand
• Students interaction with and experience of University facilities
• Student use of MyPorrtal
• Any appropriate student related topic agreed with your module tutor
.USING YOUR CHOICE OF TOPIC COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SEVEN TASKS:
1. Give your research a title and develop one research question or research objective. (50 words)
Task 1 asks you to distinguish between the broad aim of your research and specific research questions/objectives. One objective/question is sufficient to show that you understand this distinction and to inform the rest of the assignment
2. Undertake a short literature review. Summarise any theory and evidence relevant to your research question/objective. (350 words)
Task 2 is less concerned with content (i.e., your knowledge of the particular topic) and more concerned with the process of a critical literature review (i.e., that you know how to synthesise different sources, relate your project to debates and disagreements, and identify knowledge gaps that provide a rationale for your research objective/question). For this task, you are required to do enough additional reading to identify four or five relevant non-trivial references for use in the literature review (try to include a mix of newspaper/magazine articles, web sites, and academic journals
3. Briefly explain your research philosophy, approach and strategy. In particular, comment on what makes your research positivist, phenomenological or a hybrid of both. (250 words)
Task 3 tests your ability to explain your research strategy and methodology in terms of an appropriate selection from the range of concepts introduced in the lecture course: e.g., positivist/phenomenological research; deductive/inductive approaches; theory-testing/theory-building; quantitative/qualitative data; research sample frame / sample size and so forth.
You will need to think carefully about both your research question/objective and your research philosophy/strategy/approach, as these will influence your choice of research technique in Task 5.
4. Complete the Faculty ethical approval process for your proposed research using the fast track ethical approval form. The research must be approved by one of the module tutors before undertaking any primary research. Attach the approved form (and mandatory additional documents) to the assignment as an appendix. Briefly reflect on the ethical implications of your research. (100 words).
Task 4 ensures that you understand and have learned how to comply with Staffordshire University’s procedures for ensuring that proposed research complies with prevailing ethical standards.
5. Answer either part (a) or part (b). (300 words plus questionnaire/interview schedule))
a. Design and implement an effective questionnaire (no more than five questions) to research the question/objective that you specified in Task 1. Your questionnaire should contain one (and no more than two) open-ended questions capable of generating qualitative data. Then explain and evaluate the purpose and design of at least two significant questions. (Your maximum pilot sample size should be 10 respondents.) Attach a blank copy of your questionnaire as an Appendix.
b. Design and implement an effective schedule for a semi-structured interview (with five potential questions) to research the question/objective that you specified in Task 1. Your schedule should contain one (and no more than two) closed questions capable of generating quantitative data. Then explain and evaluate the purpose of at least two non-trivial questions. Comment briefly on what you expect to discover from a semi-structured interview that you could not discover from a questionnaire. (Your maximum pilot sample size should be 6 respondents.) Attach a blank copy of your semi structured interview schedule as an Appendix.
Task 5 tests your ability to design a research instrument to implement your chosen research methodology and so answer your question/meet your objective.
Five questions are sufficient to demonstrate that you understand how to design a survey questionnaire or a schedule for a semi-structured interview. However, it is not feasible for you to implement the full-scale project. Accordingly, you are required to implement only the pilot research with a small pilot sample size of 10 (for a questionnaire) or 6 (for an interview). The purpose of a pilot is to ensure that your research instrument is capable of generating valid data, and that the collection and analysis systems are appropriate, before embarking on the full research
6. Analyse your results in relation to your research objective/question and attach the raw data collected in an appendix (350 words)
.
a. Analyse the quantitative data from your pilot research. Give a summary and brief analysis of the results for each question.
b. Analyse the qualitative data from your pilot research. Briefly summarise and analyse the key themes and issues arising from your responses.
Task 6 tests your ability to firstly present and then analyse both quantitative and qualitative results. The balance between quantitative and qualitative analysis will depend on whether your research instrument was a survey questionnaire or an interview schedule: for the former, the main emphasis will be quantitative; for the latter, qualitative. However, all answers must contain at least some analysis of both types
7. Evaluate your research in terms of the lessons learnt from the pilot, appropriateness of the research instrument in relation to the research strategy outlined in Task 3, the reliability and validity of your results, etc. (200 words).
Task 7 demonstrates your ability to reflect critically upon the strengths and weaknesses of your research strategy, methodology and research instrument in terms of theory and in light of lessons learned during the pilot data collection and analysis phases of the research.You can submit the ethics form prior to submitting the completed assignment. Do not delay in submitting your ethics form as this has to be approved and signed by your module tutor, counter-signed by an additional academic signatory and forwarded to an Ethics Committee for final approval. You cannot progress with any primary research until the Ethics form has been fully approved. The form can be downloaded from -
Assessment Criteria
To achieve a ‘Pass’ grade (grade points 4 - 7)
The report will be reasonably presented and include:
• a defined research question or objective which expands on the research title
• a literature review which demonstrates some knowledge of the main sources of literature and evidence of capability to summarise the main arguments derived form quoted sources
• an explanation of the underlying research philosophy underpinning the research approach
• a research methodology demonstrating understanding of the appropriateness of the chosen method(s) for data collection and sampling plan for primary data collection
• Evidence of a systematic effort to carry out quantitative analysis of data obtained and the subsequent reporting of results and conclusions
• a good attempt to reference in Harvard style
• the completed ethics form
To achieve a ‘Distinction’ grade (grade points 13 - 15)
The proposal will meet the criteria specified above for ‘Pass’. It will also be written to an excellent standard and be fully integrated. It will utilise terminology appropriate to the issues under discussion and in a manner that indicates thorough understanding of the project. This will be enhanced by the use of proper referencing. Objectives or questions will be logical and precise. Methodology will contain clear justification for choice and be well integrated with aims and objectives. Analysis will be based on proper quantitative methods and conclusions drawn will be supported by clear evidence.
Any submission which does not satisfy the criteria for a Pass grade will be given a Fail grade (grade points 1 – 3)
References
You must clearly acknowledge sources of information within the report, and provide a full reference/bibliography at the end of the report using Harvard referencing.
Plagiarism
Contrary to popular student belief getting caught and being punished for committing plagiarism is not a rare occurrence. The Business School typically uncovers and reports for disciplinary action around 25 students each year for plagiarism.
It is strongly recommended that you read the full document on plagiarism rules at: Summarised below are some of the key points. You will have committed plagiarism and may be caught, reported and punished (as described below) if you:
• Copy extensively from the work of others (from sources such as books, magazines, journals, web sites for example) and submit the work as your own. NB It is acceptable to refer to the work of others as long as you do not use too much, and reference your sources properly. If you do not know how to do this, please follow the guidelines given in the document entitled ‘Adding quotations and references to your written work’ on the web site at: • Copy another student’s work and submit it for assessment under your own name
• Allow another student to copy your work and they then submit it for assessment under their name
The last item is of particular importance; few students seem to understand what it means. You should be aware that if, for example, you allow another student to borrow your work and they subsequently copy some of that work and present it as their own, you and they will both be punished, even though they copied your work.
If you are in any doubt, after consulting the school document on Plagiarism (see: above), then ask your tutor.
What happens if you get caught?
代写留学生作业
Examination Boards may punish offending students in a number of ways. Typically, punishments range from reducing grades, making students re-sit modules, through to failing students on a module or an entire award.
The University regards this form of cheating as a serious offence.
Please consider yourself warned.
Ethics Approval
In general any proposal which: involves human or animal participants, their ‘products’ (e.g. body samples, written records, etc); has a direct impact on individuals (e.g. research that will evaluate imposed changes to people’s working environment), or uses contemporary material that may implicate living subjects or organisations; will need ethical approval. Such research activity cannot be ‘disclaimed’. For these projects the University requires all students, staff and supervisors to apply for Ethical Approval using the fast track approval form or, if appropriate, the full ethical approval application form.
Only where there are no ethical implications should the disclaimer be signed. The signing of the disclaimer implies that ethical principles have been reviewed in relation to the ‘proposed’ work and no issues have been found to apply to the research ‘proposal’. In these cases research may then proceed. Please note that no research should be embarked upon until approval has been granted or a disclaimer has been submitted.
For students, where ethics approval is deemed necessary (i.e. the Disclaimer Form has not been signed) the Fast Track Ethical Approval Form must be signed by the student, their supervisor, and one http://www.1daixie.com/liuxueshengzuoye/other member of academic staff. The form should then be lodged with the Business School’s Ethics Committee Secretariat (c/o Helen Ascroft or Darren Coles). Copies of completed and approved forms may be retained by the student/supervisor as deemed appropriate for the module/project/award. All ethics approval forms and disclaimers are subject to quality audit.
For staff, only their own signature is sufficient (see appropriately headed ‘staff’ fast track form). A copy of the form should however also be sent to the Chair of the Faculty Ethics Panel.
For further information please visit the Business School’s Research Ethics website: