Assignments
A range of projects will be offered to students. Each student should apply for consideration for one or more of these projects by submitting a letter of application to their tutor, accompanied by a CV, which indicates their particular skills and reasons for wishing to be considered. It is recommended that each student applies for more than one project appointment, indicating their order of preference, as not all tasks are suitable for more than one person and first choices cannot be guaranteed.
Your tutor will then review applications made and advise who has been appointed to which project. In some cases, it may be necessary for an interview to be arranged with an employer or other tutors before an appointment is confirmed.
Other project proposals by students will be considered and students should provide tutors will full details of the employer and proposed tasks. It will then be necessary to check whether it is feasible for such tasks both to represent an appropriate project for this module and for identifiable and measurable tasks to be completed to required standards and timescales by the student.
Tutors will then liaise with students individually (or in groups where a group conducts one project) and employers to ensure that all parties are aware of the expected project output, monitoring arrangements and method and time of reporting and communication. In most cases, students will be expected to meet their tutor once a week to review progress and receive support and guidance on issues arising. Students are expected to manage their own time in order to meet the learning outcomes of the module. Students are also expected to maintain regular contact with their workplace mentor (who may be a tutor acting in a professional capacity).
There are four specified 'assignments' for this module which are detailed below. It is important to appreciate that there has to be real work achieved and the material for each assignment will be related to, or samples of, actual tasks and how the project was managed by the student. It is possible that some tasks will not be completed as originally intended and unexpected barriers encountered. The reasons for such developments and how students handle them and adjust plans and negotiate options in the real world will be the important feature in assessment of this module, the actual output itself, (whilst important to the employer) being almost incidental to assessment.
Clearly, all these tasks will have a deadline shortly after the project completion date. This date may vary from student to student, depending upon employers' deadlines and other factors. Your tutor will agree an 'end date' for each project and advise when each of the undernoted items are required shortly after commencement of your work.
1 Project Report
50%
Key areas will be the standard of report presentation, introduction and objectives, system documentation, quality of proposed solution and a critical appraisal of the whole project.
2 Presentation
20%
This may be either individual or as a group where more than one is appointed to a particular project. The presentation should be 15-20 minutes long and it will be recorded, to be assessed by both a tutor and a representative of the employer
3 Conduct of Project Summary
20%
Attendance and participation at group meetings throughout the project should be noted and a summary submitted, together with observation and commentary reports from the employer.
4 Viva
10%
Vivas will be conducted in the final week of teaching and will consist of a short (15-20 minutes) Q & A session with the module co-ordinator and employer's representative for each individual or group. Assessment will be based upon a student's ability to answer questions in relation to their particular project in a suitable manner. Each viva will include an appropriate demonstration or discussion of output or artefact produced during the project.
Some may not be familiar with the term viva. Here is a well-written description of the process used at the culmination of PhD study with which it is moreusually associated. Naturally, at your level the process is much lighter than the example but the underlying idea is the same and may be of interest.
