1.      Plan and take responsibility for a self-managed project within an appropriate ethical framework.

2.      Undertake problem analysis and preliminary design work appropriate to the anticipated outcomes of the project.

3.      Communicate the work done through a written report of an appropriate academic standard.

Individual Assignment Task

The primary purpose of a dissertation is to train the student in the processes of scholarly research and writing under the direction of a supervisor. After the student has graduated and the work is published, it serves as a contribution to human knowledge, useful to other scholars and perhaps even to a more general audience.

Your main task is to produce a Progress Report. The Progress Report should summarise the progress to date on the project, and produce a plan for the practical aspects of the project going into the future. If any changes to the original Aim and/or Objectives have been made, this should be included in the Progress Report along with justification as to why the Aim and/or Objectives were changed. This change should only occur after consultation with the supervisor.

The report should be a maximum 1500 words in length (±10%), excluding front matter, diagrams, designs, datasheets, appendices etc.

The Progress Report should include:

Introduction

Briefly mention the project’s Aim and Objectives, highlighting the need/purpose of the project, to set the scene for the reader. If the Aim and Objectives have been changed, please justify.

Progress Update

This section should demonstrate the progress which has been made since the start of the project. The research carried out for the literature review should not be included. This was already covered in CW1: Preliminary Report.

To evidence the progress made, this section could include:

Methodology or Method and Materials selection.

Qualitative/Quantitative data gathered. Or case study reviews.

Analysis tools tested and preliminary results and analysis.

Model/process development, including prototypes and results.

Design documentation and build (Technical/concept drawings, design choice matrix, etc.).

Questionnaire design and results (interview questions, participation and consent forms).

Future plan

A written plan of how the work done so far will be used to complete the remainder of the project. This should include the anticipated practical attainments, results and outputs from completing your project, and the impact they could have e.g. economic, social and environmental issues. References to Gantt chart should be included. The purpose of this section is to demonstrate that the student is in full control of their project and knows what needs done and, more importantly, when. The future plan will also provide an overview if the project is progressing as planned or not.

This section should also include a detailed Gantt chart. A Gantt chart should be created at the start of the project and regularly updated. The student should demonstrate that they are in control of the project by indicating how the Gantt chart has evolved over the course of the project.

The Gantt chart should highlight, in timely manner, how the work for the project has been carried out so far. It should also include the time spent and the work done for the submission of CW1. The Gantt chart should include key milestones and critical aspects on the project timeline. The student should also add details of assignment hand-in dates for other modules to demonstrate how effectively, or otherwise, the time was managed. Give dates of meetings with your supervisor (and those planned in the future) and provide evidence that you are maintaining a regular log.

Remember that a Gantt chart should not only include details of the work carried out so far, however also how the student plans to carry out the remainder of the project in Semester 2.

Appendices

This section is to compliment the information provided in main body of the report. This should include ALL of the following.

·        Ethics Approval Certificate*

·        Health and Safety risk assessment

·        Project risk assessment

·        Meeting records with your supervisor. Meetings dates and topic discussed along with actions decided upon

·        Electronic logbook web link

However, additional documentation, as per the project, could also be included the appendices.

·     Ethics*

As part of this module, you are required to submit an online ethics application and to obtain ethical approval for the research project that you are proposing to undertake. At Coventry University, formal ethical approval must be obtained before any data is collected for a research project. You must download and append a Certificate of Ethical Approval to your CW2 submission when you formally submit it on Moodle. This is to confirm that ethical approval has been obtained for your project.

Failure to submit your ethics application and to gain appropriate ethical approval for the research you will undertake by the relevant deadlines (and before any data is collected) may result in disciplinary action and will be subject to the Ethics Misconduct process which is outlined in the General Regulations, Appendix 1. Penalties can include zero for your work and possible exclusion from the University for Non-compliance with the ethics process.

Students with missing Ethics Approval Certificate will NOT be allowed to progress with the project.

1.      You are expected to use the appropriate referencing style. For support and advice on this students can contact Centre for Academic Writing (CAW).

2.      Please notify your registry course support team and module leader for disability support.

3.      Any student requiring an extension or deferral should follow the university process as outlined here.

4.      The University cannot take responsibility for any coursework lost or corrupted on disks, laptops or personal computer. Students should therefore regularly back-up any work and are advised to save it on the University system.

5.      If there are technical or performance issues that prevent students submitting coursework through the online coursework submission system on the day of a coursework deadline, an appropriate extension to the coursework submission deadline will be agreed. This extension will normally be 24 hours or the next working day if the deadline falls on a Friday or over the weekend period. This will be communicated via your Module Leader.

6.      Assignments that are more than 10% over the word limit will result in a deduction of 10% of the mark i.e. a mark of 60% will lead to a reduction of 6% to 54%. The word limit includes quotations, but excludes the bibliography, reference list and tables.

7.      You are encouraged to check the originality of your work by using the draft Turnitin links on your Moodle Web.

8.      Collusion between students (where sections of your work are similar to the work submitted by other students in this or previous module cohorts) is taken extremely seriously and will be reported to the academic conduct panel. This applies to both courseworks and exam answers.

9.      A marked difference between your writing style, knowledge and skill level demonstrated in class discussion, any test conditions and that demonstrated in a coursework assignment may result in you having to undertake a Viva Voce in order to prove the coursework assignment is entirely your own work.

10.   If you make use of the services of a proof reader in your work you must keep your original version and make it available as a demonstration of your written efforts.

11.   You must not submit work for assessment that you have already submitted (partially or in full), either for your current course or for another qualification of this university, unless this is specifically provided for in your assignment brief or specific course or module information. Where earlier work by you is citable, ie. it has already been published/submitted, you must reference it clearly. Identical pieces of work submitted concurrently will also be considered to be self-plagiarism.

First

Contains a detailed Gantt chart showing the key milestones, along with external commitments. The student has attended at least 90% of the weekly meetings/communications, and has shown an excellent level of self-motivation and initiative.

Professionally formatted with no grammatical errors. The report is coherent and easy to read.

Upper Second

Contains a detailed Gantt chart showing the key milestones. The student has attended at least 80% of the weekly meetings/communications.

Well-organised, clearly written and expressed. A well formatted and structured reports with only a few grammatical errors. The report is coherent.

Lower Second

Contains a reasonable Gantt chart showing most of the key milestones. The student has attended at least 60% of the weekly meetings/communications.

The structure and expression lacks clarity. It is not well-structured or clearly expressed. Contains more than a few grammatical errors. The report is easy to read.

Third

A basic Gantt chart is shown. The student has attended at least 50% of the weekly meetings/communications.

Marginal
fail

Gantt chart hardly shows anything. The student has attended less than 50% of the weekly meetings/communications.

Fail

Gantt chart does not conform to the requirements. The student has attended less than 50% of the weekly meetings/communications.