Assessment Information/Brief 2021-22
To be used for all types of assessment and provided to students at the start of the module.
Information provided should be compatible with the detail contained in the approved module specification although may contain more information for clarity.
Module title Professional Development and Practices
For coursework assessments only: students with a Reasonable Adjustment Plan (RAP) should check their RAP to see if an extension to this submission date has been agreed.
Module Leader/Assessment set by Professor Nigel Linge (email: n.linge@salford.ac.uk)
and
Ms Laura Milne (email: l.r.milne@salford.ac.uk)
How to submit
Your group should submit one copy of the report for assessment through Blackboard using the defined area within the “Professional Development and Practices” Blackboard module. Your assignment should be prepared using Microsoft Office and submitted as a PDF file to allow you to keep control of pagination.
Assessment task details and instructions
Working as a group, create a formal business plan document to bid to host a fictional, week-long residential short course on a specified topic at the University of Salford in September 2023. The purpose of the business plan document is to explain how you will organise the operational and practical elements of hosting a short course, along with a guide or outline of appropriate sessions, marketing plan and budget.
The purpose of this short course will be to address core knowledge and topical areas in IT and technology according to your group’s specific topic. The short course should be open to professionals in the broader IT industry who want to develop their skills and knowledge in your topic.
This is an important commercial activity for the University of Salford, so you will need to supply good information about how you will manage the costs of hosting and marketing the event, while also ensuring value for money for short course attendees – you want to ensure that they would return for future courses and events.
Put together a business plan outlining your proposed approach, course details, residential/catering options, and a financial plan that demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of the short course.
On receiving the business plan document, the University’s (fictional) commercial enterprise committee evaluates each group on the effectiveness of its proposed business plan, so you are essentially competing to be chosen to host the short course.
Salford University are keen to host this short course to raise the profile of both the University and the City of Salford as major players in the world of Information Technology.
Deliverables:
The deliverables for this assessment are:
• A 15 page proposal document, formatted as required by the business plan information document.
IMPORTANT:
A separate guidance document entitled: “Short Course Business Plan” is available, and you must consult this to ensure all aspects of the assessment are covered by your group and associated final report.
Knowledge and Understanding
Practical, Professional or Subject Specific Skills
Assessed intended learning outcomes
On successful completion of this assessment, you will be able to:
1. Describe the legal, ethical, and social issues relevant to computer applications and information processing and discuss how they impact IT professionals.
2. Interpret appropriate project management methodologies and apply these to practical group work.
Module Aims Module Aims
1. You will appreciate what professionalism means for someone working within the computing industry.
2. You will gain an awareness of relevant legal, ethical and social issues that impact the computing industry.
3. You will be able to develop your project management experience by engaging in a group work task.
Word count/ duration (if applicable)
Your assessment should be submitted as a single 15-page written report. This is a group activity and so only one report per group must be submitted.
A separate guidance document entitled: “Short Course Business Plan” is available and provides a detailed description of how this report should be structured and what it must contain.
Feedback arrangements
You can expect to receive feedback by Friday 3rd June 2022. This will take the form of annotated comments and a mark breakdown returned to you via Blackboard.
Throughout Trimester 2 your group will receive formative assessment from the module tutors each week relating to how you are managing the overall task of planning a short course and the progress you are making towards completing all sections of the report.
Support arrangements
You can obtain support for this assessment from the module tutors who will be offering support during your timetabled group work sessions, timetabled tutorial sessions and who are available within their published office hours.
askUS
Good Academic Conduct and Academic Misconduct
The University offers a range of support services for students through askUS.
Students are expected to learn and demonstrate skills associated with good academic conduct (academic integrity). Good academic conduct includes the use of clear and correct referencing of source materials. Here is a link to where you can find out more about the skills which students need https://www.salford.ac.uk/library/skills.
Academic Misconduct is an action which may give you an unfair advantage in your academic work. This includes plagiarism, asking someone else to write your assessment for you or taking notes into an exam. The University takes all forms of academic misconduct seriously. You can find out how to avoid academic misconduct here.
Assessment Information
Personal Mitigating Circumstances
Personal Tutor/Student Progression Administrator If you have any questions about assessment rules, you can find further information in Blackboard in the Assessment Support area.
If personal mitigating circumstances may have affected your ability to complete this assessment, you can find more information about personal mitigating circumstances procedure here.
If you have any concerns about your studies, contact your Personal Tutor or your Student Progression Administrator.
Assessment Criteria
The Formal Business Plan document will be marked out of 100%, being assessed in accordance with the following grid and the relative mark weightings.
Mark range Grade Descriptor Description
90% – 100% Outstanding Writing is exceptionally fluent and highly organized with very few grammatical errors or errors of spelling, punctuation and capitalisation.
Document is of correct length and formatting is as specified.
All of the ‘MUST provide’ content in the business plan information document is present and it is clear that a range of sources have been consulted before the document has been put together. The business plan is inspired and suggests a short course that will be seen as a resounding success.
Some additional, relevant, information is added that introduces an entirely new aspect to the event that could mark it out as even more prestigious in the future.
80% – 89% Excellent Writing is very fluent and very well organized with few grammatical errors, errors or errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization.
Document is of correct length and formatting is as specified.
All of the ‘MUST provide’ content in the Business plan information document is present and it is clear that a wide range of sources have been consulted and much care has been taken in selection of information to put into each section. The business plan is for a short course in which all the different elements have been designed to work well together. Creativity is shown in the content.
Some additional, relevant, information is added that significantly enhances the overall value of the event.
70% – 79% Very Good Writing is fluent and well organized. Some grammatical errors and errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization.
Document is of correct length and formatting is as specified.
All of the ‘MUST provide’ content in the Business plan information document is present and it is clear that a range of sources have been consulted and considerable care has been taken in selection of information to put into each section. Creativity is shown in the content and it has the potential to be a very good experience for participants.
Some additional, relevant, information is added that enhances the overall value of the short course.
60% – 69% Good Writing has a good sense of flow and is mostly well organized. Some grammatical errors and a small number of errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization.
Document is of correct length and formatting is as specified.
All of the ‘MUST provide’ content in the Business plan information document is present and it is clear that a range of sources have been consulted and a fair amount of care has been taken in selection of information to put into each section. The overall feeling of this submission is that this would be a good short course to attend.
50% – 59% Fair Message clear but flows less well in places but text is usually generally well organized. Several grammatical errors and some errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization
Document is of correct length and formatting is as specified.
All of the ‘MUST provide’ content in the Business plan information document is present and it is apparent that several sources have been considered before compilation of the sections. This submission might encourage potential participants to think that it could be a nice short course to attend.
40% – 49% Adequate
(PASS) Message is sometimes difficult to follow but, overall, text is fairly well organized. Several grammatical errors and some errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization
Document is of correct length and formatting is as specified.
All the ‘MUST provide’ content in the Business plan information document is present and is of acceptable quality – there is evidence that some thought has gone into its production although background research appears to be only just sufficient for the task. In other words, this would be a functioning but very run-of-the-mill short course.
30% – 39% Unsatisfactory Message can only be understood with some effort and text is not well organized. Regular grammatical errors and errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization
Document is too long/short and/or formatting is not as specified.
Most of the ‘MUST provide’ content in the Business plan information document is present and is of acceptable quality, or all of it is present but some is unsatisfactory, for example not a lot of thought appears to have gone into its inclusion. The university’s commercial enterprise division would be concerned that the course would not progress satisfactorily for both attendees and the university.
20% – 29% Poor Message can only be understood with considerable effort and text is poorly organized. Frequent grammatical errors and errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization
Document is much too long/short and/or formatting is not as specified.
Only a subset of ‘MUST provide’ content sections in the Business plan information document are present, although of acceptable quality, or all/most sections are present but show that little care and attention has been paid to them – the information looks like it has been written down with minimal prior thought or investigation. The university’s commercial enterprise division would be highly concerned that the course would not progress satisfactorily for both attendees and the university, and would consider scrapping the offering.
10% – 19% Very Poor Message mostly cannot be understood and text is very poorly organized. Continual grammatical errors and errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization
Document is far too long/short and/or formatting is not as specified.
Only a limited attempt has been made to address the ‘MUST provide’ requirements of the Business plan information document. What is written looks like it has been thrown down at the last minute in order to get something submitted.
The university’s commercial enterprise division would not, under any circumstances, allow this short course to go ahead, and would rather cancel it.
0% – 9% Extremely Poor Unreadable and does not meet requirements in any recognisable shape or form.
In Year Retrieval Scheme
Your assessment is not eligible for in year retrieval.
Reassessment
If you fail your assessment, and are eligible for reassessment, you will need to resubmit your work by a date to be notified.
The reassessment comprises a new task which can be carried out as an individual and which will assess the same core skills as per this group report.