Unit assessment overview:

During this unit, you will complete an individual professional research project that contains a number of cumulative components - this means that Assessment 2 will build on the components assembled in Assessment 1. You will be given significant feedback and feed-forward during and after Assessment 1, which you must use to develop Assessment 2. In this unit, you will demonstrate a synthesis of the knowledge, learning, business research methodologies, and professional skills that you have acquired and practiced throughout your ENTIRE Masters course. In particular, this unit builds upon your previous work in the unit Research in Business.

However, this time you will actually do a research project. The Professional Project will be based SOLELY on publicly available secondary data and it is important that you familiarise yourself early in the unit with the meaning of 'secondary data'. You will work independently (although within a structure) to plan, carry out and report on an investigation that addresses an issue or problem in business relevant to the profession, towards which you are studying now (this must be one of the following: marketing, accounting, management, or human resource management). To make sure you are on the right track and have chosen a suitable and feasible project, with appropriate secondary data, you are STRONGLY encouraged to make use of the opportunities provided during class time (online in case of distance students) to present and discuss your ideas to obtain feedback from tutor and peers. These opportunities are optional but experience shows that students who make use of them are able to avoid mistakes.

Assessment 1: Project proposal (40%)

This assessment will be completed in two steps.

Assessment 1.1, worth 15% of total unit marks: Project plan.

This assignment requires you to submit, at the end of week 4, a very short project plan. This project plan will contain six components:

1. Title. A clear and concise title that is unambiguously related to one of the following professions: marketing, accounting, management or human resource management.
2. Background and problem statement. Expand on your title to provide a brief overview of the background to your project, i.e.: What do you want to research and why should this be researched? It is recommended you integrate some literature in this section.
3. Data source(s) and research methodology. Clearly present the publicly available secondary data you will use for your project. To do so, you must either include a website with a link to a publicly available raw secondary data set, or a short description of how you will use publicly available sources as raw secondary data. Briefly describe the research methodology you will use and how you plan to analyse your data.
4. Research question(s). Between 1 and 3 clearly articulated research questions that can be answered with the secondary data source(s) you identified above. To make this very clear, you may possibly need to include a more detailed definition of variables or key themes to be explored.
5. Short literature review. Pick (at least) THREE peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles that you think will be suitable to become part of your project's literature review. Write TWO sentences that combine ALL THREE (or more if you have chosen more) of these sources (referenced correctly) and provide them in a reference list.
6. Gantt chart. Prepare a Gantt chart that demonstrates a realistic understanding of the various research activities, and their time duration, you need to carry out in order to complete your project.

Note: You must use common font (e.g. Arial or Times New Roman) with font size 11 or 12, as well as appropriate margins and spacing. You may place the Gantt chart on a second page, but ALL other contents must fit onto one single page of A4 and not exceed 500 words. Please do NOT submit a title page, table of contents or executive summary - these are not required for assessment 1.1.

Assessment 1.2, worth 25% of total unit marks: Project proposal.

This assessment is the extension of your project plan (assessment 1.1). For this assignment, due at the end of week 6, you must use the feedback from assessment 1.1 to prepare a more detailed project proposal. The proposal is an individual assessment, to be written in professional report format, and contains the following:

• Title page (with a clear project title), executive summary, table of contents
• Background, problem statement and research question(s). This section functions as the introduction to your report and it will be a more detailed version of what you have already prepared for assessment 1.1. It needs to provide a clear overview of the project in the context of its background, why the problem needs to be researched, and the research question(s) your project will answer.
• Literature review. A short, preliminary literature review that demonstrates your ability to critically review literature and theory relevant to your project.
• Research methodology. A clear presentation of the data source(s) you will use, as well as a detailed description of how you will collect and analyse the data. You should attempt to also explain why your chosen approaches to data collection and analysis will be suitable for your project. Remember that you may only use publicly available secondary data.
• Reference list. All sources, which you have used in the text of your project proposal, need to be referenced correctly in the text AND within a reference list at the end of your proposal. You are required to use a MINIMUM of 10 suitable peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles.

Note: The required length for this report is 1,500 words (+/- 10%), excluding preliminaries, reference list and appendices. Appendices are optional and should be used for supplementary material only. You must use common font (e.g. Arial or Times New Roman) with font size 11 or 12, as well as appropriate margins and spacing.

As a Masters-level student, you are required to engage in research as per the Australia Quality Framework (AQF) guidelines. Two specific requirements need to be considered. Students need to demonstrate “a body of knowledge that includes the understanding of recent developments in a discipline and/or area of professional practice", and demonstrate "knowledge of research principles and methods applicable to a field of work and/or learning”.

Each unit in your Masters program has a number of required weekly readings in terms of academic texts, journals and business publications that represent the appropriate body of knowledge and recent developments referred to by the AQF. In order to demonstrate the ability to engage in appropriate research, students should read and utilise these texts and journals and publications, and as a Masters student, demonstrate an ability to research beyond this minimum standard through additional texts, journals and studies that demonstrate an ability to engage in independent research.

This is an advanced level course, and accrediting bodies are also looking for evidence of independent research, so the ability to conduct this project without continually relying on your tutors and lecturers is an important part of the learning process for this unit.

You should ensure that you understand the specific research that is required for each assessment piece and recognise that if you merely meet this minimum requirement, you will receive the minimum grade for demonstrated research. Your attention is drawn to the University’s stated position on plagiarism. THE WORK OF OTHERS, WHICH IS INCLUDED IN THE ASSIGNMENT MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO ITS SOURCE. A full list of references must be submitted as part of the assessment. Your assignment will be marked on the following criteria; detailed marking rubrics are available in Moodle:

This is an individual, written assessment, to be completed in professional report format. You are required to write around 3,000 words (+/- 10%), excluding preliminaries, tables, figures, reference list and appendices. The report requires in-text referencing and a full reference list in APA style, with evidence that you have critically read and integrated a minimum of 20 suitable scholarly references. The purpose of this assessment is to present the final report of the Professional Project you proposed in Assignment 1. This report should build upon both components of your Assessment 1 and it should be developed with the help of the tutor/co-ordinator feedback.

In order to successfully complete Assessment 2, you are required to carry out the investigation you have proposed in Assessment 1 and produce a professional research report that shows that you have followed through from finding a research question to answering that question and developing recommendations that arise from your findings. The report will follow the typical structure of a research report and will need to include the following:

• Title page (with a clear project title), executive summary, table of contents
• Introduction, including: background, problem statement, justification of the need for the project, and research question(s)
• Critical literature review
• Research methodology, including: transparent presentation of data source(s), and how you collected and analysed the data
• Findings from your secondary data analysis
• Discussion of findings in light of your previously reviewed literature
• Conclusion, including: answering your research question(s), recommendations and limitations
• Reference list
• Appendices

Note: Appendices are optional and should be used for supplementary material only. You must use common font (e.g. Arial or Times New Roman) with font size 11 or 12, as well as appropriate margins and spacing.

As a Masters-level student, you are required to engage in research as per the Australia Quality Framework (AQF) guidelines. Two specific requirements need to be considered. Students need to demonstrate “a body of knowledge that includes the understanding of recent developments in a discipline and/or area of professional practice, and demonstrate "knowledge of research principles and methods applicable to a field of work and/or learning”.

Each unit in your postgraduate course has a number of required weekly readings in terms of academic texts, journals and business publications that represent the appropriate body of knowledge and recent developments referred to by the AQF. In order to demonstrate the ability to engage in appropriate research, students should read and utilise these texts and journals and publications, and as a Masters student, indicate a willingness to research beyond this minimum standard through additional texts, journals and studies that demonstrate an ability to engage in independent research. This is an advanced level course, and accrediting bodies are also looking for evidence of independent research, so the ability to conduct this project without continually relying on your tutors and lecturers is an important part of the learning process for this unit.

Students should insure that they understand the specific research that is required for each assessment piece and recognise that if they meet this minimum requirement, you will receive the minimum grade for demonstrated research. Your attention is drawn to the University’s stated position on plagiarism. THE WORK OF OTHERS, WHICH IS INCLUDED IN THE ASSIGNMENT MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO ITS SOURCE. A full list of references must be submitted as part of the assessment. Your assignment will be marked on the following criteria (a rubric is available in Moodle):

• Introduction (5%)
• Critical literature review (15%)
• Research methodology (15%)
• Findings from your secondary data analysis (20%)
• Discussion of findings in light of previously reviewed literature (20%)
• Conclusion (5%)
• Professional written communication (10%)
• Quality and appropriateness of references, and accuracy of referencing (10%)

Late submission and academic misconduct penalties will be applied in accordance with the university policies.