Overview
Project Management Research is a final year research project. In this unit you will complete an investigative study. Continuing with the proposal you commenced in the Project Management Project Proposal unit, you will analyse and critique an area of your professional practice. You will also be required to incorporate critical reflection. This project will enable you to contribute to the body of knowledge for your discipline. You will present your project in a dissertation.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Prerequisites: BUSN20016 and PPMP20015 GPA of 5.75
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2018
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 12-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Teaching team
Many students struggled to apply project management knowledge and skills in executing their research project.
Review resources and extend the level of guidance on the application of project management within a research context.
Feedback from Teaching team
The available time to conduct the research is very short.
Review course structure to enable students to conduct their research over two terms.
- Apply identified research methodologies to project management problems
- Apply in-depth project management knowledge and technical proficiency to a research study area
- Critically analyse the impact of a completed research project upon the project management industry and profession
- Prepare reports and dissertations based on research projects
- Critically reflect on self-performance, focusing on quality and accountability, to ensure continuous professional development and life-long learning.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 80% | |||||
| 2 - Presentation - 20% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | |||||
| 2 - Communication | |||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | |||||
| 4 - Research | |||||
| 5 - Self-management | |||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | |||||
| 7 - Leadership | |||||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 80% | ||||||||
| 2 - Presentation - 20% | ||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- computer lab
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
s.skaik@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Progress meeting with the Supervisor (mandatory)
Milestone: Literature review section complete
Module/Topic
Chapter
Review the online resources within the relevant section of this week in Moodle site.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Review the online resources within the relevant section of this week in Moodle site.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Progress meeting with the Supervisor (mandatory)
Milestone: Ethics clearance granted
Module/Topic
You have done a good progress and you would need a well deserved break. Love yourself and enjoy every moment in your break.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Review the online resources within the relevant section of this week in Moodle site.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Review the online resources within the relevant section of this week in Moodle site.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Progress meeting with the Supervisor (mandatory)
Milestone: Research methodology section complete.
Module/Topic
Chapter
Review the online resources within the relevant section of this week in Moodle site.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Review the online resources within the relevant section of this week in Moodle site.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Milestone: Results and analysis section complete.
Module/Topic
Discuss findings, drawing out main achievements and explaining results. Make links between objectives, findings and literature. Identify any gap where extra work or reading is necessary.
Chapter
Review the online resources within the relevant section of this week in Moodle site.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Progress meeting with the Supervisor (mandatory)
Module/Topic
Chapter
Review the online resources within the relevant section of this week in Moodle site.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Milestone: Assignment 1 is due: Oral presentations (submission).
Milestone: Discussion section complete.
Oral Presentation Due: Week 11 Friday (25 May 2018) 10:59 am AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Review the online resources within the relevant section of this week in Moodle site.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Closing meeting with the Supervisor (mandatory)
Milestone: Assignment 1 is due: Oral presentations (seminar).
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Every student enroled in this unit will have their work overseen by a supervisor who is an academic member of staff. The student will work with the supervisor for the duration of the research project. The Supervisor is the person with whom the student should work closely. The onus is on the student to make contact with the Supervisor, and to arrange and adhere to a programme of regular meetings thereafter.
The Supervisor should not have to chase students in order to check on their work progress. The Supervisor should advise on the structure and suitability of the paper, comment on draft work submitted, be of support throughout, and warn the student if the work is not thought to be of a satisfactory standard. You should maintain contact with your Supervisor throughout the preparation of your paper. A common pitfall is to go long periods of time without making any contact with the supervisor. You must attend the six mandatory meetings with your supervisor as scheduled in the unit profile.
1 Presentation
- Rationale
- Research question and objectives
- Key arguments/concepts from literature review
- Research gap/problem statement
- Research design and method
- Results and analysis
- Discussion
- Conclusion and implication
- Reference list
Students must submit their presentation file as powerpoint slides (PPT) including the speaker's notes to supplement the content of each slide.
Week 11 Friday (25 May 2018) 10:59 am AEST
Submission of slides
Week 12 Friday (1 June 2018)
Feedback on your slides and oral presentation
| Assessment Criteria | Weight |
Technical Content
|
40% |
Delivery of presentation
|
40% |
Handling of Questions and Discussion
|
20% |
- Apply identified research methodologies to project management problems
- Apply in-depth project management knowledge and technical proficiency to a research study area
- Critically analyse the impact of a completed research project upon the project management industry and profession
- Critically reflect on self-performance, focusing on quality and accountability, to ensure continuous professional development and life-long learning.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Self-management
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
- Leadership
2 Written Assessment
This assignment requires you to report your findings via a research paper format of 10,000 to 12,000 words in length excluding appendices. This should demonstrate that you have the ability to conduct a piece of rigorous research in your chosen field, and involves critical thinking and reasoning. It is not sufficient for a research paper to be about description, summarising and measuring. These activities simply provide a framework for the thinking and reasoning. The sections/components of the research paper should appear in the following order:
- Cover page
- Abstract
- Introduction/background/Rationale including research questions.
- Literature review
- Research Methodology
- Results and analysis including tables and figures.
- Discussion
- Conclusion, implication and limitation
- References
- Appendices (Ethics application, data collection instrument, research data, supplementary information, etc.)
Moodle site includes full details and guidelines to help you prepare each section. Samples are also provided to better understand the requirements and expectations. Details of the research paper formatting and submission checklist are provided in Moodle site.
| Grade | Criteria |
| HD | As in the D category, but in addition, displaying a very high ability to comprehend the subject matter within the wider context and demonstrating considerable originality. The highest level of structure and presentation. |
| D | An extremely thorough, distinction level piece of research. Thorough understanding of the subject and issues. Demonstrates a high degree of critical appraisal analysis, clear ability to formulate/construct hypotheses and excellent understanding and application of research methods. Conclusions are well supported by the content. Very well structured and presented. |
| C | A good understanding of the subject and issues. Demonstrates a clear ability to ask the right questions and formulate/construct hypotheses to address the issues. Good understanding and application of research methods. Critical appraisal is demonstrated and conclusions and recommendations are supported. Fairly structured and presented over and above the basic standard. |
| P | A reasonable understanding of the subject and issues, which asks questions and addresses potential answers, supported by a reasonable degree of analysis and critique. Acceptable consideration of research methods. Conclusions are reasonably formed and recommendations are generally supported by the work undertaken. Basic structure and presentation. |
| F | Does not meet academic standards for a scholarly paper. A basic piece of work which demonstrates limited knowledge/effort and understanding, supported by only little analysis and minimal review. Poor or non-existent consideration of research methods. Inadequate discussion with very poorly or unsupported conclusions. Poorly structured and presented. |
- Apply identified research methodologies to project management problems
- Apply in-depth project management knowledge and technical proficiency to a research study area
- Critically analyse the impact of a completed research project upon the project management industry and profession
- Prepare reports and dissertations based on research projects
- Critically reflect on self-performance, focusing on quality and accountability, to ensure continuous professional development and life-long learning.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Self-management
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
- Leadership
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
