School of Management

UCLan Coursework Assessment Brief

2021-2022 January Intake

This assignment will assess your ability to articulate your ideas relating to an issue in business and management research.

You will be allocated to a group of around five students from your class. Your group will be given a topic to analyse and discuss based on material from one of the class sessions. Each group member will present a short overview of the topic lasting around 5 minutes where each student will highlight the main issues of academic debate.

The assignment is designed to test students’ ability to discuss matters in a live setting. After each student has presented, the tutor will facilitate a discussion asking a series of questions to the group. Tutors will send each group several questions in advance of the assessment. These questions may refer to issues highlighted in academic textbooks or journals. The tutor may also ask the group some questions based on what students have highlighted in their initial overview.

After the student presentations the tutor will lead a discussion (which will also be assessed).

• Each student will contribute by answering the tutor’s questions, and by giving their opinions on critical issues in business and management research.
• To allow each student the opportunity to contribute, the tutor may ask specific students to comment particularly where that individual has said comparatively little.
• Equally students who have made significant contributions to the discussion may be asked to restrict their input to allow others to speak.
• The discussion is an opportunity not only to present your own views, but to respectfully listen to the opinions and views of others.
• Students may be asked to respond to issues raised by other students in the group: this means that the activity involves full levels of concentration throughout the assessment.

Several weeks before the assessment, the tutor will ask students to familiarise themselves with certain textbooks or journal articles to which students will refer in the discussion. Students are expected to have read or studied the material highlighted, but they are at liberty to refer to other appropriate sources relevant to the topic. While students may wish to refer to their personal practical experience, the tutors will give greater weight to students who demonstrate how they have researched and understood the academic issues.

The activity will take place on-line using Microsoft Teams and will be recorded in order to capture each student’s contribution. The participants in the discussion will know the identity of the other students, but the assessment will be based on the individual student’s contribution.

While tutors will take into account any issues or preference, the tutor will have ultimate discretion to decide the composition of each group.

For guidance on how work will be marked, please refer to the University Assessment Handbook:

https://www.uclan.ac.uk/assets/student-contracts/2021-22/assessment-handbook-2122.pdf

The assessment criteria for this assignment are as follows:

• Critical evaluation of the academic material relating to the topic for the discussion, including any specific textbook or article highlighted by the tutor in advance of the summative assessment
• Providing a concise and precise overview of the topic
• Clear and critical articulation of the academic issues in response to the questions presented by the tutor
• Engagement with the topic in a discussion forum respecting and ensuring that each student has sufficient time to make a contribution to the discussion

The assessment will test the following learning outcomes:

• Critically evaluate how different academic perspectives interpret approaches to business and management research
• Reflect critically on the impact of business and management research on organisations and policy
• Reflect critically on developing the skills to become a researcher in business and management

Students will have the opportunity to undertake a formative or practice discussion. The tutor will give feedback on how students can improve their performance in the summative assessment.

These formative assessments will take place during the latter stages of the block teaching in January/February 2022. Additional on-line support will be provided throughout February and March 2022 prior to the summative assessments, including a further opportunity to do a short formative discussion where students would find that helpful.

At this level, you are expected to make full use of the academic sources provided on-line by the University. You need to make full use of the Reading List found at:

https://uclan.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/leganto/readinglist/searchlists/5403767320003821

Please remember that the Reading List is a starting point, and you should make use of the Internet search engines provided by the university. We do not recommend reliance on Google or Google Scholar – these engines will not provide full access to the academic material that you need for this assessment.

Assessment Release date: Monday 31 January 2022

Assessment Deadline Date and Time: The assessment will take place during the period March to April 2022 at a date and time mutually agreed with the group and tutor. The assignment will be conducted on-line.

Your feedback/feed forward and mark for this assessment will be provided 15 working days after the final group has presented, and no later than May 15 2022.

Please note that where work is submitted late, there may be a delay in providing feedback/feed forward and a mark.

The submission for this assessment will be contained within the recording made during the assessment. As the assessment is worth more than 25% of the value of the module, it is a university requirement to have a recording of the assessment for moderation purposes. The recording will use both audio and video links. Therefore, students are asked to ensure that both audio and video features are enabled during the assessment.

The recording will be saved on Teams and will only be available to the members of the group should they wish to review the recording. Recordings will only be made available after the feedback/feed forward and marks have been issued.

As the assessment will be conducted under examination conditions, all group members must be on time and only exceptionally (for example due to ill health or emergency) will group members be allowed to leave the discussion. If a group member leaves the discussion without a valid reason, any contribution which they make on their return may be discounted and may be subject to a penalty, including consideration of unfair means.

The assessment will last an hour.

• Support will be provided through a formative assessment and on-line support sessions both during the block teaching period and during the period February to April 2022. After the feedback is returned, we will run an on-line session to provide group feedback. Individual feedback will also be available if that is needed.
• You will find information links to all our Library resources in the Library area of the Student Hub. For support with using these resources, please contact your subject librarian at SubjectLibrarians@uclan.ac.uk.
• You can get support with your academic skills (academic writing, critical thinking and referencing) through WISER. For details of the WISER support services go to the Study Skills section of the Student Hub.
• Lynne Gornall (Lgornall@uclan.ac.uk) is the International Support Tutor and will be working closely with the other members of the teaching team supporting our international students
• If you have not yet made the university aware of any disability, specific learning difficulty, long-term health or mental health condition, please complete a Disclosure Form. The Inclusive Support team will then contact you to discuss reasonable adjustments and support relating to any disability.  For more information, visit the Inclusive Support page of the Student Hub.
• To access mental health and wellbeing support, please complete our online referral form. Alternatively, you can email wellbeing@uclan.ac.uk, call 01772 893020, attend a drop-in, or visit our UCLan Wellbeing Service pages for more information.
• If you have any other query or require further support you can contact Student Support via studentsupport@uclan.ac.uk.  Speak with us for advice on accessing all the University services as well as the Library services. Whatever your query, our expert staff will be able to help and support you. For more information please visit the Student Hub.
• If you have any valid mitigating circumstances that mean you cannot meet an assessment submission deadline and you wish to request an extension, you will need to apply online prior to the deadline.