ITECH 5500 Professional Research and Communication – Assessment 4

Research Proposal

Overview

This assessment task is the culmination of your research efforts throughout the semester. The purpose is to demonstrate a critical awareness of your topic of choice (in task 1), identifying appropriate research theory and methods and developing a complete research plan.

You will work on this report individually or within the team that you submitted the literature synthesis matrix and completed the presentation with. Note: no alterations in teams will be allowed without prior approval.

You must use the same topic as for your earlier interim proposal, but the proposal submitted for this task should be considerably better developed and more detailed. The sections that should be focussed on include:

Literature review: this section should have substantially grown in detail since the initial assessment tasks 1 and 2
Research Methodology: this section should include a detailed plan for data acquisition, any sampling methods that will be utilised and a justification for the same

Assessment Details

Background

The mini research report provides a detailed description of a proposed research idea. It is similar to an essay and needs to be in a formal style with introduction, body and conclusion. In addition, it requires a critical analysis and a coherent presentation.

Requirements

Each individual student or group is required to submit a mini research proposal (around 3000 - 4000 words excluding the title, abstract, table of contents and references/bibliography). The purpose of this task is to assist students to prepare and write a scholarly paper at an appropriate standard for this level of study.

You have already done quite a bit of work for this research in tutorials: you should have a tentative research issue, strategies and evidence to persuade your readers about the significance of the problem you’re researching, as well as the validity of your research issues. You also should consider opposing views or good counter-arguments that you can address in order to help establish your credibility and enhance the relevance of your paper.

If done as a group, detail each individual methodology. The discussion should be worked on together as a team and include commentary on how the individual approaches have an impact on the topic area as a whole. The team report must be a document that reads like a coherent report and not a mere combination of sections from multiple authors.

Report Layout

The research proposal must contain the following sections, submitted in the order as listed below-

Title – selection of an informative title
Abstract - summarization of the significant concepts in the study focusing on key aspects (major results and conclusions)
Table of Contents.
Introduction – outline of the thesis, problem, question, etc. (stating the thesis/theory in terms of relationship among variables and examining the problem or investigating the question, or the like) and preview of the structure of the paper.
Literature Review- demonstration of the ability to find significant sources, familiarity with the existing body of knowledge, analysis of existing research, and learning through a careful reading of existing scholarship.
Methodology - procedures and processes planned for your study including the research design – study type, variables, and data collection and analysis methods (as applicable).
Discussion and implications of research – Discuss with reasons whether your study needs Ethics clearance. Discuss findings that might occur and their potential impact on the field.
Conclusion – briefly restate the research highlighting the implications of your research.
References - include relevant literature sources (in-text citation and a list of full-text references).
Acknowledgments – acknowledge any additional support you have received to complete the work including the use of LLMs.
Appendices (if applicable) - tables, graphs, charts or any other material related to the study not included in the main paper but referred to.

Timelines and Expectations

Percentage Value of Task: 45 % Due: 17.00 Friday Week 12
Minimum time expectation: 25-40 hours

Learning Outcomes Assessed
The following course learning outcomes are assessed by completing this assessment: K1-4, S1-4, A1, A2

Important Notes

Your chosen topic must relate to information technology. Submissions which do not relate to IT will receive a mark of zero.

Your proposal must actually propose a research project. It is not sufficient to propose research consisting only of a review of the literature - if you do this you will receive zero marks for the Methodology section. You must describe a method for data-gathering - either a quantitative experiment, or surveys, interviews etc. If you propose surveys or interviews you must detail and justify the questions which will be asked, describe the population to which the conclusions will apply, and explain your sampling approach.

Clearly state what the contributions of your proposed work are.

You MUST NOT conduct any experiments without obtaining ethics board approvals. Please see the unit coordinator before embarking upon any research.

Note: Students are required to follow the general guide to Referencing, Writing and other relevant Study Skills.

https://studyskills.federation.edu.au/referencing/ https://studyskills.federation.edu.au/student-skills/
[For distribution of marks, see the Marking Criteria at the end of this document]

Submission

Submit an electronic copy of the Research Report via the Turnitin submission link on the course Moodle page. Please refer to the Course Description for information regarding late assignments, extensions, special consideration, and plagiarism. A reminder: all academic regulations can be accessed via the university’s website.

Research Proposal via the Turnitin link

You will be able to view the originality/similarity report after submission. You are advised to submit earlier so that you can check the originality report and make necessary changes (by paraphrasing, adding appropriate in-text citation/referencing etc.) to eliminate matching and avoid PLAGIARISM. You may re-submit the assignment until the due date/time.

 *For group submissions, methods section will be marked individually
** For group submissions, lack of coherence will lead to deducted points