Module Code :- 7165EXQ
Module Title :- Research Project
Word Limit :- 1,500 words
Course work type :- Project Proposal
Tasks :- The course work is designed to assess your ability to develop a clear and succinct research proposal based on the guidance provided during the 7074EXQ module lectures sessions This proposal will provide a vital foundation for your research project You will need to think of a subject area that is of interest to you research the literature on this topic and identify a particular research gap problem or issue that you can investigate in more detail for your Masters project.
7165EXQ Research Project Proposal Assignment – UK
1. Part A: Formal Project Proposal
The following headings and prompts provide a guide to the structure and content of your project proposal.
Title :- Provide a succinct title (not more than 20 words in length). Try to give the reader a clear picture of the project topic what the research will do e.g., evaluate or test some thing and where i.e., give it a geographic context if appropriate.
Context/introduction :-
Provide the background context to your research topic. Outline the main published research that has been under taken to date in your area of interest and highlight the perceived research gap or problem issue that your research intends to address.Make sure you provide a good range of current academic and or technical references to support your research context.
NOTE:
• Do not provide separate background and literature review sections the review of the literature provides the background context of the project
Research Question(s) or Hypothesis :
Based on the research gap or problem statement, provide the key research questions or hypothesis that you will attempt to address in your work. This should come before the aim and objectives.
Aim and Objectives :-
Provide an overall aim for your research and a set of clear objectives at least 3 to 4 are suggested for how you intend to achieve your overall aim and address your research questions. Your objectives should provide a plat form for the subsequent methods section by enabling you to break your research down in to discrete parcels. Your objectives should be measurable and achievable within the time frame of the project. The objectives should be numbered and you should use appropriate action verbs see Bloom’s taxonomy in your objectives.
Methodology :-
You should state and justify the rationale for your project design. Set out your methods as clearly as you can and try to map them towards achieving your objectives for some projects it may also be useful to provide a flow chart. Your methods need to state how you intend to collect the data and/or information including secondary data and how you intend to analyse it. You must justify your choice of data collection and data analysis by reference to the literature. It is not appropriate to include a significant section on research philosophy in your proposal you should concentrate on providing details on what you intend to do and why.
NOTES:
Data collection:
• You must specifically state what you intend to do, e.g., what specific sources of information and/or data will be used and why which technologies will be evaluated and why etc.
• For primary data collection you need to state which sampling techniques will be used how samples will be collected or questionnaires issued and where how many samples will be taken or questionnaires issued and why etc.
7165EXQ Research Project Proposal Assignment – UK
This document is for Coventry University students for their own use in completing their assessed work for this module and should not be passed to third parties or posted on any web site Any infringements of this rule should be reported to
• For field work provide maps and/or simple diagrams to explain where and how you will under take any proposed field sampling.
• For laboratory work you need to state which methods will be used and why which parameters will be analysed and why how many replicates will be used and the over all experimental design and the rationale for this.
• If you intend to use secondary data you need to specify the particular data sets that will be accessed the sources of this data and justify their use.
Data analysis:
• You must indicate what you intend to do with the data and/or information.
• Provide details on how you will analyse and evaluate the collected information and/or data both primary and secondary
• Analysis will depend on the type of data collected For content analysis or similar the evaluation criteria to be used should be specified. For development of a theoretical frame work the process to be used should be specified. For numerical data, the appropriate statistical analysis should be specified e.g. ranking ANOVA correlation etc.
• It is NOT sufficient just to mention use of SPSS or Excel, or plotting graphs.
You may wish to include Gantt chart in your proposal however this will not be assessed.
7165EXQ Research Project Proposal Assignment – UK
Ethics & Risk Assessment
Your proposal must highlight any potential ethical and/or health and safety issues associated with your data information collection and how these will be addressed. Risk assessment forms where required should be attached to you online ethics submission.
As part of this module you are required to submit an online ethics application and to obtain ethical approval for the research project that you are proposing to under take At Coventry University formal ethical approval must be obtained before any data is collected for a research project Failure to submit your ethics application and to gain appropriate ethical approval for the research you will under take by the relevant dead lines and before any data is collected may result in disciplinary action and will be subject to the Ethics Misconduct process which is outlined in the General Regulations Appendix 1. Penalties can include zero for your work and possible exclusion from the University for Non compliance with the ethics process.
Project proposal marking criteria :
The proposal will be marked by your assigned project supervisor. See the criteria and marking scheme at the end of these guidelines.
Information sources :-
Guidance on aspects of proposal development e.g., identifying research gaps constructing clear aim and objectives etc. will be provided in the Semester 2 work shops and in the supporting materials online. It may also be worth looking through previous MSc theses stored in the Map Library JL ground floor for examples of how to set out aim and objectives. Several good books 800 class mark in the library and web sites are also available to help you. Useful texts on project design include:
2. Part B: Online Ethics Application required but not assessed
All students are required to read the E-learning material on ethical issues before planning their project. It is a University requirement that anyone under taking a research project both staff and students have an understanding of the potential ethical issues associated with their intended research This applies to both primary and secondary data research. Failure to submit your ethics application and to gain appropriate ethical approval for the research you will undertake by the relevant deadlines and before any data is collected may result in disciplinary action and will be subject to the Ethics Misconduct process which is outlined in the General Regulations Appendix 1 Penalties can include zero for your work and possible exclusion from the University for Non compliance with the ethics process.
7165EXQ Research Project Proposal Assignment – UK
ONLINE ETHICS APPLICATION :
Regardless of the level of risk all research proposals must under go online ethical evaluation You must complete the appropriate sections of the online ethics application form and submit an initial application by the stated dead line At this stage you will not have been assigned a project supervisor so you will need to use the name of the module leader as your acting supervisor for the purposes of submitting the ethics application. Once you have been allocated to a specific project supervisor, your ethics application will be transferred to them.
Online ethics application form requirements:
• Provide details of your project aim objectives and methodology.
• Evaluate the ethical issues and health and safety aspects of your work by completing the appropriate risk assessment sections.
• Health and safety issues that must be addressed include travel to overseas countries undertaking field work under taking interviews and handing out questionnaires or using work shop equipment or working with chemicals in laboratory environments.
• Any field work will require completion of a field work risk assessment form which must be attached to your online application.
• Use of hazardous workshop equipment will require completion of a general risk assessment form.
• Use of hazardous chemicals will require completion of one or more COSHH forms these must be signed by your supervisor and then scanned so that you can attach the signed forms to your online ethics application.
NOTE: Your ethics application and risk assessment will need to consider and conform to any relevant University and Government guidelines or regulations that relate to COVID-19.
Notes on ethics application :-
For most students this initial application should be treated as a draft as most students are un likely to provide all the required information in their initial online application If there are issues with your initial ethics application the application will be rejected and the required improvements will be discussed at your first meeting with your supervisor.
7165EXQ Research Project Proposal Assignment – UK
Your ethics application will require approval by your supervisor and finalisation by a reviewer before you will have the authorisation to start your project. You cannot gather any primary data until you have been given ethical clearance to do so. Your ethics submission should be approved and finalised Any student whose ethics submission is not authorised by this deadline will only be allowed to use secondary data in their project i.e. a low risk project.You are therefore advised to complete your ethics application as soon as possible and as fully and as accurately as possible.
Changes to project methodology
No student will be allowed to change from secondary data collection to primary data collection after the deadline. However if you find you are unable to collect primary data and need to change your methodology to secondary data collection only, this will be permitted but a new ethics application must be submitted and approved by no later than.
Note that if you need to revise your ethics form after it has been approved then the Ethics Administrator will need to be contacted so that your form can be reset and returned to you for editing and you will then need to go through the approval process again.
IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
1.Research Project Learning Contract
Each student is required to complete a learning contract at the start of their project see the separate file on the module web.You need to read this document fill in your details on page 1 and take this to your supervisor at your first or second project meeting so that they can also sign this contract they should also provide you with a photo copy of the signed document The signed form should be uploaded to the relevant link on the module web.
IMPORTANT:
Students intending to conduct laboratory work MUST read note 2 below and MUST comply with the stated deadline for uploading their research project learning contract.
2.Students undertaking laboratory work:
NOTE:
No student is allowed to conduct laboratory analysis for their project unless they successfully complete the laboratory practical sessions in 7148EXQ or its equivalent. Any student intending to do laboratory work will also need to complete Annex 2 of the research project learning contract. Full details of all laboratory methods and requirements for equipment and chemicals must be provided.
7165EXQ Research Project Proposal Assignment – UK
Appropriateness of methods and availability of equipment and chemicals will need to be discussed with the relevant laboratory technician(s) and they will need to sign Annex 2 before you will be allowed to work in the laboratory. NB: if equipment or chemicals need to be ordered for your project this could take a few weeks so you will need to provide this information for the technicians well in advance.
UPLOAD DEADLINE:
Any student undertaking laboratory work must have met with their project supervisor and the relevant laboratory technician completed Annex 2 of the project learning contract and uploaded the signed form to the relevant link on the 7165EXQ module web by no later than the date to be specified on Aula.
Any student who fails to meet this deadline will not be allowed to conduct laboratory work for their project.
3.Engineering Workshop requirements
If your project requires use of material in the Engineering workshops, you will need to complete Annex 3 of the research project learning contract This form must be signed by your supervisor and by the relevant technicians.
3.Remote study
During the project period you are required to meet with your supervisor every 2 weeks especially Tier 4 students.
If you in tend to collect any information or data for your project overseas you will need to complete an application form for Remote Study On the form you must provide good justification for being away from the University for the dates specified and the written support and approval from your supervisor must be included.The completed and signed form must be sub mitted to the JL Faculty Registry Office for
approval by the EEC Faculty Registrar or their representative.
Applications for remote study will only be approved if they are directly relevant to your project. For example an application for remote study to do an internship that is not directly relevant to your project will not be supported. Similarly an application to work at home i.e. over seas on your project would not get approved unless it was not possible to do your project work in Coventry.
7165EXQ Research Project Proposal Assignment – UK
If you are given the opportunity to work away from Coventry for an organisation on particular project which you then intend to write up for your MSc project, this would be classed as a placement or an internship. In this case we will need to carry out a risk assessment of this placement and the organisation before you start on the project. You would also need to apply for remote study and provide a supporting letter from the organisation. Your application would have to be approved before you could start this placement.
Notes:
1.You are expected to use the For support and advice on this students can contact
2.Please notify your registry course support team and module leader for disability support.
3.Any student requiring an extension or deferral should follow the university process as outlined here
4.The University cannot take responsibility for any coursework lost or corrupted on disks laptops or personal computers. Students should therefore regularly back-up any work and are advised to save it on the University system.
5.If there are technical or performance issues that prevent students submitting coursework through the online coursework submission system on the day of a coursework deadline an appropriate extension to the coursework submission deadline will be agreed. This extension will normally be 24 hours or the next working day if the dead line falls on a Friday or over the weekend period. This will be communicated via your Module Leader.
6. Assignments that are more than 10% over the word limit will result in a deduction of 10% of the mark i.e. a mark of 60% will lead to a reduction of 6% to 54%. The word limit includes quotations but excludes the reference list and tables. The word count for the main body of text excluding the reference list and any appendices must be indicated at the end of the proposal.
7.You are encouraged to check the originality of your work by using the draft Turnitin links on Aula.
8.Collusion between students where sections of your work are similar to the work submitted by other
students in this or previous module cohorts is taken extremely seriously and will be reported to the academic conduct panel. This applies to both coursework and exam answers.
9. A marked difference between your writing style knowledge and skill level demonstrated in class discussion any test conditions and that demonstrated in a coursework assignment may result in you having to undertake a Viva Voce in order to prove the coursework assignment is entirely your own work.
10. If you make use of the services of a proof reader in your work you must keep your original version and make it available as a demonstration of your written efforts.
11. You must not submit work for assessment that you have already submitted partially or in full either for your current course or for another qualification of this university unless this is specifically provided for in your assignment brief or specific course or module information. Where earlier work by you is citable i.e. it has already been published submitted you must reference it clearly Identical pieces of work submitted concurrently will also be considered to be self plagiarism.