Discussion regarding verbal presentation expectations and marking

Objectives
To give an overview of our expectations of your verbal

presentation of your project proposal To work through and explain the marking scheme to be used to assess your verbal presentations

Presentation template
Suggested headings for your research proposal

presentation - good idea to keep to this as the marking scheme follows these headings. Remember you have only 5 minutes to cover all of below so you need to be able to speak clearly about each important point in turn. You do not have time to go into detail about the topic.

Scope of project: Title, Problem, Context: Literature Research design: Data, Approach, Ethical and Practical considerations, Evaluation Management: Planning, Communication

Name: Scope of project Title Problem

Title: Explanation Is the nature of the project clear? Does the title scope the project? Is there a clear stated problem to be investigated? Is there clear justification for the implementation of the project? Out of 10 10 Mark Comments

Context: Literature Research design

Is there evidence that a preliminary literature review has been undertaken to assure that there is a body of knowledge to refer to? Has existing work and knowledge been taken into 20 account in the research proposal?

Data

Is there a clear identification of the data required in order to provide the potential to answer the research question/address the problem identified? Is the approach to data collection clearly identified and consistent with the overall approach to the research? Have practical, ethical and conceptual issues relating to data collection been considered and resolved Is there a clear process of project evaluation (i.e. testing of developed s/w, guidelines)? Is the research loop closed?

10

Approach
Ethical and practical considerations Evaluation Management Planning

10

10

10

Is there evidence that the overall project has been considered in terms of the time available? Are timescales feasible? 10 Is communication if the project clear? (e.g. good English, well-structured; easy to follow?)

Communication

10

Total

100

Scope of Project
The Research Proposal Title remember this is not an essay.
Need clear problem title to signpost to reader what you

are going to do in your project. This should not look like an essay title but an indication of what you will have achieved by the end of your project.

e.g. The identification of the critical success factors in managing a SMEs IT Desktop Support function.

 The Actual Problem The particular problem(s) you will attempt to research.
A brief overview of what it is you are going to do and

why it is worth doing? e.g. Most business organisations have a Help Desk or IT User Support function either in-house or supplied by an outside organisation. Although there are hierarchical structures for how IT User Support can be managed (e.g. Microsoft) many of the important issues relate to soft or people problems and are issues that are not well catered for in the standard Help Desk/ITUS guidelines. This project seeks to explore how important such soft/people issues are to an effective Help Desk/ITUS function in SMEs.

 The Context: Literature

What sources do you have to help you understand the problem and issues with the approach to resolve it. This should contain referred and published sources, not only URLs. If you insist that no material is available, then you must explain where you have looked.

e.g. In this section I would need to list some appropriate, hopefully up-to-date journal articles, academic texts and maybe even some trade journal articles. I would hope to restrict the number of my on-line references. The point of this section is to demonstrate that I have already looked at the secondary research and have an idea of what is already published on the subjects I am covering.

Research Design
What sort of data is required?
Often there can be more than one approach to try to answer the problem; which

are you taking?

e.g. The intention is to: (i) research the literature to see how the Help Desk/ITUS function is described and its successful implementation judged. To identify issues/problems to either support the research hypothesis that soft/people issues are (a) a factor to be addressed and (b) are not being addressed successfully already. (ii) undertake a detailed study of one SME (e.g. name of organisation or at least an indication of the SMEs sector) to see whether, if as suspected the soft/people issues are a problem area in implementing and managing a successful support function. Explain why focusing on SMEs ; explain why this particular organisation/industry as opposed to any other.

 Approach to collecting data - methodology

A description of how you plan to resolve the problem you have identified. Note you should explain what other ways may have been possible but why they were discarded. e. g. Use of literature research to (i) explain the Help Desk/ITUS function (ii) unearth any problems issues surrounding soft/people issues in this function (iii) identify criteria for judging success of otherwise of (Help Desk/ITUS function) Primary research Conduct in-depth interviews with (i) HD/ITUS personnel at different levels (e.g. ones established by SMEs support framework) and (ii) end-users to assess soft/people issues and how they are addressed (or not) in this particular organisation. Need to consider type of interview strategy one-to-one, group? how sessions will be recorded and data collection, analysis and conclusions drawn regarding critical success factors? As only one in-depth case study to be undertaken it is probably worth considering some form of narrative research approach. Some might have opted for a survey type approach but this would have been inconsistent with the nature of the research question ie about soft/people issues so need an approach that will allow gathering of this type of data.

 Ethical and Practical considerations: For all projects you need to consider whether there are any ethical considerations for what you are proposing to do as part of your research. If so, you will need to consider an application to the University Ethics Committee (UEC) (e.g. any research involving children).

You may need to think of a contingency plan in the event that the UEC rejects your proposal.

Before you finish planning your project it is important to

consider whether what you propose is practical i.e. possible in terms of time, cost, technological development, access to collaborators, equipment, etc.

You might design a fantastic project which is just not possible in the current technical, financial, cultural environment.

 Evaluation How will you know that your study is complete? How will you know when you have finished? How will you be able to tell whether what you have learnt/designed/ demonstrated is true/useful/interesting?

You may look to see how your results compare with others (e.g. Go back to the literature to compare). You might undertake an evaluation study to test your ideas/product/design? How will you collect data about this evaluation process? How might conduct a series of feedback interviews with your collaborators to see what they have thought about your intervention in their organisation....

Management
Plan

Some indication of the time schedule required for your attempt, e.g. if surveys are involved costs/printing/time to ask etc, if experimentation involved how long to program, set-up and analyse etc. e.g. Based on a full-time MSc project being allocated 200 student efforthours I would need to break this time down into appropriate, balanced sections. 50 hours have already been taken up with the production of the specification so I need to show this and the remaining 150 hours need to be allocated to all the tasks I need to undertake: further literature review activities, setting up and undertaking primary research; making sense of the data I collect; evaluation of the data, validation of my conclusions etc., write up. I need to calculate time taken by supervisors for feedback, and to make allowances for any necessary contingency plans. Holiday periods need to be considered. Different methods to show all this should be considered and one picked with which to present the plan. Practical and do-able are the key words here.

 Communication It is important that what you say/write is clear and comprehensible to those listening/reading. You need to make sure your presentation is well structured, uses good English language and grammar, and is neither too complex (for the time available) nor too simplistic to be useful. The verbal presentation is a test to see whether you can present a complex set of ideas succinctly.