Introduction

Welcome to your new module. We hope you enjoy your studies. This document specifies the assessment/s for this module. We want you to be successful at the highest possible levels. You should find the assessment/s to be clear, relevant, accessible, appropriate and challenging.

From September 2017, all assessment briefs have a set structure. So, you will become familiar with the 8 main sections in them. This assessment brief tells you:

1. what the module is about overall
2. what the module Learning Outcomes are
3. what assessment/s you must pass, in order to successfully complete the module
4. what you need to do in the assessment/s
5. how your work will be assessed and marked
6. how to present your work for marking
7. where to access the University of Derby Assessment regulations
8. where to get other assessment-related help and support.

1.Module Overview

All modules have an overview. This gives you an indication of the aim or purpose of the module, and its content. This module’s overview is below.

This module covers research design; ethical practice in research and qualitative and quantitative approaches to research. Students will develop the ability to perform appropriate statistical analyses to address research questions about human behaviour. In addition, students will demonstrate an ability to design, conduct and report an ethically sound quantitative research study exploring human behaviour. Students will also demonstrate their critical understanding by evaluating qualitative research designs and findings. The content of this module is essential preparation for the Independent Study empirical MSc/PGDip Research Project that is required to complete the Masters level 7 programme.

2.Learning Outcomes

All modules in UK Higher Education have learning outcomes that you will study towards and then demonstrate you have met them. In order to do this, you will draw on many factors such as:

• your prior learning and experience
• the module learning units and task
• your wider reading, reflection (and possibly practice)
• and, also the expertise of your tutors and other students.

In most modules, it will be clear exactly which of these learning outcomes is assessed in which of the assessments you have to submit and pass.

On successful completion of this learning, and this module, you will be able to:

1. Develop an ethically and methodologically sound empirical research study exploring a pertinent psychological theory.

 

2. Analyse, interpret, and critically evaluate the findings of the study to form coherent conclusions about the research question(s).

 

3. Critically appraise a contemporary qualitative research paper using selected criteria.

3.Assessment types used in this module

Formative Feedback Opportunities

Formative activities are opportunities for you to apply, practice and make sense of the learning materials and content that you have worked with. These will mainly be located in the End of Unit Activities.

We have written these to help you to (for example) practice some academic or professional skills, such as referencing, literature searching and analysing materials. You can choose how much time and effort you put into these activities.

These may take the form of individual tasks, such as: reading some text, or watching a video and documenting your reaction to it; responding to some discussion points on the discussion forum; considering a case study; or, participating in a live online classroom session.

The main aim of formative activities is for you to receive feedback on your contribution, performance, or progress that will help you prepare for and complete your final assumptive module assessment.

All modules you take will vary in several ways, and the type of feedback you get for each formative assessment or activities will vary too. If your tutors give you marks as part of the feedback, these will not be counted in your final module grade.

Summative Assessment

Summative assessments are the pieces of coursework that you must complete which contribute towards your final grade in this module. If you have a Support Plan you can discuss with your module tutor what reasonable adjustments you need.

Summative assessment in this particular module is via three pieces of submitted work.

You will be expected to submit your summative assessments via the Turnitin assessment points on the Assessment page in My Learning section of the module.

You should take the feedback that you receive from the completion of summative assessments in this module and use it to help you improve your performance in future assessments.