Manchester Metropolitan University Unit Code: Faculty of Business and Law Assignment Brief 2023/24 Unit Title: Business Technology Project 5Z6Z1002 Core Level:6 Assignment Identifier: 2CWK85 Project Report Topic: Future of Autonomous Vehicles: Can they substitute current delivery services and how would they influence the industry. Feedback Return Date: See Date on Moodle -4 weeks after submission date. Feedback Return Information: Provisional marks and feedback via Moodle. View online feedback against your electronic submission. Assignment Task and word count: The Business Technology Project involves you undertaking an independent project that is written up as a project report at the end of the unit. Your project will be aimed at business improvement appropriate to the subject specialism of Business Technology For this assignment, you need to write an INDIVIDUAL PROJECT REPORT (MAX 9000 Words), and provide supporting evidence as appropriate. In some (build) cases, this may involve a live demo to verify claims made in your report. (85% WEIGHTING in final unit mark). Unit Learning Outcomes Assessed: 2. Apply methodology appropriate for the project objectives. 3. Critically evaluate theory and secondary sources to inform the direction and approach of the project. 4. Communicate the work effectively through appropriate deliverables. Critically reflect on the strategic significance of the project outcomes and the development of employability skills. Business Technology programme learning outcomes assessed: BT PLO1 Identify the business technology requirements for a range of contemporary business contexts. BT PLO2 Evaluate existing and emerging business technology solutions to meet these requirements. BT PLO5 Plan and manage business technology projects AOL Programme learning outcomes assessed: PLO1: Apply critical thinking to practical and coretical problems. PLO1.1.1 Identify and interrogate relevant data and literature sources using 1 methods appropriate PLO1.1.2 Apply theory to discussion and analysis PLO2: Be effective communicators using a range of media. PLO2.1.1 Organise work in a logical structure in order to draw conclusions that follow from line of argument PLO2.1.2 Apply consistent and appropriate referencing and in text citations PLO2.1.3 Demonstrate digital skills appropriate PLO3: Demonstrate an awareness of ethical, corporate social responsibility and sustainability issues appropriate to the level of study and discipline context. PLO3.1.1 Recognise, explore and reflect on key ethical issues as they affecting own and others' practice. PLO4: Demonstrate professional and Commercial/Corporate awareness 4.1.1 Identify and explain professional and commercial/corporate issues 4.1.2 Critically evaluate professional and commercial/corporate issues 4.1.3 Critically reflect upon own development as a current or future professional Assignment Details and Instructions: You will produce an INIDIVIDUAL written Project Report of MAX 9000 words, and provide supporting evidence as appropriate. The word count excludes the sections that do not form the main body of your report such as contents, executive summary, appendices (including skills mapping) and references. In some cases (build projects), the supporting evidence may involve a live demo to verify claims made in your report if uploaded files cannot be straightforwardly executed by your supervisor independently. The report should be readily understandable to an audience that varies in technical background and prior knowledge of the project. You will present a logical and justified argument, leading to convincing conclusions and recommendations. Your writing should demonstrate clarity of expression and a good command of English grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Note: you are required to develop a skills mapping table to include in your Appendices, which demonstrates your critical reflection on your employability and career readiness skills improved and developed in your final year, but particularly through your project work. This reflection will need to include consideration of how your professional engagement with your supervisor has contributed to this development. Also included in your Appendices must be your record of professional engagement with the supervision process, which must be signed by your supervisor to verify TIPS Read the Project Handbook on the Moodle channel for more detailed guidance on the structure and content of the report. Read the assessment rubric at the end of this brief to gain understanding of how the quality of your work is to be judged. Engage fully and professionally with the support provided by your supervisor to benefit from formative feedback on your plans and draft writing. Evidence of this professional engagement will be REQUIRED as part of the assessment criteria. Any student not having completed verification of at least 5 supervision meetings by 22 March will be required to attend a professional engagement discussion with the unit leader and/or supervisor during the assessment period. Expected structure and content of the Project Report Title Page. This should include the title of your Project; your name and MMU ID, 2 date of submission; a declaration of authenticity (see Project Handbook for wording), the University ethics application approval number, and identification of the level of confidentiality of your work (if applicable). Table of contents, and any lists of figures, tables, acronyms. Executive summary. This is no more than one page - and a full précis of your report. It should contain all the essential points of the aim, business justification, objectives, approach, key findings/outcomes, and conclusions/recommendations. Note- this is NOT a brief introduction to your project or an outline of the project structure. It must be comprehensible to someone who has not read the rest of the report. Introduction. (approx. 500 words) Explain briefly the scope of the project in terms of the problem/opportunity for business improvement that has been addressed by the project. Background. (approx. 2300 words) A review chapter, covering the background desk research undertaken that builds a logical argument for the aim and objectives that will follow. This should include critical discussion of the business technology problem(s)/opportunity(ies) your project addresses. You should use relevant theory and reference to secondary sources to demonstrate you have a thorough knowledge of what is already known about the relevant business context, practice and issues, and identifies what is NOT known and is therefore being addressed by the project. Aim and Objectives: (approx. 200 words) A statement of the intended purpose of your project and goals that logically guide the project activity and judgements about its progress. You should have already developed these for your project proposal. These should be: unambiguous and precisely stated; achievable; appropriate for achieving improvement identified in the background. Methodology. (approx. 2000 words) Builds on the proposal work, with more detail and theoretical depth to explain and justify what you have done. It will contain several subsections to appropriately signpost and focus on the different aspects of the work undertaken (e.g. research design, sampling, data collection methods, data analysis, project management, ethical conduct). It should provide sufficient detail and clarity for understanding and replicating the approach, be appropriate to achieving your aim and objectives, use research methods and project management theory to justify approach (where appropriate), and demonstrate understanding of the relevant ethical considerations associated with your work and conduct required to address these considerations. Results. (approx.. 2500 words) Evidences, explains, and evaluates the findings, outcomes, outputs, deliverables, artefacts, achievements, benefits (as appropriate) that have been produced as a result of the project. You need to discuss and critically reflect on the extent to which the intended project aim and objectives have been achieved, and the factors that may have influenced this. Conclusions. (approx. 1000 words) Summarises your key argument and evidence for achievement (or not) of your aim and objectives. You also need to consider the strategic significance of these for your client (if consultancy) and business more generally (if research). Recommendations. (approx. 500 words) Discusses implications for further work arising from the project. This demonstrates you understand where your project fits in a framework of longer term continuous improvement of your client organisation (if consultancy) or business more generally (if research). References. References and citations must comply with MMU Harvard standard. Library guide. 3 Appendices. Contains the audit trail of your project work. Examples include:- -Evidence of time management-the Gantt chart you used to guide this (probably refined since your original proposal). -Evidence of primary data gathering planning such as interview/discussion guides or your blank questionnaire. -Evidence of the raw primary data generated (e.g. a transcript of an interview, marked up to illustrated how you have coded/analysed themes) -Evidence of your ethical conduct in data gathering, with any blank consent forms and participant information sheets used. It will also include the Skills Mapping Table and your record of professional engagement with your supervisor. Format There is no prescribed format for your report in terms of overall design, font, style, line spacing, margins etc. The expectation is that by final year you should be able to make appropriate judgements about how to effectively present and communicate your work. The report must be in either Microsoft Word document or .pdf file format. Mac users who use Pages, or an alternative word processing application will need to convert work to this format before submission. It is your responsibility to ensure that the document is free of any formatting issues, and that you submit the correct version of your document. Submission The report must be submitted via the assessment submission link on Moodle by 9pm on the submission date stated in Moodle. The only exceptions are if you have applied, and received, an approved extension (see section on Late Submissions and Assessment Mitigations. Students who have completed build projects may be required to submit additional files evidencing claims to development work to a separate link, or provide in person demonstration, to help your marker contextualise the work. Your supervisor will advise nearer to submission. Feedback and support: Academic support A supervisor will be assigned to you at the start of the academic year. You are advised to make contact with your supervisor as soon as possible to discuss and agree your project idea and plan and schedule your supervision meetings. You will be required to maintain a record of professional engagement with your supervisor which must be signed by your supervisor to verify Weekly lectures will also be used to support your ability to complete this assignment. Feedback Formative and qualitative feedback about your plans, draft work, and progress will be provided by your supervisor during supervision meetings. The summative feedback and marks will be released on Moodle 4 weeks after submission. Any questions about the feedback should be directed to your supervisor. Ethical Approval: 4 IMPORTANT: Your project plans will require ethical approval before you can progress your project beyond the background desk-based research of publicly available secondary sources. Using the online ethics approval system (EthOS, at https://ethos- apply.mmu.ac.uk/Account/Login). It is academic misconduct not to secure this approval (see next section). Further advice on completing the form can be found in the Project Handbook and can also be found at https://www2.mmu.ac.uk/research/staff/ethics-and-governance/ Academic Integrity, Academic Misconduct and Plagiarism Academic Integrity is about engaging in good academic practice. It means being honest and transparent, and demonstrating rigour and accuracy in your work. This can include the proper citation and referencing of the sources of your ideas and information, ensuring that you are using appropriate research methods, or checking that your work is free of errors. Additional information, video tutorials and guides to support good academic practice and maintain Academic Integrity in your assignments can be found on the Academic Integrity area of the Academic and Study Skills page on Moodle. Academic Misconduct is any action that could give you an unfair advantage in coursework, exams, or any other assessed work, which could lead to undermining the academic standards of the University. This includes practices such as plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, contract cheating or falsification of data, and failing to secure Ethics approval for your work where this is required. Full details of the Manchester Metropolitan University guidelines for Academic Misconduct and definitions of terms can be found here. Use of Al technology for your assessment task(s) As this is a very new area, there are several questions which we don't have answers to. These include the balance of your text and Al generated text for it to be considered your own work and what form the acknowledgement should take. The important thing is to consider these things and make a judgement based on your context. OpenAl has a content policy that must be followed when using their tools. It states, 'Don't mislead your audience about Al involvement', so if you use ChatGPT and don't acknowledge it, you are not abiding by their terms of use. The University Library provides some guidance on the form this acknowledgment might take here. Late submissions & Assessment Mitigations: Please refer to this link which will take you to MMU Student Life Assessment & Results guidance. Here you will find information for MMU's assessment mitigations process. Further guidance can be found in this video link for step- by-step instructions on how to apply for your extension via Moodle. Please note: If you think you are unable to submit on time due to a health or some other unforeseen issue you must request this via your unit Moodle page, referring to the guidance in the links provided above. LO 5