Poster presentation of Proposed Social Research Project
It is your responsibility to read through ALL this document, and to meet all 3 deadlines
Although this assignment is called a ‘Poster presentation’ it is still an academic piece of work. Academics often present their research in the form of a poster at conferences, and this is your chance to practice this form of research dissemination.
An academic poster is a summary of your research in a visual way. It must be academically sound. You should remember;
• It is written in a formal style.
• It uses academic references.
• It is a concise presentation of the research topic you have been thinking about all semester
Students are strongly advised to be under the 750 words limit.
Your submission should be up to 3 A3 pages (including references).
Exceeding this will result in a marks deduction (i.e. nothing will be marked on any other pages that are submitted).
Assessment Deadline:
(Please note the 3 dates below. You must meet all to maximise your marks)
Deadline 1. Complete Quiz 2: prior to 3rd January 11.59pm (Feedback will not be automatic).
Deadline 2. Turnitin submission (Assessment 3 submission box): Sunday 7th February 11.59pm and on assigned Peer Review Discussion Group Forum: Monday 8th February, 11.59pm
• this is a mandatory assessment point – if not completed you automatically fail the unit
Deadline 3. Peer Review submission (your assigned poster presentation forum): by Sunday 14th
February. 11.59pm
• As other students’ marks are dependent on this submission, you may lose 50% of your Assessment 3 marks if you do not submit your poster to the discussion board on the required date.
• You will not access to a poster presentation forum until you have submitted your poster through Turnitin
Submit your assessment as a PDF – this is the only way to ensure that your formatting is conserved.
Turnitin will not allow you to submit any other document.
Step One: Understand what this task is asking you to do.
All semester you have been thinking about Social Research Methods and now it’s your chance to imagine you are a researcher.
This task is asking you to present a poster that is a proposal for a research project that you could undertake about a topic of interest in your everyday social world. As this is a proposal, you should NOT undertake any research data collection or results analysis. You should not present any results, as this is a project that could be undertaken in the near future, rather than one which you have already completed.
Other things you need to consider
• Consider your audience. In this task you are presenting to an academic audience.
• Know the content presentation requirements.
• Submission requirements. The poster must be submitted to Turnitin and to your group discussion forum.
You are being asked to think about;
1. Problem statement and Research Question (200 words) - (20%)
2. Research Process (350 words) - (40%)
3. Potential Ethical Implications (100 words) - (15%)
4. Strengths and Limitations (100 words) – (15%)
5. Presentation component (including title)– (10%)
Step two: Make sure you have a look at these resources BEFORE you start your assignment.
• The Social Research Methods Learning Guide (in vUWS) – Assessment 3 instructions
• Poster Presentation Marking Rubric (in vUWS)
• Awareness of content on vUWS, and any notes you have made during the semester that might be relevant to the different sections of the assessment task
Step three: decide on your topic and research question
You woll need to submit your topic and research question during Quiz 2.
At this point you need to articulate (without references) an answer for the following questions
1. What is the problem/issue you have identified in the world around you?
2. Why do you think this is an important topic to be researched?
3. What is the specific research question you would look to answer?
The expectation is 1 sentence for each question, written without jargon (i.e. in lay language) with the intention that the unit coordinator will be able to understand what you are talking about.
See Step Five – point 2. For further information
Step four: Map out your task.
The word count for the presentation is 750 words (no 10% over leeway).
You have six sections to complete
1. Title (not included in word count, but part of the presentation component)
2. Problem Statement and Research Question
3. Research Process
4. Ethical implications
5. Strengths and Limitations
6. References (not included in word count, not minimum in-text citations for each component)
Step five: Complete your task.
The task has five sections
1. Title (under 15 words)
In this section you will provide a title for your research. This is not the same as your overall research topic or your research questions. It can be the main idea of your research topic.
2. Problem statement and Research Question (200 words)
In this section you will need to think about a research topic that has interested you over the semester. This topic can be inspired by your academic, professional and/or personal life, and should reflect something your find of interest in the world around you. This research topic might be broad, and it might be related to you own chosen profession. In this section you also need to think about what questions are related to your topic, why you chose the topic and what you want to know or learn by studying this topic. This is not the same as the more defined researchable question that you have to come up with. A good discussion on why you chose this topic, and the topic and broader research questions will reference the academic materials you have been reading, watching and engaging with.
In this section you also need to come up with a well-defined researchable question. Go back to tutorial one and look at the steps and activities you participated in related to this. This question has to be precise enough for you to be able to apply the methods you chose in the next section. Here you also need to discuss how you will undertake or operationalize this researchable question. Think back to the discussions in the online modules and tutorials on key concepts and constructs and how these need to be defined before you undertake research. A good discussion on concepts and the operationalisation of your research will reference the academic materials you have been reading, watching and engaging with.
• What is the problem/issue/concern?
• Why do you think it is important to research this? (this should have a strong academic undercurrent, but can also include personal knowledge/reasons that come from lived experience)
• What is your research question? (1 simple question that the research will seek to answer) try not to state this as a simple yes/no question, but as something that would foster deeper inquiry (i.e. what, where, how, why, when questions are better)
• What aims and/or objectives (at least 2) could help to answer this question?
• Identify the key concepts that underlie your research, and think about how you will ‘operationalise’ these? (operationalisation is the process of defining how you will study something: for example, if you are studying success in education, you would acknowledge that success in education can take many different forms (e.g. the ability to participate in society, getting a job, feeling like you’ve learnt something knew, being able to talk or write about something in detail), but then say that your research is operationalising this concept as “successfully passing all subjects”.
• You need to include at least 1 scholarly reference in this section
3. Research Process (350 words)
In this section you need to think about how you will carry out the research and the steps you will need to take (see the flow chart to the right). This will include examples of methods you use (survey questions for example).
You have to think about the most appropriate method to help you gain data for your researchable question. Think carefully about the method or methods you choose and why you choose them. Why would you choose an interview over a survey for example? In this section you also need to think about your population and your sample. How will you go about obtaining your sample? What is the best sample for this research and why? You can include some critical discussion here too. You might also like to think about social research methods more generally and include a few methods.
A good discussion on method will reference the academic materials you have been reading, watching and engaging with.
• Outline the entire research process that you would adopt for the project, from project creation to dissemination. You will need to review the content of learning module 1, to ensure that you cover all aspects.
• Think about the reading that you would need to do to come to an understanding of what we already know (and don’t know) about this issue (i.e. what topics would you explore in a literature review).
• Identify at least one method of data collection that you would use to investigate the project (most researchers would likely use two methods of data collection). Explain what the method is, how it will give you the data you need to answer the question, and how you will analyse that
data. You are not expected to devise an entire questionnaire or interview schedule. However, a good student will identify key questions that they would investigate.
• Think about the implications of this research? Who will be interested in the findings of your research? How will you disseminate the results to them?
• You need to use at least 2 scholarly references to develop this section (and cite them). These should help to justify the decisions you make about your research process.
• You may use dot points and/or flow charts/diagrams, to maximise the information that you convey. However, make sure that you adequately explain and justify your intended research process.
4. Potential Ethical Implications (100 words)
As a researcher you need to show that you are aware of the ethical consideration. Think about power, politics, harm, dignity, confidentiality, protection, privacy, consent, anonymity, conflicts of interest, transparency and even misleading information.
• Think about potential risks of harm that might arise to the research participants and/or the researcher from your project. How might you counter these so that you still gain social scientific knowledge, whilst minimising harm?
• You should include at least 1 citation to a scholarly reference in this section (this can be the same as those used elsewhere).
5. Strengths and Limitations (100 words)
Go back to your online modules and tutorial activities. What are some of the strengths of the methods you have chosen, what might be some of the limitations? Link this section directly to the methods YOU chose.
A good discussion on strengths and limitations will reference the academic materials you have been reading, watching and engaging with.
• A good project sells itself by saying what it will do well (i.e. its research and knowledge strengths), as well as what it will not do (limitations – NOT weaknesses). In this section, you are demonstrating your deeper knowledge of the social research process (including methods).
• You should include at least 1 citation to a scholarly reference in this section (this can be the same as those used elsewhere).
Other Components to be considered
Presentation component – 10%
• Your poster should be presented in an interesting and visually appealing manner, utilising no more than 1 A2 page (including all headings and references).
• Referencing should be done correctly.
• If you use images or figures, these are not included in the word count, but should be referred to in your text (i.e. see figure 1) and should be appropriately captioned and referenced (also not included in the word count).
References (not included in word count) – check each section for minimum requirements
You are expected to use academic and other references in your poster presentation. You are expected to use at least three unique academic readings, to support and justify your decision marking HD posters will likely have many more.
Good assignments might use
• Any of the unit materials such as the research wall and lay readings
• Your own academic research from academic journals, texts and other peer reviewed material The preferred reference styles are Harvard or APA Style
All published works (academic and lay readings, textbooks, websites, newspapers, videos, etc .) need to be referenced in the reference list. The reference list needs to be included at the bottom of your slide in 8pt font.
A good assessment will not depend on Unpublished works from vUWS (slides, online modules, research wall videos). These are a starting point only and should never be the final resource in assessment.