FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND LAW
Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics
MIS770 – Foundation Skills in Data Analysis
Assignment 1 – Analysing the Visual Presentation of an Organisation’s Annual Report
Particulars
• Due:Week 5, 11pm, December 6th December, 2018
• Words:2,000 (See Item 1, Guidelines)
• Submission: Online to the MIS770 assignment one drop box in the Cloud Unit Site. Email submissions will not be accepted
• Note:This assignment is to be completed individually
Assurance of Learning
This assignment assesses following Graduate Learning Outcomes and related Unit Learning Outcomes:
Graduate Learning Outcome (GLO) Unit Learning Outcome (ULO)
GLO1: Discipline knowledge and capabilities: ULO1: Apply the fundamentals of
appropriate to the level of study related to a quantitative reasoning to solve real-world
discipline or profession problems
Overview
For this assignment, we will use the ideas and concepts introduced in Module 1 to evaluate the presentation of information.
The evaluation will centre on the suitability of Charts, Tables and/or Graphs used to represent, or visualise, data. The source document for these Charts, Tables and/or Graphs will be a published report from a Government or significant Organisation of your choice. (An example of a suitable annual report can be found at the end of this document under “Supporting Materials”.)
There are many suitable reports that you can use for your evaluation and you might be comfortable selecting a document that is aligned with your current field of study. For instance, if you were a Business student then you might like to choose a listed (public) company’s Annual Investor Presentation such as the example shown under “Supporting Materials”. These types of reports can be sourced from a public company’s website (usually under Investor Centre) or the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Other suitable sources could be international organisations (e.g. World Health Organisation (WHO)), government departments or enterprises (e.g. Education Departments, water authorities, etc.).
When selecting a report to evaluate, ensure that the document is publically available and has a wide selection of Charts, Tables and Graphs.
MIS770 Assignment One 1 | P a g e
Scenario
In this assignment, you will undertake two distinct tasks divided as Part A and Part B.
First, you will develop a list of generic evaluation criteria that critique valid practices when developing, or constructing, Charts, Tables and Graphs (i.e. visualisations), i.e. Part A.
Second, you will use the criteria you have just developed to evaluate the suitability of the Charts, Tables and Graphs (i.e. visualisations) utilised in a publically available report of your choice (subject to the conditions listed later in this document) i.e. Part B.
Requirements
• Part A: Develop Evaluation Criteria
Your evaluation criteria need to be objective, in that they stipulate the rules you would use in establishing whether a Chart, Table or Graph utilised in your selected Report, is appropriate for the data being presented. You need to make sure that each of your criterion is written in such a manner that a reasonable person can readily understand, or appreciate, the message being conveyed. You are expected to address approximately 20 criteria.
You should also group your criteria by visualisation type. For example, you might choose “Common”, “Chart”, “Table” and “Graph”, or some other suitable grouping. You are not restricted to these specific headings. It’s also important that you number each separate criterion as you will need to refer to its specific number when undertaking Task 2.
An example of an appropriate criterion:
Line Charts should be used when analysing trends over time. To be effective, the time series should be placed on the x-axis with the measure on the y-axis.
An example of an unacceptable criterion:
Line Charts should have nice colours.
This last example fails on two counts: it has an inadequate description (or explanation); and, it is subjective (i.e. the authors opinion) – your criteria need to be objective.
• Part B: Report Evaluation
Select 10 to 12 diverse Charts, Tables or Graphs from your chosen Report (but not including any “Infographics”) and evaluate these visualisations using your criterion developed in Part A. It would not be unusual for an individual visualisation from your report to refer to multiple criteria. Further, any given visualisation you select may conform to some of your criterion but be in contravention of others, and this would need to be reported.
It is expected that each of your criterion would be used at least once when evaluating your chosen Charts, Tables or Graphs.
Note: When evaluating the report, include an image of the Charts, Tables and Graphs you have selected and make sure you associate them back to a specific criterion by using the criterion number you utilised in Part A.
MIS770 Assignment One 2 | P a g e
Guidelines
1. The following word counts should be used as a guide for this assessment. Criteria: Qty 20 with 25 to 30 words in each (i.e. 500 to 600 words)
Evaluation: Qty 10 with 120 to 130 words in each (i.e. 1200 to 1300 words), or Qty 12 with 120 to 130 words in each (i.e. 1400 to 1560 words)
Therefore, using the above guidelines, your assignment should be no less than 1600 words and no more than 2400 words (i.e. 2000 words plus or minus 20%)
2. For this assignment, we are only interested in the Charts, Tables and Graphs contained in your selected published report but do not include any items commonly known as “Infographics”.
Submission
Your completed work should be a single Word document divided into two sections:
Part A. Evaluation Criteria
Part B. Report Evaluation
In addition, please also submit a copy, or a link, of the Published Report that you used as part of your evaluation.
Marking Rubric
Poor Needs Satisfactory Good Very Good Exemplary
Improvement
Part A: 0 points 2.1 points 3.5 points 4.2 points 4.9 points 7 points
Develop Proposes no valid Proposes only a Proposes several Proposes a Proposes many Proposes
Evaluation
Criteria criteria which few valid criteria more satisfactory reasonably good very good comprehensive
(Marks: 7) indicates no that indicate little creative criteria number of creative criteria creative criteria
Create rules by comprehension comprehension that indicates creative criteria that indicates a that meets best
of the task of the task satisfactory that indicates a deep practice and are
which charts, comprehension good comprehension grounded in
graphs & tables of the task comprehension of the task empirical theory.
are to be judged of the task All criteria reflect
a high level of
judgement
0 – 2 Marks 2.1 – 3.4 Marks 3.5 – 4.1 Marks 4.2 – 4.8 Marks 4.9 – 5.5 Marks 5.6 – 7 Marks
Part B: 0 points 3 points 5 points 6 points 7 points 10 points
Report
Evaluation Provides no Provides little Provides Provides a good Provides a Provides
(Marks: 10) direction as to direction as to acceptable direction as to detailed and outstanding
how criteria how criteria direction as to how criteria insightful detail and
Apply the rules might be might be how criteria might be direction as to insightful
you created in implemented implemented might be implemented how criteria direction as to
Part A to your implemented in a might be how criteria
selection of satisfactory implemented might be
charts, graphs & manner implemented
tables 0 – 2.9 Marks 3 – 4.9 Marks 5 – 5.9 Marks 6 – 6.9 Marks 7 – 7.9 Marks 8 – 10 Marks
Overall 0 points 0.9 points 1.5 point 1.8 point 2.1 points 3 points
Assignment
Presentation No attempt has Little attempt has Most of the Majority of the All of the All of the
(Marks: 3) been made to been made to assignment assignment assignment assignment
follow follow particulars have particulars have particulars have particulars have
assignment assignment been followed. been followed. been followed. been dealt with
particulars. particulars. Satisfactorily Good Very good meticulously.
Poorly presented Unsatisfactorily presented presentation presentation Faultless
presented assignment
0 – 0.8 Marks presentation
0.9 – 1.4 Marks 1.5 – 1.7 Marks 1.8– 2 Marks 2.1 – 2.3 Marks 2.4 – 3 Marks
MIS770 Assignment One 4 | P a g e
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