NIT6130 Assignment 3 - Proposal, Literature Review, Research Method, Ethics
Submission Instructions
Document format: Please submit your assignment as a word document (.docx) not a pdf.
Submission: Submit in the drop box provided in VU Collaborate.
Due date: Refer to drop box.
Marks: 25 (For section 5 Ethics)
Assignment Template
Follow the template and steps below to complete your literature review, research method and ethics proposal. Remove any instructions provided, and replace them with the information required.
Title of the project (A tentative title of selected research)
Name, Student ID
1 Abstract
- Summary of the knowledge gap: problems of the existing research
- Aim of the research, summary of what this project is to achieve
- Summary of the approach or methodology and innovation
- Summary of the expected outcomes and significance
The above four points need to be clearly stated, each have at least 2 sentences. The approach/method part needs to have minimum 4 sentences.
2. Introduction
An overview of the existing research relating to the proposed research. You must summarise how the proposed research enhance existing research, based on your knowledge obtained from broad scan and focused reading.
Broad Scan moves to Appendix 1
3. Related work
- Select one type of the research methods (qualitative, quantitative, new product/technology)
- Select one of the existing research articles which applied the selected research method
- If the article was not one of the focused reading articles in the assignment 1, a focused reading needs to be conducted for it; otherwise, existing focused reading needs to be improved according to the feedback received for the first assignment.
- Include the focused reading of the article here, with answers to the following questions
o What did the authors do (key contributions)
o Why did the authors conduct the research (existing problems)
o What are the key differences in the method/approach (innovation)
o What are main achievements, significance
o What can be further improved
o Research problem identified (to be reflected in section 4 Proposed Research)
Note:
- Each of the above questions needs to be covered with one paragraph; each paragraph contains minimum 4 sentences.
- Strengthen the assignment 1 literature review with review of the research methods and propose the method for your research. Provide a summary overview on what related works have been done and what has not been done.
- Include the research works discussed in your reference list and cite as required. Follow one of the citation/reference styles in Week 4 lecture notes.
- Example improvements can be
o better way to collect data
o better way to provide feedback
o Combining new technology (eg. chatbots) with other new technology (eg. IoT, Blockchain)/combining products to form a new product/apply new technology to improve an existing product
4. Proposed Research (give a title)
4.1 Problem statement: clearly define the problem identified in section 3.
4.2 Aim of the research: what to be achieved; elaborate on the objectives in details.
4.3 Expected outcomes and significance: Eg. How would your method will improve the existing methods; list the key benefits
4.4 Method and innovation:
- Architecture or structure diagram of your proposed method
- Any other implementation design (eg. flow charts, database design)
- Preliminary study/proof of implementation
o Description of typical scenarios (minimum 2)
o eg. Use any programming outputs.
o Highlight the expected improvement in the outputs produced.
Screenshots of the preliminary study/programming output.
5. Ethics (Total 25 marks – refer to marking guide in VU Collaborate ‘NIT6130-Assignment 3 Marking Scheme.xlsx’)
Project Title:
Researchers:
Contacts:
Project Summary:
Objectives-
Method-
Expected outcomes-
Data to be collected-
How data will be processed-
Ethics Principles:
1. Minimise the risk of harm
Possible harms
Mitigation of the risk of harms
2. Obtain informed consent
Follow the sample “Information to participants form. docx” provided in VU Collaborate to provide information about the research. It should include the following information.
• Project explanation - brief
• What will be the participant asked to do?
• What will the participant gain from participating?
• How will the information I give be used?
• What are the potential risks of participating in this project?
• How will this project be conducted?
• Who is conducting the study?
Follow the sample “Consent Form. docx” provided in VU Collaborate to obtain consent. It should include the following information.
• 18 years old
• Risk being fully explained
• Given opportunity to withdraw at any phase
• Given opportunity to ask any question
• Information will be kept confidentially
3. Protect the anonymity and confidentiality
• How will data be de-identified?
• How will data be kept?
• Who will access the data?
• How will results be published?
4. Include deception of participants?
If yes, how to mitigate risks and allow participants to withdraw at any phase
5. Provide the right to withdraw
Attach consent form and information to participants as Appendix C
6. Conclusion
What has been proposed, what has been done, what improvement has been achieved, what understanding has been gained from the preliminary study, what can be further improved?
7. References
Follow one of the reference styles explained in Week 4 lecture material.
8 Appendix
Appendix A. Literature Review – Broad Scan and Reading (minimum 3 rounds)
Round 1
- What research interests lead you to the choice of initial keywords?
- List keywords, source/research database, number of results returned
- List out result: search results list presented in table format (first 20+, with NO detailed abstracts, Highlight the articles selected for detailed/focused reading)
Title, author, year, journal/conference title
- Review & Summary (a paragraph of 6 -10 lines)
What was your opinion after going through the initial search results list?
What considerations led to the new set of keywords?
- List out the new keywords derived.
- Provide details of the articles/work identified-Title, author, year, journal/conference title, abstract
These are the most relevant articles you find in round 1 search result list. Read these articles under focused reading. Present details of the articles in table format.
- Appendix (need to be conducted in round 1 broad scan but to be included at the end of the document, NOT here) including first 20+ returned search including detailed abstracts
Title, author, year, journal/conference title, abstract
Round 2
- List keywords, derived in round 1, source/research database, number of results returned
- List out result: Up to 20 search results list, presented in table format with no detailed abstracts (Highlight the articles selected for detailed/focused reading)
Title, author, year, journal/conference title
- Review & Summary (a paragraph of 6 -10 lines)
What was your opinion after going through the initial search results list?
What considerations led to the new set of keywords?
- List out the new keywords derived.
- Provide details of the articles/work identified-Title, author, year, journal/conference title, abstract? to be read in the focused reading
These are the most relevant articles you find in round 2 search result list. Read these articles under focused reading. Present details of the articles in table format.
- Appendix (need to be conducted in round 2 broad scan but to be included at the end of the document, not here) including first 20+ returned search including detailed abstracts
Title, author, year, journal/conference title, abstract
Round 3
- List keywords, derived in round 2, source/research database, number of results returned
- List out result: Up to 20 search results list, presented in table format with no detailed abstracts (Highlight the articles selected for detailed/focused reading)
Title, author, year, journal/conference title
- Review & Summary (a paragraph of 6 -10 lines)
What was your opinion after going through the search results list?
What consideration led to the new set of keywords?
- List out the new keywords derived.
- Provide details of articles/work identified-Title, author, year, journal/conference title, abstract
These are the most relevant articles you find in round 3 search result list. Read these articles under focused reading. Present details of the articles in table format.
- Appendix (need to be conducted in round 3 broad scan but to be included at the end of the document, not here) including first 20+ returned search including detailed abstracts
Title, author, year, journal/conference title, abstract
A1. Round 1 Broad Scan, keyword, source/research database, number of results returned
20+ Title, author, year, journal/conference title
With abstract
A2. Round 2 Broad Scan, keyword, source/research database, number of results returned
20+ Title, author, year, journal/conference title
With abstract
A3. Round 3 Broad Scan, keyword, source/research database, number of results returned
20+ Title, author, year, journal/conference title
With abstract
Appendix B. Chatbot
Pseudo code
Any programming code.
Appendix C. Ethics consent form and information to participants
Notes on Assignment 3
- Analyse the ethics issues of the proposed research according to the research ethics principles
- Develop the document: Information to participants
- Develop the consent form
- Develop the ethics application (simplified version as guided in the template) for your research.
- Include the ethics application as Section 5 of the research proposal
Marking breakdowns and check list
Key components Check before submission Y/N marks
Provide a clear summary of the project including
• Objectives
• Method
• Expected outcomes
• Data to be collected
• How data will be processed
The research methodology should be adjusted to accommodate the new ethics requirements. For example, if the research uses a questionnaire on personal information; ethics should be tied to questions regarding personal information. If the research is about analysis of data sets, the ethics should be tied to the nature of the data in the data set.
Note: If required the research method should be adjusted to suit the ethics requirements. For example, some students provide ethics application of questionnaires; when the proposed research does not use a questionnaire. 5
Analysis according to the ethics principles; fill in all the section listed in the template
• Minimise the risk of harm
• Obtain informed consent
• Protect the anonymity and confidentiality
• Include deception of participants?
• Provide the right to withdraw
12
Information to participants 4
Consent Form 4
Final video captures a 3 minute presentation of the proposal, followed by a chatbot demo (screen record) including your skill account, intents, lambda function, testing the typical scenarios with web application.
Integration with web application is essential as it will allow you collect the data into the database for further analysis. The video will be applied to assess and validate the research method, which is a core component of the proposed research.
Check if you have compressed your video (e.g. through youtube) so that it is less than 50M.
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