Students are required to provide a response of approximately 250 words to the weekly online activity. There are 13 weeks in the semester and each week will be given a mark out of 10. The best 10 weeks will then be added together to give you a total mark out of 100. This will then be reduced to a percentage of 30% which
will contribute to your final grade.
Things to consider:
· The response should be uploaded by to the Sunday of each week.
· Referencing in this activity is appropriate. When you reference in text, make sure you have a reference list at the bottom. The reference list will not be included in your word count for this activity.
· Restrict your responses to around 250 words. (Applying a 10% flexibility rule this means that they must be 225-275 words). Marks will be deducted for posts that fall outside of these parameters .
· Students will receive a grade each week. Feedback will be provided via a scored rubric unless you attempt a weekly question and do not achieve a pass grade. Written feedback will be given in this case.
· You will be able to see what the other students post for their responses after you have posted your own response. This is to enhance student engagement and learning while ensuring a fair process for all.
Please note that late submissions will incur a one mark per day penalty. Let me know if you are having difficulty meeting the deadline.
 

Due dates: First submission Sunday 28th September. Peer appraisal due Sunday 5th October. Final submission due Sunday 12th October. (My apologies this won't all fit in the due date box).

You are required to write a 2,000 - 2.500 word research proposal for a hypothetical project.
The research proposal is an integral component to all research projects. This task can be viewed as quite difficult or overwhelming for those who are new to research. Breaking the study down into smaller sections makes the overall task appear less daunting and become more manageable. Designing your research also provides an avenue for you to unpack your ideas and identify areas where there may be gaps in terms of understanding and development. In short, the research proposal is a means of planning and structuring your research.
This task is based on a hypothetical research project you may be interested in undertaking in the future. This assessment is only the design of the project. You do not need to go out and undertake the actual project for this assessment (actually, please don’t as you won’t have ethics approval). Some of you may be thinking of undertaking Higher Degree Research (HDR) in the future, this task will prove highly beneficial to this cohort.
Others may have identified a need for something to be investigated in your professional workplace or community. Here is your chance to start planning the project. When undertaking research you will need to demonstrate that you have a good understanding of what it is that you intend to research and most importantly – how you intend to go about it. The following headings should guide your thinking and are standard in most research proposals. However, if there are any additional headings you believe are integral to your research you may include them in the research proposal.

There will be a peer appraisal component to this assessment. Peer review can be a powerful meta-cognitive tool. It supports the development of evaluative, analytical and critical thinking skills, interpersonal skills, as well as enhancing understanding within the field of knowledge of a discipline. 10 marks will be allocated to this component of the assessment. 5 to your appraisal of another students' proposal and 5 for your reflection on the changes you have made (or not) to your proposal. More detailed information about how to do the peer review will be given closer to the time of the assignment.

COMPONENTS OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Title
Provide a short title for your project. If you can, give it a memorable/catchy title. e.g. Leading Torres Strait Islander academic Martin Nakata wrote a book called ‘Disciplining the savages:Savaging the Disciplines.’You need to also be careful not to use a title that is misleading i.e. the old classic ‘The catcher in the rye’ led
some people to think it was about baseball. It wasn’t!

Introduction (approx. 200 words)
Provide a brief introduction to the research. Provide a brief background about your research topic without going directly into what you plan to do. Here you need to include some references!

Research Aim /Questions (approx. 100 words)
Describe the key aims of the research. What questions do you seek to answer?
e.g. This study aims to:
1. Identify successful strategies and practices for the supervision of Indigenous Australian doctoral candidates.
2. Establish a model of best practice for the supervision of Indigenous Australian doctoral students.
HINT: Pay particular attention to the first word in each aim i.e. identify, establish,
develop.
Significance (approx. 200 words)
Explain why your research will be significant. All research should anticipate some benefits. This could be through practical benefits such as creating new opportunities for people, or theoretical benefits such as new knowledge that can be shared with communities, scholars, and so on.

Literature Review (approx. 600 words)
For example if you were to be researching the topic “Research projects written by Indigenous Australian postgraduate students” you would need to locate literature in the following areas – Indigenous Australian participation in higher education; benefits of Indigenous research; and perhaps research projects written by Indigenous people throughout the world. Your literature review needs to convince the reader/examiner that you are well versed in what others have
done in your field (in the broader sense).

Methodology (approx. 300 words)
Here you need to convince the reader that you have a clear process in terms of how you will go about your research. You need to describe in detail the steps you will take in the project. For instance:
Ø How will you collect your data? Will you be relying on publicly accessible information (such as literature or
archival evidence), stories from the past that have been told to you, your own personal experiences,
participants, etc....
Ø Here you also need to mention details relating to participants (if you plan to have any) including
recruitment, numbers and demographic .
Ø Data collection – Will you be recording the data, if so how (audio, visual etc)?
Note: Remember the AIATSIS and NHMRC Ethics Guidelines when writing your methodology.

Ethical Issues (approx. 150 words)
Describe any ethical dilemmas you may have in undertaking your project.

Timeline (approx. 150 words)
Provide a detailed summary of your plan to undertake your project. Include in the timeline aspects such as:
Fieldwork
Conducting a comprehensive literature review.
Data analysis.
Writing up your research. Here you need to break this down into timelines for each chapter or section.

Expected Outcomes (approx. 150 words)
Here you need to mention details about the expected outcomes. If for instance, you expect that the research will be transformed in a report for your workplace and that this will lead to significant changes in your organisation then list that here.

Communication of Results (approx. 150 words)
It is normal practice for research results to be disseminated to research participants and academic peers.
Explain how you plan to communicate the results of your research project.

Response to Peer Feedback (please note the name of the student who provided your feedback) (no more than 500 words)

Note any changes you made in response to the feedback. If you didn't make any changes - and this might be quite reasonable - please justify your decision. Comment on whether you made any changes to your assignment based on your reading of the other assignment.

References
Provide at least 15 references.

Please note: One mark per day penalty will apply

Develop a presentation using powerpoint or another source that contains visual images and audio sound.
The presentation is to be framed as a polished lecture. Students are to speak for a total of 15-20 minutes
about one of the following topics:
1. The importance of undertaking ethical research when undertaking research with Indigenous People.
2. Indigenous Knowledges
3. Indigenous Methodologies
Regardless of the topic you choose, it is important that you:
· Provide a clear definition of the topic.
· Demonstrate a clear understanding of the topic.
· Discuss the advantages and disadvantaged within the topic.
· Provide a detailed critique of the literature encompassing the topic.
Please note: Our ilearn platform is not yet able to accept online submission of this type of assessment task. Please email me your completed presentations.
One mark per day will be deducted for late submissions.