Details of these assessment tasks will be given in the lecturers, and will be posted on the iLearn.

For each of the assessment tasks, individualised feedback will be provided to students. If the task is deemed unsatisfactory, you will be expected to revise and resubmit it for reassessment.

Assessed Coursework 1- Comments on methodology

Oral presentation (Individually, 10%): to be performed in Week 6's class

Written report (individually, 15%): A soft copy to be submitted to Turnitin dropbox in Week 6. No late submission is allowed unless there is an approved special consideration by the convenor. 

Submission: This assignment is due in week 6 for the individual presentation and individual report. A soft copy of the written assignment needs to be submitted to “Turn-it-in” (via iLearn).

Extension: No extensions will be granted generally unless there is a special consideration approved by the convenor before it occurs.

Penalties: Students who are absent or do not participate in the group presentation will get a “0” mark automatically. Students who have not submitted the written task prior to the deadline will get a “0” mark unless there is a compelling reason to make an exception (for exception, please refer to the "extension" above).

Note: No transfer of marks from this assessment to the final exam.

Assessed Coursework 2- Comments on Statistical Analysis

Oral presentation (individually, 10%): to be performed in Week 10's class

Written report (individually, 15%): A soft copy to be submitted to Turnitin dropbox in Week 10. No late submission is allowed unless there is an approved special consideration by the convenor. 

Submission: This assignment is due in week 10 for the individual presentation and the individual report. A soft copy of the written assignment needs to be submitted to “Turn-it-in” (via iLearn).

Extension: No extensions will be granted generally unless there is a special consideration approved by the convenor before it occurs.

Penalties: Students who are absent or do not participate in the group presentation will get a “0” mark automatically. Students who have not submitted the written task prior to the deadline will get a “0” mark unless there is a compelling reason to make an exception (for exception, please refer to the "extension" above).

Note: No transfer of marks from this assessment to the final exam.

Research Proposal

Submission method: A soft copy to Turnitin assignment dropbox in the iLearn (in Week 13). No late submission is allowed unless there is an approved special consideration by the convenor. 

Submission: This major assignment is due in week 13 for the individual report. A soft copy needs to be uploaded to “Turn-it-in” (via iLearn).

Extension: No extensions will be granted generally unless there is a special consideration approved by the convenor before it occurs.

Penalties: Late submissions will be accepted up to 48 hours after the submission deadline. There will be a deduction of 10% of the total quality-based marks for EACH 24 HOURS period or part thereof that the submission is late (for example, being 25 hours late in submission will occur 20% mark penalty). This penalty does not apply for the cases in which an application for special consideration has been made and applied.

Note: No transfer of marks from this assessment to the final exam.

Class Participation and Discussion

Every enrolled student is required to attend the lectures and tutorials punctually and actively participate in class discussions in a contributory manner.

Submission: Weekly attendance is recorded in every class.  A full attendance record will not necessarily give students a full mark (10%) of this assessment, rather, a full attendance together with a well-demonstrated effort of class participation will do.

Extension: N.A.

Penalties: Missing every single class without any compelling reason will incur one mark's reduction directly from this session.

Note: No transfer of marks from this assessment to the final exam.

CLASS SCHEDULE

• Classes for FOBE730 are held on a fortnightly base starting from Week 2, and through Week 4, 6, 8, 10, and Until Week 12.
•  The class details will be posted in iLearn soon.
• In every class there will be one module of 5-6 hours in length, conveyed in a face‐to‐face manner per week in a classroom with computer setting. Each module is composed by 3 hour lecture/seminar plus one 2 hour tutorial of class activities aided by computer, discussions and so forth. 
• For latest information about timetables for classes, please refer to the University web site at: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/

TEXTBOOKS AND READINGS

While there is no set textbook for FOBE730, the following books are recommended:

• Glyn Burton, George Carroll and Stuart Wall (2001) Quantitative Methods for Business and Economics (2nd Edition), Financial Times/Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0273655701

Or

• Frank Dewhurst (2006) Quantitative Methods for Business and Management (2nd Edition), McGraw-Hill Higher Education. ISBN-10: 0077109023

Other Useful Books:

• Sanjiv Jaggia and Alison Kelly (2013) Business Statistics: Communicating with Numbers. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. ISBN13: 9780073373669
• Robert B Burns and Richard A Burns (2008) Business Research Methods and Statistics Using SPSS, SAGE Publications, Inc. ISBN-10: 1412945305
• Peter Allen,  Kellie Bennett, and Brody Heritage (2014) SPSS Statistics Version 22: A Practical Guide (3rd Edition), Cengage. ISBN-10: 0170348970, ISBN-13: 9780170348973 

TECHNOLOGY USED AND REQUIRED

Software and technology required: (1) A personal computer with word processing software and Microsoft PowerPoint; (2) Access to iLearn for course materials; (3) Access to the SPSS software for data analysis.

As an FBE HDR candidate, you will be enrolled in the “FBE-HDR Transition to Research” online unit (iLearn). Login at http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/

If you cannot view this unit in your Online Units, please contact Agnieszka Baginska (Email: agnieszka.baginska@mq.edu.au), who will enrol you. The site will be used to post lecture slides, handouts, and assignment instructions after each class, for those who miss their distribution in class.

The lecture notes will be posted on iLearn at https://ilearn.mq.edu.au on a weekly base. The Echo360 recording (video or audio) of lectures/seminars is not applied to this unit.

WHAT IS REQUIRED TO COMPLETE THE UNIT SATISFACTORILY: 

This unit is delivered in the seminar pattern. Students are expected to be active and engaged individual learners as well as cooperative team players to complete all tasks as instructed, inclusive of before-class reading, after-class review, desktop work, presentation, and to participate actively in class discussion. To get these above tasks accomplished, a certain level of dependent and critical thinking will be inherently needed.

CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS OFFERING OF THIS UNIT:

1) The learning outcomes are rephrased to focus on more measurable results of student learning.

2) The delivery pattern has been customised to the enrolled students' knowledge and preparation level. In particular, the classes conveyed in every two weeks have been redesigned into SIX MODULES with each one containing 2 or 3 interrelated blocks of methods and analytic techniques in combination of some tutorial activities to strengthen student's skills in the aspects.

3) The assessment components have been set as FOUR, with each one's percentage changed accordingly, e.g., report on methods (25%), report on statistical analysis (25%), research proposal (40%), and attendance (10%). And all the assignments are all individual assignments.

4) Feedback of assessment will be provided only to students generally unless there is a specific need to discuss with the student's academic supervisor.

5) There are no guest lectureships in this semester due to the change of delivery pattern.

6) One newly recommended textbook (Allen, Bennett and Heritage, 2014) is added to the book list.

7) Timetable of weekly teaching activities has been update with a reference to the university calendar.

• The unit is designed to equip students to embark on their individual higher degree research projects.
• Because the unit focuses on developing students’ academic literacy skills, a number of reading, writing and analytical tasks are set. Responses to some of these tasks are discussed in class, whereas others will be submitted for assessment. The tasks will contribute directly to the Research Protocol submission and/or PhD thesis.
• The unit is delivered in accordance with current academic teaching and learning pedagogies.

 As a guidance to direct students' future research outcomes, the following academic journals with high academic credit will assist students to link what is learned from this unit with a specific disciplinary background that fits one's research interest.

Examples of discipline-based journals*:

*The selected journal lists are provided to assist students searching for discipline-based quantitative research. More comprehensive journals lists are available on the course website.

In addition, a list of other useful references may be available from the "Research at Faculty of Business and Economics" webpage (www.businessandeconomics.mq.edu.au/research) from diversified research interests.