Every week from week 2 to week 6 you are required to respond to a set of weekly reflection questions (insights due in Week 2 will be based on Week 1 lectures and readings; insights due in Week 3 will be based on Week 2 lectures and readings etc.). These questions are designed to help you connect your readings, the live lectures and any extra research you conduct for your specific team project to help you develop a solid basis for your strategy. The questions are:

• What did you learn this week? Explain how one key insight from the set readings as well as one key idea from the lectures are helping you to think about your project work. Connect these insights to something else you find online e.g. in a media report, online article, social media feed, YouTube video, podcast etc.
• What impact did you have this week on your team? Explain the key thing you did or found out this week that helped propel the project work forward. (e.g. a section you worked on, research you conducted, skills you tested out or applied)
• What questions or concerns do you have for the tutor and/or colleagues about team work or the project that you need clarity on to help you move forward? 

Each week’s submission should be 300-400 words. They may include dot points, and should be succinct, clear and professional in style.

These insights will be used as the basis for your weekly 'reflection huddles' with your teams in tutorials (see 'Participation' assessment below). The best posts will demonstrate an active commitment to contributing to the project, inspiring your team with relevant information and ideas, and a passion for making new connections and for ongoing learning. Include references and links to online sources so team members and the tutor can easily find the relevant articles, videos, podcasts or other resources you refer to. The extra resources you find will ideally also be useful for including in your final strategy report.

Your insights are to be submitted to an online blog within ilearn at least 24 hours before your next tutorial. As well as assessing your engagement with the lectures and readings, your tutor will use these insights to monitor your team's progress and use them as the basis for mentoring and for assisting with difficulties during your in-class meetings. Your 5 submissions will be marked holistically after Week 7.  

Marking criteria

Engagement with course material: Evidence of thorough engagement with set readings and lectures over the 5 weeks. 

Insightfulness: Points from the readings and lectures and questions are strategically selected and linked to your project to help propel your team work and project work forward.

Expression: The language is clear and succinct, free from grammatical and spelling errors. It is easy for team members and the tutor to follow and motivating in tone. If dot-points are used, they are well formulated. 

Referencing: Full and correct referencing (Harvard style). Includes references for set texts and links to relevant websites. (References will not be included in the word count)

The assignment requires you to work in a small group as a PR consultancy to develop a comprehensive communications plan (PR strategy) for your client. Your strategy report will include sections on your organisation's background, purpose/vision, key issues, key publics, goals and objectives, key messages, tactics, evaluation, timeline, and budget. At the beginning of the document also include a page introducing your agency, its members and their specialisations (indicating which sections they worked on). 

Sample mock-ups of media releases, website designs, social media posts, bios of spokespeople, brochures etc. as appropriate can be included in an appendix and will not be included in the word limit. Only include original material in the appendix and make sure anything included is referred to in the body of your strategy report. 

Through discussion and negotiation at team meetings, you will work with your team members to negotiate and divide responsibility for its various components.i.e. while you are encouraged to work closely together on all sections, you will have primary responsibility for particular sections. You are expected to take into account each individual member's strengths and ensure fair distribution of tasks. You will receive an individual mark for sections you contribute to the report, but this mark will be tightly connected with the overall group effort. Your name should be included under the sub-heading for each of the sections for which you are responsible.

Lectures and tutorials will cover the type of content that needs to appear in a PR strategy document and you will have a chance to workshop and plan sections of the report in class.  

As a whole, the report should have a consistent style throughout. To achieve this, you may discuss and agree to follow a particular style guide, and one student may be responsible for giving the entire document a final edit.  

While you may experience difficulties in the course of working with others, it is part of the experience to develop skills in negotiation and leadership as you try and overcome difficulties and achieve a positive outcome for all. Where possible raise any issues with your tutor as soon as possible - they are there to help and mentor you through team-based issues as well as on the development of content.

Your mark will be based on how well you are able to deliver your sections of the report, including appropriate content, creative solutions to the communication problem, clarity of expression, use of salient theory, research and/or comparative case studies that are well-referenced to back up your choices, and effective design and layout that melds well with the rest of the report's content and style. The document is expected to meet professional standards. 

After receiving feedback from your tutor on your marked report, you are expected to update your report and provide a clean copy to your client and tutor at the presentation. Your final report will be examined for its professional style as part of your presentation mark. Your one-paragraph overview on what you have updated in your section in light of feedback from the tutor will also be considered as part of your presentation mark (see further details under 'PR Strategy Pitch' below). 

This report should be a maximum of 3,000 words, with each student responsible for a roughly equal number words. The language should be extremely tight. If you are having difficulties with the word length, speak to your tutor for further advice well prior to submission.  

Marking criteria:

• Strategic and creative thinking: Your contribution to the campaign document demonstrates clear alignment with the client's needs and expectations and a creative approach to the communication problem. It effortlessly melds with the other strategic elements of the plan prepared by your colleagues without contradiction or the need for repetition.
• Research and Theory: Your contribution to the campaign document includes succinct references to pertinent research relevant to the section or sections on which you are contributing, and demonstrates in simple and succinct language suitable for the client that the selected approach is underpinned by solid research and principles of best practice.  
• Writing: The written style of your section links seamlessly to the other sections of the report, highlighting superior ability to follow a consistent 'in-house' style and utilise editing and proofreading support from colleagues where required to ensure the final product flows effortlessly and logically. It should be well edited/proofread, use consistent and correct spelling, and have a professional and clean format, design, and layout.
• Referencing: Full and correct referencing is applied (Harvard style). In-text references should be included in your section. The complete reference list at the end of the document combining all references used in the document will also be examined for style.

​Each team member should submit the entire team's strategy report to Turnitin. Your name should appear clearly under each sub-heading for which you were responsible. You will receive individual feedback on your sections, what you can work on to improve these sections for your final submission to the client, and on how well your parts fit with the whole report. (Note: you will likely receive a 100% matching report from Turnitin given that you will be uploading the same document as your colleagues. There is no need to worry about this. Markers will, however, look at the originality reports for sections that may have been copied from other sources).

In week 11 or 12 (or week 13 if required), your consultancy will present your PR strategy to your client. Your goal is to convince your client that the strategy you have put together will solve the communication challenges they are currently facing and your team will provide the best possible results for them.

All team members are expected to have a speaking role and members should work together to ensure smooth and logical links between each speaker. You will receive an individual mark for the presentation, though it will be strongly linked to how well you come across as a team. 

The presentation should be 15 minutes long in total, with each student speaking for approximately 3 minutes depending on group size. It is up to you how you design the presentation in terms of whether each speaker speaks once or in coordinated way that involves multiple shorter sections for each speaker - whichever you think will be more engaging and easily digestible for your audience.

Note that this time is short and you may not have time to cover everything you have in your written document, so you will have to be highly strategic in selecting the most important and innovative aspects that will make your team stand out. You may tell the client where to look in the report for further details. 

You are strongly encouraged to use images and short videos where appropriate to help enable your client to visualise your strategy. 

The formal presentation will be followed by 3-5 minutes of questions from the client.

During the presentation you will present your final hard-copy strategy report to the client. One student is also required to provide a soft copy of your group's written report either via the USB provided of by Dropbox [Titled: Client name - your team members first names].This report should be updated based on feedback on your marked report. As part of the presentation mark, your final team report will be examined for its professional style and physical attractiveness. 

The client will also provide feedback on your presentation and report, which will be taken into account when providing feedback on your presentation and deciding on your final mark. 

All students should upload a copy of their section of the final presentation slides in PDF format to Turnitin by 5pm on the Monday following their presentation (i.e. just after your presentation in week 11 or 12). These slides should contain 1-2 additional slides at the beginning where you briefly explain what you changed to your section of your written report as a result of feedback from the tutor, along with another slide containing a few dot point reflections on how you felt your presentation with the client went (e.g., what did you and your team did well, what aspects the client seemed most engaged with, what could have been improved to better connect with and impress your client) as well as how you felt about the whole process of working with the client over the semester and what you learned about PR work. 

Feedback by the tutor on your contribution to the presentation will be provided on Turnitin.

Marking criteria:

• Articulation of strategy: Your contribution to the team presentation clearly explains a key element of the strategy and demonstrates an ability to strategically use supporting evidence that makes the chosen approach completely convincing. It may use such techniques as comparative stories or evidence drawn from research into past campaigns conducted by the client or similar organisations. Your element clearly melds with the other elements of the overall strategy expressed by your colleagues. Your presentation helps the team stay within the time limit. 
• Spoken language: Your presentation style involves simple and clear language that is specifically designed for your client with whom you have already built up a relationship. The selected language will show a high degree of respect for the client as well as your team members (e.g. through the way you link to other team members sections). Your tone of voice will exude confidence and enthusiasm for working with your client as part of your team and solving their particular communications need.
• Body language: Your body language including gestures and eye contact will also exude confidence and enthusiasm for working with your client as part of your team and solving their particular communications need.
• Visual aids: Your visual / audio-visual aids are creative, original, easy to read, attractive, and support the key message. Thematically, they are well aligned with the rest of your team's visuals.
• Final strategy report: Your agency's final strategy report submitted during the presentation looks highly attractive, professional and inviting to read. It makes appropriate use of headings, white space and images to break up the text. The layout, including referencing, is clean and consistent across sections. There are no obvious typos. Your paragraph (included at the beginning of your presentation slides submitted to Turnitin) explaining what you changed in the written report in response to feedback from your tutor demonstrates a strong ability and willingness to respond to feedback. The noted changes are clearly reflected in the final report submitted to the tutor and client.  
• Reflections on presentation to client: Your reflections on how well you felt you and your team presented and connected with the client during the pitch and working with the client over the semester (included at the beginning of your presentation slides submitted to Turnitin) demonstrate a strong awareness of the principles of two-way engagement and a spirit of reflecting for the purposes of personal and team development. 

All of these aspects will be weighted evenly.

You will be marked on the consistency and quality of your oral contributions to in-class meetings with your team as well as whole class discussions and activities. This mark will include contributions made as part of your weekly 'huddle reflections' where you discuss issues arising from the written weekly insights on the lectures, readings and project work.

Marking criteria:

Understanding and application: You demonstrate a deep understanding of pertinent MAS390 concepts and an ability to apply them appropriately and creatively to cases and campaigns in class discussions.

Attitude: You demonstrate a strong motivation to engage with team members, fellow classmates and the tutor in a positive manner. You show interest in engaging with the client project as well as other case studies. 

Consistency of contribution: You consistently engage in the process of learning in both small group and whole class discussions throughout the semester.