Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity is an intergral part of the core values and principles contained in the Macquarie University Ethics Statement. Its fundamental principle is that all staff and students act with integrity in the creation, development, application and use of ideas and information. This means that:

• All academic work claimed as original is the work of the author making the claim
• All academic collaborations are acknowledged
• Academic work is not falsified in any way
• When the ideas of others are used, these ideas are acknowledged appropriately
• Self-plagiarism (resubmitting your own work - including past assignments for this or other units - without attribution) is an unacceptable academic activity

University Grading Policy

The grade that a student receives will signify their overall performance in meeting the learning outcomes of the unit of study. Graded units will use the following grades

HD    High Distinction        85-100

D      Distinction                 75-84

Cr     Credit                        65-74

P      Pass                          50-64

F      Fail                              0-49

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University.

Return of Marked Work

As per university policy, written assessments will be returned to students within three weeks of the submission date. Early assignments will not be marked early.

Special Consideration (Extensions)

The University recognises that students may experience events or conditions that adversely affect their academic performance. If you experience serious and unavoidable difficulties at exam time or when assessment tasks are due, you can consider applying for Special Consideration.

You need to show that the circumstances:

1. were serious, unexpected and unavoidable
2. were beyond your control
3. caused substantial disruption to your academic work
4. substantially interfered with your otherwise satisfactory fulfilment of the unit requirements
5. lasted at least three consecutive days or a total of 5 days within the teaching period and prevented completion of an assessment task scheduled for a specific date.

More information about Special Consideration is available in the Policies and Procedures section of the unit guide.

Late Penalties

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a penalty for lateness will apply – ten (10) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date (or extended due date in cases where special consideration is granted). No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests.

Student Wellbeing

Macquarie University offers a range of wellbeing services (including [but not limited to]: health, welfare, counselling, disability and student advocacy services) that are available to you at any time during your studies. Campus Wellbeing is here to support you and help you succeed, both academically and personally. More information is available in the Policies and Procedures section of the unit guide.

Lecture and workshop times

Lectures are delivered online due to the COVID-19 restriction. Lecture recordings will be uploaded every Monday. Students can access lecture recordings and lecture presentation files on the course iLearn page.

The Workshop instructions are available at https://methods101.com. Click SSCI2020 at the left sidebar. You will see 12 workshop guidelines. For completing Workshop tasks, students can seek help and advice from tutors via External forums in the course iLearn page and emails. Fully online students MUST follow the workshop instruction each week and participate in the workshop participation activity to get participation marks. The links to the workshop participation activity are available on the course iLearn page.

Textbooks

This course draws on one required textbook:

• Leon-Guerrero, Anna and Chava Frankfort-Nachmias (2018) Essentials of Social Statistics for a Diverse Society, 3rd Edition. Sage: Thousand Oaks.

For those who find the required textbook difficult to read,  the following textbook(optional) is recommended:

• Wheelan, Charles J. (2014) Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data, W.W. Norton & Company.

Technology used

The following technologies are used in SSCI2020:

Email

Make sure that you regularly check your student email for correspondence with teaching staff and course announcements.

iLearn

Important information about the weekly schedule for SSCI2020, course readings and assessment are all available on the course iLearn page. If you do not have access, please contact IT help. You are required to check iLearn and your student email regularly for course updates and information.

SPSS

SPSS is the primary statistical analytic tool for SSCI2020. Learning SPSS to analyse datasets is an essential component of this unit. SPSS is available in the workshops and some computers in the library and digital lounge (C5C - 17 Wally’s Walk). Students can also access remotely SPSS through AppStream (see below).

AppStream

AppStream is the university's a new application streaming service which provides students access to existing iLab applications via browser from anywhere, anytime, on any device. Students do not need to install a client on their device to access applications. Google Chrome is recommended browser for AppStream. Login to mq.okta.com with your MQ OneID to access AppStream applications.

Methods101.com

Workshop guidelines are available at https://methods101.com/docs/. The website provides easy-to-follow instructions on how to use SPSS to analyse data. In the website, click SSCI2020 at the left sidebar. Then, you can access the guidelines for each workshop. If you do not have access, please contact the unit convenor.

Turnitin and GradeMark

The written assessment for SSCI2020 needs to be submitted via Turnitin. A link to Turnitin is available via the Assessments tab on the iLearn page. Please contact the convenor if you cannot find it (do not leave it until the due date of the assessment). Assessments will be marked via GradeMark and returned to students electronically.

Leganto

Leganto is the electronic system for accessing unit readings that can be accessed via the iLearn page. Readings are allocated by weekly schedules. As well as the required readings for each week, you will find recommended and optional readings. The required readings are available in pdf or electronic format. If you are not able to access the readings, please contact the unit convenor via email.

Zoom

Zoom is an online video conferencing software platform. It is used for optional meetings and consultation.

Quiz 1

Quiz 1 will be administered online via the course iLearn page. It will consist of 20 multiple-choice or true-or-false questions, and you will have 40 minutes to complete it. You will be asked to read each question and select the BEST response from the available options. This quiz will draw on course materials from the lectures and workshops from week 1 to week 6.

The online quiz will become available on Thursday 3rd September, and you can undertake the quiz until Friday 4th September (at 11:59 pm EST). It will become available via the SSCI202 iLearn page. The quiz can be taken only once, and it is up to you to ensure that you have time available to undertake the quiz.

More information will become available in week 5 lecture. Please follow the Special Consideration policy when applying for an extension. As per the Faculty of Arts policy, no late submissions will be accepted for the online quiz without an extension.

Note) In the event of technical difficulties, it is your responsibility to contact the unit convenor before the due date and follow the instructions on iLearn in notifying the university. We advise you to ensure that you can access the link to the quiz on Thursday 3rd September (without starting the quiz unless you want to).

Quiz 2

Quiz 2 will also be administered online via the course iLearn page. Again, students will have 40 minutes to complete the quiz (which consists of 20 multiple-choice or true-false questions). It will focus on course materials from week 7 to week 12.

The online quiz will become available on Thursday 29th October, and you can undertake the quiz until Friday 30th October (at 11:59 pm EST). It will become available via the SSCI202 iLearn page. The quiz can be taken only once, and it is up to you to ensure that you have time available to undertake the quiz.

More information will be provided in week 11 lecture. Please follow the Special Consideration policy when applying for an extension. As per the Faculty of Arts policy, no late submissions will be accepted for the online quiz without an extension.

Note) In the event of technical difficulties, it is your responsibility to contact the unit convenor before the due date and follow the instructions on iLearn in notifying the university. We advise you to ensure that you can access the link to the quiz on Thursday 29th October (without starting the quiz unless you want to).

Data Analysis Report

The major assessment for SSCI2020 is a data analysis report of 1,800 to 2,000 words. This task is designed to assess students’ overall ability to address social science inquiries using quantitative research skills. It will require you to select a research topic (and its related datasets) from the options made available on the iLearn page. You will need to do some background reading on the topic, critically reflect on it, formulate research hypotheses, analyse the related dataset, and interpret the statistical outcomes. Using SPSS is a must for this task. You will learn all the necessary SPSS skills in the workshops throughout the semester.

Both the research topics and related datasets for this task will be provided and become available on the SSCI2020 iLearn page in week 8. The report should be submitted via Turnitin, and it will be marked via GradeMark. Please do not submit hard copies of this task and ensure that you have access to the Turnitin link before the due date. More information will be provided in week 8 lecture.

Active Participation

External students are expected to listen to lecture recordings and review workshop guides (See https://methods101.com. For more details, see the course iLearn page) every week. Also, students are expected to complete Weekly Participation Activities which check the understanding of major topics of lectures and the completion of workshop tasks. The links to Weekly Participation Activities will be available via the course iLearn page (under the section of each week).

External students' active participation grade will be based on:

• listening to the recording of lectures every week.
• reviewing workshop guides every week.
• completing Weekly Participation Activities.