Late Assessment Submission Penalty  

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a mark of ‘0’ (zero) will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11.55pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical issue. This late penalty will apply to written reports and recordings only. Late submission of time sensitive tasks (such as tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, scheduled practical assessments/labs) will be addressed by the unit convenor in a Special consideration application.

Lectures

Live lectures will run via Zoom from weeks 1-12.

• Lectures will include interviews with industry experts. The questions are carefully selected to guide you on important considerations that can be applied to your assessment tasks as well as provide key insights into the industry and help you develop your industry networks. They will also include short exercises to help you think about your projects ahead of your tutorials. They should not be missed.
• Recordings will be made available after the lecture. You are strongly encouraged to attend live, especially whern there are industry guests.

Tutorials

Tutorials begin in week 2. 

• You are expected to attend a 1-hour tutorial each week either online or on campus.
• Content and exercises from the previous week's lecture will be discussed in the tutorials. There will also be a heavy focus on client-based group work in tutorials.
• You will need to sign up for your client group by Week 2. You will work in small groups across the semester to serve your client.
• There will be a briefing meeting with the client in Week 3.
• Students are expected to meet and correspond with their client on a regular basis throughout the semester from weeks 3-12. Client meetings may be held during your tutorial time in some weeks or you may arrange these outside of class time as suits the group and client. In other weeks, you will receive mentoring on your project work from your tutor as well as engage with important weekly topics which are all related to your project development.
• Students should expect to drive their projects with is a high degree of automony and should proactively reach out to tutors for extra support as needed.
• It is important to be present on a weekly basis to ensure you are able to fully contribute to the group project and to come to class having engaged with the lecture and readings and conducted research in a way that helps drive your project work forward.
• Presentation pitches to clients will be held in class or via Zoom during normal tutorial times in Weeks 8 and 9. The presentation weeks (weeks 8 and 9) will be run online for online classes and in-person for on-campus classes, except where the client is unable to attend campus. Where the client is unable to attend on-campus presentations, they may be run on Zoom. Your tutor will keep you posted.

Teamwork

• Teamwork is an essential component of this unit. Expect to work with fellow students while developing the strategy campaign both during tutorials and outside of class time and bring a positive attitude towards collaboration with peers. Every student is expected to contribute fully to the project and take responsibility for their parts.
• While you will ultimately be marked on your own parts of the presentation and report, you will need to work effectively in a team to ensure the various parts are cohesive and fit together well.
• If you are having trouble with your team, please contact the convenor or tutor for extra support.

Readings

Set readings will be available on ilearn under the Unit Readings/Leganto tab.

The recommended textbook for this unit is:

Sutherland, K. (2021) Strategic Social Media Management: Theory and Practice. Palgrave MacMillan. 

• An electronic version of the textbook will be available via Leganto with a limited user licence. It is highly recommended that you purchase your own copy.

Out-of-class commitment

MMCC3090 is a 10-credit point unit. This means that you should allocate approximately 10 hours of study per week for this unit (including in non-teaching weeks).

Roughly speaking each week this time should be spent on:

• engaging with the lectures (1 hr)
• participating in the tutorial (your group time) (1 hr)
• engaging with the set readings (2 hrs)
• application of key lessons from lectures, tutorials, and readings to project work/assessments (4 hrs)
• writing drafts, preparing mock-ups e.g. sample social media posts, proofreading, editing (1 hr)
• sharing updates of your individual contributions with your team members and the client where relevant e.g. via email, extra Zoom meetings etc. (1 hr)

Professional Presentation/Design Tools

• While the teaching of graphic design skills is not the focus of this unit, students may have access to industry-standard Adobe Creative Cloud tools (e.g. InDesign, Illustrator, Rush) which you can use to develop a professional report, pitch deck, social media posts and other collateral.
• Canva is also a useful tool for this unit.
• As students come to this unit with different skill sets we would most appreciate you being open to sharing your relevant skills and resources with your classmates.

Feedback in this Unit

Feedback in this unit to individuals, groups, and the class/cohort may be made available in multiple forms, including:

• Announcements on iLearn - make sure you are receiving the announcements.
• Feedback from clients - it is important to regularly share your work-in-progress ideas with your client to check that you are on the right track. 
• Q&A sessions in lectures and tutorials - please don't hesitate to raise your hand, speak up, or ask questions in the chat function for online and on-campus classes.
• Via email - please don't hesitate to ask any questions via email as they arise. For general assessment questions, please email the convenor and CC in your tutor, noting which class (day and time) you are in.
• Individual or group Zoom or face-to-face consultations - to arrange a private consultation please email your tutor or email to make an appointment to meet with the convenor.
• Peer-to-peer feedback during tutorials and group sessions
• Within Turnitin - see textbox, comments on the actual submission, mark-up on assignments, and via the marked-up rubric  

Samples of past assessments, as well as detailed assessment guidelines and marking rubrics for all assessment tasks, will be made available on iLearn.

Please don't hesitate to request feedback as you need it.

Emails

Generally, student emails will be replied to within 48 business hours. Students should not expect emails to be returned on weekends and after hours. If you are having trouble contacting your client, please inform your tutor. 

Students should ensure that they can receive emails sent to their MQ email addresses.

Please also regularly check for unit announcements.

Technology Required

This unit will make extensive use of iLearn https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/. Required readings, comprehensive information on assessment tasks and important announcements will be posted to iLearn. Make sure you check iLearn and your Macquarie University email account regularly during this unit.

For technical support go to: http://mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/informatics/help

For student quick guides on the use of iLearn go to: http://mq.edu.au/iLearn/student_info/guides.htm

Week 1 Welcome to #MQAgency / Creating a PR/Social Media Agency

Week 2 Internal Communications/Employee Engagement

Week 3 Project Management / Setting Goals and Objectives [Client briefings]

Week 4 Research for PR and Social Media Campaigns

Week 5 Pitching: Essential Skills for Pitching to Your Clients

Week 6 Strategy Report Writing / Introduction to Strategies and Tactics  

Week 7 More on Strategies and Tactics: Social Media and Influencer Campaigns [Internal Communications Project Due]

----Mid-Semester Break----

Week 8 More on Strategies and Tactics: Media Engagement

Week 9 More on Strategies and Tactics: Community Engagement [Presentations]

Week 10 The Creative Process in PR [Presentations]

Week 11 Career Insights Industry Panel - Health, Financial and Tech PR

Week 12 Final Report Polishing Workshop / Reflecting on Your PACE Experience / Developing Your Profile on LinkedIn [Report Due]