COIT20249 | Assignment 1 Professional Skills in Information Communication Technology | Professional Skills

Objectives

This assignment is designed to encourage the development of professional skills through the completion of weekly activities relevant to the role of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professional. Please refer to the Unit Profile to see how this assessment item relates to the Unit Learning Outcomes.

These objectives will be measured by the ‘closeness of fit’ to meeting the assessment requirements and marking criteria.

General Assessment Criteria

Assessments provide the opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills to achieve the required standard. To do this, assessment responses need to be both clear and easy to understand. If not, the University cannot determine that students have demonstrated their knowledge and skills. Assessments will, therefore, be marked accordingly including the potential for 0 (zero) marks where relevant.

Participation Activities items 1 (PA1) and 3 (PA3) must focus on the topics given in the specifications for each item. Any assessment items outside the required topic may be awarded 0 (zero) marks. PA1 and PA3 must be submitted as per the requirements.

PA3 is focused on addressing requirements of the Report (Assessment 3). The intent of PA3 is to provide you with constructive feedback to help you successfully complete the Report. Therefore PA3 must focus on the case study scenario given in the Report Assessment Specification (Assessment 3) or you may be awarded 0 (zero) marks and receive minimal feedback.

If you use Track Changes when writing PA 1 or PA3 you must ensure that the submitted document is the final and correct version of the document. That is, if your PA1 or PA3 submission contains Track Changes or Comments or any other editing marks that impact on the marking process, your submission may be awarded 0 (zero) marks. It is your responsibility to submit the final and correct version of all your written submissions.

Participation Activities 2 (PA2) and 4 (PA4) are on-line Quizzes and you will get one (1) chance only to complete them. They must be completed before the due date and time. Owing to the nature of quizzes individual extensions are not possible.

Formatting and Structure:

Written submissions for PA1 and PA3 should demonstrate a logical flow of discussion, and be free from typographical, spelling and grammatical errors. They should be prepared in MS-Word (or equivalent) using 12 point font, 1.5 line spacing and have margins of 2.54 cm. Each assessment should address the specific requirements outlined in this document.

Students may use separate title/cover pages for each written submission. Cover/title pages are not considered as a part of the required overall length.

                                                                                                           

Submission Deadlines

The 4 participation activities (PA) are scheduled to be discussed in weeks 2, 4, 6 and 10. Each activity has a different submission deadline. They are as follows:

PA1 – Moodle online submission before 4:00pm AEST on Friday of Week 3

PA2 – Online Quiz complete before 4:00pm AEST Friday week 5 (no individual extensions).

PA3 – In-class assessment for internal students and it must be written AND submitted during class time in Week 6. This assessment activity must be completed in the class in week 6. Therefore it is compulsory for ALL internal students to attend the whole workshop in Week 6. If you are late you may be excluded from the workshop as your late arrival may interfere with other students completing their assessment during class time. Any student who cannot attend their workshop (in-class or online as scheduled by your local lecturer) will need to provide acceptable evidence. For example, if you are sick you would need a doctor’s certificate in the approved form (see Assessment Policy and Procedure – Higher Education Coursework in the policy portal

Distance students will be contacted by the Unit Coordinator to organise how they are to complete the assessment and submission in Week 6. Distance students must plan their schedule to allow time to prepare and complete this activity in Week 6. Extensions will not be approved except in extenuating circumstances – see above for internal students.

PA4 – Online Quiz complete before 4:00pm AEST Friday week 11 (no individual extensions).

Academic Integrity

Please note that students may be required to provide proof that they completed the assessment themselves.

All assignments will be checked for plagiarism (material copied from other students and/or material copied from other sources) using TurnItIn. If you are found to have plagiarised material or if you have used someone else’s words without appropriate referencing, you will be penalised for plagiarism which could result in zero marks for the whole assignment. In some circumstances a more severe penalty may be imposed. The University’s Academic Misconduct Procedure is available in the policy portal

Useful information about academic integrity (avoiding plagiarism) can be found at:

CQUniversity referencing guides

Guidelines with respect to self-referencing are available in Week 5 of the COIT20249 Moodle Unit website.

This Unit is included in the Academic Integrity pilot project run by the Office of Learning and Teaching. Your local lecturer will explain the details of the activity.

Submission requirements

PA1 and PA3 are to be uploaded to Moodle. The submission links can be accessed through the Assessment block on the Moodle Unit website. PA2 and PA4 are online quizzes that need to be completed in Moodle. The submission/quiz links can be accessed through the Assessment block on the Moodle Unit website.

For PA1 and PA3, the uploaded documents must be fully submitted for grading purposes. That is, the assignment status should be ‘Submitted for grading’.

When uploading PA1 you can fully submit it for grading purposes or it can be uploaded as a draft before the due date and time, unless there is an approved extension. At the due date and time Moodle will auto-submit any submissions that are in draft status. Students should not leave drafts on Moodle before the submission deadline if they are not ready for the assessment to be submitted through the auto-submission process. Be aware that any late submissions could attract late penalties.

If your PA1 is uploaded after the original due date and time OR you have been granted an extension by the Unit Coordinator you must manually submit PA1 by completing the submission process until the assessment status is ‘Submitted for grading’.

PA3 must be fully submitted for grading during the workshop in Week 6 when the local lecturer instructs you to submit (internal students). Distance students must manually submit PA3 at the end of their allocated completion time. The Unit Coordinator will advise them of the submission time.  Do NOT leave any draft PA3s in Moodle. Only fully submitted assessments will be regarded as proof of completion of PA3 DURING CLASS TIME. Unless a PA3 is ‘Submitted for grading’ during class time it will NOT be marked nor will feedback be provided.

Assessments left as drafts on Moodle after the deadlines accrue late penalties (does NOT apply to PA3 which must be submitted in class). Late submissions attract penalties at 5% per day of the total available mark for the individual assessment item. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure – Higher Education Coursework in the policy portal

Further details on completing the submission process are available via the ‘Moodle Help for Students’ link in the Support block of your Moodle pages.

Participation Activities

Week 2 - Participation Activity 1 (4 marks)

Requirements

Using the guidelines in ‘How to email your lecturer’ in the Week 2 reading on the Moodle website, write an email to your local lecturer to introduce yourself. Draft your email in a Word document. The body of the email should briefly explain why you are sending the email, and have two main parts:

• Part A - a Personal Biography; and
• Part B – a description of which COIT20249 Unit Learning Outcome (ULO) you think will be most helpful for you when you graduate as an ICT professional.

The email should be written in first person as you are writing about yourself. The message should include conventional elements such as a greeting at the beginning followed by a very short paragraph about the purpose of the email followed by Parts A and B. The message should have a salutation at the end and your name. The final part of the email should be a signature file containing the following: your full name; student number; course of study; your campus; and workshop details. This Word document MUST be uploaded to Moodle for marking purposes (you do not need to send the actual email).

Part A - Personal Biography

Write a well-structured “Personal Biography”. The biography should contain a brief overview of your personal background (your origin), your undergraduate education and work experience. If you have any significant achievements from your personal life, studies or work, you should include those details briefly in the relevant section/s within Part A. Do not write excessively about your family and their achievements. This is a professional introduction; it should be about you.

You may not have any work experience up to now (including any past/present part time or volunteer jobs).  If that is your situation, you should explain in the work experience section why you don’t have work experience and briefly describe your future plans for work.

Length of Part A should be around 200 – 250 words. Use subheadings and paragraphs for each theme.

Part B –  A COIT20249 ULO helpful to you as an ICT professional

Check page 3 of the COIT20249 Unit Profile to see the eight ULOs. Choose one and define what that ULO means to you. Write about how you think that ULO will be helpful to you as an ICT professional when you graduate. Make sure that you justify why you think it will be helpful to you when you graduate.

Please pay close attention in your response as you will be asked to refer to this section again in the Portfolio assessments.

Part B should be about 150 - 200 words.

For your convenience the COIT20249 Unit Learning Outcomes are as follows.

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

• Describe the basic principles and importance of effective interpersonal communication, active listening and reading for meaning.
• Demonstrate teamwork skills.
• Communicate ideas effectively both verbally and in written form using appropriate language.
• Create and deliver effective oral presentations.
• Argue the importance of ethics, codes of behaviour, and societal, privacy and legal issues within the ICT industry.
• Demonstrate an understanding of common work practices and values operating in the Australian workplace.
• Assess how ICT can be used to improve organisational processes.
• Evaluate the application of emerging technologies to communication and collaboration.

Submission

Upload a copy of the email draft to Moodle (in the form of a MS-Word document). Add all the email header details and the content of the message. The Word document must look like the layout of an actual email. Check the layout of a new email in your email program.

Students do not need to send the email to the lecturer. Note your submission should contain text – DO NOT INCLUDE ANY IMAGES. Students will be penalised if there is no text for the marker to provide feedback through Track Changes if necessary.

NOTES:

• Do not write minor details such as individual grade averages. This is a semi-formal biography (similar to introducing a speaker). Only the key points should be provided.
• No external references are needed for this activity. If you are repeating this Unit, self-referencing may be required if you re-use any of the information submitted in a previous attempt. Self-referencing guidelines are available from the Unit Moodle website. However, it is encouraged to use fresh details wherever possible.
• This assessment is about you. Write in your own words, using first person format.
• Total word count is around 350-450 words.

Marking Criteria

Format of email (1 mark – 0.25 for each section):

The email should have appropriate entries for the following fields:

1. ‘To’ field and ‘From’ field – To: , From: ; and the ‘Date’ field .
2. Subject field (Unit Code: brief summary to indicate the topic of your email). See week 2 reading ‘How to email your lecturer’ for more details. COIT20249 is the Unit Code.
3. An appropriate greeting at the beginning of the message followed by one or two sentences introducing the purpose of the email.
4. An appropriate salutation at the end of the email including your name. Plus your email signature which must contain your full name, student number, course of study, campus and workshop number as needed. Note that your course of study is the degree in which you are enrolled.

Message (2.5 marks):

• Part A: 5 marks (0.5 marks for each theme) for personal information, education and work experience.
• Part B: 1 mark (0.5 marks for each area) for the definition of the ULO and how that ULO will be helpful to you as an ICT professional when you graduate. Must justify why you think it will be helpful to you when you graduate.

Week 4 - Participation Activity 2 (4 marks)

Requirements

Complete the on-line Quiz – click on PA2_Week-4 in Assessment box on the COIT20249 Moodle site. Questions relate to COIT20249 topics and the ALC embedded sessions from weeks 2–4 (inclusive). You should ensure that you have completed this work before attempting the Quiz.

Note you will have one (1) attempt only to complete this quiz. It will close at 4:00 PM AEST on Friday of Week 5.

You are strongly urged to complete the quiz well before the due date and time. It is not possible to provide individual extensions for online quizzes for any reason including technical problems that are beyond your control.

Save your responses as you keep working. Avoid losing your work. TASAC has advised that students should use two different browsers if you are referring to the Unit materials while completing the quiz. This will help reducing the risks of losing your work that may occur if a technology issue occurs while checking the unit materials.

There will NOT be any opportunities to complete the task after the due date and time because the answers will be released to those students who completed the Quiz.

Week 6 - Participation Activity 3 (8 marks)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: This activity MUST be completed as an in-class assessment in Week 6 for internally enrolled students. The Unit Coordinator will contact Distance students to organise completion of the activity in Week 6. Internal students are expected to arrive on time AND be present in class for the WHOLE workshop. Latecomers may be barred from entry if late arrivals could disturb the other students who are completing the assessment. People who disturb other students may also be asked to leave. This activity will be completed under conditions similar to those applied during exams.

This assessment activity must be completed and submitted by internal students during the class in Week 6. Any students who cannot attend their workshop (in-class or online as scheduled by your local lecturer) will receive zero (0) marks. Please note that in line with the University’s Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework), work, other assessments or family commitments will not be an acceptable reason for being late or missing the class. Distance students also must plan for completing this assessment in Week 6. You will have to provide acceptable evidence if there is an unavoidable reason why you cannot complete in Week 6. All students must be aware that you may not receive timely feedback for the Report if you do not complete this activity in Week 6.

Requirements

By now you should have started organising your ideas and arguments for the Report (Assessment item 3). To ensure that you submit the best Report possible it is important that you seek constructive feedback from your local lecturer. PA3 requires you to demonstrate your understanding of the report case study requirements and the type of information you need to gather through the research process. This will be marked and returned to you in time for you to use the feedback to improve your Report.

You must not use any pre-prepared materials for this assessment as that will breach the requirements for an in-class assessment. Your local lecturer will provide further details. You will be provided a template to complete the assessment. Internal students must upload and submit this assessment during the class when directed by the local lecturer and or supervisor of the test. Distance students must complete the submission at a time advised by the Unit Coordinator. Any assessments which are not submitted for grading as directed will not be marked as late submissions cannot be accepted.

There are three parts to PA3:

1. The first question relates to the Report Case Study (Assessment 3 Specification).
   1. In approximately 100-150 words, describe the organisation in the case study and the problem faced by that company. What is its proposed direction?
   2. List five key tasks to be explored in the Report (approximately 100-150 words).
2. In Week 5 you will be provided with details of two references relevant to the technology topic covered in the Report. You are expected to read and understand the contents of those references before coming to the Week 6 workshop. This part of the activity will require you to review and evaluate those references using the Triple R framework.
3. The final question requires you to paraphrase a short paragraph from one of the provided references. You will be provided with a particular paragraph and you will have to paraphrase it during the time you complete PA3 in class. The paragraph should be paraphrased and structured according to the paraphrasing and paragraph structuring guidelines covered in ALC sessions.

PA3 responses for section 1 and 2 must relate to the case study described in the Report Assessment Specification (Assessment 3). That is, your submission needs to be specific to the case study provided in that assessment’s requirements to receive feedback and marks. Otherwise, it will receive a 0 mark and no feedback.

Marking Criteria

• Brief Analysis of the Report Case Study (Assessment 3 Specification) as set out in part 1.
  • Described the organisation, the problem and the proposed direction as given in the Case study (5 marks).
  • Listed five key tasks to be explored in the Report (5 marks).
• Review and evaluation of the two references as set out in part 2 of requirements above, using the Triple R framework (3.5 marks).
• Paraphrasing of a particular paragraph as set out in part 3 of the requirements. Must include the correct in-text citation (2 marks).

Week 10 - Participation Activity 4 (4 marks)

Requirements

Complete the on-line Quiz – click on PA4_Week-10 in Assessment box on the COIT20249 Moodle site. All questions relate to working as a team member, ethical aspects of working in ICT, and in a globalised world where interaction with colleagues and stakeholders from different cultures will be needed.

Complete these topics before attempting the Quiz.