LD5015 - London Campus UG Group Consultancy Project

This module is designed to promote your personal and professional development by offering you the opportunity to experience learning out-with your taught programme of study. Learning will be on a project in a workplace environment, and you will be applying existing skills and knowledge to new situations and enhancing professional skills in your chosen discipline. The teaching and learning plan outline the teaching sessions, the tutor-directed study and independent reading.

The learning and teaching will be supported by a directed learning which will focus on a range of activities including pre-reading, preparation for work-based activities and use of the activities on the e-learning platform. Throughout your consultancy project, you will engage with the client and work with your academic supervisor both individually as well as a group. High level of participation will be required from you as an individual as well as a group to develop consultancy report and deliver client presentations.

Independent learning will help you focus on identifying and pursuing areas of interest in relation to the subject area or by providing deeper/broader knowledge and understanding of the subject through a range of learning activities that might include extended reading, reflection, research etc and application of these to your work-based experiences.

Critical reflection on knowledge, experience and practice underpins the learning and teaching philosophy along with the explicit development of competence with specific reflection here on the relevance and application of theory to “hands-on” practice”. Assessment on the module is designed to develop your ability as a reflective life-long learner by facilitating self-evaluation of learning against your personal learning contract.

The assessment for this module consists of a Group Consultancy Report (2000 words) along with presentation weighted at 50% and an Individual Assignment (2000 words) comprising a literature review (1000 words) and a Reflective Learning Statement (1000 words), weighted at 50%. The assessments are focussed on your development from the perspective of gaining particular skills relating to employability and being employment prepared. It will also help you engage in further self-development from the perspective of employment potentially in a new or international context and further demonstrate the ability to work with diverse teams via this consultancy project.

An initial workshop will introduce you to the module, assessment and core topics. However, project briefing will be conducted by your academic supervisor. Subsequent to this you will be guided through a range of subject specific via online workshops over the period of the module. Key messages from these sessions will also be available by online learning materials including video/podcast to support your learning outside of the classroom.
The online material used will enable you to add depth and breadth to the concepts learned during the individual learning undertaken in a relevant technical area. You will engage with relevant literature and supporting materials to gain skills that help with your ongoing professional development. Materials will help you to know and understand the following:

• Methods of conducting a skills analysis
• Development of a professional development plan
• Reflective frameworks for analysis
• Other technical skills aligned to the technical training identified on an individual basis

In order to develop your capacity and confidence as an effective learner, you will engage in directed learning. This will be supported by super guided activities reflected in including prompted reading, activities to undertake and questions to address. However, you will also extend to advanced independent study which entails reading beyond the learning materials/reading list provided and reflecting on its potential relevance for your own development.

The virtual learning environment will be used to encourage individual and group contributions to debate on key topics and issues. Materials and discussion group work will be available on the e-learning portal to support and engage you. To support and embed the learning, provide the opportunity for reflection, and encourage effective communication, you will engage in discussion forums via the University’s e-Learning platform. This will include posing and answering topic specific questions posed by the tutor and peer group and providing peer group formative feedback. You will also be encouraged to use email and discussion board tool to clarify issues.

For those of your studying in part time mode your work experience will form a significant element of your learning. This will include weekly directed activities outlined in the module learning plan. These activities will enable reflection on learning from taught sessions and subsequent application through research into practice. Your tutors will use these activities as a key element of discussion during the taught sessions and feedback review meetings.

For those of you studying in full time mode it is recognised you are likely not to have relevant work experience to draw upon. As such opportunities to apply learning to practice will be achieved through use of case study, simulation, visiting speakers from practitioners and additional lab and workshop experiences.

A range of approaches are adopted to accelerate your learning in this module.

During your semester 2 (year 1 of your study), you will attend relevant presentations to help inform your decision about Advanced Practice option. For your group consultancy project, you will be supported through workshops and supervisory guidance. You will work as a group and encouraged to have a high level of group interactions including client meetings/interactions.

Additionally, you will be provided guidance and support by consultancy project tutor. Key module resources will be made available via virtual learning environment (e.g. Blackboard). A range of approaches are adopted to accelerate your learning in this module.

During the first week of this module, you will receive information about the module and Teaching & Learning Plan. The teaching and learning plan (TLP) set out
• Learning outcomes and overall module and programme aims
• Teaching, learning and assessment strategy
• Schedule of activities e.g., meetings with academic supervisors
• Directed reading references (text and journals) and core texts for the module

Further supporting this learner journey a blended learning approach will be adopted which will make use of video/podcast and VLE to provide guidance on assessment.

The formative and summative assessment strategy will be outlined as will a refresher on key academic skills and resources critical to your success as a learner on this module. You will work closely with your group, academic supervisor and client to manage your project effectively.

In summary, during this module you will get support including:
• Academic supervisor support
• Module tutor guidance in relation to assignments via VLE
• Development of key resources, made available through the VLE
• Formative feedback on your work by your academic supervisor and also general feedback on your work by client/organisation

E-Reading Lists

The module will also have an e-reading list which directs learners to specific reading for each session. This includes direct access to repositories, journal articles and other academic sources. You will also be provided with access to a significant set academic research sources via the Northumbria University library portal.
You will also have opportunities to receive formative feedback from your tutor in response to opinions you express and issues you raise during workshop sessions and face-to-face or online tutorials. These formative feedback sessions are formally scheduled at key points throughout the module.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

-What will I be expected to achieve?

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Critically reflect upon, challenge and extend existing personal knowledge and technical learning of your discipline.
2. Demonstrate and evidence an in-depth understanding of your discipline through the application of existing theoretical and technical knowledge in unfamiliar learning environments and through developing new knowledge and perspectives derived from experience out-with your formal taught programme.

Intellectual / Professional Skills & Abilities:
3. Demonstrate critical awareness and self-direction of your own learning by identifying and managing tasks individually and as a member of a team in order to achieve your personal goals.
4. Critically analyse and communicate complex ideas in a professional environment.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
5. Demonstrate self-awareness of your personal development.
How will I be assessed? (SRS 0006)
Formative assessment:

You will be able to get formative feedback from your academic supervisor, client and peers in your group. You are encouraged to have regular meetings with your academic supervisor.

Summative assessment
1) Group Report and Presentation (50%): A 2,000-word report for the client which details the project objectives and methods undertaken to design and develop the solution with thorough justification. Group members will also do 15 minutes presentation which will summarise the research issue, key findings and recommendations. Group members will complete a peer evaluation form which will inform individual marks. This assessment will address MLO 1,2,3 and 4.

2) Individual Assessment (50% 2000 words): A 1,000 words literature review and 1000 words reflective statement focusing on employability, technical and leadership attribute skills and how the project has enhanced your employability. (This will assess MLO 1,2, and 5.

Feedback:
You will be provided with written, electronic, feedback on your work which you can use to improve your future assessments in this subject area. Programme (Level) Learning Outcomes that this module contributes to:

Knowledge & Understanding:
KU 2,3, 4

Intellectual / Professional Skills & Abilities:
IPSA 1,2,3,4

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
PVA 1,2,3,4,5

You will be able to get formative feedback from your academic supervisor, client and peers in your group. You are encouraged to have regular meetings with your academic supervisor.

Summative assessment
1) Group Report and Presentation (50%): A 2,000-word report for the client which details the project objectives and methods undertaken to design and develop the solution with thorough justification. Group members will also do 15 minutes presentation which will summarise the research issue, key findings and recommendations. Group members will complete a peer evaluation form which will inform individual marks. This assessment will address MLO 1,2,3 and 4.

2) Individual Assessment (50% 2000 words): A 1,000 words literature review and 1000 words reflective statement focusing on employability, technical and leadership attribute skills and how the project has enhanced your employability. (This will assess MLO 1,2, and 5.

Feedback:
You will be provided with written, electronic, feedback on your work which you can use to improve your future assessments in this subject area.

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This module aims to provide you with an experiential learning opportunity in a workplace setting that utilises skills and knowledge acquired during the first half of your study on the programme. The Advanced Practice Group UG Consultancy Project module is designed to deepen your knowledge and enhance employability in your specialist field. You will develop resilience and flexibility as you adapt to a different learning environment and gain a new perspective in comparison with your taught studies. The module will help you develop your abilities as a problem solver with valued investigative, theoretical and practical skills to implement a work-based group consultancy project.
Through this consultancy project, you will help develop hand-on experience of working on real life project that experience is directly transferrable to be utilised to the world of work after your graduation.

Computing and Digital Technologies is a wide discipline in which professionals can find themselves working within a number of different roles and specialisms, each requiring a specific technical skillset, knowledge and behaviours. This module builds on the skills developed so far to provide an opportunity for you to tailor the learning conducted within level 5 of your programme towards acquiring those skills that will help you develop towards becoming a professional specialising in Computing with Technology/Computing with Cybersecurity Technology/Computing with Data Science and Big Data Technology/Computing with AI technology/Computing with IT Management.
You will work as a group (3 to 5 students) on a complex technical or organisational problem or commercial opportunity for the length of a semester. Your consultancy project will align to your degree specialism. You will develop a client-oriented solution along with a management report and presentation alongside an individual literature review and a personal reflection. You will be allocated academic supervisor who will support you throughout the semester. You will have regular meetings with academic supervisor who will also organise meetings with client organisation.

The assessment for this module consists of a Group Consultancy Report (2,000 words) along with presentation weighted at 50% and an Individual Assignment (2000 words) comprising a literature review (1000 words) and Reflective Learning Statement (1000 words), weighted at 50%.

Indicative syllabus:
• The project scoping documentation will be shared to scope out the expectations of consultancy project at the start of the semester. The examples could include, but are not limited to consultancy projects in the following areas of specialism:
o Cyber security, Data Analytics and Big Data, Machine Learning, AI, DevOps, Enterprise Architecture, Ethical Hacking, Networks, Business Analysis.
• Refining a personal development plan.
• Reflective frameworks for evaluation

Assessment on the module is designed to focus on the awareness of the impact of the time spent in an external learning environment, on your knowledge and understanding of the discipline. You will be encouraged to critically engage with outside practices, and to reflect on your educational development in the context of the challenges posed by an unfamiliar social, cultural and economic environment.