Continuous Assessment - Assignment Part I

1. What level of blogging is required? (how many posts, what type etc)


The only requirements w.r.t the blog are that you set up your blog to act as a repoistory for links to journals, conferences, other resources etc AND that you include a final summary post which meets the deliverables (see assignment spec)


2. Should I include journal or conference articles or is it the names of journals and conferences ?


It is the names of the journals and conferences that you need to include. For each, in your final summary post, you need to include a short statement on why these are relevant to your topic. This can include attributes such as impact factor, level of citation, reputation of publisher, targeting by thought leaders in the area, content very relevant to the topic, has level of variety that is useful (this are only some of the things you can choose from )


3. What is the checksheet?



In class when we covered literature comprehension we reviewed an articule using a simple checksheet. In that set of lecture notes are links to more detailed checksheets. You need to develop a checksheet of your own to use to record information about the papers you are reading that will allow you to record details about your understanding and your critical review of them.


You are not required to submit completed checksheets.


4. What are the databases mentioned in the assignment?


Academic databases offer an access point to a range of full-text journal articles, conference papers etc from a range of sources. They can help reduce the amount of time you spend searching through individual journals etc. Examples of such databases are Academic Search Complete, ScientDirect, WebofKnowledge.


Summon is not an academic database, it is a meta search engine.


5. What are the keywords?


The keywords required are the search terms, and their combination, that you are using to search the journals, conferences and databases. You may have found that you had to fine tune your terms for each journal based on differing content. It may be the case that the same set of keywords work for all but it would make more sense if you had to fine tune them to some level.


6. How refined/defined does my topic have to be?


You do not have to refine your topic to the level of a research question. It can be simply at the level of an aspect of your programme you are interested in or you could have some limitations on this to restrict to a particular application type/domain/technique etc.






7. What should I do if i can't find a journal/conference etc via the DIT library?


Use Summon and search for the ISSN to make sure that you don't have electronic access.


Search for relevant papers using one of the academic databases or search engines (see the resources for postgraduates on the DIT library page)


Search in Google/Scholar for the name of the paper in quotation marks followed by .pdf or .doc and see of someone elsewhere has uploaded an electronic copy.


Check the eprint resources e.g. eprints.org or arXiv.org


Locate the authors home page and see if they have published a copy.


Email the author and ask if they could provide a copy of the paper - be pleasant, explain that you are researching in the area that you have come across the paper, read the abstract and think it would be very relevant, ask if they would be able to send you an electronic copy of the paper.






8. Why was the Wiki from last year made available?


This resource was made available to you to give you an idea of the type of topics students last year were interested in and the level of detail they were able to present on their topics at approx week 10 of the semester. It is not designed to help you with the requirements of this assignment beyond that.



9. What is the point of this assignment?


This assignment is designed to give you an opportunity to explore the research resources available to you and identify their usefulness (or otherwise) to you when searching for material related to your topic. You should try to use this as an opportunity to set up these resources to work for you e.g. save your search terms, set up email alerts etc (anything the resource offers).


It is also designed to create a repository style resource that you can return to once the assginment is complete to be able to get back into the reserach your were doing.



10. What do I have to submit/how do I submit?


You need to submit the name of your blog. You need to submit this via Webcourses.


To submit you need to go to the assignment in the Continuous Assessment folder and navigate to the assignment and submit there



Module Link/Content/Continuous Assessment 2013-2014