INTEGRATED BUSINESS PROJECT

7HO995

Description of the Assessment

The Integrated Business Project forms a substantial amount of work where students must demonstrate their ability to work independently (under supervision) to produce an individual piece of work. Students will provide a report of value to an organisation (in response to an agreed problem or brief) or undertake a feasibility study of a hospitality business project, which is based upon a critical review of evidence and offer potential solutions.

Since the IBP is an individually devised piece of work, you will be allocated a personal supervisor to support you while you are writing it.  The role of the supervisor is to guide you through the process of producing your work, not to write it, so do not expect them to edit your work.

The responsibility for regular contact with the supervisor and arranging tutorials lies with the student. Communication with your supervisor on the Independent Study module is likely to be through a variety of means. These could include tutorials, face-to-face meetings, emails and may also involve video conferencing with tools such as Zoom, Skype or FaceTime. Any unreasonable difficulty contacting supervisors should be reported to your Programme Manager.

The students will have two options to deliver this project:

Option 1                       Option 2

Ethics Proposal                Ethics Proposal

Viva Voce                        15000-word Report

7000-word Report

This assessment addresses learning outcomes 1 and 2, as specified below:

1 Investigate and identify challenges or opportunities within hospitality industry that must be addressed and analysed. Critically examine and assess the functional capabilities of a hospitality organisation to respond to key business / design issues or needs.

2 Synthesise data and make appropriate recommendations that organisation should take in relation to the identified key issues.

Skills Mapping

This Academic  Level  6  module  contributes to the development of knowledge, skills and behaviors relevant to students’ future employability through an effective instructional design, rigorously selected current, authoritative sources and attentive guidance of the module leader. Specific components applicable to this module are outlined in the matrix below and linked to Develop@Derby support pagewhere an exhaustive list of attributes for success is available.

Assessment Content

Option 1 – Stage 1

Students need to produce an Ethical Proposal for their project within 16 weeks of their onsite studies. The ethical proposal needs to be approved by their assigned tutors. The students are then required to defend their ethical proposal (IBP) through ‘Viva Voce’ (presentation) while still on campus.

The proposal will be presented in front of a panel of experts and will be video recorded.

Assessment Expectations

◆   An approved ethical proposal is required prior to Viva Voce.

◆   The presentation should last 10 minutes plus 20 minutes Q&A.

◆   The narrative given with the presentation should be confident and knowledgeable and whilst notes may be used there should be no reading from a script.

◆   Throughout the presentation and responses to questions, students should demonstrate a full understanding of the options available and the choices they have made for carrying out their primary and secondary research.

◆   Referenced sources should be used for each section and citations should be on the slides with full reference (Harvard style) given at the end of the presentation.

Proposed Structure:

Students are expected to prepare a presentation and discuss the following sections:

• Project aim and objectives

• Rationale

• Literature

• Environmental review

• Methodology

• Timeline of study

• References

Assessment Research:

This 10-minute presentation at an academic Master level 7, ought to be thoroughly supported by research from books, journals, and industry reports. A minimum of 15 academic references are expected.

Option 1 – Stage 2

Students will produce an Integrated Business Project based on the approved ethical proposal and feedback during their viva voce. For any changes during the research process students are required to get advice and approval from their tutor. Students have 6 months to complete their study and submit it, in Turnitin on the given deadline.

Assessment Structure:

Title Page

Declaration of Authorship

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Acknowledgments

List of tables

List of Figures

List of Abbreviations

1.  Introduction (5% of total word count)

2.  Literature review (10% of total word count)

2.1

2.2.

2…

3.  Environmental Analysis (15% of total word count)

3.1

3.2.

3. …

4.  Methodology (20% of total word count)

4.1

4.2.

5.   Discussion and Findings (20% of total word count)

6.   Recommendations (20% of total word count)

7.   Conclusions, Limitations (10% of total word count)

References

Appendices

Proposed Layout

Font: The font should be 12-point Arial. Other fonts should be used only with the express permission of the ABMP supervisor.

Spacing: There should be a two-line space between paragraphs.

Type: The ABMP must be typed using 1.5 or double spacing, with citation references incorporated in the text.

Page No.,s All pages must be numbered consecutively beginning with the first page of

the main text

Margins: All margins should be about three quarters of an inch (20 mm).

Headings: A systematic method of headings should be used in writing the ABMP.

Tables: Tables generally contain text only. These should be numbered according to

the chapter they appear in e.g. if a table appears in Chapter 1 then it is numbered as Table 1.1 and so on. The first table to appear in Chapter 2 will be numbered 2.1 and so on.  Each table should have a number, should be  labelled, and should have a reference if taken from literature.

Figures: Figures differ from tables in that they illustrate information in the form of   diagrams and graphs. As above, figures need to be numbered, need to be labelled and should have a reference if taken from literature.

Assessment Research:

This 10-minute presentation at an academic Master level 7, ought to be thoroughly supported by research from books, journals, and industry reports. A minimum of 50 academic references are expected.