Final Project instructions
Your Final Project in this module consists of two elements:
- Critical Literature Review (2,000 words)
- Research Proposal (3,000 words)
Additionally, you will also complete and submit the Ethical Approval forms necessary for you to gain ethical approval for your research project.
Throughout the module, you will participate in activities and complete assignments that will help prepare you to complete this Final Project. Many of the elements for your Final Project will first be submitted as Individual Assignments during the various learning units. You will receive feedback on these Individual Assignments from your Faculty Member which you should review carefully and incorporate into your Final Project.
Completing your Final Project
Use the instructions below to complete all required elements of your Final Project. Be sure to also review the assessment criteria (rubrics) for each of the graded elements of the Final Project by clicking the "Rubrics" button at the top of the Module Home page.
Critical Literature Review (2,000 words, 40%)
Your Critical Literature Review should review published, peer-reviewed scholarly literature relevant to your research topic and question.
In your review, you should:
- Critically analyse the major themes, perspectives, and types of research on your topic.
- Situate your research question within the literature you reviewed. In other words, determine how your research question relates to problems identified in the literature, to studies on similar questions or to gaps in understanding of the topic identified in similar studies.
Additionally, you should include a review of methods and methodological approaches used to study the topic, in which you should:
- Examine the theoretical perspectives and paradigms in the research literature you reviewed.
- Critically analyse the methodological approaches used in previous research on your chosen topic.
Research Proposal
Prepare your Research Proposal for approval by your Faculty Member, following this general outline:
- Topic, Research Objectives, Context, and Rationale
o Present your topic, research question, objectives for conducting the research, the context for your research question and your rationale for choosing it, using references to the research literature for support.
- Methodology and Methods
o Select and analyse your chosen research paradigm and its impact on your research question.
o Describe your chosen methodology and how it relates to your research question.
o Critically analyse the strengths and weakness of choosing this particular methodology, including why you did not select an alternative methodology.
o Discuss the types of data you intend to collect with your chosen methodology.
o Present a data collection and analysis plan and detail the following:
- How do your strategies for data collection and analysis align with your methodology and research question?
- What other data collection and analysis strategies could you have considered to answer your research question? Why did you choose to exclude these strategies?
- Critically analyse the ethical implications of your research methodology and methods and explain how you will address any ethical challenges.
o Be sure to support all of your decisions about methodology and methods with references to relevant literature.
- Practical Considerations and Plan for Completion
o Describe the potential challenges you might encounter in collecting and interpreting your research data and what you might do to minimize these issues.
o Explain how you would present your data and what presentation format would you use to convey the results to your audience.
o Comment on how you would reduce the chances for misinterpretation of your data