Lecturer: Dr Roberta Crouch
Location: 10 Pulteney Street, Nexus Building (Rm 1013)
Telephone: +61 404833924
Email: roberta.crouch@adelaide.edu.au
Course Website:  www.myuni.adelaide.edu.au

This course is being presented in semi-intensive mode with seminars, tutorials and group discussions (lunch and breaks) commencing at 9:00 am and concluding at 3:30 pm on each of the days scheduled below. All sessions will be held at Marjoribanks 126 in the Nexus Building.

• Session 1 Feb 22, 2014
• Session 2 Mar 14, 15 2014
• Session 3 Apr 4, 5 and 6, 2014

All activities will be recorded for the benefit of students that are studying remotely. Of particular importance are the sessions on Mar 15 and Apr 4, because Ms Harvey and Mr Croser will be attending.

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from the
Course Planner at https://access.adelaide.edu.au/courses/search.asp

The course requires students to engage in student-driven research in a small team context working under the guidance of mentors. They must devise an appropriate research strategy to locate information from self-determined sources and, working together, rigorously evaluate the information using criteria based on experience, expertise and literature. They must identify specific knowledge gaps and determine and appropriate methodology for synthesising, organising and applying the knowledge to fill those gaps. In addition, students are required to persuasively communicate the knowledge to a range of audiences using discipline specific and appropriate language.

Hence, this course aims to develop and enhance the skills needed to work effectively in a small team context, show leadership and cooperation to achieve the required outcome. This involves data collection, interviewing, and ultimately, report writing including strategic recommendations. Finally, the continuing development of good research, teamwork, inter-personal and communication skills is widely recognised as important for all graduates.

By the end of this course students should be able to accomplish the following Learning Outcomes (LO):

1. The ability to work effectively as a team member, showing leadership and cooperation as required to enhance group outcomes;
2. The ability to develop an interview plan and use it to effectively interview individuals and collect relevant primary information;
3. A comprehensive understanding of and the ability to apply basic secondary data collection and evaluation;
4. The ability to undertake strategic business analysis in order to develop appropriate problem solving strategies;
5. The ability to communicate, clarify, and present to peer audiences in a professional setting; and
6. The ability to produce a logical and coherent group Research Report that provides value to stakeholders.

There is no prescribed text for this course, but a comprehensive reading list relevant to topic discussions will be provided. However, it is expected that students will look beyond these resources and find additional literature of value.

Students have access to library and electronic databases and use of these and other sources of legitimate information, such as industry journals and other publications are recommended when appropriate.

All topic lectures and most discussions will be recorded for the benefit of those that can’t attend the sessions. A comprehensive reading list will also be available in addition to lecture slides (although this is not a ‘slide intensive’ course) etc. All resources will be available via the course MyUni site. All assessments are to be provided electronically and will be marked and returned electronically via the Turnitin portal on the MyUni site.

This course is delivered during 7 intensive days of teaching over the trimester period. During these 6-hour sessions (which of course will include lunch and short breaks) students will engage in lectures, tutorial discussions and applied problem solving via case studies. The focus of the course will be an interactive research project with one of our industry mentors and fellow group members. For students studying remotely, all lecture and tutorial sessions will be recorded as with interviews and debriefs with our industry mentors (Ms Harvey and Mr Croser). However, it is expected that group members will maintain close contact between intensive sessions in order to complete the required tasks and maximise learning outcomes.

This information is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements. The University expects full-time students to commit approximately 9 hours for a threeunit course of private study outside of your regular classes. Students in this course are expected to attend sessions in this intensive delivery mode course if at all possible. Students studying remotely must review session recordings and stay in touch with the lecturer and their group members as required to maintain contact and group cohesion.

Date	Topics
Feb 22	Course overview and assessments. Background introduction to mentors. Working effectively in groups / Surviving groups. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses (do a self SWOT). Finding and gathering information and synthesizing knowledge (knowing what’s useful and what’s not). Group study and meeting time – who’s going to do what. Discussion regarding reflective journals. Debrief and preparation for background research and interviews with Ms Harvey and Mr Croser.
Mar 14	How to write a literature review.     o Fine tuning your academic writing skills. Finalizing and fine-tuning your interview question guides. Study and meeting time – getting yourselves ready. Group time with Lecturer (30 minutes per group) to discuss issues, concerns and assist each team with their preparations.
Mar 15	Interviews with both Ms Harvey (in the morning) and Mr Croser Group study, meetings to discuss information from the interview Q & A. Class debrief and forward planning.
Apr 4	In the morning each group will make a short presentation to Ms Harvey illustrating their work and findings thus far respective to the investigative work they’ve completed. In the afternoon each group will do the same respective to Mr Croser’s project. Each mentor will provide some verbal feedback to each group. Each group will also be assessed and provided with a feedback sheet from the lecturer
Apr 5	Presenting research results: critical analysis and strategy development Report writing: structure and content Feedback on group experiences and achieving group objectives (presentation by each group – 5 or 6 minutes only) Study and meeting times, group meeting with Lecturer.
Apr 6	Final day to meet with group members and Lecturer prior to completing report. Again this is NOT a ‘free day’ but should be used wisely to work together on the project and make good use of access to the Lecturer for advice and support.

A description and explanation of each assessment is provided below. Please note, this course is not exempt from Assessment for Coursework Programs policy

Assessment	Value	Due
Peer Assessment	10%	Apr 28 2014
Meeting Minutes	10%	Mar 18 and Apr 28 2014
Mentor Interview Report	20%	Mar 31 2014
Reflective Journal	30%	Apr 28 2014
Research Report	30%	Apr 28 2014

Each assessment must be attempted, and an overall grade of at least 50% must be achieved to pass the course overall. Additionally, a poor peer review rating by fellow team members (lower than 5 out of 10 for all team related performance elements assessed) will result in a 5% reduction in a student’s overall grade.

1.   Peer assessment (Individual Assessment) 10%

Working in a group setting can, and usually is, challenging. This is true whether it is in a study or work context. However, the reality of life (especially our working life) is that we must just ‘get on with it’ and work productively with others to achieve common goals. Something that makes this easier is each person making a commitment to sharing work appropriately, allocate tasks according to strengths within the team and to making a strong effort to achieve success.

There are 5 criteria that each of your team members will assess each other group in their team against on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is poor performance and 10 is virtually ‘perfect’ performance, the criteria are explained below:

   1. Openness and flexibility
   2. Trust and cooperation
   3. Dutifulness
   4. Dependability
   5. Achievement of goals and tasks

These elements will be explained in more detail in lectures and through provided readings, although students are encouraged to seek additional insights via personal investigations and discussions.

Due Apr 28 2014 and submitted individually


2. Minutes of team meetings (Group assessment) 10%

Students must supply the minutes of at least 5 team meetings; these will be included in with the final report. These must be more that an account of who attended and how long the meeting lasted. It is expected that from the first meeting decisions regarding what needs to be done, who will do it and when it will be completed for group review will be recorded. Then in subsequent meetings, progress against action items and deadlines will be reported and subsequent actions decided. There will also be information sharing discussions and teamwork towards overcoming obstacles and problems. Remember also that your lecturer (another mentor in the course) is always available to help and can be invited to meetings, or to provide advice/feedback prior or post a meeting. It is not expected that minutes will be pages long – bullet points and summaries of discussions are fine – just so long as it is clear what took place, was achieved and decided. You may minute more meetings but 5 will be assessed. Students that are studying remotely can take part via Skype or telephone or other forms of ‘online chat’ that are available.

Minutes of first 2 formal meetings due Mar 18, last 3 submitted with final report Apr 28 2014


3. Mentor interview report (Individual Assessment) 20%

This is a report respective to the successful interview of mentors. It will be approximately 2000 words in length and will provide an overview of your findings from the interview and will include a list of interview questions that were asked by your team and your personal assessment (with examples) of the quality and quantity of the information that was received. It will also include a summary of what was learned from answers to questions posed by other groups and your views of the success of the interview overall. You should also include identification of information that you still need to acquire and where you may source this. It is expected that all groups will record the interviews and share this audio file for your reference. Of course the lecture will be recorded and provided on MyUni for the benefit of students studying remotely.

Due Mar 31 2014


4. Reflective journal (Individual Assessment) 30%

This aspect of the overall assessment carries as much weight as the investigative report that you are also required to complete. A major focus of this course is to encourage individuals to reflect on the process of learning about a specific topic (and the reporting on that topic) and also to apply critical thinking to this process as well as their individual team experiences. This journal is more than a diary, and mere ‘descriptions’ of events or topics will not justify strong assessment marks. There are a number of readings that will be provided in addition to discussion and explanation in lectures.

Due April 28 2014


5. Research report (Group Assessment) 30%

Each of the mentors (Ms Kate Harvey and Mr Brian Croser) will be presenting the class with a ‘problem’ specific to their area of interest. Each group will be assigned to either Ms Harvey’s task or Mr Croser’s and will be required to interview them and to use their information, plus a wide range of information sourced by the team to address the question and complete a report of not less than 7000 words (not including any appendices) that investigates the context of the question and provides some clear strategies and recommendations respective to it.

At our first meeting on the 22nd of February all students will be allocated to groups (including remote students) and will be assigned to either Ms Harvey or Mr Croser. However, in preparation for this first class it is strongly recommended that all students spend some time learning about the GWRDC (Grape and Wine Research and Development Board) and Mr Croser and his background and importance to the wine industry.

Due Apr 28 2014

All assignments are to be submitted by the due date using the Turnitin facility on the course MyUni website. Assignments will be marked electronically and returned that way too. Please remember to keep a copy of all your work. Each assignment must also have an assignment cover sheet as its first page and title page after that.

Late Assignment Submission
Students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will generally only be given for medical or other serious reasons. All requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer in charge of the course before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits. A late assignment (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by a 5% mark reduction for each day that it is late.

Return of Assignments
Lecturers aim to marked and return assignments to student within two (2) weeks of the due date with written feedback.