Campus Session Five

I actually managed to attend this session: as they say ‘better late than never!’ I have managed to write an overview of the topics discussed for those who weren’t there as I am usually one of you!

Rationale for Award Title

We talked about choosing a title that clearly reflects our project proposal subject and something that reflects our future aspirations. Some may be more complicated than others although Peter highlighted that our title- the part in the brackets e.g. (Musical Theatre) can be no more than thirty characters!

The award title can be progressive from your diploma if you already have one, although this is not compulsory. It is not an issue if you have changed course since completing you’re diploma and want to move into another area of practice. Rosemary explained that although we have to choose an award title now, our career path may have completely changed in a couple of years. This is not an issue as a degree demonstrates much more than your award title, for example cognition, time management skills, independent learning and critical thinking.

The main thing to remember is to be positive and assured in explaining why you have chosen your title, and you can’t go wrong!

Critical Commentary on learning in this module

We discussed that this should show a progression from one place to another. It should highlight a progression through the module of our thoughts, confidence, abilities, knowledge etc. We can summarise and evaluate or diary entries looking back on them, using critical analysis. Showing how we have developed into an independent learner/researcher. We also talked about providing evidence from the blogs to emphasise this and using comparisons to show progression. We should consider what we have achieved so far, and also what we might have done differently.

Completing the Project Proposal

This was the main bulk of the session as you can imagine, there were lots of questions to be answered! We ran through the twelve point format guide for the proposal very quickly to refresh what needs to be included with our final draft. Here are some other important factors we discussed:

-Try not to be vague or undefined with your aims. Need to convince the reader of what you are aiming to achieve.
-Be more detailed in description of research design
-Don’t be overly ambitious or unrealistic in terms of scope and timetable.
-Filter down your topic, simplifying seems to be the key here!
-Permission or consent forms, pilot surveys can be used as appendices
-Try not to use the word ‘I’ so often. For example, this could be re-written using, ’In the project proposal….’
-Present your work professionally, try to get your portfolio bound or put into a folder so it is easy to read and mark. Do not use plastic wallets!

This has helped me in concluding what needs to be done in completing the module. I feel so much more confident now and prepared to hand some kind of draft into my tutor, as I have had to catch up quite considerably!