Posted: April 14th, 2015

Project Proposal and evidence file

Assessment Part 1( 30%) – week 10 Semester 1

 

Project Proposal and evidence file

 

 

Your individual project proposal will be submitted in Week 10, Semester 1.

The Proposal will be a short document including the following headings:

 

Introduction: This is a brief description of the overall project and a statement about why it is a relevant and important project

 

Literature Review: A short discussion of CPD research ie. Theories related to CPD/PPd or well-known concepts such as those used in class (Jarvis or Covey)

 

Proposed Work/Project timeline: This is based on each component of the project i.e. how long it will take; what instruments you used; the different parts of the final project. It is useful to produce this information in the form of a table.

 

Conclusion: A short summary of the above

 

Recommendations: recommendations to anyone undertaking a project like this (or warning to yourself!)

 

Word Count : Up to 1,500 words

 

Evidence: Attached to this Proposal is your evidence i.e. tests; diary entries; critical incidents etc.

 

 

 

Assessment Part 2 (70%)- Week 7 Semester 2

The Executive Development Project

 

Now you have gathered your background reading and evidence you can utilize these in producing your Project which identifies and analyses your strengths and weaknesses and outlines your journey to becoming an MBA Executive. You will refer to your Proposal and the evidence file to support your discussions.

The document is the end result but the process provides the opportunity for you to:

 

n Critically examine your own leadership and managerial approach and capabilities

 

n Identify and analyse areas of difficulty, your strengths and areas you would like to develop

 

n To transfer and apply ideas and concepts from the formal programme to the reality of your work experience

 

The organisation of the document is open–ended but one suggestion is for the analysis to be organised as follows:

 

 

 

n Focus/desired outcomes (15%) In this section you need to identify where you are now in terms of your capabilities and talents. Some self–analysis of your skills and competencies would be useful here (your SAQ) — perhaps you could use material from a recent performance review or appraisal. You could ask your friends or colleagues about your strengths, what they like about you — also perhaps what they find difficult to cope with sometimes!! (the Johari) Identify areas of excellence! Using formal psychometric measures are important here. Some reference to rationale and justification in terms of your business and personal ambitions and needs would be important. Link into and draw up a specific action plan. References to the key competencies and profiles of good managers would be useful here. You need to audit your capability profile providing evidence to substantiate your assertions and reflections.

 

n Critical events/activities/experiences (20%) This is the part of the assessment where you identify some incidents, experiences and examples of how you are coping with the information you have identified in the above section. For instance if you have decided that one of your key areas of development is going to be improving your negotiation skills then you could cite specific examples where you have planned, negotiated, reviewed and identified learning points. Such examples may include business meetings or other relevant instances such as buying a major item, borrowing money to fund your education or negotiating conditions for yourself or fellow workers or classmates. You can put documentary evidence in here in the form of a portfolio e.g. appraisal feedback forms, minutes of meetings, emails and so on that underpin and validate your assertions.

 

n Problem/success analysis (25%) Here you are evaluating your progress. Don’t be afraid to identify areas that are difficult for you — try to assess why and make further plans for progression. This is probably the most difficult part of the analysis and some identification of reasons against personal analysis would be useful e.g. managing people–you may want to draw on some of theoretical underpinnings you encounter in other areas of the MBA. All the areas of Course may be useful but particularly management, motivation and individual differences. Don’t forget here that everyone is different, we can’t be good at everything but generally if you want to achieve something you can.

 

 

n Learning derived from the experience–applications (25%) Identify achievement in terms of milestones or some sort of summaries about progress. Keep referring back to your initial plans, and don’t be afraid to review and change. Justify what you say though, to ensure it makes sense in terms of current focus and key responsibilities as well as future objectives, goals and targets. Some assessment of the learning achieved in the course of the MBA would be useful here also.

 

n Future action and plans (15%) This needs to link in with your initial assessment and plans and should be an overview of your achievements particularly during the timeframe of the EDP. This section needs to summarise your achievements in the context of your initial assertions about where you wanted to direct your learning energies. You then need to go on and identify how you will capitalise on this learning and achievement and apply such knowledge practically.

 

There are also some ideas and suggestions in the CPD recommended textbook. The assignment should be around 6,000/7,000 words in length excluding appendices and other documentary evidence supporting your assertions and reflections contained in the log itself.

 

So to summarise your EDP needs to address the following structure:

 

1. Your overall purpose and focus — what you want to address in terms of your personal capability development i.e. set out your terms of reference. (15%)

 

1. Explain and analyse what you use to understand your capabilities better and to gain insights into ‘you’. Identify some key events within your life and the period of your studies that help you to develop some perspective on your current and future development (20%)

 

1. Evaluate and discuss how you can make sense of this evidence against the backdrop of your initial purpose (25%)

 

1. Critically assess what you have learnt (25%)

 

1. How you want to use this feedback and these insights to make some plans for future action that you think will help you further your career in some way (15%)

 

The assessment criteria are as follows, using the university’s standard scale:

A (16, 15, 14)	An exceptional level of analysis, reflection, learning and future planning. Highly integrated and goals are explicit and workable. Theoretical underpinnings are evident and utilised very well in terms of practical reflections. The reader is given an excellent understanding of the way in which you construe learning situations. The analysis is thorough and well explained.
B (13, 12, 11)	A thorough level of analysis, reflection, learning and future planning with clear goals and evidence of theoretical underpinning. However the final work lacks some clarity of thought and detailed theoretical applications. The work is ‘almost there’ on all of the above, or ‘entirely there’ on all but one of the above e.g. the background may give insufficient context to understand a technically perfect account, with well–references alternative approaches
C (10, 9, 8)	There must be some evidence of analysis, reflection and future planning but perhaps carried out in an isolated rather than an integrated manner. Insufficient generalisation and development of personal meaning.
D (7, 6, 5)	The focus is on description rather than analysis, but there must be some evidence of analysis. However the analysis would be incomplete, perhaps not very fully exploring learning or future planning. Little evidence of deeper understanding of implications of learning.
E (4)	This is refer level and work in this category shows very little or no demonstration of meaningful analysis, reflection, learning or future planning.