6  Stage 1 Group Report

6.1 General information

• The group stage one report sets out the introduction (background research, rationale for your study) and planned methods. The general topic for your report is on self-regulated learning.

• The deadline is November 15th 2024.

• This assessment is worth 30% of your final course grade and will be a group mark.

• One member of your group should submit your complete stage one submission template to Moodle. This will consist of an introduction and method section that would make up a stage one registered report submission prior to collecting data.

• In this course, you will not be collecting data yourself, but we will release a large secondary data set to you to apply your planned analyses to for the final individual stage two submission. For further information on the individual stage two report, please refer to the Assessment Information Sheet.

• You should submit a single Word document (.docx) to Moodle prior to the deadline. The submission link will open at least one week prior to the deadline and will be in the Assignment Submission section of Moodle.

• As a formative task and to outline ground rules for working in your group, you will complete and submit a group work agreement. We will introduce this document to you in week 2 when you will know your group allocation, but it will involve agreeing to how you will work in and contribute to your group. This will help to plan your assignment and recognise how people may work and interact differently.

6.2 Word count and formatting

• The maximum word count for this assignment is 1500 words.

• This includes all text within the introduction and method sections including in-text citations. However, it does not include the references or any appendix items.

• Please note that there is no 10% rule, 1500 words is a strict upper limit.

• Your work should be presented in a sans-serif font, e.g. Arial or Calibri, 12-point font, double-spaced with 1-inch (2.54cm) margins.

• All citations and references should follow APA 7th edition guidelines.

6.3 Type of assessment/structure

• The stage one group report is modeled on the first half of a registered report. This is a relatively new type of journal article where the research background, rationale, and planned methods are peer-reviewed prior to conducting a study. Instead of peer-review, your group work will be marked as an assessment.

• Your stage one group report will include an introduction and method section, plus references (and appendices if relevant). You will receive a template outlining the key sections and sub-sections as part of the course.

6.4 Assessment Criteria

• Quality of the Knowledge and Research

  • Demonstrate theoretical knowledge by providing a concise evidence-based rationale for your research question and hypothesis.

  • Demonstrate technical knowledge by providing appropriate answers to all questions, informed by knowledge from the wider course.

• Quality of the Evaluation

  • Clearly explain/justify all decisions made in the stage one report where relevant.

  • Use academic evidence to support your decisions and ideas where relevant.

• Quality of the Academic Communication

  • Write clearly and succinctly with appropriate use of paragraphs, spelling, and grammar.

6.5 Assessment support

• Guidance on how to complete the stage one group report will form part of the weekly course activities, such as content covered in the lectures and activities in the labs.

• The assumptions of correlations and t-tests and how to choose which type of test is covered in the lectures and associated reading, such as the relevant sections of the PsyTeachR Fundamentals of Quantitative Analysis book.

• Further information about assessment criteria and feedback can be found in the Feedback Information Sheet section.

• You can find additional writing and study advice, including 1-to-1 guidance on the Student Learning Development (SLD) website.

6.6 How to do well in this assessment

• Meet each of the assessment criteria - use these as a checklist for your work.

• Allow time to proof-read your work before submission.

• Complete all relevant sections and sub-sections of the stage one template to structure your submission.

• Provide an evidence-based rationale for your research question and hypothesis.

• Use the available materials to ensure the accuracy of your decisions.

• Explain your decisions and support them with evidence. Note that there are often multiple decisions you can make and there is not one “right” answer – this is absolutely fine, what matters is that you can explain and support your decisions and it is the sophistication of these explanations that is important.

6.7 Common mistakes

• Not explaining the decisions that you make and not using evidence to support them.

• Writing that is unclear and/or imprecise.

• Inaccuracies in the explanation of planned methodological and statistical information.

• Failure to adhere to the word limit.

6.8 How is the assessment related to the lectures for this course?

The stage one report allows you the opportunity to apply many of the concepts you have learned in the available material by collating and synthesising research, and making analytical decisions based upon your knowledge of statistics and research design.

6.9 Why am I being assessed like this?

• Registered reports are becoming increasingly common in psychological research and it is a process that will serve you well should you continue with research as it demonstrates a commitment to open and reproducible science.

• The stage one report allows you to think through the background and rationale of your research question, and your planned methods and analyses prior to completing the individual stage two report.

• The stage one report is a group submission to reflect the fact that in most research, these decisions will be made as a team and it allows you to pool your collective knowledge to design the best study possible.

6.10 How does this relate to previous work I have completed?

• You can gain informal feedback by talking to your lab tutor, lecturers, and/or by attending student office hours.

• Feedback on any previous written assignment will help with academic communication and using evidence to support your arguments.

6.11 Academic Integrity

Please note that when submitting your work for assessment we accept it on the understanding that it is your own effort and work and unique to the set assignment.

To support you in understanding what plagiarism is and in avoiding it, please read the following resources that the University provides:

• SRC Advice and Support

• Code of Student Conduct and Plagiarism Statement

• Avoiding plagiarism and engage in good academic practice (a Moodle course you can self-enrol in)

• Academic Advice in MVLS

University statement on AI: The advent of free AI tools is transforming our world and offers many opportunities to help us deal with large amounts of information. While we support students in learning how to use these tools to help them study, you should not submit for assessment something generated by an AI tool as though it is your own work. Please carefully read the University’s position on AI.

Statement on groupwork: This is a group assignment and one person from the group should be nominated to submit the draft and final version of the assignment on Moodle. Your group’s work should not be exactly the same as that of another group in the class, however, as you worked closely in a larger group and from common templates, we know that there may be some unavoidable similarities between team members in the method and results, but it should never be identical or close to identical.

6.12 Feedback information

6.12.1 What type of feedback will I receive for this assessment?

You will receive feedback on your attainment of the overall marking criteria (Knowledge and Research, Critical Evaluation, Academic Communication) in terms of the verbal descriptors from Schedule A and feedforward comments as to how to develop your knowledge and skills for future assignments.

Assessments are graded on the 22-point scale using the Schedule A marking criteria. There are three equally weighted Assessment Criteria (Knowledge and Research, Critical Evaluation, Academic Communication). You can find out more about Schedule A by downloading this PDF but the important thing to help you interpret your feedback is the use of the verbal descriptors, i.e., the words like “excellent” and “good” used to describe different grades. You should look out for these words to help you understand how you performed on each ILO.

6.12.2 Can I get more feedback?

You are more than welcome to receive additional feedback after the marking process:

• If you would like to discuss your feedback you should first contact the person that marked your assignment. However, we ask that you wait 24 hours after the release of the feedback before you do so to give you time to fully reflect on the feedback given.

• When meeting with the person who marked your assignment, you can discuss feedback and how it relates to your overall grade to help you improve in future assignments. However, do not be worried about attending to discuss how to maintain your standard if you have done better than you expected. You are more than welcome to come discuss any aspect of your feedback or the assignment in general.

• To help any discussion about your feedback, we would ask that you complete the reflection form available on the Moodle page and send that to the person who marked your assignment as part of the discussion, when arranging a meeting.

6.12.3 How will feedback from this assessment help me in the future?

Primarily, the feedback on this assessment will help support the analysis and write-up of the stage two individual report in this course. Additionally, the feedback will help support your qualitative report in RM2, as well as your dissertation and in any future research work you conduct that requires data analysis, decision-making, and evidence-based justification.

6.12.4 Who assessed my work?

The first marker for your report will be a member of the research methods team within the School of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Following University’s policy, as part of the marking procedures, the assignment marking will be moderated. The moderator will be another member of the research methods team who will moderate a range of work from across the cohort to ensure that appropriate academic standards have been applied in marking the assignments and that they have been applied consistently across the cohort of students being assessed.

6.12.5 Can I have my work regraded?

Further feedback meetings with the person who marked your assignment is purely about additional information to help you improve and is not about changing your grade or having your work regraded. That said, even if you are unhappy with your grade, your first point of contact should be to arrange an additional feedback meeting with your marker for further discussion to help explain your feedback and grade. Following this, if you still have concerns you should consult the guidance from the SRC which provides a clear explanation of the University appeals procedures.