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 your hypothesis where applicable) 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. Everyone in your group will receive the same grade and feedback.
One member of your group should submit your complete stage one submission 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 for 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 Assessment: Stage One Group and Stage Two Individual Reports tab on 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, hypothesis, 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 (where relevant). You will receive a template outlining the key sections and sub-sections to help with formatting.
6.4 Assessment Criteria
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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.
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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.
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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.
We cover the assumptions of simple linear regression (and relatedly, correlations and t-tests) and how to match your statistical model to your design and research question 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 below.
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 for one or two members of your group 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.
6.9 Why am I being assessed like this?
Registered reports are 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.
We follow a scaffolded approach to develop your understanding of writing research reports across the programme. In RM1, you write the introduction and method sections in a group. You then write the results and discussion individually. In RM2 and your dissertation, you work up to writing the full report and dissertation individually.
6.10 How does this relate to previous work I have completed?
You can gain informal feedback by talking to your lab tutors, 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:
Avoiding plagiarism and engage in good academic practice (a Moodle course you can self-enrol in).
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 AI statement
The University of Glasgow recognises the value of generative artificial intelligence tools in academic and professional workplaces. The university has a responsibility to ensure that students acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and other competencies associated within their discipline. The Student Learning Development service provides general guidance and support for students on the use of generative AI, but each item of assessment in your courses will have specific generative AI guidance about use and misuse in place. Where generative AI restrictions are in place, they have been carefully designed to maximise your learning opportunity whilst discouraging reliance on generative AI in a way that undermines your learning, or development of good professional practice and graduate attributes.
Statement on use of generative AI: The current assessment is summative, meaning that it contributes to your course grade. The generative AI use for this assessment is categorised as amber and use of generative AI is allowed for some tasks during the preparation of the assessment.
There is no expectation that you will use generative AI and we have no evidence that its use will confer an advantage for this assessment. If you do use generative AI, please clearly acknowledge its use in-text via citations and referencing and in an appendix with a declaration of AI use as appropriate – please see the title page on Moodle for further instructions. If you choose to use it, we recommend that you use the Microsoft Edge browser with Copilot and sign into your university account using the two-factor authentication to ensure that your work is private and secure. Please keep a log of all AI use.
The purpose of this assessment is to work on your quantitative research methods skills and your understanding of a research project from developing a research question to writing an APA-formatted report. This is a group assignment to collectively write an introduction and methods to scaffold learning, but you will write whole reports in RM2 and your dissertation. Any short-cuts you take now will have a knock-on effect in future. So, try and embrace the skill development component to the course and assessment.
If you do use generative AI tools, we recommend using it for the following (non-exhaustive) kind of tasks:
Clarify complex concepts and reinforce understanding around intended learning outcomes.
Plan a structure for your assessment.
Recommend keywords and other tips for effective literature searches.
Assist with referencing format.
If you do use generative AI tools, we strongly recommend not using it for the following (non-exhaustive) kind of tasks:
Conducting your whole literature review for you, as you may miss out on potentially useful sources and AI tools are notorious for making up references.
Write whole paragraphs or sections of your report for you.
Rewrite bulleted lists or notes into sentences and paragraphs.
6.13 Feedback information
6.13.1 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 feed forward 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.
6.13.2 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.
6.13.3 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.
6.13.4 Who assessed my work?
The first marker for your report will be a member of the Research Methods 1 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.
6.13.5 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.