ASSIGNMENT TASK
Conduct a pilot study and report study results, including revised sections of
Assignment 1 and 2.
Note: You will be collecting data in this assessment.
PRIMARY LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completion of this assignment students should be able to:
implement a social health research project, including data collection and
analysis and
write a research report.
ASSIGNMENT WEIGHTING AND DUE DATE
Weighting: 40% of mark for unit
Due Date: Please see the assessment section of your Unit Plan for
submission instructions and due dates for Assignment 3.
REQUIRED ASSIGNMENT CONTENTS
Main Components of Assignment:
ECU Cover Page
Assignment Title Page
Contents Page
Section 1: Introduction
Section 2: Literature Review
Section 3: Research Questions and Sub-questions
Section 4: Definition of Key Concepts
Section 5: Research Design
Section 6: Research Methods
Section 7: Pilot Study (~ 400 words)
Section 8: Study Results (no count for data presentation)
Section 9: Discussion (~ 500 words)
Section 10: Reflection (~ 300 words)
PLEASE NOTE: Sections 1-6 in italics are sections revised from Assignment 1.
Section 7 includes material revised from Assignment 2, based on your pilot study
experience. Sections 8-10 are new to Assignment 3.
HST3501 Health Research Project 2-2015 Page 2
Document word count: ~5200 words, excluding all materials not in numbered sections.
ASSIGNMENT TASK BREAKDOWN BY SECTION
Sections 1-6: Compile these sections from Assignments 1 & 2, revised based on
feedback received.
Section 7: PILOT STUDY
Conduct your pilot study: For quantitative studies it will involve administering you’re
your partial questionnaire to 15 fellow students in your HST3501 unit and /or friends
and family members.
When drafting your assignment, include the following subsections:
a. Actual Processes & Procedures
Describe how you ACTUALLY conducted your pilot study, including:
How your participants were contacted and selected and how many participated?
What procedures did you used to conduct the pilot study?
b. Reflection on Knowledge Gained
Describe the insights gained through the piloting process, including:
Improvements made to your data collection procedures for contacting and
engaging your participants
Improvements made to questions on your data collection instrument
Section 8: STUDY RESULTS (no word count for data presentation)
In this section you will report on the pilot data that you have compiled.
You will present your pilot study results by displaying numerical data in tables and
briefly in words, describing the patterns reflected in the data tables.
This section should have 2 subsections: Sub-section a. will report on the demographic
data and Sub-section b. will report on the topical questions.
Sub-section b. structure and formatting directions
This section reports the results of your research and is organised by your research
question and sub-questions.
It must contain sub-headings (use phrases from your research questions) followed
by graphs or tables required to answer each question.
For each sub-heading, please include a table(s) or graph(s) to present the results
relating to each research question or sub-question
Under each table or graph, summarise the results in words.
Ensure each table and graph has a title and Table or Figure (for graphs) number.
HST3501 Health Research Project 2-2015 Page 3
Section 9: DISCUSSION
In this section you will summarise the objectives of your research and the limitations of
your study:
summarise the results of your study by each research question and sub-question
and
comment on the similarities and differences between your results and the results of
other studies reviewed in your literature review.
Section 10: REFLECTIONS
In this section you will reflect on the research process, commenting on
The main difficulties that your encountered throughout the process
How the actual process compared to your prior expectations of the process
Whether you would be interested in conducting research in the future
REFERENCES
Minimum of 16 references in total (from Assignments 1 & 2).
All materials used to inform your work should be properly referenced according to
the ECU referencing guide available at:
NOTE: Plagiarism will not be tolerated whether it results from ignorance of
proper referencing conventions or actual intent to misrepresent your work.
ASSESSMENT FORMAT
Line spacing for lit review: 1.5
Font: Arial
Font size: 12 point font
ASSESSMENT SUBMSSION AND MARKING
See marking key posted under the Assessments page of Blackboard.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
It is essential that you understand that revisions are needed for your 1st and 2nd
assignment as they will determine the quality of your 3rd assignment.
As this is a report on what has been implemented, it should be written in past
tense, e.g. “The questionnaire was completed by 10 students from HST3501 at the
unit data collection workshop on xx October 2015 and from 5 family membe
