Module Assignment Brief
Programme: Business & Tourism ManagementModule Title: Research Methods 2
Module code: BTM6RME Module
Assignment No: 2
Assignment Type: Research Proposal – Individual
Assignment weighting %: 75% Assignment Word Count: (or equivalent) 3000±10%
Penalties All penalties that are listed at the end of this document in the Table of Penalties.
Submission Dates and Times (Day: Date & Time)
Summative deadline 31st October 2025, by 2pm
Late Submission 4th November 2025, by 2pm
Grade & Feedback release Dates All Grade and Feeback release dates are 21 days (about 3 weeks) after the submission date. If an assignment deadline is @ 2:00pm then the grade release date will be @ 2:00pm
This assignment has been designed to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your achievement of the following module learning outcomes:
Module Learning Outcome 1 Define your research aims and goals in a way that supports a clear and thoughtful research design.
Module Learning Outcome 2 Demonstrate an understanding of the key purposes of a literature review, how to read research papers and how to write a literature review
Module Learning Outcome 3 Demonstrate an understanding of how to analyse and interpret research findings and report them in the context of existing research.
Module Learning Outcome 4 Demonstrate appropriate academic writing skills, referencing and good academic practice and make decisions on organising material in a logical and coherent way with an audience in mind.
Assignment Requirements
Overview
Research is an essential element of the skillset of a modern professional and key to developing sustainable business and sustainable tourism. As the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (2021) argue, research is vital for innovation in the national economy.
Working on this task will equip students with skills of identifying the research problem in tourism and developing the research proposal which will reflect the research design, methods and instruments to resolve it.
Students are encouraged to investigate needs in the jobs they occupy if they are related to tourism or examine the contemporary need for research in the sector in the UK and develop the research proposal according to the identified research question.
In both cases, students will need to explore the theoretical background of the research problem, review research literature, and verify if the research question they ask is responded to in the previous research. Or, alternatively, there is a gap in the research and no solution has been found yet. In the latter case, students will set the research aim, objectives, and develop research methodology, including research design, research methods, and research instruments.
This implies that learning about research methodology and applying this information to develop one’s own research proposal will help students to get prepared to their degree research paper in Level 6 and develop mandatory research skills to find informed solutions for the tourism business under changing circumstances. This is a core employability skill.
Consequently, this assignment allows students to demonstrate the ability to understand and interpret information relevant to the research methodology and present it to an audience in written form as a 3000-word research proposal.
Assignment task/s to be completed The research proposal will substantially develop the following parts:
– Rationale for the research, stating and justifying the research problem, aim, objectives and research approach.
– Theoretical framework as the basis for the literature review.
– Literature review, illustrating previous research, gap in the research, or evidence of the research necessity, e.g. from reports.
– Research methodology.
– Proposed outcomes of the research and personal contribution.
Additional Information required to support completing the tasks above Additional information to support completion:
• Use the university’s approved Research Proposal Template—do not alter its headings or slide order.
• Consult the module’s ethics guidance and the UK GDPR data-protection policy when drafting consent procedures.
• Refer to the APA Referencing Quick-Start guide for accurate citations.
• For your timeline, you may use the provided Gantt-chart template or any slide-based timeline tool.
• All appendices (consent form, survey/interview guide) must follow the formatting examples in the template.
Appendices are mandatory, though not included in the word count. The content of the appendices impacts the mark and is reflected in the grading rubrics. There are three appendices as specified in the Research Proposal Template:
Appendix A. Ethics Consent Form
You will complete the appropriate (red or green) consent forms.
Besides Appendix A (Ethics Consent Form), the Research Proposal Template requires two more appendices:
• Appendix B: Research Instruments
Include the full versions of any tools you’ll use to collect primary data—e.g., your survey questionnaire, interview guide, focus-group prompts. Make sure they match the description in your methods section and use the template’s formatting (font size, headings, consent reminder at the top of each instrument).
• Appendix C: Supporting Documents
Provide any additional materials that underpin your proposal. Typical items are:
o A copy of your university’s GDPR-compliant data-processing notice or participant information sheet
o Any recruitment emails or posters you plan to distribute
o Letters of agreement or confirmation from partner organizations (if you’re collaborating with an external body)
Remember: all three appendices are mandatory and do not count toward your word limit—but they do count toward your overall mark, so follow the template’s style exactly.
Mandatory Referencing and Research Requirements
Referencing Style CCCU Harvard Referencing Style.
Mandatory Sources to be included in the Assignment Essential Resources (available on shelves and electronically in GBS library)
Bell, E., Bryman, A. and Harley, B. (2019). Business Research Methods. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Flick, U. (2020) Introducing research methodology: Thinking your way through your research project. London: SAGE.
Robson, C. and McKartan, K. (2015) Real World Research, 4th ed. A resource for Users of Social Research Methods in Applied Settings. West Sussex: Wiley.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2019). Research Methods for Business Students. 8th ed. Harlow: Pearson.
Tracy, S.J. (2020) Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, Communicating Impact. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
Format of your submission and how your assignment will be assessed
This assignment should be submitted electronically via Moodle (module tutors will discuss this process with you during class time).
Please ensure your work has been saved in an appropriate file format (Microsoft Word).
You can submit your work as many times as you like before the submission date. If you do submit your work more than once, your earlier submission will be replaced by the most recent version.
Once you have submitted your work, you will receive a digital receipt as proof of submission, which will be sent to your forwarded e-mail address (provided you have set this up). Please keep this receipt for future reference, along with the original electronic copy of your assignment.
You are reminded of the University’s regulations on academic misconduct, which can be viewed on the University website: Academic Misconduct Policy. In submitting your assignment, you are acknowledging that you have read and understood these regulations.
Assessment Requirements:
You will submit your research proposal individually:
• Demonstrate why you are personally interested in this topic? Reflect on what drew you to this research.
• Explain your research aim, and objectives.
• Explain some of the key studies in the field, found from your literature review.
• Illustrate the theory or theories you will adopt to analyse your research topic.
• Explain the methodology (primary/ secondary, quantitative/qualitative) you will likely undertake.
Assessment Criteria:
Your work will be assessed to the extent it demonstrates your achievement of the stated learning outcomes for this assignment (see above) and against other key criteria, as defined in the University’s institutional grading descriptors. If it is appropriate to the format of your assignment and your subject area, a proportion of your marks will also depend on your use of academic referencing conventions.
This assignment will be marked according to the grading descriptors for Level 6; also see Table of Penalties enclosed to the Assignment Brief and Assessment Guide.
Marking Scheme / Rubric – The Marking Scheme (otherwise known as a rubric) is below:
Submission Requirements
Submission Platform This assignment should be submitted electronically using Moodle to the Module Submission link
Submission Date &Time All submission & resubmission dates and time are as stated at the beginning of this Assignment brief.
You should submit your Assignment for all deadlines earlier than 2:00pm on the date stated.
Late submissions can be accepted for Summative Submissions only up to a maximum of 2 working days after the submission deadline. This does not apply to resubmission deadlines. A 10 mark deduction will be made by CCCU for all late submissions.
Work submitted more than two working days after the deadline will not be accepted and will be recorded as a non-submission.
Assignments submitted to the Resubmissions deadlines will be capped at 40 by CCCU.
If you are affected by events which are unexpected, outside your control and short-term in nature (i.e. lasting one to two weeks), under the exceptional circumstances procedure you may be eligible for:
• A seven-day extension to your coursework (via self-certification request).
• A 14-day extension to your coursework (via evidence-based request).
• To defer your exam or time-constrained assessment if you have not yet submitted/attempted it (via self-certification or evidence-based request).
• To re-take an exam/time-constrained assessment, if you feel your performance on your first attempt was negatively impacted (via impaired performance request).
Please note students are only eligible to have a maximum of 2 self-certification requests per academic year.
You can make a self-certification request up to 14 calendar days before your deadline:
• for coursework it must be no later than 2pm on the deadline date
• for exams and time-constrained assessments, the request must be submitted no later than the start time of the assessment.
Table of Penalties
Issue with the Assignment Penalty to be Applied
Suspected Academic Misconduct or Breach of Academic integrity The Assignment will be graded zero. Written feedback will be ‘This assignment has been identified as potential Academic Misconduct/Breach of Academic Integrity. You will be invited to a meeting to discuss’.
You will be invited to a meeting with an academic Misconduct reviewer. When you attend the meeting if Academic Misconduct or the breach of Academic Integrity is upheld you will be asked to rewrite the section of the assignment it applies to and re-submit the assignment.
Do not upload any assignments to the AMC submission links before the meeting otherwise it will be removed.
Failure to attend the meeting means the assignment will remain graded at zero and you will be unable to pass the module until you have attended the meeting.
The assignment is more than 10% over the prescribed wordcount i.e. for 3,000 words, if 3,400 is submitted excluding the cover page, table of contents, references and appendices. A 10-mark deduction applied to the overall grade that is manually entered by the Lecturer. This deduction is capped at 40%, which means an assignment cannot get less than 40% if a deduction has to be made.
For example, if the mark for the assignment was 60. The lecturer would deduct 10 marks and the mark will be 50. Written feedback will also state ‘This assignment is 10% over the wordcount and 10 marks have been deducted’.
Where assignments are more than 10% less than the prescribed wordcount and lecturers cannot identify if the learning outcomes have been met. This assignment will be graded below 40.
Where a student submits a .pdf instead of a word document. This assignment will be graded a Fail.
The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘This is a pdf submission and is not allowed. All submissions should be in Microsoft Word format’.
Students not working in their groups as agreed by the lecturer. This assignment will be graded a Fail.
The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘This submission was not completed in the designated group’.
Please note: Where a student has asked the lecturer to move from their original group and the lecturer has agreed this does not apply.
For a presentation assignment that requires oral delivery, and the student does not present in person. The Oral rubric criteria is not moved, and the oral criteria will remain at zero.
For a presentation assignment and the student does not upload a converted PPT To Word File with speaker notes. The communication rubric criteria is not moved, and the communication criteria will remain at zero.
For a presentation assignment that requires oral delivery, and the student did not present on the day or upload the presentation to a Word document with speaker Notes. This assignment will be graded a Fail.
The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘There was no Oral presentation in class and the submission was not converted to Microsoft Word’.
For a presentation assignment the student uploads a file that contains no slides and is simply continuous text. This assignment will be graded a Fail.
The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘There are no slides present in the assignment submission’.
If the assignment is group work and the resubmission is not changed to individual work.
If a group assignment is failed then the resubmitted work must be changed by a minimum of 25% to make it an individual piece of work.
This means if a Group Presentation is 12 slides a minimum of 3 must be different to the group submission. If the assignment is a Group Poster with 6 text boxes then a minimum of 2 of them must be different to the Group Poster. This assignment will be graded a Fail.
The lecturer will grade as 1 and the written feedback will state ‘This resubmission should be individual and a minimum of 25% of the assignment has not changed’.
Where a written assignment has text that is unable to be read by Turnitin because it is either a graphical image (excluding Presentations & Posters); for example, a screenshot or the assignment is written within text boxes on each page. This assignment will be graded 0 and the written feedback should state ‘This assignment is unreadable by Turnitin and cannot be checked for Academic Misconduct. It has been referred for an AMC meeting’.
The assignment will then be referred for Academic Misconduct investigation.
An assignment that does not make use of any Mandatory references provided in the assignment brief/Module Handbook. The reference rubric criteria is not moved and that criteria will remain at zero
An assignment has a reference list, but no citations. The reference rubric criteria is not moved and that criteria will remain at zero.
Written feedback should state ’The reference criteria has been graded Zero as no citations have been used. Please include citations in your assignment to support the academic points being made’.
An assignment has no citations and no reference list. Foundation & Level 4 – The reference rubric criteria is not moved and that criteria will remain at zero. The written feedback will state ‘Please ensure that you use citations and references to support your assignment submission’.
At Level 5 and Level 6 this would be graded as a Fail. The lecturer will grade as 1 and written feedback will also show ‘This assignment has no citations and no reference list’.
Where False references are included in an assignment. This will be referred for Academic Misconduct.
This assignment will be graded 0 and the written feedback should state ‘This assignment contains false references and has been referred for Academic Misconduct. You will be invited to attend an Academic Misconduct meeting’.
Assignment is submitted after the Late Deadline or if it is a Resubmission, after the Resubmission deadline This assignment will be graded a Fail.
The lecturer will grade as 1 and written feedback should state 'This assignment was submitted after the deadline. Please resubmit at the next resubmission opportunity.'
Student Integrity and Academic Misconduct
The values of student integrity expected by CCCU are:
• Honesty – being clear about what is your work and where your ideas come from other sources.
• Trust – others can have faith in you being open about your work and acknowledging others’ work.
• Fairness – you do not try to gain an unfair advantage in using others’ work.
• Responsibility – you take an active role in applying the principle of Academic Integrity to your work.
• Respect – you show respect for the work of others.
Peer-support:
Students might choose to get support from their peers when preparing assessments, such as discussing the subject of the assessment, exchanging ideas, and receiving suggestions for improving the work. This is peer-support, and the University accepts this as a reasonable expectation when completing assessments. However, peers must not make any changes to anyone’s assessments as such actions could lead to allegations of academic misconduct.
Use of English as the medium of assessment:
Students cannot write an assessment in another language and subsequently translate their work into English or have it translated by any form of third-party. Use of translation software or third-party translators is a form of academic misconduct.
Artificial Intelligence (AI):
Students must write the entire assessment without using AI software such as ChatGPT. Submitting an assessment that contains any form of AI is a form of academic misconduct.
Proofreading:
Students can make use of Microsoft Word’s grammar and spell-checking functions but the use of Grammarly is not allowed as it uses AI text generation. If student’s use third-party proofreaders, these cannot make any changes that alter the assessment in anyway including correcting language or citation format errors. Third-party alterations to the assessment are a form of academic misconduct.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism can be defined as incorporating another person’s material from books, journals, the internet, another student’s work, or any other source into assessment material without acknowledgement. It includes:
• Using exactly the same words (sentences, phrases or even expressions not in everyday use, invented or created by an author to explain an idea) as used originally
• Rephrasing by making slight adjustments
• Paraphrasing in a way which may deceive the reader as to the source.
• Plagiarism in whatever form it takes is form of academic misconduct.
Collusion:
If students submit work for assessment that is falsely presented as the student’s own work but was jointly written with somebody else; this is a form of academic misconduct.
Duplication/Self-Plagiarism:
The inclusion in assessments of a significant amount of identical or substantially similar material to that already submitted for assessment by the student and graded for the same course or any other course or module at this University or elsewhere is classed as self-plagiarism. It does not include a resubmission of the same piece of work allowed by the examiners in an improved or revised form for reassessment purposes. Self-plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct.
Further clarification of the above can be found in CCCU’s Academic Misconduct documents below
1. CCCU Student Academic Misconduct Procedures can found below: Please click the link to Open.
https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/asset-library/policy-zone/Student-Academic-Misconduct-Procedures-staff-students.pdf
2. CCCU Student Academic Integrity Policy can be found below: Please click the link to Open.
https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/asset-library/policy-zone/Student-Academic-Integrity-Policy.pdf