The Assessment Task

Owning and maintaining a digital business gives entrepreneurs the freedom to make money from anywhere in the world. The idea is enticing, and more possible than ever before. In this assignment, you are required to develop a digital business idea using the business model canvas, create a digital artefact in the form of a pre-recorded 10-minutes business pitch appropriate for board level audience.

List of tasks to consider:

Conduct and initial assessment of the industry you have selected and the needs of its consumers, then consider the market niche that your new business is applicable to.
Carry out simple competitive analysis to predict how the digital business will stand up against competitors in the
Create a simple business plan presenting customer segments, sources of finance, key activities, and key
Develop the final product and a marketing strategy including the application of various online
Produce a video reporting pitching your ideas to a board of investors

N.B: To record your video, use the media capture tool “Kaltura Capture”. Here is the guide for submitting audio or video to Kaltura, and also how to submit it into NILE: https://askus.northampton.ac.uk/Learntech/faq/180772

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this assessment, you will be able to:

Assess the contribution made by digital technologies towards developing competitive advantage in organisations, and their disruptive potential, in different
Critically analyse the opportunities, challenges and legal responsibilities associated with digital technologies and their impact on organisations and
Effectively communicate complex information, selecting and using appropriate digital tools appropriate for specialist and non-specialist

Your grade will depend on the extent to which you meet these learning outcomes in the way relevant for this assessment. Please see the grading rubric on NILE for further details of the criteria against which you will be assessed.

Assessment Support

Specific support sessions for this assessment will be provided by the module team and notified through NILE. You can also access individual support and guidance for your assessments from Library and Learning Services. Visit the Skills Hub to access this support and to discover the online support also available for assessments and academic skills.

Academic Integrity and Misconduct

Unless this is a group assessment, the work you produce must be your own, with work taken from any other source properly referenced and attributed. For the avoidance of doubt this means that it is an infringement of academic integrity and, therefore, academic misconduct to ask someone else to carry out all or some of the work for you, whether paid or unpaid, or to use the work of another student whether current or previously submitted.

For further guidance on what constitutes plagiarism, contract cheating or collusion, or any other infringement of academic integrity, please read the University’s Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy. Also useful resources to help with understanding academic integrity are available from UNPAC – the University of Northampton’s Plagiarism Avoidance Course.

N.B. The penalties for academic misconduct are severe and include failing the assessment, failing the module and even expulsion from the university.

Assessment Submission

To submit your work, please go to the ‘Submit your work’ area on the NILE site and use the relevant submission point to upload your report. The deadline for this is 11.59pm (UK local time) on the date of submission. Please note that essays and text-based reports should be submitted as word documents and not PDFs or Mac files.

Written work submitted to TURNITIN will be subject to anti-plagiarism detection software. Turnitin checks student work for possible textual matches against internet available resources and its own proprietary database.

When you upload your work correctly to TURNITIN you will receive a receipt which is your record and proof of submission. If your assessment is not submitted to TURNITIN, rather than a receipt, you will see a green banner at the top of the screen that denotes successful submission.

N.B Work emailed directly to your tutor will not be marked.

Late submission of work

For first sits, if an item of assessment is submitted late and an extension has not been granted, the following will apply:

Within one week of the original deadline – work will be marked and returned with full feedback, and awarded a maximum bare pass
More than one week from original deadline – grade achievable LG (L indicating late).

For resist there are no allowances for work submitted late and it will be treated as a non- submission.

Please see the Assessment and Feedback Policy for full information on the processes related to assessment, grading and feedback, including anonymous grading. You will also find the generic grading criteria for achievement at University Grading Criteria. Also explained there are the meanings of the various G grades at the bottom of the grading scale including LG mentioned above.

Extensions

The University of Northampton’s general policy with regard to extensions is to be supportive of students who have genuine difficulties, but not against pressures of work that could have reasonably been anticipated.

For full details please refer to the Extensions Policy. Extensions are only available for first sits – they are not available for resist.

Mitigating Circumstances

For guidance on Mitigating circumstances please go to Mitigating Circumstances where you will find detailed guidance on the policy as well as guidance and the form for making an application.

Please note, however, that an application to defer an assessment on the grounds of mitigating circumstances should normally be made in advance of the submission deadline or examination date.

Feedback and Grades

These can be accessed through clicking on the Feedback and Grades tab on NILE. Feedback will be provided by a rubric with summary comments.