Effectiveness of E-learning for healthcare professionals

You are required to write a Research Project Plan. This is an individual assignment that can be developed in consultation with your proposed research project supervisor.
Based on a review of current literature in your chosen field, the Research Project Plan introduces the context of your research problem, identifies the knowledge gap you will be addressing and states your research question. It will also establish the project aims, objectives and deliverable; and provide the rationale behind your research design -i.e. your choices of research philosophy and approach to theory development, and their influence on the research strategy and methodology. The process you will follow has to be outlined indicating the project phases, tasks, resources, etc. Risks, as well as potential ethical, professional, social and legal issues are identified in the Plan.
This assignment is worth 15% of the total mark for the module. The word guidance is 2500 (±10%).
The Assignment
The objective of this assignment is to allow you to develop a Research Project Plan. The indicative content is as follows:
Working title. Describes breath/depth of the topic.
Introduction and justification. Explain the research problem you will address, its background and rationale -gaps in current knowledge, core issues, possible applications, etc.
Research question, aims, objectives and deliverable. Establish a focused research question that addresses the research problem identified. State the aim of the project -i.e. the overall vision of what the project will achieve. List the objectives that will lead you to answer the research question. State the deliverable: a sentence describing the output of the research project, e.g. application, prototype, recommendations, model, theory, design, animation, computer game, etc. Clearly identify the beneficiaries of your deliverable.
Literature review. Undertake a literature search for your topic and write a critical review that shows how your research question fits with the debate in current research and development literature.
Research Design. Identify and evaluate approaches to research that might be used to answer the research question and fulfil the objectives. Discuss alternative research strategies and methodologies and potential choices. Development/implementation decisions (re tools, techniques, models, software, architectures, development environments, equipment, etc.) should be discussed; as well as data collection and analysis decisions (e.g. data gathering techniques -interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, observations, etc.).
Ethics, risks and Issues. Identify and discuss what resources you will need in order to complete the project; any potential risks and mitigation measures you can anticipate; as well as any professional, social, ethical and legal issues of relevance to the research.
Time plan. A list of steps which explain how the research objectives will be achieved. Each objective will have one or more associated tasks. Estimate how long each task will take and plan how the research will be achieved in the time available. You will also need to identify project milestones. This plan can be presented in the form of a Gantt chart.
Assignment length
The maximum length of the sections in your assignment is indicated below:
Research Skills and Dissertation (55-706556-AF-20)
1 Working title 15 words
2 Introduction and justification 150 words
3 Research question, aims, objectives and deliverable 150 words

4 Literature review 1000 words

5 Research Design 1000 words

6 Ethics, risks and Issues 200 words

7 Gantt Chart

8 References (in full APA style) 9
Appendix A: Completed Research Ethics Form 10
Other appendices
Assessment Criteria
Clarity and rationale of research problem; degree of difficulty and relevance for own MSc Course. 10%
Clear identification and articulation of research question, aims, objectives and deliverable. 15%
Completeness and relevance of the literature review, and appropriateness of its use. 25%
Critical assessment of alternative approaches to research and suitability of choices made. 25%
Clear, appropriate and critical evaluation and reflection of ethics, risks and other issues associated to the research project. 15%
Completeness, suitability and attainability of Gantt Chart. %
Submission details
This is an individual assignment. Your report should be submitted as one document and processed in PDF or MS Word formats. Please use the structure template provided -no name, no marks!
The normal regulations for the submission of work apply, for further details see: http://students.shu.ac.uk/rightsrules/regs.html
For this submission you will find two links on the module’s Blackboard site under the Assessment tab, you must submit the final copy of your assignment to both: