E2024

International Bachelor Study Programme in Social Science

basic project

English

Studerende på 1. semester bliver automatisk tilmeldt. Hvis du skal tage kurset igen, og ikke går på 1. semester, skal du kontakte sib-exams@ruc.dk.

Students on their 1st semester will be registered automatically. If you are taking the course again and are not on your 1st semester, please contact sib-exams@ruc.dk.

Basic project 1 provides students with the core academic tools for doing project work. The project is academically anchored in social sciences and the students must identify a social science problem, which they qualify in their problem formulation with references to existing literature.

In Basic Project 1, the students are introduced to academic practices such as reading academic literatur, correct referencing and the students must learn how to do a literature review.

Furthermore, Basic Project 1 is supported by Basic Course 3 Social Science Methods (see Moodle for more information), where students are introduced to some of the methodological tools that they use in their project work.

The semester starts with an introduction to the project, the methods course and the subject courses, where the SIB coordinator and the course leaders explain how the semester's courses and the project are connected.

The students will be taught how to work with the project's learning objectives and to identify themes that they are interested in exploring further in a project. Students are also taught various project competences to strengthen their project group collaboration.

During the intensive days, known as project formation, the students work with different themes and issues that they may want to investigate during the semester. During the project formation, the individual student identifies a societal issue that they will investigate further together with 3-6 other students, with whom they form a project group.

The students in the project group alternate between working independently on different elements of projects, working in the project group and meeting with the supervisor. The supervisor gives feedback to the group based on the written material the project group has submitted prior to meeting. The supervisor may also ask about the dynamics between the members of the project group.

A student is expected to work 405 hours on a 15 ECTS project.

The 405 hours include semester introduction, project formation, workshop and group project work, including problem area seminar and internal evaluation.

The group project work entails literature search, reading and literature review, preparing feedback, supervision meetings, group project meetings, writing the project report, exams etc.

Each member of the project group is expected to work 405 hours on the project.

The project group in collaboration with the supervisor will identify the reading that will be used in the project report.

Feedback is an important part of the project work and takes place in different ways throughout the project.

Peer-to-peer feedback occurs continously in the project group, for example when the students discuss some of the literature they have read, or when the project group talks about the empirical data collection and analysis. The project collaboration is essentially about giving and receiving feedback.

The supervisor is also an important source of feedback. Initially, the supervisor provides feedback on the group's project ideas and problem formulations. Later the supervisor provides feedback on the literature review, theory, methods and analysis. Feedback is given both through supervision meetings and written comments on drafts.

The students actively participate in the mid-term evaluation where they give feedback to another project group and receive feedback from this group and another supervisor. This feedback helps to qualify the project work and help the project group move forward with the project.

The students receive exam feedback that they can use in future project work.

Moreover, the Study Board regularly evaluates the project. Here, the students' evaluation is important for developing the project in relation to the learning objectives and the project process.

Helene Dyrhauge (dyrhauge@ruc.dk)

SIB Registration & Exams (sib-exams@ruc.dk)

Helene Dyrhauge (dyrhauge@ruc.dk)
Tatiana Fogelman (fogelman@ruc.dk)

15

• Knowledge

  • Knowledge about the role and the function of the problem formulation in the problem orientated project work
  • Understanding of the different elements in the project report, with focus on problem area, problem formulation, research/project design and academic literature
  • Understanding of the relevant social scientific literature within the chosen problem area

• Skills

  Understanding and application of social scientific literature:

  • To cite correctly and to compile bibliography. To make a relevant literature review and account for how the chosen literature is relevant for the problem formulation
  • To understand how the social scientific literature can be used in different ways in the project
  • To identify relevant sources of data and evaluate their validity in relation to the problem formulation

  Understanding of problem formulation:

  • To define and answer a problem formulation within a defined social scientific field
  • To formulate a thorough research design, which explains how the project will answer the problem formulation

• Compentences

  • Competence in completing a problem orientated pilot project in collaboration with other students and a supervisor
  • Competence in making a process evaluation of the project work
  • Knowledge about different forms of academic feedback

The purpose of the project work is to introduce the student to the problem oriented project work. The students have to write a project which develop, justify and examine a social scientific problem formulation using scientific literature. The class finds a common theme for their project work.

It is a prerequisite for participating in the project exam BP1 that the student has participated in the midterm evaluation.

If the student do not participate in the midterm evaluation then the student must write an individual assignment that must be approved by a supervisor.

The written assignment must be maximum 4.800 characters in length, including spaces. The size specifications include the cover, table of contents, bibliography, figures and other illustrations, but exclude any appendices.

The main teaching method consists of project supervision, where each project group meets with their assigned supervisor for individual appointments.

The project supervision is complemented by a project supporting process which includes the following elements:

1. Project formation
2. Three project workshops
3. Midterm evaluation
4. Study portfolio

The specific content of the individual elements of the project supporting process will be published in Moodle

Project

Oral group exam for the participants in the project.

The starting point for the oral exam is the project report and any supplementary material. The exam includes individual presentations within one of the topics selected by the examiner, which will be communicated to the students no later than 3 working days prior to the exam. Each individual presentation including questions may last up to 5 minutes. A dialogue between the student(s) and the assessors about the project, will be conducted after the individual presentation(s).

There may be posed questions related to the subject area of the project report and the attached study portfolio.

The assessment is individual and is based on the project report, any additional material and the student´s oral performance.

Permitted group size: 3-6 students.

The character limits of the project report are:
For 3 students: 60,000-100,800 characters, including spaces.
For 4 students: 81,600-122,400 characters, including spaces.
For 5 students: 81,600-122,400 characters, including spaces.
For 6 students: 108,000-141,600 characters, including spaces.
The character limits include the cover, table of contents, summary, bibliography, figures and other illustrations, but exclude appendices.

The project report must include a summary in English, that is part of the assessment and a group based study portfolio.

Time allowed for the exam including time used for assessment is for:
3 students: 75 minutes.
4 students: 90 minutes.
5 students: 105 minutes.
6 students: 120 minutes.

Writing and spelling skills in the project report are part of the assessment and will count for 10 percent.

Permitted support and preparation materials at the oral exam: All

Assessment: 7-point grading scale
Moderation: Internal co-assessor.

Samme som ordinær eksamen / same form as ordinary exam