BB4401 Business Information Analysis

Assignment Task

Write a report that presents a collection of statements, each supported by a clear rationale, and an appropriate analysis of the relevant student survey data that is then used to either confirm or reject each statement. You should then draw conclusions and, if appropriate, suggest recommendations for each statement based on your results.

There is not a fixed number of statements that you should investigate. You are only limited by the maximum word length for the report. A good report will include a variety of statistical analyses and thus you should try to avoid using multiple statements that require the same type of analysis to be applied.

The data is presented in SurveyResponses2021.xlsx.

Produce Web pages that present three of your statements, rationales, analyses and conclusions/recommendations from your report. The Web pages should be written using valid HTML and CSS and should include an introduction page that has links to the pages that present the three statements with their rationales, analyses and conclusions/recommendations.

You must submit a single Word document using the digital dropbox by 9:00 on Friday,

19 March 2021.

The document should include:

•   the report which should be no longer than 3000 words in length (excluding appendices);

•   the HTML and CSS code for the Web pages which should be presented in the appendices. The report must include:

•   a title page.

•   a contents page.

•    an introduction that introduces the content of the report and its structure. (Note that this should be written once the other sections of the report have been completed.)

•    a statements section which includes a collection of subsections each of which focuses on one of the statements. This section should be presented as follows:

2. Statements

2.1 ...Put you first statement here...

2.1.1 Rationale

2.1.2 Analysis

2.1.3 Conclusions/Recommendations

2.2 ...Put your second statement here...

2.2.1 Rationale

2.2.2 Analysis

2.2.3 Conclusions / Recommendations

•    a collection of appropriate charts. These must be correctly referenced and titled and be presented within the margins of the text.

•   appendices which include the HTML and CSS code for your Web pages.

Background/Context

In developing the report you should make use of Excel and its functionality, and appropriate descriptive statistics. Your analyses should be well thought through, with a clear explanation of:

•   why you have undertaken a particular analysis

•   the conclusion(s) you may draw from its results

You are encouraged to write clear statements some of which may require the analysis of single data sets such as the age of students and others that highlight differences between various categories of data such as the proportion of students of different ages intending to do a placement. Here are some example statements:

•   Financial Accounting is the most popular module

•   Students who live in halls of residence attend the university more frequently than those who don’t live in halls of residence

For each statement you should:

•    provide a clear rationale for its inclusion in the report. That is, describe why you believe it to be true before undertaking the analysis and why it is useful information to know

•   apply the appropriate descriptive statistics

•   report on the results

•   confirm or reject the statement based on the results of the analysis

•   derive relevant conclusions and recommendations from the analysis.

You are encouraged to develop new statements based on the analysis and conclusions of an existing statement. For example, in analysing the statement Students who live in halls of residence attend the university more frequently than those who don’t live in halls of residence you may discover that the distance from the university is an additional factor. This may lead to an analysis based on the following statement Students who live in halls of residence at Kingston Hill attend the university more frequently than those who don’t live in halls of residence at Kingston Hill.

Allocation of Marks

Avoiding plagiarism

When you write an essay, report or dissertation you should always cite the published sources to which you quote, refer to or use as evidence, otherwise you are likely to be committing plagiarism, which is a form of academic misconduct with potentially very serious consequences. References need to be made both within the text and in a list at the end.

The aim in doing this is to ensure that somebody reading your work can easily find these sources for themselves. This applies to whether you are using a book, a report, a journal article or an Internet site. You will probably know from your own experience how much easier it is to find a reference when a reading list or bibliography is clear and unambiguous.There is help available from the library and online, including a range of videos such as those given below:

https://mykingston.kingston.ac.uk/library/help_and_training/Pages/referencing.aspx.

http://www.citethemrightonline.com/basics

Do remember you can submit your work as many times as you like before the final deadline. It is a good idea to check your Originality Report and ensure that any potential plagiarism is eradicated for your work by rewriting in your own words and referencing correctly. The staff on the BLASC desk in the LRC will be able to advise on this. Here you can find out how to access your Originality Report:

https://studyspace.kingston.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/institution/Support/Student_Guide_to_Turnitin_v2.pdf?target=blank

Additional helpful resources can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yYf8AihndI

The best way to avoid academic misconduct or plagiarism is to use your own words at all times; do not cut and paste from other work.

Illness or other mitigating circumstances

By submitting an assignment you are declaring yourself fit to take the assessment therefore please make sure that if you are unwell you understand our mitigating circumstances process. The most important thing to do is keep us informed if you are experiencing problems! See our regulations on this link: http://www.kingston.ac.uk/aboutkingstonuniversity/howtheuniversityworks/policiesandregulatio ns

Group work and academic misconduct

Work submitted by a group is the responsibility of the group as a whole. In the unfortunate event of the work being judged to have been plagiarised, the only circumstance in which it is possible that the responsibility for the misconduct would only fall on the group member who actually committed it, would be if there were clear evidence that that member had dishonestly misled the rest of the group as to the source of his her contribution. This would require clear and contemporaneous evidence of group discussions of the sort which should be available if groups follow the advice given about keeping a log of group proceedings. If the group work is simply allocated amongst the members of the group without any sort of group review of the outcomes, then all the group members are taking on themselves the risk that some element of the work is tainted by academic misconduct. If you are unclear about any of this, you should refer to the University’s guide to Plagiarism for further explanation.