Summative Assessments
· Assessment 1: Individual Blog, during the Autumn period (Week 12)
25% TMM
You will write a 400 word blog every three weeks. Firstly, however, you will write a formative blog in Week two. This will be collectively discussed during a live session for formative feedback. Your summative blog will then start in Week three. This individual sustainability blog will be based on the weekly topics covered on the module. You will research the weeks’ topics and upload your own blog posts to Blackboard VLE. In each post you should give examples of sustainability concepts and/or other theories covered during the previous weeks, including the week of the blog posting. Research how these concepts relate to real life business/es (you may use your own personal experience in business or other organisations).
We are looking for your ability to transfer the theories/concepts you have learnt into the real world. In each post you should explain what the examples are and then explain which aspect of sustainability it relates to.
· Assessment 2: Individual Report, during Spring term (Week 20)
40% TMM: Not more than 2,500 words
Format: this is an individual report in which students are required to form a fictional company, and also identify a major sustainability challenge facing the company. In order to do this, each student will research existing companies in a chosen industry to assess their sustainability challenges. The idea is for the students to use these case study of companies as background studies for their chosen fictional companies. You should identify five key departments within the fictional company and their role in addressing the sustainability challenge identified. Examples of key departments are Marketing, Research and Development (R&D), Finance, Operations, and Human Resources.
Aim: A strategic action plan to improve ONE sustainability challenge (NOT scandal) faced by a fictional company (*).
(*) The use of a fictional case will allow you to have greater flexibility and freedom on what you want to focus on: e.g. you can exaggerate issues without being afraid of infringing intellectual property (IP) rights.
· Assessment 3: Individual reflective essay, during Spring term (Week 24)
35% TMM: 2000 words maximum (expected average word count: 2000 words)
Following up from the individual REPORT (assessment 2), each student will have to prepare and submit an individual written reflective essay summarizing the case and detailing the role of one chosen department (out of the five departments identified in summative 2) in the overall sustainable strategy action plan. You will have to demonstrate relevant research on how one of the departments of your choice (using sustainability tools and concepts) above will contribute to the overall project developed in summative 2.
Summary of summative assessments
| Assessment Title | Weight | Length | Due | Anticipated | ||
| towards | Date | Return Date | ||||
| Final | ||||||
| grade % | ||||||
| Individual Blog | 25 | 400 words per blog | Week 12 | |||
| Individual Report | 40 | 2,500 | Week 20 | |||
| Individual Reflective Essay | 35 | 2,000 | Week 24 | |||
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Detailed description of the Summative Assessments
Summative Assessment 1: Individual Blog
Worth: 25% TMM
Focus: Individual Blog on all the topics and core concepts addressed until end of week 12.
Length: 400-word per blog, every three weeks
Instructions
· In total you must write 4 blog posts – one every three weeks from week three to week twelve. However, you will write a formative blog in Week two, which will be collectively discussed during a live session for formative feedback.
· Each blog post needs to be around 400 words. Blog posts are supposed to be concise and to the point.
· Once you have posted your blog entry you will not be able to either edit it or delete it so make sure that you are completely happy with it before you submit.
· You need 4 blogs by Friday 18th December- the end of week 12.
Marking
· Apart from the collective formative feedback in week two, on the formative blog you should submitted in week two; your seminar tutor will give you feedback on each of your blog posts in time, to inform new subsequent blogs before they are due for submission. It is important to blog regularly – every three weeks – so that your seminar tutor has something to look at and can give you feedback. If you leave all your blog posts until the last minute then you will not have any feedback to enable you to improve and it is very unlikely that you will be able to write good posts.
· Your blog will be marked as a whole at the end of the semester by your seminar tutor – you will get one grade for the whole blog rather than individual grades for each post.
i. If posts are missing then your total possible grade will be reduced accordingly. If you have submitted four satisfactory entries then your blog will be marked out of 100. For each post which is missing, your highest possible grade will be reduced by 25 marks so if you have only submitted 3 blog posts then your blog will be marked out of 75 and so on, down to zero.
The Table below provides the assessment criteria and the indicative weighting of each criteria regarding SUMMATIVE 1 (Individual Blog):
| Grade | Marking Criteria and Weighting | ||
| Choice of Example 30% Use of Theory 45% Style and Presentation 25% |
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| 90-100 Common Assessment Scale 8 |
Expertly chosen examples which are justified and meaningful for the student and are critiqued to a professional standard. | Demonstrates a highly professional level of critical analysis extending beyond the module confines. | The blog posts are of a publishable standard with regards to presentation. |
| 80-89 Common Assessment Scale 7 |
Outstanding examples applied and evidence of justification and critique evident. | Exceptional analysis and critique of theory offering recommendations throughout. | Superior level of presentation evident in all blog posts. |
| 70-79 Common Assessment Scale 6 |
Consistent choice of excellent, relevant examples all based on students’ personal experience rather than on internet research, with discussion that moves consistently beyond description into critique and analysis. | Blog posts should be about 50/50 balanced between theory and practice. Students should be confidently applying detailed elements of each week’s theory to their own example and including in their discussion some element of analysis and/or critique – what worked well / didn’t work / why was or wasn’t the sustainability example successful? | Professional presentation with good attention to detail throughout. Clear evidence of thought paid to blog presentation as well as to content. Engagingly written and judiciously edited. |
| 60-69 Common Assessment Scale 5 |
At this level examples should be consistently very good and relevant, from students’ own experience and with some element of critique in the application of theory to practice. | To be graded at this level we would expect to see students using slightly more sophisticated elements of each week’s theory. Students may also be introducing some element of critique into their writing at this level. | Very good, professional-looking presentation with clear attention paid to elements such as spelling, layout and so on. Evidence that thought has gone into how to make the post visually appealing, and posts supported with relevant background materials. |
| 50-59 Common Assessment Scale 4 |
At this level students should be consistently choosing relevant examples which relate directly to their own personal experience rather than something they’ve just researched on the internet. | Application of theory to practice may still be fairly simplistic but must have moved beyond a purely list-based approach. They should be making a reasonable attempt to link the theory to their particular example. | A reasonable level of attention to presentational detail – few typos, presentational errors etc. Some thought given to blog titles, use of formatting such as subheadings, images, embedded videos etc. |
| 40-49 Common Assessment Scale 3 |
At this level students should be at least choosing a broadly relevant example each week. Examples may lack a personal element and be more focused on something they saw on the internet rather than something they directly experienced. Blogs may still tend towards the anecdotal but there must at least be some mention of theory even if its application is poor. | At this level students’ application of theory to practice is likely to be fairly basic and simplistic perhaps taking a purely list-based approach, however they must at least have made some mention of theory. | Style / spelling / presentation etc. may be fairly poor at this level but we would expect to see that students have at least made some effort towards thinking up interesting blog post titles, and formatting their posts appropriately. |
| 30-39 Common Assessment Scale 2 |
Posts may include poor examples that don’t relate to each week’s topic. The student may be repeatedly posting about the same topics (the ‘advert of the week’ approach to blogging) or simply using the blog to rehash what they learnt in the lecture with no additional elements that they themselves have added. | Very limited application of theory to the example, or very poor application of theory to practice indicating a complete lack of understanding of the theory. The posts may purely be exercises in storytelling and anecdotes rather than an application of theory to practice. | Little attention paid to style or presentational issues – for example this might include poor spelling, many typos, bad grammar, lack of editing, no images, and poor blog titles etc. |
| 11-29 Common Assessment Scale 1 |
Limited examples chosen but no link to the topic and no justification provided. | Purely descriptive work with no application of theory. | Extremely poor attempts made to present the blogs properly with sloppy errors throughout. |
| 0-10 Common Assessment Scale 0 |
No attempt made to include any examples. | No theory mentioned and nothing provided that in any way links to the topic. | No attention paid at all to present the blogs correctly. |
Summative Assessment 2: Individual Report
Worth 40% TMM
Length 2,500 words
Format
This is an individual report in which students are required to form a fictional company, and also identify a major sustainability challenge facing the company. In order to do this, each student will research existing companies in a chosen industry to assess their sustainability challenges. The idea is for the students to use these case study of companies as background studies for their chosen fictional companies.
Aim: A strategic action plan to improve ONE sustainability challenge (NOT scandal) faced by a fictional company (*).
(*) The use of a fictional case will allow you to have greater flexibility and freedom on what you want to focus on: e.g. you can exaggerate issues without being afraid of infringing intellectual property (IP) rights.
Research process: In order to develop your fictional company, you are expected to do an adequate amount of analytical research of existing companies within a chosen sector, in order to identify the major sustainability challenges they face. For instance, if you decide to develop a fictional car company, then you are expected to draw ideas from existing car companies such as Volkswagen, Ford, Mazda, etc. Or if you wish to develop a case on fashion retail, you will draw ideas from companies such as Zara, H&M, etc.
You have to focus on a Sustainability procedural, operational, or mindset issue identified as a matter of business priority; ‘scandals’ are not accepted in this assignment.
So, as initial research process, you are expected to:
i. Select the sector
ii. Select a few companies within that sector to inform your analysis. You will have to acknowledge and list all the companies you drew ideas from in a formal written Disclaimer at the start or at the end of the presentation.
iii. Research and list the major sustainability issues these companies & sector are facing
iv. Inspired on the cases analyzed, build your fictional company. This should include sections such as the company’s vision and mission; objectives; five key departments within the company and their role in addressing the sustainability challenge identified.(e.g. Marketing, Research and Development (R&D), Finance, Operations, Human Resources) ; and mid/to long-term strategic plan of the company. More support and specific guidelines on individual roles and group synergy will be provided in the seminars/scheduled tutorials.
INDICATIVE STRUCTURE:
1. Brief overview of case
Start with a brief overview of the fictional company’s vision, aims and objectives and the identified challenge to address. Provide an overview of the case study companies researched, including their sustainability challenges presented as materiality matrices. This should be followed by your own fictional company’s sustainability challenges, and then identify the (ONE) most pressing of the challenges you aim to tackle. This should be summarised as a materiality chart (materiality matrix).
2. Strategic plan
Propose a strategic plan to improve the sustainability issue identified. Use a visual project chart and timeline (e.g. a Gantt chart) to briefly identify the milestones to be achieved. Do not overdo the number of milestones: this is an exercise, so two or three milestones are more than enough to demonstrate that you know how to apply the basic management tools used in a project. Remember to identify which TASKS will have to be accomplished to contribute to each of the identified milestone, how long and specifically when the overall project and each task take place. Justify the tasks identified using general management and sustainability concepts and tools (frameworks, models, metrics, procedures, etc. such as: SMART, or TROPICS, or a Sustainability model such as Silvius and Schipper’s, or The Phase Model by Dunphy, Griffiths and Benn, or any other model you like) that will be relevant to apply during the planning, implementation and monitoring of each task. Explain how the change will be monitored and evaluated: i.e. the list of the key performance indicators (KPIs) and other measures that will help check the progress of the overall sustainable strategy action plan.
3. Material and human resources need
Identify the material resources (equipment, raw material, energy, water, logistics, etc.) that will be required per task, with an estimate budget (rough estimate but as realistic as possible)
Identify the human resources/human capital that will be required per task, with an estimate budget set as [person-month] This is the equivalent of how many hours per month out of their own stipulated contract hours will each person be directly involved working in this project, with the estimated cost (depending on their salary). Example: if you need person B to be involved 2 days per week over the next 7 months in this project (i.e. a total of 2 days x 4 weeks x 7 months = 56 hours overall, and taking into account that the person’s salary is £30,000 per year (= roughly 575 per week = roughly 19 per hour) then, in the overall budget, this person B will account for an expense of £1064.
4. Final remarks
Write a relevant set of final remarks, and ideally setting new targets for further developments for the
department/company in the near future.
Marking criteria:
The Table below provides the assessment criteria and the indicative weighting of each criteria regarding SUMMATIVE 2 (Individual Report):
| MARKING CRITERIA | Indicative % |
| FOR SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT 2 | weighting |
| (Individual Report) | |
| Demonstrated analysis and development of the fictional case | 30 |
| Application of relevant sustainability concepts and tools (e.g. concepts, | 30 |
| frameworks, models, indicators, etc.) | |
| Structure and coherence of the presentation, and alignment with the requirements | 15 |
| Demonstrated evaluation of the feasibility of the action plan, and insightful use of relevant arguments sustaining the plan | 15 |
| Bibliography and Acknowledgements | 10 |
Reminder: IF you include a section called ‘Conclusion’, OR if you write ‘IN conclusion..’ or ‘To conclude…’
you will be penalized -2%. You may use a final section named ‘Concluding remarks’, for example.
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Summative Assessment 3: Individual Reflective Essay (based on Summative 2)
Worth 35% TMM
Format: Individual Reflective Essay
Length: 2000 words maximum (expected average word count: 2000 words)
Part 1:
Following up from the individual REPORT (assessment 2), each student will have to prepare and submit an individual written reflective essay summarizing the case and detailing the role of one chosen department (out of the five departments identified in summative 2) in the overall sustainable strategy action plan. You will have to demonstrate relevant research on how one of the departments of your choice (using sustainability tools and concepts) above will contribute to the overall project developed in summative 2.
Part 2: You will also reflect on the overall project. Your reflection will include the following:
· Description – What is the concept, idea or theory you are reflecting on?
· Analysis – Are there aspects you found particularly interesting or challenging? Does it tie in with anything you have learned in the past? Has it changed the way you think, or affirmed something you already knew?
· Outcomes or Action – What else might you need to find out? Do you have any questions? How might you incorporate or apply these ideas in the future, perhaps in your professional life?
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The Table below provides the assessment criteria and the indicative weighting of each criteria regarding SUMMATIVE 3 (Individual Reflective Essay):
| MARKING CRITERIA | Indicative |
| FOR SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT 3 | % |
| (Individual Report) | weighting |
| Coherence and consistency of the overall essay, including summary of Summative 2 | 15 |
| Clear analysis of the role and contribution of the chosen department’s contribution to the aim and objectives of the fictional company | 25 |
| Demonstrated understanding and application of sustainability concepts and | 25 |
| tools to inform best practice | |
| Reflection | 25 |
| Bibliography and Acknowledgements | 10 |
Mapping of assessment tasks for the module
| Assessment tasks | Module Learning outcomes | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||||||||||||||||
| Assessment 1: Individual Blog | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Assessment 2: Individual Report | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||||
| Assessment 3: Individual Reflective Essay | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||||
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Note: We use Regent’s Common Assessment Scale as follows
| Band | Conversion scale for UG Programmes | Conversion scale for PG Programmes | Generic descriptors |
| 8 | 90 – 100 | 90 – 100 | All learning outcomes and task specifications have been achieved to an exceptionally high standard (according to the level of study). The outcome of the assessment task is presentable in a professional context and may extend practical or theoretical knowledge in the field. It displays an exceptionally high level of understanding, evaluation, insight, analysis, reflection and/or criticality (according to the level of study), and connections are developed both within and beyond the task set. The work’s organisation, structure and presentation are developed to an exceptionally high standard. |
| 7 | 80 – 89 | 80 – 89 | All learning outcomes and task specifications have been achieved to an outstanding standard (according to the level of study). The outcome of the assessment demonstrates an outstanding display of understanding, exploration, evaluation, insight, analysis, reflection, criticality and/or research (according to the level of study). Connections are developed both within and beyond the task set. The work’s organisation, structure and presentation are developed to an outstanding standard. |
| 6 | 70 – 79 | 70 – 79 | All learning outcomes and task specifications have been achieved to high standard (according to the level of study). The outcome of the assessment demonstrates an excellent display of understanding, exploration, evaluation, insight analysis, reflection, criticality and/or research (according to the level of study), and connections are developed both within and beyond the task set. The work’s organisation, structure and presentation may be developed to an excellent standard. |
| 5 | 60 – 69 | 60 – 69 | All learning outcomes have been achieved at a good and some to a very good standard (according to the level of study). The outcome of the assessment demonstrates a very good level of understanding, exploration, evaluation, analysis, reflection, criticality, some insight and/or very good research (according to the level of study), and connections are established within the task set, and in some cases reaching beyond. The work’s organisation, structure and presentation may be developed to a very good standard. |
| 4 | 50 – 59 | 55 – 59 | Most learning outcomes have been met at a good standard (according to the level of study). The outcome of the assessment demonstrates a good understanding, exploration, evaluation, analysis, and some reflection, criticality and/or appropriate research. (According to the level of study) The work’s organisation, structure and presentation may be appropriately developed. |
| 3 | 40 – 49 | 50 – 54 | All learning outcomes have been met to a minimum satisfactory standard (according to the level of study). The outcome of the assessment shows an adequate understanding, of major ideas, with little insight and basic research. Limited level of analysis, reflection and/or criticality (according to the level of study). The outcome of the task shows ability to paraphrase concepts and theories, with limited ability to make connections. The work may be disorganised, and the structure and presentation may be barely adequate. |
| 2 | 30 – 39 | 36 – 49 | Most learning outcomes have almost been met, whilst the rest have not (according to the level of study). The outcome of the assessment shows a limited understanding of major ideas, with little insight, very basic research, and very limited ability to make connections. No analysis, reflection and/or criticality (according to the level of study) The work may be disorganised, and the structure and presentation may be barely adequate. |
| 1 | 11 – 29 | 21 – 35 | The majority of the learning outcomes have not been met (according to the Level). The outcome of the assessment task is incomplete, flawed, very limited and/or presents significant inaccuracies. The outcome of the assessment shows very limited understanding with no insight, and very limited ability to make connections within basic ideas in the field, very fragmented. Lacks research. No analysis, reflection or criticality (according to the level of study) The work is disorganised, and unstructured. Presentation is barely adequate. |
| 0 | 0 – 10 | 0 – 20 | None of the learning outcomes have been met. The task has not been addressed by the student, or there is no assessable task. The outcome of the assessment shows no understanding of basic ideas, with no insight and shows no ability to make connections within basic ideas in the field, or the connections are completely irrelevant. Lacks research. No understanding, analysis, reflection nor criticality. The work completely lacks organisation and structure. Presentation is completely inadequate. |
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