CQUniversity Unit Profile.

You will be given data sets for statistical tests covered in the unit. You will be required to enter the data into SPSS, analyse these data and write up the statistical program output in brief APA style. There will be three data sets which form your portfolio. However, you are required to submit each component of the portfolio at designated submission dates to scaffold your learning and enable you to benefit from feedback. The first component (one-way ANOVA) is due in Week 6 and is worth 15% of the unit marks. The second component (factorial ANOVA) is due in Week 8 and is worth 19% of the unit marks. The third component (multiple regression and ANCOVA) is due in Week 12 and is worth 16% of the unit marks. 

You must pass Assessment 1 with 50% to be eligible to pass the whole unit. 

Level of GenAI use allowed:
Level 3: You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use.
You are not permitted to use GenAI to automatically generate statistical output. 

If you use GenAI you should reference it appropriately. For the portfolio this may not necessarily require an in-text citation but any use of GenAI should be included in a reference list. For style requirements please see relevant documents produced by the ALC at CQUniversity (e.g., Guidelines for Referencing Large Language Models or Artificial Intelligence in Your Assignments) and chapter 10 (section 10) of the latest APA Publication Manual. As this is a rapidly evolving field, you are also advised to consult the online APA Style Blog, e.g., https://apastyle.apa.org/blog.

Component 1. 

One-Way ANOVA. Marks will be distributed among the following criteria: appropriate analysis (1), assumption testing (2), correct interpretation of statistical output (3), statistics written concisely in APA format (2), effect size (2), accuracy of data entry / SPSS data file uploaded (3), accuracy of figures / SPSS output file uploaded (2). 15 marks awarded in total. WORD RANGE 250-400.

Component 2.

Factorial ANOVA. Marks will be distributed among the following criteria: appropriate analysis (2), assumption testing (3), correct interpretation of statistical output (4), statistics written concisely in APA format (2), effect size (3), accuracy of data entry / SPSS data file uploaded (3), accuracy of figures / SPSS output file uploaded (2). 19 marks awarded in total. WORD RANGE 300-500.

Component 3.

Multiple Regression. Marks will be distributed among the following criteria: appropriate analysis (1), assumption testing (4), correct interpretation of statistical output (3), statistics written concisely in APA format (2). effect size (2), accuracy of figures / SPSS output file uploaded (1). 13 marks awarded in total. WORD RANGE 250-450.

ANCOVA. There will be two short answer questions. You will need to a) provide a logical rationale for implementing an ANCOVA; b) provide suggestions for an alternative analysis / design if the statistical assumptions for an ANCOVA are not met. 3 marks awarded in total. WORD RANGE 75-150. 

You will be given a transcript from a fictitious interview on the topic of student mental health. You will undertake Experiential Thematic Analysis upon the transcript. This will involve the following steps: 1) familiarise yourself fully with the transcript, 2) code the transcript and find a pattern in your coding that can be presented in the form of one overarching theme, two themes and three sub-themes, 3) You will present these types of themes in a graphical figure along with a written description of the relationship between the different types of themes you have identified, 4) you will provide a written explanation of the overarching theme, one theme and one sub-theme using a balance of analytic commentary and appropriately cited data extracts. Your written submission will show steps 3-4 (steps 1 and 2 are not submitted).

You must pass Assessment 2 with 50% to be eligible to pass the whole unit. 

Level of GenAI use allowed:
Level 3: You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use.

The use of GenAI is permitted for some aspects of the assignment but not for other aspects (see below). More detailed guidance will be given within the assessment support materials provided during tutorials and via Moodle. Note, the reason you may not use AI to generate themes from the transcript is that it is antithetical to the type of qualitative analysis that you will be using - you will be expected to use your own subjectivity to inform your analysis. Moreover, if you use AI, your subjectivity is excluded and there is a very real risk your analysis can go very wrong and can feel synthetic.

For this assessment, you may use GenAI to help you:

Supplement teaching resources provided on the unit to help you further understand the concepts discussed (such as those related to how to undertake the type of thematic analysis described by Braun and Clarke) as well as finding and understanding background literature and resources related to big Q qualitative analysis.
Check the grammar, punctuation, and syntax of your written work.
Enhance the vocabulary of your writing and submitted assessment.
Manage the word count of the assessment.
Find or create individual images or symbols that you use in your overall visualisation / graphical representation.

You are not permitted to use GenAI to:

Help you identify codes or themes when undertaking your analysis.
Generating summaries of the interview or extracting examples from the transcript to illustrate your chosen themes.
Generate your overall final visualisation / graphical representation of your analysis. 
If you use GenAI you should reference it appropriately. For the thematic analysis this may not necessarily require an in-text citation but any use of Gen AI should be included in a reference list. For style requirements please see relevant documents produced by the ALC at CQUniversity (e.g., Guidelines for Referencing Large Language Models or Artificial Intelligence in Your Assignments) and chapter 10 (section 10) of the latest APA Publication Manual. As this is a rapidly evolving field, you are also advised to consult the online APA Style Blog, e.g., https://apastyle.apa.org/blog.

You will be assessed on your evidence of having undertaken a systematic and thorough process of qualitative data analysis that results in a convincing and compelling interpretation of the data. This will be assessed using the following four criteria: 1) balancing analytic commentary against data extracts (citing direct quotes from the transcript) in a professional format, 2) constructing an analytic commentary that provides original and novel insights into the meaning of the data, 3) capturing both overt and latent levels of meaning, 4) defending against alternative plausible interpretations of the data.

WORD LIMIT: Your submission must be no more than 800 words (inclusive of data extracts, data citations, text used in figures and headings). Any words over that limit will not be read or assessed by your marker. See the Psychology Word Count Information document for a rationale for this type of word limit restriction.

You will conduct and record an individual interview with a classmate using Zoom software. Your tutor will allocate you to a group and you will then be responsible for arranging an interview with one classmate from that group. You will be provided with a research topic and a research question and you will be responsible for formulating your interview questions. The interview should be no shorter than 20 minutes and no longer than 40 minutes. You will need to schedule the interview to take place during Week 6. You will be responsible for scheduling the interview, arranging the Zoom meeting and for recording the meeting. You are advised to record the interview locally rather than to the cloud. You will submit a short, edited version of your interview for assessment. Your edited video should be no longer than 3 minutes. This will require you to select the parts of the interview that you believe show your best interviewing skills. You will be provided with basic instruction (on Moodle) on how to edit a video using a MS Windows based app. 

Following the interview, you will produce a written reflection on your performance in the interview.

Your reflection could include one or more of the following points:

- Your introduction (did it set the person at ease by giving them a clear, easy to understand overview of what you would be doing together?)

- The wording of your questions (were they open, non-leading, short and clear, empathetic?)

- Your listening skills (How was your posture, gaze and attention? What distracted you from listening well? What helped you to listen effectively? How well did you include active listening responses?)

- Your responsive skills (How well were you able to adapt your language/questions/structure to the participant’s account? What helped/hindered this?)

- What skills did you use to help elicit a rich, detailed account of the participant’s own words?

You must pass Assessment 3 with 50% to be eligible to pass the whole unit. 

Level of GenAI use allowed:
Level 3: You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use.

The use of GenAI is permitted for some aspects of the assignment but not for other aspects (see below). More detailed guidance will be given within the assessment support materials provided during tutorials and via Moodle. Note, the reason you may not use AI to edit your video is because the way you edit your video reflects your understanding of what content is important and what content is unimportant in relation to the marking rubric and learning outcomes. Moreover, the reason you may not use AI to manipulate such things as eye contact, is that this is unlikely to be successful (such software requires a computer with a high-end graphics card and powerful processing capabilities and high-end video cameras) but also because it will likely make you appear synthetic. More generally, AI software could mask the interviewing behaviour we are assessing you on and will impair your ability to focus on developing the skills that will enable you to meet our unit’s learning outcomes for this assessment. 

For this assessment, you may use GenAI to help you:

Supplement teaching resources provided on the unit to help you further understand the concepts discussed (such as those related to undertaking big Q qualitative research in general and how to undertake a naturalistic interview that avoids using fully structured interview schedules). 
Check the grammar, punctuation, and syntax of your written component.
Enhance the vocabulary of your written component.
Manage the word count of the assessment.
Improve the resolution or sound quality of your video (such as noise reduction or noise cancelling software).

You are not permitted to use GenAI to:

Change any aspect of your physical appearance (particularly your eye movement) or your nonverbal behaviour (such as your facial expression and body movements).
Change your spoken communication (including speech and paralinguistic interjections).
Edit your video in terms of determining the placement of your edit points / cuts.
 
If you use GenAI you should reference it appropriately. For the interview this may not necessarily require an in-text citation but any use of Gen AI should be included in a reference list. For style requirements please see relevant documents produced by the ALC at CQUniversity (e.g., Guidelines for Referencing Large Language Models or Artificial Intelligence in Your Assignments) and chapter 10 (section 10) of the latest APA Publication Manual. As this is a rapidly evolving field, you are also advised to consult the online APA Style Blog, e.g., https://apastyle.apa.org/blog.

You will be assessed against four criteria and the marks will be split evenly. The first three criteria will relate to your performance in the interview as presented in your edited video recording. The fourth criteria will relate to your written reflection on the interview.

The three key criteria against which your interview recording will be assessed are: clarity of your recording, encouragement, and flexibility and listening. These criteria are designed to assess your ability to record an interview with sufficient fidelity to ensure it can be efficiently transcribed (you will not be required to transcribe your interview). The encouragement criteria will assess your ability to communicate respect and interest in your interviewee. Flexibility and listening will assess your ability to be responsive to your interviewee in relation to what questions you ask and how you ask those questions.

The fourth criteria against which your written reflection will be assessed is insightful and balanced reflection. This criteria is designed to asses your ability to both envision how you might further improve you interviewing skills and your reflections on the challenges posed by working in a qualitative research paradigm.

WORD LIMIT: Your written reflection must be no more than 300 words. Any words over that limit will not be read or assessed by your marker. See the Psychology Word Count Information document for a rationale for this type of word limit restriction. Similarly, your edited interview recording should be no longer than 3 minutes and if you submit a longer video, only the first 3 minutes will be viewed.

INTERVIEW RECORDING FORMAT: You should record in mp4 video format (the default recording format for Zoom) and render your video, after you have edited it. Then save it as an mp4 video file. That video file should have a resolution of either 720p (standard definition) or 1080p (high definition), have a bitrate no higher than 5mbps and a frame rate no higher than 30fps. Do not record in a higher resolution, higher bitrate or higher frame rate and do not render your video in a file format other than .mp4. If you do so, your video file may be too large to upload to the submission page in Moodle or may not be viewable by your marker and you would be required to resubmit your assignment. It is also important that the dialogue is clear and of sufficient volume for the marker. Before you conduct your interview, you should check the quality of your webcam and/or external microphone. Teaching resources on Moodle will provide you with guidance on all of these technical aspects of recording and rendering your video