Assessment – Research Plan

TL4010 Assessment 1 Brief and Instructions (Please read carefully)

Assessment 1 (40%) – Research Plan

The leisure activities and behaviours of students at UCLan

The eating habits of students at UCLan

The holiday booking preferences of students at UCLan

Select one of the above mentioned, broad topics. Within the selected topic, you should identify a more specific focus for a research investigation – the decision is yours.  For example, you may wish to focus on a particular group of students or compare groups e.g. UK v international, or you may wish to focus on a particular preference. Then prepare a research plan and present it on a poster.

Your research plan should include:

-       An underpinning research question and a supporting aim and objectives

-       An academic and/or practical justification for the study

-       An outline of the research method/s e.g. survey, interview, observation that could be used and a brief explanation of why this/these are appropriate and favourable to other methods

-       An indication of how, when, where and from whom you will collect your data.

POSTER and PRESENTATION – an equivalent of a 1500-word research plan in a poster format incorporating the above sub-headings.

The poster will be presented to the class on March 5^th or March 12^th (formally assessed). Presentation date and times will be designated by the lecturer.

 

Research Plan Instructions:

Prepare a poster with the components listed above. Remember to place your working title at the top of your poster. Instructions can be found below for creating a poster in PowerPoint. You are not required to print your poster. Please upload your poster to Turnitin by 4^th of March 2020 at 5pm.

Poster Design:

This is an academic poster, so it should be professionally laid out and formatted in a logical manner, but it is not necessary to spend a great deal of time on the aesthetic or visual appeal.

Presentation:

An approximately 10-minute presentation of your poster and then a 5-minute question period is allotted for each student.

 

Poster Instructions:

Step 1:

In order to make a PowerPoint poster, the first and most important step is to set the size of the slide. A normal poster of 4:3 aspect ratio will be of the size 96:72 in. The maximum setting on Microsoft PowerPoint only allows you to enter a value of 52 in, which reciprocates to a value of around 142cm.

To facilitate making a ppt poster of a size that is greater than what is allowed in PowerPoint, simply half the size of your original poster, and input these values. If the values still remain greater, you can half the values again and check if it works.

How to Print Correct Poster Sizes in PowerPoint

The question here arises as to how a size that is half the requirement, would be printed as per your requirements. To do so, for every time you half the value, you will print out a 200% zoom of the slide.

If you’ve halved the values twice, you will have to print out the ppt poster at a 400% zoom, and if you’ve halved it thrice, that would reciprocate to a zoom of 800%. The ratio is a simple 1:2; every half, warrants an x2 zoom.

Step 2:

In order to change the PowerPoint poster size, after clicking on the Design tab, you will see a button named ‘Slide Size’ on your far right. Click on it.

 

Step 3:

This opens up a drop-down menu. To enter the new size, locate ‘Custom Size’ and click on it.

Step 4:

A new window will appear, with a drop-down menu for present size and resolutions, and also an option to manually enter custom values. After calculating the values, and making sure they are under 52”, input your size ratio (keeping in mind the 1:2, half-to-zoom factor for when you print the poster from PowerPoint).

Step 5:

You can also change the orientation of the PowerPoint poster, by either clicking on the Orientation options available or by entering your own values for orientation. A width greater than the height suggests a landscape orientation, whereas a height greater than the width is termed the Portrait orientation.

Step 6:

After changing the size of the slide, you can now begin to add the content you desire. This can be a scientific poster in PowerPoint or an undergraduate research poster.

Step 7:

Depending on the kind of ppt poster you are making, you will need to consider its background. Until you decide on a background, adding content will be futile, as the colors and the combinations of your content should be aesthetically in line with that of the background, to add to the cohesion of your ppt poster design. That can only be achieved after the background has been changed. If you intend on keeping the default white background. Skip and go to step 12.

To change the Background of your ppt poster presentation, make sure the Design tab is selected. On the far right, you will see a button ‘Format Tab Background’. Click on it.

Step 8:

Clicking on the Format Background button will open a window pane on the right of your presentation. This pane allows you to add any type of background you want, it could be a picture you chose from the internet or your own custom pattern. PowerPoint also gives you the option to fill in your background with a pattern, gradient, or texture. All of which will help your PowerPoint poster look better.

Step 9:

For different types of Posters, even e-posters in PowerPoint, you will need to insert different graphics or texts. To add text onto your poster’s format, find the Insert heading and click on it. You will see a list of content that you can insert onto your poster. Then, search for the text box button and click on it.

Step 10:

Once you click the text box button, your cursor changes. Position it where you want your text box to be, and click again. A default text box will appear. You can change the size or location of this textbox by clicking and dragging on the dots around the textbox.

Step 11:

If you want to add a text box with a custom size, click and drag anywhere on the slide to define the size of the textbox you want. Leaving the click will automatically insert your Textbox.

Step 12:

The next step is generalized for any content that you would want to include. Once you’ve opened the insert tab, everything you want to insert will be available on this.

PowerPoint gives you the option to insert; Pictures, videos, Audios, Graph, Clip Art, Shapes, and Smart Art into your ppt poster. With these options, you also have the ability to insert and change Text as per your liking.

Or add shapes, through Shapes.

Different content types will have mostly the same options, while also providing some specific options for different content types.

Step 13:

Gathering and moving all content around the poster format may also cause some of your content to remain invisible, as it might be behind another object that’s not transparent.

Microsoft PowerPoint’s poster templates do not support the ‘Wrap’ option, you can either manually adjust the arrangement of the content, or, you can use the Insert Object command to use Microsoft Word’s wrapping capabilities and then import them into PowerPoint. Additionally, you can also choose to make your pictures slightly transparent to allow background visibility. This can be achieved in PowerPoint itself.

After inserting, editing, and organizing all content save the file.

NOTE: When printing the poster from PowerPoint, do not forget how many times you halved the original size of your poster for it to be inputted into the PowerPoint poster size, for every time you halved the value, you will multiply the zoom level by a factor of 2.