SSC302 Health And Social Care
SSC302 Department of Health And Social Care Assignment
1) INTRODUCTION TO THE MODULE GUIDE
This Module Guide provides information about how to complete a Dissertation. It
contains detailed information about the Module, the key staff running it, and its
structure. The Guide also contains information about the aims of the module, and
the mode of teaching and assessment. The last section of the Guide contains
instructions on how to present and submit your assessment and the recommended
literature for this module.
Please read and understand this guide and always refer to it as you work on your
dissertation. Also, please use this Guide alongside other university policies referred
to in section 16.
SSC302 Health And Social Care
3) MODULE DESCRIPTION
This module is premised on the fact that the health and social care sector faces many problems and that these problems need to be solved. To be able to solve these problems, students studying health and social care require research knowledge and skills. It is for this reason that you are being required to complete a dissertation to demonstrate your research knowledge and skills. With this ability, graduates of health and social care will be able to contribute to improving health and social care services at their work places or elsewhere.
To achieve the above expectation, this module will introduce you to the principles
and practices of research including philosophical and methodological aspects of
research. It will also take you through the practical aspects of conducting research
and completing your dissertation. You will be introduced to analysis of secondary
qualitative data and SPSS to enable you analyse secondary quantitative data.
SSC302 Health And Social Care
Undertaking research and completing a dissertation is your opportunity to
demonstrate application of knowledge and skills to solve a health problem. You
are expected to integrate previous learning on this course: – e.g. theories, policy and research processes. You will conduct an in-depth study and produce a high-
quality report to include details of how you have searched for journal articles and
critically discussed the findings, reached conclusions and made relevant
recommendations.
SSC302 Health And Social Care
4) AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
4.1 AIMS
- To introduce you to the principles and practice of health research
- To introduce you to the different types of research in health and social care
- To equip you with basic knowledge and skills of qualitative and quantitative
secondary data analysis - To enable you complete a dissertation as part of your degree.
4.2 LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of this module, you will be able to:
4.2.1 Knowledge
- Demonstrate specialist knowledge of a specific topic within the field of health
and social care. - Demonstrate an ability to evaluate methodological frameworks as
appropriate for research in health and social care settings. - Demonstrate an ability to evaluate either theoretical or contextual
frameworks as appropriate to research in health and social care setting.
4.2.2 Skills
- Plan and execute a programme of independent study.
- Produce a high-quality report that includes sections relating to literature
review; methodology; findings; and discussion. - Acquire skills to collate and synthesize both empirical and theoretical
information using bio-psycho-social informed explanations covered in the
programme.
4.2.3 Values and attitudes
- Appreciate the influence of different (community, social, organisational, etc.)
values and practices in researching health and social care. - Appreciate the importance of both measuring (quantitative research) and in-
depth exploration (qualitative research) of problems in the health and social care sector.
SSC302 Health And Social Care
5) TEACHING AND LEARNING
You will attend a 1-hour lecture per week and 2-hour seminar per week for 6
weeks. You are expected to attend all lectures and all seminars. In addition, you
are expected to complete 2 hours of self-directed learning activity relating to you
dissertation. This may include literature search, reading literature, drafting
sections of your dissertation, practicing data analysis, etc.
6) CHOOSING A TOPIC FOR YOUR RESEARCH
You will choose a research topic for your desertion based on your interest and
chosen pathway. You will be guided on how to choose a good research topic. It
is useful to begin with a general topic of interest, undertake a brief literature
review and then discuss with your research project supervisor ways in which
you might focus your project and relate it to your pathway. This is particularly
important since it is easy to become overwhelmed with too much information
so that you are then unable to reach the depth of critical analysis required. You
need to be critical and analytical and, therefore, avoid being descriptive and
narrative in your approach.
7) SUPERVISION
7.1 ALLOCATION OF A SUPERVISOR
To enable you successfully complete your research project, you will be allocated
a supervisor. All lecturers can supervise any research topic. However, in some
cases, consideration may be made to match a supervisor to a particular topic. In
this case, allocation will based on subject expertise. All these considerations in
allocation of supervisors are to enable you complete your dissertation
successfully. The Module Leader in consultation with the Programme and Team
Leaders does the allocation of supervisors. Similarly, requests to change a
supervisor can be considered.
7.2 SUPERVISION PROCESS
As you work on your dissertation, you will be guided and supported by your
supervisor. You have 6 hours per term to meet your supervisor. You can arrange to
meet you supervisor for 30 minutes or 1 hour, depending on the need. As much as
supervisors make an effort to contact you, it is you responsibility to make
supervision appointments.
Some staff allocate ‘office hours’ (when they are available at the university
campus) each week. Check directly with your supervisor when their office hours
are each week. If this is not appropriate, make an appointment to see them at a
more mutually convenient time. It is sometimes difficult to be available at short
notice. Please plan ahead! If you leave things until the last minute, expecting
instant assistance you may be disappointed. However, if you have serious,
unanticipated problems we will do whatever we can to help. You should contact
staff by office email and not via Canvas emails as we cannot guarantee that this
will be checked.
SSC302 Health And Social Care
8 ASSESSMENT
RESEARCH PROPOSAL / Mini Research/
The underlying approach to this module is continuous assessment – formative
and summative, cumulating into a dissertation which is summatively assessed.
Accordingly, you will be assessed twice. In the first assessment, you will submit a
research proposal for your research. The proposal will be 5,000 words. The
structure of the research proposal is available on Canvas. The research proposal
is due in February
In the second assessment, you will collect data, analyse it, write up and draw
conclusions and recommendations. The structure of the dissertation is on
Canvas. The dissertation will be 10,000, including the 5,000 from the mini-
dissertation. This word limit may be less or more by 10%. You will be penalized if
you violate this word limit. The complete dissertation is due by the end of Term
III in April
The assessment will test the following:
- Whether you have achieved the learning outcomes outlined in section 4;
- Whether you have used relevant literature in your dissertation;
- Whether you are referenced your work and done it correctly;
- Whether your output/dissertation (text, figures, spelling, etc.) is accurate;
This module is marked out of 100%. For example, if you score 60%. Your final
mark will be 24% i.e. 60/100X40 (credits). To pass this module, he need to score
40%.