Mathematics and Statistics – MATH240 (Module Convener James Groves)
The Faculty Librarian delivers an embedded lecture to MATH240 which has a group research project as its assessment. This session takes place in Week 11 once the assessment brief is released in Week 10. It is the first piece of substantive written work on the programme. FL introduces OneSearch, Maths and Statistics Library Guide and the ability to export BibTex files for use in managing their references in LaTex. Searching techniques for relevant peer reviewed.
Lancaster University Management School – Business Research for Marketing – SWOT Analysis and Market Research
This one-hour business information literacy session supports a multipart group project as part of a business and management programme. For the project, students working in groups provide a consultancy service for a local or regional company. The companies are sourced by the faculty. These businesses are seeking support to develop their enterprises and maybe considering expansion into other regions in the UK or globally or exploring new markets. The businesses tend to be lesser known and can present challenges for the students, but can also present some research barriers, as there may be a lack of information about the business, or sector and industry. This provides an opportunity, however, to be creative in which resources (e.g. market research and financial platforms) are used and to show students how to work with incomplete business intelligence, which may be an important skill to develop for their future careers.
The project requires students to conduct market research on their company and draw up a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunity, and threat) analysis for their business. The business information literacy instruction for this session focuses on refreshing students business research skills, revisiting some of the instruction and experience of carrying out business research developed at Level 4 (year 1). Due to the requirements of the assignment, the session covers in some detail, searching, finding and evaluation market research, industry, sector and financial data for the SWOT analysis.
The instruction provides some further guidance around how to conduct a thorough literature search using keywords (e.g. Business Source Complete, Emerald Insight or ProQuest One Business).
The other main component of the assignment requires students to determine a suitable location for their new business or new markets and to develop a marketing plan for the expansion of the business or activity. Students must identify their target consumer markets and their marketing mix on the fours Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. Instruction for this part of the session introduces some geographical tools and emphasises more advanced marketing resources that allow students to tailor their research to their target markets in order to write up their marketing strategy.
During the session, emphasis is placed on real-world applications for both the skills and tools used, as students may be preparing for placements, so the transfer of skills and knowledge to a potential employer is important. The sources highlighted include paid and free resources for each information type, so that students can identify resources they will always be able to access following graduation.
The learning outcomes include identifying key business information sources to create a SWOT report and identify competitors for their companies. Students will be able to use information, data and analysis from expert reports, profiles and summaries to describe a target markets, new opportunities and locations for their businesses and add geographic and demographic data for their target markets for each new location(s). The market research report produced will refer to credible sources using Cite Them Right Harvard referencing style.
FHM - BSc Sport & Exercise Science
MED215 Current debates in sports and exercise science
Term 1 Week 2 Critical reading skills (2 hour workshop)
In these practical and interactive workshop sessions the Learning Developer for FHM leads activities to help students develop their critical reading skills, including evaluating sources and critical analysis of scientific journal articles.
Term 1 Week 3 Critical writing skills (2 hour workshop)
In these practical and interactive workshop sessions the Learning Developer for FHM leads activities to help students develop their critical writing skills ahead of their written assignment for the module.