University of Derby

Department of Electronics, Computing and Maths

Assignment Specification

Module Code and Title: 4CC509 – Introduction to Computer Science

Assignment No. and Title: Assignment

Assessment Tutor: R J Self Weighting Towards Module Grade: 50%

Date Set: 3 Sept 2019 Hand-In Deadline Date: Week 7 Monday

11 November 2019 at 23:59

Recognising that deadlines are an integral part of professional workplace practice, the University
expects students to meet all agreed deadlines for submission of assessments. However, the
University acknowledges that there may be circumstances which prevent students from meeting
deadlines. There are now 3 distinct processes in place to deal with differing student circumstances:

1) Assessed Extended Deadline (AED): Students with disabilities or long term health issues
are entitled to a Support Plan.

2) Exceptional Extenuating Circumstances (EEC): The EEC policy applies to situations

where serious, unforeseen circumstances prevent the student from completing the
assignment on time or to the normal standard.

http://www.derby.ac.uk/files/part_i_exceptional_extenuating_circumstances.pdf

Late Submission: Requests for late submission will be made to the relevant Subject Manager in
the School (or Head of Joint Honours for joint honours students) who can authorise an extension
of up to a maximum of one week.

Level of Collaboration:

NONE

Learning Outcomes covered in this Assignment:

2. Demonstrate an ability to find, evaluate, and interpret quantitative and qualitative data in
order to develop and present lines of argument in an appropriately academic manner.

Criteria for Assessment: See description attached

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 University of Derby
Department of Electronics, Computing and Maths
Assignment Specification

Task

The online computer industry magazine “Computers for Everyone” is planning a series of articles
entitled “The Impact on Computers on Everyday Life”. You are one of the people contacted to write
an article for this series.

If you are a Degree student, your assignment is as follows.

You have been asked to write a “formal academic” article analysing the impact of advances and
changes in computer technology over the last 25 years on one of the following areas:

 The rise of Social Media and Smart Devices

o Interpersonal communication
o Business communication to customers
o Adverse consequences of Social Media
 Artificial / Machine Learning and Cognitive Computing
o Understanding natural language and advisory systems
o Impact of Cognitive Computing
o Autonomous Vehicles
 Can we trust our systems and transactions using Blockchain
o Classic approaches to security and trust
o The Impact of Blockchain on Trust in public and private systems
o See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju3rWyD_wrA for an introduction to
Blockchain
 Cyber-fraud and hacking in the connected world
o Growth, detection and prevention
o In the context of the IoT

If you are an Apprenticeship student, your assignment is as follows.

You must write a formal report analysing the impact of advances and changes in computer
technology over the last 25 years on the company where you are working.

The editors of the magazine have given you the freedom to choose any topic in any of these areas
(i.e. it does not need to be related to the specialist area you are studying for your degree).

The editors have had issues with plagiarised articles in the past, so they are expecting to see
accurate citing and referencing in your article. Use PLATO to check that you are correctly following
the Citing and Referencing requirements. You have been asked to use the Harvard system of
referencing to enable the editors to check all facts and statements in your article easily. The typical
reader of “Computers for Everyone” is a person who is interested in computers and related

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 University of Derby
Department of Electronics, Computing and Maths
Assignment Specification
technology. They typically have a basic level of understanding of technology, but they are not experts,
so you should avoid the use of unnecessary technical jargon and if jargon is used, you should explain
it.

The editors of the magazine have allocated space for articles that contain exactly 3 pages for the text
in the Springer LNCS template provided to you from the beginning of the Introduction section to the
end of the Conclusions section.

You are expected to fill the pages. You must not exceed three pages. Penalties will be applied, as
specified in the assessment criteria, for articles that are larger (by any amount) or smaller (by more
than ten lines).

The References list, which can be any number of pages) will start on a new page and will include all
of your cited sources for ideas, tables, images etc. and will be sorted correctly according to the rules
for Harvard reference lists.

All illustrations, tables, etc. must be placed in the appendix and must be correctly cited and
referenced in the figure caption because this might require copyright clearance by the magazine and
the editor needs to be able to quickly identify where this is needed. Remember that using images and
tables in the appendix is a useful way of providing visual evidence to support your analysis in your
article. You must provide a cross-reference to the illustration in your article.

You will need to use a formal structure for your article, as follows:-

 Abstract
o Short content summary of the article (10 line max)
 Introduction
o Setting the context (max 10 lines)
 Critical evaluation of the changes in the technology
o Using a wide range of relevant sources of information about your topic
 Critical evaluation of the impact of the changes
o Using the strengths / weaknesses / opportunities / threats (SWOT) framework
 Conclusion
o Impact on government / business / society / individuals in 2018

Assessment Criteria

You will be assessed on three criteria:-

 Presentation
o Adherence to the Springer LNCS template and other formatting and presentation
aspects with the exceptions that you must use English Spelling and you must use the
Harvard Citing and Referencing systems
 Context
o Your Introduction to the article and the way that you set the context in order to catch
the interest of the reader
 Content
o The way that you write the main part of the article and make it interesting to the
reader by including relevant illustrations of your ideas and by providing clear
comparison of different views on the topic. Your article will be more interesting if
you have used a wide range of sources for your ideas.

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 University of Derby
Department of Electronics, Computing and Maths
Assignment Specification
The marking grid is provided to give you clear guidance on how to write the article and to enable you
to develop your writing style to achieve the highest possible mark.

Remember that you must use citations to provide evidence of your research and where you got all
your information from. Please Note: Failure to provide any citations or references will result in a
capped overall mark of 35%.

You may wish to complete the self-assessment section of the template before submission.

You will have opportunities for formative feedback during each of your regular Tutorial sessions
during weeks 3 to 6 on all aspects of the development of your article.

Quotations Are Prohibited

You are not permitted to use any direct quotations in your three pages of the article because they
distract the reader from your analysis. In addition, your reader is wanting to understand your analysis
and thinking rather than learning that you are able to find resources and then copy and paste the words
into your report. As a result, you must write your analysis with appropriate citations to the sources of
the ideas that you would otherwise have copied and pasted, thus saving words. If you think that the
words are necessary you must quote them in an appendix (with the correct citation) and with a
suitable cross reference in the body of the text.

Any lines of quotations will be deducted from the length of your report, with the risk that you will
then lose marks for a too short report.

Submission

Your assignment MUST be submitted electronically via Course Resources by the due date.

The assignment will be a single word document containing the following sections which are in the
template that you are provided with:-
 1 0r more pages for the Title page, Abstract, Keywords and Table of Contents
 3 pages for the article (+0 lines / -10 lines)
 1 or more pages for the bibliography
 An appendix for your fully cited and referenced images and tables

Submission of your work to Turnitin

The University of Derby has now implemented a general policy of anonymous marking and
all the Turnitin Submission system will hide your name from your tutors, until after
moderation. In order to ensure that the tutors do not know your name, you MUST ensure
that you include your student number at the beginning of the submission title of your
work for the submission of your completed report. This will ensure that we are able to
connect the marks from your assignment with the marks from the CBT test to calculate your
module mark.

In addition, you should not use your name on the title page, as requested in the Springer
LNCS template, instead, you should place your student ID in the name field and you should
only use the student number version of your unimail (e.g. 10006666@unimail.derby.ac.uk) in
4

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 University of Derby
Department of Electronics, Computing and Maths
Assignment Specification
the email address. This ensures that the internal moderators cannot identify you, thus
ensuring that the moderation process is truly anonymous.

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 University of Derby
Department of Electronics, Computing and Maths
Assignment Specification
Assessment Grid

Presentation Mark Context - knowledge Content -

and communication knowledge,
application,
evaluation, criticality
Weighting towards
20% 20% 60%
overall mark for report
Your Own Mark for
each section should be
entered for each
column in this row (out
of 100)
The context demonstrates The article compares
Perfect adherence to the an outstanding and evaluates a wide
three page LNCS foundation of range of perspectives
template is worth 100% knowledge and and concepts in order to
and the article will understanding which demonstrate very
require no editing by shows an exceptionally clearly how and why
the editor. 95% wide range of sources
and perspectives. The
the impact of the
technology changes
Your mark will be context clearly shows the affect the reader and
reduced for each type of topic is exciting to the will have the potential
error from the following general reader and the to change society or
list by the specified article examines the topic business in the 21st
amount in order to from a new perspective. century.
reflect the additional
The context demonstrates The article compares
effort required by the
an excellent foundation and evaluates a wide
editor to get your
of knowledge and range of perspectives
article ready for
understanding which and concepts in order to
publication. The
shows a very wide range demonstrate very
maximum deduction
of sources and clearly how and why
will be 100% in this
category (i.e. you could
85% perspectives. The context the impact of the
clearly shows the topic is technology changes
lose up to 20% of the
exciting to the general affect the reader and are
mark for the whole
reader and the article important in the 21st
article)
examines the topic from century.
a new perspective.
Errors on each line of
the Title and Affiliation The context demonstrates The article compares
section – 5% each an excellent foundation and evaluates many
(maximum 30% of knowledge and perspectives and
deduction) understanding which concepts in order to
shows a very wide range demonstrate very
Formatting errors with
the Heading styles - 5%
75% of sources and
perspectives. The context
clearly how and why
the impact of the
each broken style level clearly shows the topic is technology changes
(maximum 15% exciting to the general affect the reader and are
deduction) reader and everyone important in the 21st
should read the article. century.
Proofreading errors
(spelling, punctuation

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 University of Derby
Department of Electronics, Computing and Maths
Assignment Specification
Presentation Mark Context - knowledge Content -
and communication knowledge,
application,
evaluation, criticality
Weighting towards
20% 20% 60%
overall mark for report
and grammar errors) -
20%
The context demonstrates The article compares
65% a good foundation of
knowledge and
and evaluates several
perspectives and
understanding which concepts in order to
shows a wide range of demonstrate how and
sources. The context why the impact of the
Failure to use adequate clearly shows the topic is technology changes
and correct and interesting to the general affect the reader and are
consistent Harvard reader. important in the 21st
standard for citations – century.
20% (-10% for too few
citations) The context demonstrates The article compares
a reasonable foundation and evaluates a few
Failure to use a correct of knowledge and perspectives and
and consistent Harvard understanding which concepts in order to
formatting of the 55% shows a range of demonstrate how the
References – 20% (- sources. The article can technology changes
10% for too few be understood by the affect the reader in the
references reader. 21st century.
The context demonstrates The article describes
Failure to sort the a satisfactory foundation the topic and presents a
references list -10%
of knowledge and simple history of the
understanding which technological changes
Failure to use the body- 45% shows a limited range of in the topic area.
text style - 15% sources. The article can
be understood by the
Failing to meet the reader.
specified three page
(+0 and -10 lines) The context demonstrates The article describes
length requirement, - a very basic foundation the topic but shows
50% of knowledge and little understanding of
understanding which the history.
Including tables, 37% shows a very limited
quotations, figures or range of sources. It is
images in the three difficult to understand
pages – 50% what the article is about.
The context demonstrates The article fails to
Failure to use the no understanding of the describe the topic.
template - 100% topic and has no
deduction
20% evidence of sources. It is
very difficult to
understand what the
article is about.

Please Note: Failure to provide any citations or references will

result in a capped mark of 35% for the whole article.

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