Group work assignment brief Deadline: 9th November 2020 at 3pm. BEE2037 - Money and Banking Academic Year: 2020/2021 1. Introduction I ask you to engage in group work assignment in this module. A vital aspect of your university program is the opportunity to work as part of a group and I encourage you to participate in group work and activities in this module. I do appreciate this brings a number of challenges and creates a lot of ex- tra work but I feel it is an extremely positive experience in the following. First, developing your academic, teamwork and collaborative skills. Second, preparing you for the work place. Third, developing our Money and Banking learning community Why am I encouraging you to engage in group work and activities? Educational research and the university’s guidance on purpose for group working shows that participating in group work offers students a variety of merits 1. Group working is fun and allows individuals who enjoy peer learning to do so. Also, it allows you to take responsibility and accountability of your learning process in a fun manner, without depending on me as your only source of information. This fosters active learning, promotes your confidence and enables you master the important ideas.1 2. Working in groups among peers has been shown to enhance learning as it is a form of active learning that provides an opportunity for ideas to be shared and problems solved. 3. By engaging in group work you develop a range of interpersonal skills such organisation, delegation, leadership, following, effective communi- cation and negotiation and. All these are attractive skills that employer seek, making you more employable. 1Freeman, S., Eddy, S.L., McDonough, M., Smith, M.K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H. and Wenderoth, M.P. (2014) ‘Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), pp. 8410–8415. Doi: https://doi.org/10. 1073/pnas.1319030111 1 4. Group work enables you develop social and learning networks that you can maintain beyond your university life. 5. As research led university,2 research inspired and inquiry-led learning is at the core of the University’s approach to learning and teaching. Working in collaboration with both staff and students allows students to actively engage with current research. 2. Intended learning outcomes (ILOs) On completion of the group work assignment, the ILOs that I expect you to achieve are: • Explain the theories, tools and strategies available to monetary author- ities, and how they can be used and applied when conducting monetary policy changes. • Explain how exchange rates can be determined using an asset based approach. • Compare the effects of macroeconomic policies under differing exchange rate systems. • Assess the appropriateness of policies aimed at various economic and financial market problems. • Develop the ability to collect informational resources including data and evaluate these resources to address financial market challenges. • Improve reasoning ability. • Demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively. • Apply collective problem-solving skills to a team challenge. • Apply teamwork skills to complete a group task. 2Purpose for group working 2 3. Instruction for the group work assignment The group work assignment consists of two components: A. A group component. This will count, in total, 80% towards your group work mark. B. Individual reflective essay on group work per group member. This will count, in total, 20% towards your group work mark. Each component has to be submitted separately on the ELE3 page by the deadline. I provide further details for each component in what follows. A. The group component This component requires the group to choose and work on a debate topic on either a current issue on in the financial markets or the governance structure between commercial banks, central banks and government systems in a mon- etary union (a group of countries that share a common currency and central bank). The debate topics are as follows: 1. ‘Did the Covid-19 pandemic make a greater case for cryptocurrency or did it hinder the case for cryptocurrency in countries?’ 2. ‘As a member of the Eurozone, a country is prone to a sovereign (i.e. government) debt crisis.’ A banking union would solve this; fiscal union is not necessary. What you are expected to do is: • As a group, choose one of the two debate topics to carry your research on. • Write a group essay or report up to 2500 words per group. 3This may change to eBart depending on the Business School’s policy. If the assignment is to be submitted using eBart, I will communicate this in good time. 3 • Have one person in the group submit the work on behalf of all the group members. I. Choosing your debate topic Choosing the appropriate topic that you can do best as a group rather than a topic that seems popular is one strategy to do well in this group work assignment. Also, consider what relevant research material is available. Here are some suggested points that you should consider when deciding on which debate topic to go for: • What is the debate at hand and why is it important? • What are the strong arguments on both sides of the debate and how well can you present them? Think of supporting evidence that can back up your arguments. • As a team after considering the arguments for both sides of the debate, which side of the debate have you chosen and why? Where applicable, how practical or feasible is the implementation of the side of the debate that you have chosen? Again, consider the evidence that can back up your position. • What is the policy implication and how would central bank or govern- ment (for countries with no central banks) implement it? • What is your recommendation and conclusion? II. Starting reference sources that you should use for the debate topics 1. For debate topic 1, the learning content and the reading materials for money, overview of cryptocurrency and central banks are good starting points. This debate is a topical issue among financial market players, the general public and central banks. 4 2. For debate topic 2, the learning contents for banks, central banks and reading Chapter 12, section 12.5 of Carlin, W. and Soskice, D. (2015) Macroeconomics: Institutions, Instability and Financial System. Ox- ford: Oxford University Press, are good starting points. The debate is centered around Figure 12.11 and 12.12 and understanding these two figures in the book is what is key in this debate topic. The debate topic gives you the ability to critically evaluate the banking systems and the key role a central bank plays when commercial banks and government are faced with a liquidity crisis and what is the governance structure between all these three entities (banks, central banks and governments). My advise is that for either debate topic, work as a team to produce a high quality piece of work that you can use for your employment (if applicable) or you master program applications. III. Group Work Guidance • Group will be randomly assigned by the module lead, which means students cannot decide who they are grouped with. I understand that being assigned to a group which is not your choice might create tensions but I feel this is what tends to happen in the majority of workplaces and the ability for you to work with colleagues you did not choose is an important employability skill that you need to master. • Each group will be composed of 6 students and these will be assigned as soon as it is possible early on in the Term 1, hopefully by end of Week 3. • Each group will be assigned a number and you should use that number when contacting the me if you need assistance or have questions. • There is an expectation that all group members contribute equally to the common good. Free-riding is a common problem with group work and the way I deal with this is to not necessarily award the same mark to all students in a group. The mark you will be awarded for the 5 group work is the sum of two components: a common mark for the ‘product’ your group submits (80%) and an individual mark (20%) for your individual reflective essay. Students that do not contribute to the common good will be penalised (see marking grid below). • I also expect you to keep a group assessment blog, where all group members have to blog their contribution, and other members provide constructive feedback on each member’s contribution. Using an assess- ment blog in group work helps with coordination among team members. It is also very useful when writing your individual reflective essay. Re- search shows that using a blog is a useful educational practice that promotes self and peer assessment and feedback, which enhances learn- ing among peers and opportunities to reflect on their learning process. I give you the freedom to decide which platforms you should use for the group assessment blog. However, I would like you to use the format shown in Figure 1. IV. Dealing with disagreements within the group Working in groups means that you will have to work closely and sometimes intensively with other students. This is not as natural as working on your own and it can sometimes lead to conflicts. This is natural and learning to deal with disagreements is part of this assessment and it is an important employability skill that you need to develop. • Address issues quickly – Most problems are easily resolved if dealt with immediately but become impossible to sort out if left unresolved. Problems and disagreements rarely, if ever, ‘just go away’ so burying your head in the sand is a bad idea. Bring the problems out into the open in a transparent manner. • Keep an open mind 6 Figure 1: Suggested group blog format – You might think that a group member is not pulling their weight, or that you are being expected to do too much of the work because the others are less capable and willing than you. But if you look at the problem from someone else’s point of view in the group we might see a different story emerging. The other members might come from a culture that deals with work in a different way or there might be valid reasons for the actions of a given student. • Call a meeting to try and sort things out – If a significant disagreement arises you should call a group meet- ing. Each member should be given a chance to raise their point of view. It is vital that minutes are taken for this meeting (or that the meeting is recorded). 7 • Serious disagreements – If your group has held a meeting and are still unable to resolve the dispute, it is time to raise your concerns with the module lead. The module lead will arrange a time for a group arbitration meeting and act as a chairperson. V. References The Business School has adopted the APA referencing style. The full guide can be found here: link Plagiarism and academic misconduct is something we take very se- riously. Please make sure you abide by the rules by consulting the Academic Honesty and Plagiarism Guidance here: link More general guidance in terms of Academic Development resources can be found using this link A good academic writing involves using various sources of information. In this assignment we recommend using around 15 references but not less than 9. Your references should be a mixture of: • Academic journals and other relevant journals. • News articles (where applicable), • Books or e-books (if applicable) • Data sources (if applicable) • Either central banks or government websites. Please note that Wikipedia and Investopedia as reference sources are not considered good demonstration of collection of informational resources which is one of the ILOs you are expected to achieve. 8 B. Individual reflective essay on group work per group member. As a research led university and for your own academic development self reflection on group work assignments and activities is a vital component of your learning experience4 It provides you with an opportunity to reflect on what went well, what you learnt from the group work and how to you can improve in future group working environments. All members of the group also have to produce an individual reflective essay of up to 500 words in a PDF document that you should give your group and student number as a name (e.g. group01_010000001.pdf) • An individual reflective essay is a summary of your role, contribution, observations, thoughts, feedback you provide and receive, and other relevant materials built-up over the period of time it takes to complete the group work. Its purpose is to enhance your learning through the very process of writing and thinking about your learning experiences. Your individual reflective essay is personal to you and will reflect your personality and experiences and it will not be shared with your group members. • The individual reflective essay should focus on your own personal re- sponses, reactions and reflections to the process that lead to the group work ‘product’ (the group essay described in Part A above). I suggest using the ‘What’, ‘So what, ‘What next’ format to ensure your essay is clear and precise. For example: – ‘What’ - What was the task at hand and what was your role (up to 100 words). – ‘So what’ - What was your contribution to the group task? How you did you know it fitted well with the overall group work (group members constructive feedback helps on this point and how you 4University’s guidance on group work. 9 responded to their feedback - hence the reason for having a group blog). What new knowledge, skills or understanding have you gained during the process of completing the group work? What were the main challenges you encountered and how did you over- come them? What resources have helped you to understand and or been interesting to use? Have you changed your opinions or values during this process or experience? (300 words, ideally most of your word count should be here). – ‘What next’ - Will you do the same thing in future or how can you improve your learning, thinking and working in the future? Have you identified the next step(s) for your further development? (up to 100 words) The deadline for uploading the individual reflective essay is the same as the group essay, so do not leave this to the last minute. My advise is that you should start writing your individual reflective essay when the group meets for the first time. References for individual reflective essay Like any other piece of academic writing, you should include references in your individual reflective essay up to 5 references. I have provided an article on the benefits of student peer feedback and self reflection should you wish to have a read.5 4. Submission method for both components As stated above, each group must submit ONE PDF document per group and each individual must also submit an individual reflective essay on the module page. All the submission links will be found by following the relevant 5Zhiqiang, M. Yan, X. and Wang, Q. (2020) ‘Assessing individual contribution in collaborative learning through self- and peer-assessment in the context of China’, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 57(3) pp. 352-363. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2018.1555049 10 icons on the ‘Group Work assignment’ section on the ‘Assessment informa- tion and submission, tab on the ELE page.6 For the group submission, each group must nominate one student to make the group submissions. Late submission penalties will apply to all students in the group, regardless of who was responsible for the submission of the group work. For the individual reflective essay, each students in the group will submit their own PDF document and late submissions in this case will only apply to each of the individual students. The University’s guidelines about late submission can be found here: Late submission 5. Marking criteria Please see the marking criteria PDF document which details the marking grid for both the group and individual components. I will use these grids to mark your assessments and provide you with feedback so please do spend some time reading it carefully. Additional Support 1. Academic Development Resources. • Academic Development Resources: access to workshops on essay writing, maths or stats help, one-to-one support and more - a fantastic underused resource! This can be found using this link ELE page here: • Studiosity is an additional support service we provide for students - you can submit a piece of work for written feedback (on writ- ing clarity, argument, structure and so on) from a tutor within 24 hours. Students can access the link through the BSD1000 / 6This may change if the Business School decides all assignments are being submitted using eBart. If that does happen I will let you know in advance. 11 BSD2000 / BSD3000 on ELE. This can be found using this link Studiosity This document is an adapted version of Prof. Carlos Cortinhas, group work instructions, and I thankfully acknowledge his input. 12 APPENDIX Once the groups are set up, this would be a good checklist to have from day 1 until submission of the group work assignment. Group assignment checklist I have been allocated to a group and have virtually met my group members. In my group we are not less than five but not greater than six. In my group we have looked at both debate topics and decided as a group which topic we shall do. In my group I know what my role is and we have a group working structure in place, including checkpoints. In my group we have a blog, in which we each share our contribution to the group assignment, receive feedback and provide constructive feedback to the other group members. In my group as we work on the group assignment, using the group blog, I am also making points for my individual reflective essay. In my group our final piece of work is not greater than 2500 words. My final individual reflective essay is not greater than 500 words. 13
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