Assessment Task: Literature Review Assignment Task – Essay Format (Word limit / expectation 2,500 words)
“Choose a topic relating to Digital Context which you are interested in and write a literature review”.
Students will also be expected ( in as compulsory) to submit approx. 500 words of their draft literature review by 1st December. This will allow students to receive comprehensive feedback prior to them completing the whole assignment.
The literature review equates to 50% of module grade for 20 credit students, 100% of module grade for 20 credit students.
Rationale for literature review assignment
An important aspect of Higher Education is being able to interpret and contribute to academic debate. The production of a literature review is a key vehicle for developing your ability to engage with and be critical of academic opinion. In other assignments that you produce you will use a wide range of resources including newspapers, industry reports, blogs etc. These are all valid sources ( in the right context) but we are finding that students prefer these types of sources over academic journal articles. A literature review will generally be formed almost entirely from journal articles, so this assignment task almost “forces” students to use more traditional academic sources – something that is essential for level 6 modules. Indeed many of you will be going onto to produce a dissertation – a literature review is at the heart of any dissertation.
Assignment Guidance – Important Points
- You will be provided with veryspecific guidance relating to how to write this review – this will all be included on BB and you will have tutor led sessions. You will also beprovided with a list of previous topics that students have chosen.
- For the review to be useful it needs to be reasonably focused. For example, rather than reviewing pricecomparison literature you could focus on one particular industry e.g. travel.
- It is essential that your tutor agrees all topics before you start your review
- The attached assessment criteria will help you focus on the task
Ideally we would urge you to choose your own topic. The ability to do this is part of your skill development. For example, being able to generate topic ideas and then discount some ideas (e.g. because there is not enough literature) is a very important skill. Additionally, this assignment does involve lots of academic reading (probably more than you have ever done before) and it is much easier if you are reading about a topic you are vaguely interested in!
However, if you cannot find your own topic, then you should choose one of the 3 broad topics detailed below. You will still have to decide exactly what themes you wish to include:
- Customer attitudes to online banking ( potential themes – trust; security etc)
- The role of travel review sites
- Advantages and disadvantages of teenagers use of social media ( potential themes – cyber bullying, socialisationetc)
- The role and use of search engines. ( perhaps focus on geographical functions)
Note to internship students
For those students who are going on internship, it would be useful for you if your literature review ties into your work placement. I can help with this.
Example of Literature Topics with themes
- Social media( either generally or focus on a platform e.g. Facebook) – could focus upon themes like : pros and cons of teenage usage; privacy and security issues; social media advertising; cyber bullying; recruitment and selection usage; organisation usage; social media brand building etc.
- Online banking – could focus upon themes like: why people will use / not use online banking; country comparison; future of high street banks etc.
- Digital marketing – could focus upon themes like: importance of blogging influencers; online product customisation; channel conflict-the future of the high street; influence of online reviews e.g travel; how brand influences trust online; how search engines work etc.
- Online shopping (could focus on one industry e. online grocery shopping, online travel or fashion retailing) why people will shop or not shop online; future of the high street
- E-health – could focus upon themes like: use of online diagnostic tools; how apps / social media can influence mental health; central digitisation of health records
- Politics – could focus upon themes like: e-voting; how social media influences politics e.g fake news; social media and
- Online gambling – could focus upon themes like: differences between online and offline gambling; gambling addiction; gender differences in online gambling
- Website design – could focus upon themes like: cultural differences in website design; accessible website design
- Online Pricing- could focus upon themes like: price comparison sites; price discrimination; future of online auctions; privacy and data collection online
This is certainly not an exhaustive list – just to give you some ideas if you are stuck. Other previous student topics include: our use of digital maps; westernisation via the internet; digital device addiction; technology in courtrooms ; the digital divide; use of technology in HE learning; online dating ; online gaming; future of cash payments……
