Learning by Doing in a Disruptive World (PBEL3000)

Throughout the course, you will give and receive feedback connected to the course learning activities and reflect on your own development at five key points.

What do I need to do?

As an individual, you will reflect on the progress that you and your team make and the successes and challenges that you face while developing a solution for a complex industry problem. You are required to write up and submit reflections on both your own and your peers’ contributions via Practera. Sometimes a good reflection is on a setback or a challenge that you and your team did not overcome – and that’s okay. Your and your peers’ marks will not be influenced by whether a reflection is on a success or challenge. What matters is that your reflections are insightful and professional.

How do I need to do it?

Your individual reflections should be no longer than 200 words and contain:

• A clear description of the situation
• An insightful reflection on the learnings from this situation

When doing this not only think about what could be done differently but also on what went well.

Importantly, if you want your team reflections to be counted towards your mark, you need to submit them by latest 9 am the following day. The reason is simply that otherwise your team members will not be able to use your feedback for their own reflections.

How do I present this information?

It is important to communicate your reflections coherently, consistently and cohesively in a professional manner. This means that your reflections need to be:

• Polite, formal and constructive
• Precise and logically structured

Why do I need to reflect?

The act of reflection provides us with signposted moments to STOP, think about the bigger picture and make informed decisions about how to move forward. When you reflect on your own or your peer’s work, establish whether you think something has or should be changed (or not).

It is important that you put everything into a wider perspective. That is, you need to demonstrate your understanding of what is going on in the team, what role you and other members play, and how your team is progressing towards the overall deliverable.

Can you use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for this assignment?

The answer is a decisive yes. You do not have to but certainly can use AI to support you in completing this assessment task as long as you adhere to the following rules:

1. You are responsible for everything you say and report. Keep in mind that AI often makes information and references up and that it also often omits critical information. And of course, AI does not know your team members or what exactly you did. So, don't trust AI and only use it to support you in tasks such as brainstorming and improving your writing.
2. You must clearly reference any use of AI each time you use it. Please include an additional paragraph at the very end of your reflection outlining what you used AI for and describing the specific prompts you used. This paragraph does not count towards the word limit (i.e., use as many words as you need to accurately explain what you did).

Failure to reference AI use is in violation of academic honesty policies and may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.

What do I need to do?

As a team of three to five people, you will apply the tools and techniques covered on days 1 to 3 to come up with a solution for a business problem of the industry partner. You will pitch your proposed solution to the industry partner who you need to convince that it presents a promising opportunity that cannot be missed, which the techniques covered on day 4 will help you to do. A pitch is a short, concise, persuasive presentation that provides an overview of your solution. Your industry partner will consider your pitch and following that, will ask you questions and provide feedback. At the end of this session, your team and industry partner will be able to agree on the project direction.

How do I need to do it?

Your pitch must:

• Demonstrate that you clearly understand the business problem
• Propose a viable and scalable solution that addresses this problem
• Establish that your solution is well thought through and fits to the industry partner’s business context
• Present compelling evidence in support of your proposed solution

How do I present this information?

Your pitch needs to be convincing for the industry partner and communicate your proposed solution coherently, consistently and cohesively. Therefore, it is important that your pitch is:

• Precise and logically structured
• No longer than 10 minutes
• Employs effective communication strategies
• Supported by a professional looking pitch deck
• Rounded off with insightful and convincing answers to questions

You can have up to 15 backup slides that you can use to support your answers to questions of the industry partner. Your total mark will incorporate assessment of both the pitch deck, including the supporting evidence you prepare in the backup slides, and its presentation.

How do I demonstrate contribution to the team process?

It is simple: Be a good team player. That is, contribute to your team by bringing in your skills and expertise as much as possible while being open to feedback, change, and taking on other tasks that might be out of your comfort zone but need to be done to make the project a success.

On days 2 and 4, you and your team members will use Practera to provide each other feedback on your team participation. This feedback will determine whether all of you get the same mark for the assignment or whether the marks need to be moderated because some team members contributed more than others.

NOTE: The specific solution each team proposes will vary based on the industry partner’s problem and other contextual factors. However, each pitch must demonstrate that the proposed solution is viable and addresses a business problem of the industry partner.

Can you use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for this assignment?

The answer is a decisive yes. You do not have to but certainly can use AI to support you in completing this assessment task as long as you adhere to the following rules:

You are responsible for everything you say and report. Keep in mind that AI often makes information and references up and that it also often omits critical information. So, don't trust AI and only use it to support you in tasks such as brainstorming and improving your writing if you either know your facts by heart or can verify them.

You must clearly reference any use of AI each time you use it. Please include an additional slide at the very end of your presentation outlining what you used AI for and describing the specific prompts you used. These slides do not count towards the slide limit (i.e., use as many words as you need to accurately explain what you did).

Failure to reference AI use is in violation of academic honesty policies and may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.

Please Note: The presentation will be recorded for marking purposes per UQ Policy.

What do I need to do?

As a team, you will develop recommendations and justifications for how and why the industry partner can transition your proposed solution (presented in Assignment 2) into the real world. You are required to write up your recommendations and justifications in a Project Report. Your recommendations and justification need to be supported by a clear description of the proposed solution.

How do I need to do it?

Your Project Report must demonstrate that your transition plan:

• Builds on tools and techniques from the course
• Actionable and planned with attention to detail
• Appropriate for the proposed solution and the industry partner’s business context

How do I present this information?

Your report needs to stand on its own and convince the industry partner that your proposed solution can successfully be transitioned into reality to address their business problem. Therefore, it is important to communicate your transition plan coherently, consistently and cohesively in a professional manner, which means that your report needs to be:

• Precise and logically structured
• Be about 2,000 to 3,000 (but no longer than 5,000) words
• Effectively build on your proposed solution design
• Include a clear description of your proposed solution design AND supporting evidence in the Appendix (the Appendix is not included in the word count)

How do I demonstrate contribution to the team process?

It is simple: Be a good team player. That is, contribute to your team by bringing in your skills and expertise as much as possible while being open to feedback, change, and taking on other tasks that might be out of your comfort zone but need to be done to make the project a success.

On days 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 you and your team members will use Practera to provide each other feedback on your team contribution. This feedback will determine whether all of you get the same mark for the assignment or whether the marks need to be moderated because some team members contributed more than others.   

In sum

The final deliverable for your project will consist of a team report for your client (2500 – 3000 words as a guide, but this is flexible depending on the nature of the problem and/or report). The report must clearly and succinctly communicate your team’s recommendations and justifications in relation to the proposed solutions for the industry partner's business problem. The report is evaluated on how your team persuasively and professionally communicates the impact of recommendations to the industry partner. The final report must be reflective of feedback gathered throughout the course.

Can you use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for this assignment?

The answer is a decisive yes. You do not have to but certainly can use AI to support you in completing this assessment task as long as you adhere to the following rules:

1. You are responsible for everything you say and report. Keep in mind that AI often makes information and references up and that it also often omits critical information. So, don't trust AI and only use it to support you in tasks such as brainstorming and improving your writing if you either know your facts by heart or can verify them.
2. You must clearly reference any use of AI each time you use it. Please include an additional section at the very end of your report outlining what you used AI for and describing the specific prompts you used. This section do not count towards the word limit (i.e., use as many words as you need to accurately explain what you did).

Failure to reference AI use is in violation of academic honesty policies and may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.