How to complete the second assessment: digisoc2
Official guidance for students taking UCIL26002
This is the official course guidance for the first assessment, digisoc2. You should refer to it when planning, completing and reviewing your work.
We have also recorded an informal introduction to the assessment, which you can access as video, audio (SoundCloud/mp3), or a transcript with links. The podcast doesn’t replace this page, but you may find it a good place to start.
Below is the official assessment brief
digisoc2 assessment brief
Address the opportunities or challenges facing an organisation or sector, using digital media and technology.
Topic: Consider the opportunities or challenges facing an organisation or sector, and how these might be addressed using digital technologies.
Style: The format is inspired by the PechaKucha style of presentation. You should submit a blog post (this means a more informal tone than a standard academic essay). Your post should consist of 10 sections each containing an attributed image and 100 words of text. You are still required to reference everything you would in an essay, including ideas from other students’ previous writing on this unit.
As you are are writing online, link to what you are referencing within the text of your blog post rather than producing a reference list at the end of your blog post. For help with referencing you can access our Medium page on how to reference in the Digital Society.
Student coursework: last years digisoc2 submissions can be accessed on Medium. You can be inspired by, see what the format looks like and the range of subjects that were covered.
Marking criteria: The blog post images and text will be assessed in your submission. The images used will be assessed on whether they are correctly sourced, attributed and referenced, and whether they are relevant to the text. Your text will be assessed on how well it demonstrates your understanding of the topic.
- Make use of your existing knowledge and that of peers to solve and confront new challenges [NB: this is an individual piece of work, but we expect you to refer to your existing knowledge and that of your peers]. Relates to Learning Objective 3.
- Understand challenges and opportunities in a ‘digital society’, apply this to an organisation or sector, present with awareness of intellectual property issues. Partially relates to Learning Objectives 1 and 2.
- Full description of marking criteria for this assessment.
- Full description of each learning outcome, and how they are assessed.
Length: 10 sections each containing an attributed image and around 100 words of text. Total word count based on 1000 words.
Licensing: Choose any licence available on Medium to share your work. The University maintains its usual rights to store and use your assessed work, but you remain the copyright owner, and you may release/use the work as you wish, as long as you do not change the submitted version until after the unit has finished. This is to enable us to assess it, and other students to read it.
Submission format:
- Public Medium post, published with the tag digisoc2, submitted to the Digital Society publication
- Anonymised Word copy submitted to TurnItIn via Blackboard.
- Full instructions for submission.
You can edit your post until the deadline, but you must not edit, delete or unpublish your work between the deadline and the end of the unit. This is to allow your work to be marked and viewed by others.
Rules and regulations: See Overview: Assessment for details.
Deadline: 12pm midday (UK time), Friday 8th March 2024
Weighting within unit: 30%
Further resources
- Research tips for Digisoc 2
- Correctly sourcing and attributing your images (guidance here).
- Referencing appropriately in a blog post
- Using screenshots in a blog post
Please email digisoc@manchester.ac.uk with any questions or problems.
