Brief

PROFESSIONAL STUDIES BLOCK COURSE January 2013 page 1/4
as effectively as possible and to agree early on what processes your team will use for handling
disputes, reward distribution and decision-making etc so hiccups don’t derail the entire project.

THE REPORT & THE PRESENTATION
Your team must plan, structure and organise your report and presentation. Choices may be partly
determined by the points you wish to make, the time and the facilities at your disposal. The
following guidelines might help you to structure your team’s report, divided down across the three
subject areas. These are only guidelines - but however you cover these three headings, I rate
them as being of equal importance and will distribute marks accordingly - so don’t put all your eggs
in one (or two) baskets.
1) A Study Of The Design Team
One sheet about each of the following:-
• The ‘built’ product - giving hard details and an idea of its appearance and atmosphere.
• The ‘named’ designer or Landscape Architect
• The membership, size/nature of the larger design team with the names and roles of key
corporate and individual players.
• The design team’s working methods. What lessons were learned (or not) by the design team,
what problems were overcome (or not.) Your group’s assessment of how the designer, design
team and processes worked together. Maybe the named designer was a dictator? Maybe they
were absent and entirely detached from the project. Did a process evolve?
• Make a judgement: What worked? What didn’t? What could have worked better? What surprised
you? What was unexpected?
• Conclusion: what was different / unusual / interesting about how your project’s team worked?
Were there special circumstances that lead to success or failure? What ideas can you translate
to your other work in future?
2) Objectives: How (If?) The Project Delivers?
Consider (or agree together) what the objectives for the project were. Different stake-holders may
have different goals, which may themselves change over time, e.g. ‘before’ and ‘after’ project
completion. Explore which (and how and to what extent) these objectives have been delivered.
The presentation of this subject will be judged on the quality of how these concepts have been
analysed, explored and explained in relation to the specific study project
3) A Study Of Your Student Team
As a minimum, cover who was in it, how it worked (or not) and how decisions were made or
working processes evolved. Compare and contrast how you worked compared to the studied
design team. It may help to look at sources on personalities in groups (e.g. Meredith Belbin’s work
or Myers Briggs) and also procedures that teams use to stay on track and record progress.
Include one sheet on each of the following:-
• Your team (members, size, background/nature of your team)
• Your team’s working methods and what lessons were / were not learned by your team.
• How your team performed: its processes, working together etc. Was anyone a dictator?
• Did processes evolve? What worked? What didn’t? What could’ve been better? Surprises?
Conclusion:
• What was different/ unusual/ interesting about how your team worked? What lessons were
• learned? What developed?
• What ideas did you transfer from your project to your team?
• What ideas can might you translate to your individual work?
Please be concise: more submitted material is often a sign of indecisiveness about what goes in
and what stays out and that in turn is about what’s important and what isn’t.
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ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
The overall grade comes from 3 equal components. Each component is weighted between the
report and the presentation so you dare not downplay any element of your report or presentation.
1/3 of marks on: - How the project team worked 67% presentation / 33% report
1/3 of marks on: - Project objectives 67% presentation / 33% report
1/3 of marks on: - How your team worked 67% presentation / 33% report
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1. In past years, presentation and report were equally weighted. The 67/33% split used this year
is to emphasise the importance of delivering a clear and concise presentation rather than the
tedium of reading on-screen illegible PowerPoint text that will eventually make a tedious report.
Your major problem may be how you cover each of the three topics in less than 3 minutes.
2. I’ll assess the report and presentation as group work, but my copy of the report must say how
marks are to be distributed between team members, with percentages next to full names and
signatures. This sheet MUST be legibly signed by each group member. If any signature is
missing, that student is assumed not to exist and will not be assessed. Any listed student who
never attended MUST be identified and given 0%. Others are allocated marks at the team’s
discretion. Check the total of the team’s individual percentage shares add up to 100%. Of
course, if they wish, the group may allocate marks equally and teams frequently choose to do
so: that is entirely acceptable as long as everyone agrees.
3. There are many ways of organising group teams and their work: collegiate, delegatory, a leader
(elected or self nominated), democratic or authoritarian, working in silos. Tasks can be
allocated to individuals or teams, and such teams may or may not be ongoing. But be aware
that you may just be perpetuating models that you are already familiar with and they may not
be appropriate here. I would argue that a group can’t truly function as a team until everyone
knows what everyone knows. So, given that you want the whole team to learn and to be able to
make contributions to the team’s work, one area you may wish to address is how does your
team facilitate its own learning? How do you circulate knowledge? How do you incorporate
individual ideas, hunches and inspirations?
LOGISTICS
How do you structure the project? You need to collect material, monitor time and allocate tasks.
Only when you have collected and shared material within your colleagues will the team be able to
creatively decide the main thrusts of your presentations and report. You also have to choose a way
of packaging the material such that your findings are delivered memorably and concisely in a
limited time slot. You are responsible for the supply, operation and co-ordination of all equipment,
people and material for your presentation.
NOTE: Take care before contacting individuals or organisations: if each group member individually
contacts a particular person you will end up with a swamped and very disgruntled contact and no
answers. Agree who approaches who and what are the main areas of interest and be polite and
professional and you’re more likely to get helpful answers. It usually happens that many groups
break this rule from the outset: despite the appointment of a funnel, many can’t resist adding in
their own email comments....
TUTOR SUPPORT
Each group must e-mail Tony (be sure to put ‘Professional Studies Block Course 2013’ in the
header) giving the e-mail address of a named group member who will act as ‘the funnel’. (Any
subsequent emails must have the same text in the header.) All queries and replies must go via the
and in this format for ease of sorting/searching . Answers and information will be emailed back to
this person. It’s the funnel’s responsibility to disseminate replies (and this brief) to their team.
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To encourage debate in the team, there will be NO tutorials. If after discussion there are still
unresolved disagreements the funnel can refer them to me. Guidance, questions and/or answers
of general relevance will be sent to all funnels for distribution to teams. In the case of catastrophic
group failure (It’s only happened once in a decade) I will meet a group provided it’s quorate.
SUBMISSION DETAILS
You have 2 deadlines: report submission and your presentation. Given study patterns and
locations, it’s inevitable that we won’t get all presentations in the same place at the same time
(shame! - though if you do get a chance to see other disciplines’ presentations please do.)
The report submission deadline is 4.30pm on Monday March 11th. This is fixed and constant
across all disciplines. Each group member should retain a copy of their group’s report for their
portfolio, but one non-returnable copy of the report (along with the agreed, signed % breakdown of
marks) should be submitted to Tony care of the AD&C School office counter by hand or post.
(Postal submissions postmarked 4/3/12 will be accepted: later postmarks will not.) Hadlow-based
groups can submit their reports to Richard Tilley by the same date/time. All submissions should be
labelled: “Block Course for Tony Clelford’s attention”. By the same deadline, all groups must also
submit a copy of their report digitally - on a CD or as a PDF email attachment.
Presentation date(s) are to be confirmed. Total presentation time for all 3 subjects is 8 minutes. I
will time you. Don’t overrun: rehearse. All 3 subjects are assessed so be careful not to put all your
efforts - or your presentation time - into one or two subject areas. If you use any sort of technology
with your presentation (from a laptop down to an angle-poise or a microphone) it’s your group’s
responsibility to source, set up and run it. Quick set-up is needed, so ensure all equipment is
working: e.g. sort out how to use the video or lecture room PC. At least half the group should be
involved in the presentation. All should be available to participate in the Q&A session afterwards.
The running order for presentations will be emailed to all groups and is non-negotiable. A Hadlow
appointment will be made for LM and GD presentations if necessary.
ASSESSMENT
As well as assessing the 3 subject areas and looking for analysis, insight and evaluation, I’ll
reward:
• Mastery/understanding of material
• Identifying key points and clearly communicating them in a memorable way.
• Did you draw clear lessons from each part?
• Did we learn from you? Did you learn from you?
• Overall quality of the presentation, report and Q&A sessions.
Tony Clelford January 2013
Email: a.j.clelford@gre.ac.uk
AFTER THE BRIEF’S BEEN ISSUED
1. Acknowledge receipt of the brief and confirm to me the full names of your group members, your
team’s discipline/study mode and subject.Use the email format mentioned above.
2. One group was a one man (one woman?) band and she was offered the opportunity to drop
her subject and join colleagues in another group. That needs to be confirmed back to me.
3. I do not have Ivan’s law assignment yet. If it follows previous years I don’t expect to receive it
before the end of this month. I am chasing him and I will issue it as soon as I have it. I will also
keep you informed when I make progress in my chase (so there’s no point in chasing me.)
4. Further copies of Ivan’s law notes will be available from Lauren at reception when they have
been photocopied.