ECOM1000 Analytic for Decision Making Part 1 (Unicorn: 10/8/2021)

ECOM1000 – Project Part 1: Project Proposal

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Faculty of Business and Law | School Accounting, Economics and Finance CRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Curtin University, Semester 2, 2021 ECOM1000 Project

Part 1 (15%) – Prepare a Proposal

As a consultant, you are submitting a tender/proposal to a government of a country to help them prepare a country-level profile (in the form of a final report). You believe that you have the necessary data management and analysis skills to carry out this task. Country level profiles are used to assist policy makers in preparing strategic plans for the country. In the first stage of this project, you will prepare a tender/proposal which will explicitly outline the information that you will include in the final report (part 2 of the project). Your proposal will consider the following aspects of the country:

1. Population 2. Macroeconomic indicators (Interest rates, inflation rate etc.) 3. Environmental indicators (CO2 emissions, air quality etc.) 4. COVID-19 impact

In addition to the above, you are required to choose another aspect of your choice which you think is unique to your country and will help in its development. Examples of this include main industries, technological capability, human rights information etc. All the aspects listed above are quite broad. It is up to you to select what you think it appropriate for the policy makers. For example, when presenting the country’s population information, we could choose to focus on population growth, age group distribution or gender distribution. Additionally, with most of the data being time series, you will also need to decide what time horizon you want to focus on. For example, in the population case, do you want to consider all the data available (all years) or only the recent years. Please provide very brief reasons for your choices. The proposal will consist of the following sections:

1. Title page 2. Cover letter – A very brief letter outlining your case of assisting in the preparation

of the country level profile. 3. Table of contents 4. Proposal – What will be included in the final report? Briefly, describe why this

work is important. 5. Methodology – Specific details on how the information will be presented (related

to materials in modules 2 and 3). Also included here will be the details on data sources and definitions (module 1). You may also include any limitations on data availability (if applicable).

6. References – A list of resources (includes data sources) used or referenced in the proposal. Please use the Chicago referencing style (see unit outline for further details).

ECOM1000 – Project Part 1: Project Proposal

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Faculty of Business and Law | School Accounting, Economics and Finance CRICOS Provider Code 00301J

7. Project timeline – List of activities/tasks that will be completed and the expected time each of these will take.

Country allocation Please refer to the file titled – “Country_Allocation_S2_2021.pdf” to find out which country you will be working for. You will need to know your student number. If you are unable to find your allocated country, please email [email protected] as soon as possible. Data sources Listed below are a sample of websites that contain country level information/data. Please feel free to explore more resources: https://data.worldbank.org/ https://data.un.org/default.aspx https://ourworldindata.org/countries Word limit Please note that there is a maximum word limit of 700 words for the proposal. This excludes the cover letter, references and the project timeline. Additional information Please watch the accompanying assessment video which explains the requirements in greater detail. Please consult with your tutor as well as use consultation times to discuss or seek feedback for the proposal before the due date. Submission details Please submit your final proposal via Turnitin on the 20th of August 2021 by 12 noon Australian Western Standard Time (AWST). Standard penalties (see unit outline) will apply to late submissions which have no approval. Please also be mindful of the academic integrity requirements for this unit. Please refer to the unit outline for further details on this. The marking rubric on the next page will be used to mark the submitted proposals. Please note this is a proposal only. As such, it should NOT contain any results (tables, plots) or discussion (commentary on results). However, whilst writing the proposal you should ensure that whatever you are proposing is possible. Investing time into this proposal is going to be worthwhile, since many of the components in the proposal will be used again in part 2 of the project (worth 35%). In fact, the proposal (marked version) will need to be submitted again in part 2 of the project.

ECOM1000 – Project Part 1: Project Proposal

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Faculty of Business and Law | School Accounting, Economics and Finance CRICOS Provider Code 00301J

Section High Distinction (80%+) Distinction (70%-80%) Credit (60%-70%) Pass (50%-60%) Fail (0%-50%)

Formatting (10%)

Same as credit, but also contains no (or limited) spelling and grammar issues.

Same as credit, but also contains no (or limited) spelling and grammar issues.

Same as pass, but also satisfies the word limit.

Include all the sections required for the proposal and good presentation (font size and section heading).

Failed to include all the sections required for the proposal.

Proposal (30%)

Same as distinction but also includes a brief statement of the data limitations of the selected aspects.

Has almost all details on what activities/tasks that will be carried out as well as the rationale for them.

Has some details on what activities/tasks will be carried out and some rationale for the choices.

Has some details on what activities/tasks will be carried out.

Has insufficient detail on what activities/tasks will be carried out.

Methods (40%)

Same as distinction, but also provided a comparison with suitable/relevant alternative methods.

Mentioned relevant methods of presenting data and provide reasons for the choices

Mentioned relevant methods of presenting data.

Mentioned some methods of presenting data.

Failed to mention any methods of presenting data.

Scope (10%) Same as credit, but also includes the data limitations of the aspects.

Same as credit, but also includes the data limitations of the aspects.

Covered all the required aspects adequately.

Covered some of the required aspects sufficiently.

Did not cover any of the aspects of the country or covered some of them insufficiently.

Reference (10%)

At least three high quality reference, used well and formatted correctly.

At least three high quality reference, used well and formatted correctly.

At least three references used well to support the proposal.

At least three references, but used poorly in the text OR formatted incorrectly.

Fewer than three references, or three poor quality references.