The purpose of this page is to assist you with researching for your group project. Remember to always consult your course outline and learnonline site for a detailed description of your assessment.
The following will be used as an example project topic to show you how to research: Redesigning the dining experience in aged care.
After meeting with your client you may need to undertake additional background research in order to better understand your client, the problem or issue they want to resolve and the context or setting of the problem.
You may want to consider searching for the following topics:
Looking for? |
Try searching here: |
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Client information Learn more about the operations of the client and their mission and objectives |
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Industry information See where your client fits in the wider industry and explore resources tailored by industry organisations |
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Case studies or marketing campaigns What campaigns have been used previously and were they successful? |
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Data and statistics Locate useful data and statistics about your clients, stakeholders, and similar issues |
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Australian Standards and Patents If you are designing an object to solve an issue, you will need to comply with relevant design standards |
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Relevant protocols, standards, guidelines, government policies and government reports What policies, protocols, standards or guidelines need to be considered when creating your solution? |
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For your project you will need to search for scholarly or academic references.
It may be useful to see what existing solutions have already been implemented and the outcomes, that you can then assess for relevance to your project. For information about the problem or issue, search for your keywords in:
Start planning your search by:
Next you will need to think of alternate words for your keywords to also use in your searching.
For the example topic - Redesigning the dining experience in aged care - your stakeholders might be aged care staff and aged care residents.
Below are some examples of keywords:
Once you have your keywords, use the search tips from the resources below to form your search strategy:
A search strategy for the example project topic might be:
"aged care" OR "homes for the Aged" OR "old age home*" OR "old age home*" OR "housing for the elderly" OR "retirement home*"
AND meal* OR dining OR dinner OR lunch OR breakfast
AND experience OR enjoyment OR atmosphere OR perception OR viewpoint OR enjoyment OR joy OR "quality of life" OR "life quality"
Then search the Library Collection, relevant databases, and Google Scholar using your search strategy. Check the Where to search table above for more avenues to search for information.
For more help:
You should critically evaluate all resources found to determine their appropriateness for your assignment. The following video (3 min 17 sec) explains more about how to evaluate information.
Key points from the video:
As part of your project you will be working in a small group or team. Developing teamwork skills is important for a successful project.
Check out the links below for some tips on working in teams, including how to manage conflict. Note: You must be logged in to access the LinkedIn Learning videos.
You will also need to keep track of all the files you create and work on together as part of this project.
The resources below provide some suggestions on how to manage files as a part of a team:
Watch this short video (2 min 52 sec) for tips on how to write a report or access the report writing resources below.
See the following links for tips on best practices for oral presentations and writing your assignment:
See the videos below for tips on writing project summaries. Note: You must be logged in to access the LinkedIn Learning videos.
Using images in your presentation or proposal? Make sure you reference or attribute them correctly.
Read the handouts below for information on finding creative commons licensed images and how to attribute them correctly:
What do you do with all those references you have found? You can use a bibliographic management software to store, organise, and cite your references.
There are many free systems available. The Library supports the bibliographic management tool EndNote. EndNote automates citing your references and allows you to create and organise a library of references. For more information and to download the software, check out the EndNote Guide: