Hi Ade, hi Isabel
We are looking at unit 3 today the Human Resource Management sample assessment material.
This is from the Higher National Qualification in Business It is Level 4 and it is a research
based assessment that focuses on a case study organisation. I thought we would go
through the each section of the SAM to see how we can customise and adapt it
So let us have a look at the submission format first of all which is the evidence
that the student has to produce and submit to the tutor. So what is the format for this one?
Well they are recommending an individual report. They are specifying that it should
be formal business style. Single spacing size font 12 being used. Some guidance there
on the presentation format. Also to include Harvard referencing and a bibliography
as you would expect and a recommended word limit of 2000 to 2500 words.
Yeah that works for me. I would think about where our students are in the programme because they
are currently in the second semester. So maybe we should think about trying to stretch them
a bit further in this. We could extend it getting them to add appendices perhaps think about
an executive summary. That sort of thing to just make it a bit weightier I would then
think about perhaps extending the word limit to 3000. How does that work? Yeah I think it
is a good point that you made if the students are in the second semester and they have developed
their research skills we can stretch and challenge them certainly. But also if you
turn over the page and look at how many learning outcomes being covered here. We have got three
learning outcomes and actually the first one is explain and the second is evaluation.
The third is analyse so actually they have a lot of details and research to do for this particular assessment.
So I think yes increasing the word count would enable them to achieve that more
effectively and also specifying as you said actually the type of business report that
we want because there are different types of report formats. So specifying title page,
contents page, executive summary, introduction, main body, conclusion, bibliography, appendices
and bullet point that in. Yes they got that clear guidance. They got clear instructions
on the submission format. Yep Shall we look at now thee assignment brief and guidance
which is on the next page. Yep okay Just looking at the first paragraph.
This is set in the vocational context from the scenario and it is based on being a newly appointed human
resource manager as you can see for a particular organisation that is what I was thinking about.
Actually looking at this it says here a named organisation. So a lot of our students are
in employment or on placement so can they use their own organisation for this instead
of us naming one? They certainly can yeah you really got to encourage students if they are
out in the workplace to use their own organisation, but as we know there will still be some students
that will not be in employment. So I think to amend this you would put in a
named organisation as well as allowing the students to use their own workplace and just
word that appropriately. And also I think thinking about the type of organisation you
chose they have got to have sufficient resources to fulfil the research requirements from the
particular SAM. So you do have to give a bit of thought to the type of organisation you
are going to select. I am totally with you on tha.t So really if we are thinking about
the case study of the organisation we are giving them we need to think about a large
local organisation. Perhaps a national or multinational. Something that gives them that scope. Exactly.
One that would have the sufficient resources to research. But also one that the students
are familiar with. They do like to be able to relate to their organisations to motivate
them to carry out their research. Yeah that makes perfect sense to me. So in the second
paragraph just below they are just setting what the human resource manager has to do.
As you can see it is about reviewing the effectiveness of the HR function within the organisation
researching the role and scope of HR and assessing HR functions. Do you think that is sufficient?
To be I think it is clear and it is a useful scenario so to speak but I am not sure
Let me just take a little look at the criteria against that I do not think that particular
paragraph enables to achieve the particular criteria especially the merit and distinction.
Hmm we got three merits and two distinctions. But actually just looking further
down there are key points given of the elements that should be included in the report. So there
is a bit more detail given below of what should be covered. What do you think to those?
I like those and I think it is really clear well structured again but I would still argue that
I am not sure that it still allows the learner to achieve the merit and distinction criteria.
I mean if we just take the example of 1 where it talks about assess how the functions of
HR etc and we compare that to point 2 which it seems to relate to it asks for an explanation
of the purpose of HR. And I am really not sure that an explanation and an assessment is sufficient.
I think we need to think about extending it. I agree. These points are quite general.
They are sufficient to meet the pass criteria but they are not quite fulfilling the merit and
distinction criterion. They do need to be amended they do need to be given more detail they
do need to be made more subject specific and you would change for example point 2 from
an explanation possibly of the role of the purpose of HR function to possibly an evaluation
of the HR function. You could extend point 3 to look at the approach to workforce planning
recruitment and selection to identify strengths and weaknesses to the other merit criteria
so it is building in the merit and distinction criteria throughout those key points so they
need to be given much more detail to make the merit and distinction criteria much more
explicit within the guidance brief. Contextualisation for that particular subject really does make
sense does it not. So that really does work for me. Just making sure that whatever we do
with it we ensure that scope is built into that assignment to allow the learner to achieve that.
Absolutely that is key. They have got to make sure that the assignment brief and
guidance covers not just pass criteria but the merit and distinction and enables the
students to maximise their grading opportunities. Excellent. Thank you, Isabel. Thanks.