For this assignment, you are required to:

1. Propose and justify the use of relevant frameworks, models, methods and/or processes of Web mining, Web analytics, decision support, and/or software agents in dealing with the extended case or identified problem on the basis of your coursework#1. The theoretical rationale, procedures, and supporting techniques and technologies should be well presented and argued, with evidence of using properly acknowledged sources and referring to appropriate theory, research and practice. Critical review and synthesis of the literature, in-depth analysis of findings, and logical reasoning should be made. (30%)

2. Select and justify your choice of Web mining software tools, Web analytics software tools, decision support tools, and/or software agent tools for your frameworks, models, methods and/or processes proposed in Requirement #1, in order to deal with the case or problem. The business, management and technical criteria or factors affecting your selection of the BI software tools should be addressed and discussed. The explanation for selecting your tools should be given, with comparison to other alternative BI software tools available in the market. (30%)

3. Analyse and discuss the potential value, effectiveness and efficiency of your proposed solutions and associated software tools for improving business processes, business performance, and better informed decision making, and creating competitive advantage. (30%)

4. Provide good structure, professional presentation and correct referencing for your answers. (10%)

Your report should be approximately 1,700 words (± 10%) in length (excluding references, illustrations such as diagrams, charts and pictures, and appendices) and should be presented in a report format including title page, executive summary, content page, main body of your report, acknowledgement if applicable, references, and appendices.
Marking Criteria

The mark allocation will be balanced for each of the elements mentioned in the coursework requirements but will also include the following:

• The use and synthesis of scientific literature and Web resources
• Understanding and applications of BI concepts, theory, models, software packages or tools
• Appropriate applications of methods or approaches
• Clear evidence of how your own ideas and critical thinking contribute to the topic, built upon appropriate research
• Indication of originality in practical and sound recommendations of BI software tools, significance, practical and research implications,
• A thorough flow and cohesion of arguments and methodology that progress logically from the introduction, through the discussion and analysis, into the conclusions.
• Readability, structure, level and appropriateness of presentation including the use of English and illustrations
Mark allocation Maximum marks Actual marks
Propose and justify the use of relevant models, methods and/or processes of Web mining, Web analytics, and/or software agents in dealing with the case or problem identified in your coursework#1. The theoretical rationale, procedures, and supporting techniques and technologies should be well presented and argued, with evidence of using properly acknowledged sources and referring to appropriate theory, research and practice. Critical review and synthesis of the literature, in-depth analysis of findings, and logical reasoning should be made 30
Select and justify your choice of Web mining software tools, Web analytics software tools, and/or software agent tools for your framework or model proposed and specified in your coursework #1. The business, management and technical criteria or factors affecting your selection of the BI software tools should be addressed and discussed. The explanation for selecting your tools should be given, with comparison to other alternative BI software tools available in the market. 30
Analyse and discuss the potential value, effectiveness and efficiency of your proposed solutions for improving business processes, business performance, and better informed decision making, and creating competitive advantage. 30
Provide good structure, professional presentation and correct referencing for your answers 10
Total marks
100
Notes

• You must keep a back-up copy of all parts of this assignment until the results for the module are posted at the end of the semester
• This assignment carries 50% of the module marks
Deadline

The coursework report is to be submitted to the module Blackboard Turnitin before 13:00 (1pm) on 30th April 2015, together with a completed CA1 form.

You should familiarise yourself with the University’s regulations regarding submission of assessed work. Module leaders are not authorised to grant extensions to deadlines. If you miss the deadline on account of certified sickness or other circumstances, you should make an application to the Mitigating Circumstances Panel.

You need to submit ONLY an electronic copy via Blackboard Turnitin by the deadline. Therefore please ensure that you prepare your work for this form of submission (You can upload, Word/PDF files to Turnitin and it needs to be a single file). You are encouraged to submit your work as soon as possible.

Please note Turnitin checks your work for potential academic offences, so ensure you are very careful when referencing and quoting material. Please ensure when quoting that you use “quotation marks”.

You can only upload a single copy of your work to Blackbord Turnitin, so please do not submit drafts and ask for them to be removed at a later stage.

It is your responsibility to ensure that work is handed in within the due deadlines.

Please DO NOT email your work to the module tutor rather than submitting your work to Turnitin. If you experience problems uploading your work to Turnitin you need to email the module leader as soon as possible (before the deadline) and await instructions. It is a requirement of this module that you upload your work to Turnitin, if you fail to comply with this request, your work will not be marked [See Section 6.12 – UoW Academic Regulations
2011].

If you fail to meet the due deadline listed above, the normal University late penalties will be applied as outlined in Section 6.17 – UoW Academic Regulations 2011.

FEEDBACK

Feedback upon this assignment will be provided approximately three weeks following the submission date.

An email will be also sent via Blackboard announcing when you can collect the assignment and feedback in person.

ACADEMIC REFERENCING

When writing an essay, report or other assignment you will need to support your arguments by referring to published work such as books, journal or newspaper articles, government reports, dissertations and theses, and material from the Internet. It is expected that you use the Harvard Referencing style within this work.

You will need to give accurate references:
• To give credit to other authors’ concepts and ideas
• To provide the reader (often the marker/examiner of the assignment) with evidence of the breadth and depth of your reading
• To enable the readers of your work to locate the references easily
• To avoid being accused of plagiarism, an academic offence which can lead to loss of marks, module failure or in severe cases exclusion from the University.

ASSESSMENT OFFENCES

Academic offences, including plagiarism, are treated very seriously in the Westminster Business School. A student who is proven to have committed an academic offence may be placing his or her degree in jeopardy. It is your responsibility as a student to make sure that you understand what constitutes an academic offence, and in particular, what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.