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CMN 432 Communication in the Engineering Professions

Major Research Project


Overview
The major research project (MRP) consists of four linked assignments worth 45% of your
grade. This document will explain the relationship between the four assignments and provide
details about each. The four components are:

1. Assignment #1 (5%): Preliminary Design Proposal (Group)


2. Assignment #2 (10%): Annotated Bibliography (Individual)
3. Assignment #3 (10%): Oral Presentation (Group 5%; Individual 5%)
4. Assignment #4 (20%): Final Proposal (Group)

Please note: Your workshop instructor will grade the assignments. If you have questions
about these assignments, or if you feel these instructions require further explanation or
interpretation, consult your workshop instructor regarding expectations for the assignment.

Process
You will work in groups of 5-6 people. All members of the group must come from the same
workshop section. Each team will write a proposal responding to a Request for Proposals (RFP)
(#1) and each individual will develop an annotated bibliography of at least 5 scholarly sources to
support the final proposal (#2). The group will deliver a competitive pitch presentation (#3)
detailing their project in response to the RFP. Information from all the assignments will be
compiled and analyzed to create Assignment #4, the final proposal.


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Request for Proposals (RFP)
Immersive and accessible classroom
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) aims to make Ontario
accessible by 2025 through the development, implementation, and enforcement of standards to
identify, remove and prevent barriers for people with disabilities in key areas of daily living. The
standards apply to private and public sector organizations across Ontario. Under the AODA,
Ontario universities are identified as “large designated public sector organizations” and as such,
Universities are required to “incorporate accessibility design, criteria and features when
procuring or acquiring goods, services or facilities, except where it is not practicable to do so”
(O. Reg. 191/11, s. 5 (1); O. Reg. 413/12, s. 4 (1).)

Ryerson University is committed to providing accessible learning and working spaces for
students, employees and community members. A university wide initiative, Access Ryerson has
been implemented across campus to remove barriers to the full participation of all community
members with diverse abilities.

Along with the accessibility initiative, there is a growth of interest in immersive learning
technologies as a potential catalyst for experiential and interactive learning. In alignment with
the University’s accessibility mandate, immersive classroom technologies will open new
university pathways, and increase the number of courses that can be offered remotely and for
students with diverse abilities.

This project asks you to design an accessible immersive learning space on campus that
accommodates up to 100 learners with diverse abilities. The proposal must clearly articulate
design principles for developing a learning space that benefits users with diverse abilities, types
of immersive learning technologies implemented in the particular space, and address key issues
around accessible learning environment at Ryerson University. These may include attention to
students’ learning experience and well-being, infrastructure, and campus policies around equity,
diversity, and inclusion. Your design should include a plan of action that states what should be
done, as well as include a section that clearly states how this design could be adapted to other
universities across the world with similar issues.

One thing to note; too often, the accessibility of technologies (including immersive
technologies) is an afterthought, without disabled users in mind. A post-hoc, retrofit approach
is, while better than nothing, less optimal than a proactive approach that embeds accessibility in
the design from the get-go. The best proposals will thus not only ensure technology equity for
people with diverse abilities, but also to create a more flexible, adaptive and inclusive
technology ecosystem and learning environment that will benefit all users. (Reference: Mott et
al., 2019 Accessible by Design: An Opportunity for Virtual Reality)

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Proposal should specifically address the following questions:

• How will the ideas proposed in your design innovatively use technological solutions to
develop an immersive learning environment, while being sensitive to issues of accessibility,
equity and inclusion?
• How will the proposed design offer quality learning experience to individual learners?
• How could the design proposed by your team be scaled up to address current issues in
accessible learning in postsecondary education? Provide evidence and citations.
• How is the proposed work innovative and multidisciplinary?

Note: This fictional RFP was inspired by Lakehead University’s 2016 Request for Proposal on
immersive classroom technology (RFP# LU16-151). The original RFP can be found here.

Your team of engineers has decided to compete, and you will put forth a proposal that
addresses the requests in the RFP. You will be in competition with the other groups in your
workshop to come up with the best design outlined in the RFP. Your proposal must take into
consideration both the technologies and engineering constraints of the project, as well as the
social and political landscape, the wider economy, social and cultural environment and public
health policies in place.

You MUST consider end stakeholders when writing your proposal. This means that you will
have to think about the organization who posted the RFP (i.e., Ryerson University). As well, in
responding to an RFP your proposal must address all of the concerns of the request. As a
group, you will need to consider the following impacts:

• User/Design impacts

This perspective includes design choices and optimization - an explanation of why you chose to
make things LOOK the way they do, and WHY they’ll do what you have proposed. This section
requires a description of the feasibility of the design and a justification of the design weighing
the appearance (size, shape, availability of materials) of the product, against its function.

• Ethical impacts

This perspective considers ethical or moral considerations where decisions can impact social
and environmental values and concerns. Unlike user/design, political, or business sections that
address barriers and mitigation, ethical impacts should consider fundamental questions of
whether the interventions proposed should occur in the first place. In other words, this section
addresses how the proposal’s ideas are moral (rather than simply just feasible or cost-effective).
As well, are there opportunities to consider broader concerns of ethics through this project.

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• Global/Cultural Impacts

This perspective considers how cultural and social beliefs, gender, nationalism, and different
global approaches to accessibility and inclusion modify what projects succeed and fail. This
section requires a description of how these features of a particular region might hamper or
help your cause.

• Political impacts

This perspective might include government legislation and budget, public policy, international
trade and tariff controls. Political impacts can range from municipal, provincial or federal affairs
and these decisions often influence a nation’s health policies, education and infrastructure,
which can immediately affect your selected organization.

• Business impacts

Part of the proposal might discuss aspects related to supply and demand, profitability, business
development, budget and employment. There is often overlap between business, public
relations and societal impacts. This perspective also considers the management of public
opinion and perception. Aspects related to the public image of an organization might affect
sales, credibility, trustworthiness, business growth and employment.

Once your team has decided upon a design to propose in response to the RFP, you will
complete a series of assignments:

• Assignment #1 (Preliminary Design Proposal) is written by the group. Each group will
have to meet, compare designs, and then choose the best design to put forward.
• Assignment #2 (Annotated Bibliography) is written by the individual.
• Assignment #3 (Pitch Presentation) is performed by the group. Each individual in the
group will have a roughly equivalent speaking role during the presentation.
• Assignment #4 (Final Proposal) is written by the group.

As a team, you will need to clearly define your research parameters within each impact in order
to reduce redundancy in your final report (Assignment #4). Each report must have a section
that covers, in-depth, several of these perspectives.

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Assignment Details

Assignment #1: Preliminary Proposal


Due date: Before start of Week 5 workshop on D2L. If you do not receive a Digital
Receipt or Document ID, you have not submitted the assignment
properly. Do not assume that the date as posted in the Turnitin link is
the submission date for your assignment. Corrupted files are the same as
submitting nothing. See the course syllabus for details on late
assignments.

Value: 5%

Format: 1.5-2 pages (800-1000 words), excluding bibliography and appendices (if
any); 12-point font Times New Roman; 1-inch margin; single spaced; Use
APA format when listing your sources (if any). Record the word count on
the title page of the assignment.

Proposal should be no less than 700 words and no longer than 1100
words. Proposals that are not within these limits will be penalized by 5%.

Assignment type: Group – only one assignment per group should be submitted. The
names of all group members and ID numbers must be on the
assignment’s title page.

In Assignment #1, your group will propose Articulate why you made the preliminary design
choices you did, as well as brief technical description of the design. This proposal will form the
basis for your final group proposal (Assignment #4).

Your proposal should include:

• A proposal topic/title, which should describe the content and direction of your project.
Example title: Evaluation and proposal for updated elevator shaft in Jorgensen Hall.

• The preliminary details of your final collaborative proposal.
• A problem statement section that responds to the RFP. For example, “The problem
with X is Y. Our proposed project will provide a solution to the problem/needs
proposed in the RFP.”

• How you would integrate the end users into your design. (You should articulate
the end users based on the RFP). You should provide a realistic, thorough, and specific
account of your audience and their needs.

• The explanatory paragraph should address the impacts, aims and/or perspectives
that the final proposal will consider. This section fleshes out the problem statement.

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How will your design address issues in the RFP? What do you want to know, prove,
demonstrate, analyze, test, investigate or examine?
• Methodology: How do you anticipate you will achieve these aims? What do you need?
(specify any special equipment, software or material) Can you access necessary data or
expertise? Do you require particular resources? Are there barriers or pitfalls?
• Expected outcomes: How do you anticipate your design achieving the goal outlined in
the RFP? What do you expect it will deliver? What are the expected outcomes?
• An approximate timeline for completing the proposed work. Indicate the timeframe
for each broad stage (e.g., research, data collection, production, modeling, review,
analysis, testing, and reporting). Also indicate which group member will research which
perspective.

Assignment #2: Annotated Bibliography


Due date: Before start of Week 8 workshop on D2L. If you do not receive a Digital
Receipt or Document ID, you have not submitted the assignment
properly. Do not assume that the date as posted in the Turnitin link is
the submission date for your assignment. Corrupted files are the same as
submitting nothing. See the course syllabus for details on late
assignments.

Value: 10%

Format: A list of annotated bibliography of 5 sources (each annotation should be


70-100 words) accompanied with one paragraph that describes the
overall purpose of the assembled sources (50-100 words); 12-point
Times New Roman; 1-inch margin; single spaced; Use APA format when
listing your sources. Record the word count of the report on the title
page of the assignment. Record the word count on the title page of the
assignment.

The total length of report should be no less than 400 words and no
longer than 700 words. Proposals that are not within these limits will be
penalized by 5%.

Assignment type: Individual

In Assignment #2, you will demonstrate progress you have made individually in your research
for the design that you will be proposing in response to the RFP. Since this MRP is a research-
based assignment, you must gather credible, research-based sources such as scholarly, peer-
reviewed articles, as well as other reliable trade and government publications, to determine
what stakeholders see as the impacts of your perspective on your topic.

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Once you have narrowed down your ideas and identified the main ways in which your proposal
best addresses the requests outlined in the RFP, you will develop an annotated
bibliography, which is a list of resources with a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph for
each citation (See: Ryerson library’s Research Help Guide). Each annotation should be 70-100
words. The bibliography must include at least FIVE scholarly and authoritative sources related
to your topic (at least three of which must be peer-reviewed) – you can include more than five
sources if appropriate. Find sources via Ryerson library portal. You may have some difficulty
finding sources that address your perspective on the topic precisely. However, you may find
sources that address a similar topic or perspective, and you can extrapolate from them to
consider your own topic.

Accompanied with the annotated bibliography is a short paragraph (50-100 words) that
succinctly explains the rationale why you gathered the particular sources presented in the
annotated bibliography. You will later use these sources as the basis for your pitch presentation
(Assignment #3) and to provide analysis and justify your final proposal (Assignment #4).

Assignment #3: Pitch Presentation


Due date: Week 10, 11, 12 or 13 Workshop (sign up in advance)

Value: 5% (Individual), 5% (Group)

Format: Individual 4-5 mins, Group 30 minutes maximum

Assignment type: Blended individual and group

In this assignment, your group will propose the best design that achieves the goal outlined in
the RFP. You must summarize your proposal’s findings and highlight the most convincing
arguments for the audience (the organization that issued the RFP). Your pitch must be
convincing, polished, and succinct. Your group must make a determined effort to tailor the
material to the audience in the classroom so it is relevant and engaging for them. Team
cohesion is important, and your presentation delivery should be smooth and rehearsed well.
Consider: why should your audience care about your topic? How or why is it important? Give
them reasons to be interested.

Individual presentation portion (5%)


• Each individual will prepare 5 slides and speak for 4-5 minutes to summarize key findings
regarding the perspective he/she has researched.
• Each individual will be evaluated based on vocal delivery, platform manner, and the
clarity and suitability of the visual material presented. The individual evaluation sheet will
be posted on D2L for you to review before you deliver your presentation.


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Group presentation portion (5%)
The group presentation must be no longer than 30 minutes in total and no shorter than 20
minutes (unless the group has fewer than 5 members). Marks will be deducted for not meeting
the time limits. Each individual in the group will have a roughly equivalent speaking role during
the presentation. After all members’ presentations, the group will spend 5 minutes for
answering questions from the audience. The group evaluation sheet will be posted on D2L for
you to review before you deliver your presentation.

The group as a whole will be evaluated based on a number of factors:

• Providing a persuasive and effective introduction and conclusion


• Ensuring content is unified and coherent
• Providing sufficient explanatory detail for the proposed design
• Providing effective and consistent visual aids
• Citing sources carefully

You must incorporate visual aids into your presentation. For most groups, this might mean
using PowerPoint, Google Slide, Prezi or Keynote to enhance and support your presentation.
Avoid overloading your presentation slides with content and text. Rule of thumb: no more than
6 lines of texts in one slide!

Your group will create one presentation deck containing all the speakers’ slides. These slides
will be uploaded to D2L before the workshop in which you present. Videos may only be used
in the presentation if 1) they are less than 90 seconds long and 2) the video achieves something
that you cannot without it.

Your group should:

• Draw on reputable secondary sources from the research reports such as credible
(industry/government) websites, peer-reviewed or scholarly journal articles, trade
journals etc.
• Document sources by including a References slide at the end of your presentation.
On the day of the presentation, provide your workshop instructor with a hardcopy of
these references prepared in APA style.
• Incorporate clear transitions to help the audience follow the structure of your
discussion.
• Engage your audience and carefully tailor the information to them.
• Be poised and speak confidently and naturally. While you may use note cards, do
not rely too heavily on them or read directly from them. Speak naturally and maintain
eye contact.

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• Prepare to complete speech evaluations for selected members/groups in
your class. Your peers will, in turn, evaluate your presentation. Completing the speech
evaluations forms a portion of your participation grade.

Assignment #4: Final Proposal


Due date: Before start of Week 13 workshop on D2L. Your workshop instructor
may also require a hardcopy (please check with your instructor).

Value: 20%

Format: 5-7 pages (2500-3500 words), excluding bibliography and appendices (if
available); 12-point Times New Roman; 1-inch margin; single spaced; Use
APA format when listing your sources. Record the word count on the
title page of the assignment.

Final proposal should be no less than 2250 words and no longer than
3750 words. Proposals that are not within these limits will be penalized
by 5%.

Assignment type: Group – only one assignment per group should be submitted. The
names of all group members and ID numbers must be on the
assignment’s title page.

Proposal (Collaborative)

Assignment #4 is a proposal that argues for your design/proposition to have the greatest impact
achieving the goal outlined in the organization’s RFP.

This proposal must be persuasive - it must overtly and PROFESSIONALLY outline why your
design is the best for the organization. The proposal must use the rhetorical techniques
discussed in the lectures and workshops to create a compelling argument supported by
evidence. To do this, compile the research completed in Assignment #2 and draw conclusions.

Your proposal should be written in a formal style and include a title page, table of contents,
executive summary or abstract, list of figures, list of references and other appropriate sections
detailed in the RFP. The proposal will be single-spaced. The body of the proposal should be
roughly 5-7 pages of written material. The proposal will incorporate tables, charts, images and
other graphics that support your ideas. These graphics and list of references are NOT included
as part of the 5-7 pages of written material.

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This is a research-based proposal, so references and in-text citations are required. You will use
APA style for referencing and in-text citations. In addition to the informative material you
gathered for your proposal, you may also use sources such as trade or industry journals that
discuss how other organizations have been affected or how they have reacted to the various
factors you have explored.

Online Group Evaluation (Individual)

Each student is expected to complete the online group evaluation on D2L. The form provides
individuals a chance to discuss the project contributions of each group member. The online
evaluation will be visible ONLY to the workshop professor. Based on these evaluations and at
the discretion of your workshop professor, individual grades can be slightly adjusted to reflect
each student’s project contribution.

Assignment Components and Design


1. Front Section


• Title page with paper title, student names and numbers, course name and number,
workshop instructor name, the date of submission, and the word count on the title page
of the assignment.
• Table of Contents

• List of Tables

These elements are NOT included in the 5-7-page limit. Excellent papers will also have a page
header or footer and other “finishing touches” to make the paper look professional enough to
submit to a real management team.

2. Executive Summary (1 page)
 


This summarizes the highlights of the proposal. This must be written in sentence/paragraph
format and is included in the 5-7-page limit.


3. Introduction/Overview (0.5 to 1 page)
 


In this section, you introduce the topic and why it is important. This should culminate
with a Statement of Purpose and Project Rationale , as well as a brief outline of the organization
of your paper that serves as a “roadmap” to the proposal. The thesis or topic sentence should
be similar to the following structure:

“This proposal responds to Company X’s RFP wherein they ask for an innovative idea to the
following issue: “...” After considering factors like cost, time, environmental impact and design,
we propose the following design: ....”

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4. Arguments (2.5 to 3 pages)
This is the most important part of your proposal. Your proposal will construct an argument
about how the factors you researched help the organization achieve its goal and outline what
actions it should take. These arguments must be supported with strong evidence, including data,
tables, and material from peer-reviewed, scholarly journals and other appropriate literature.
You will use the information from the previous assignments to make your arguments. You
should NOT, however, simply cut and paste the previous assignments into a single document.
You will need to carefully select and restructure/ reorganize information to create a persuasive
argument from the objective information you found in previous assignment. You need to
analyze critically the information to create a compelling argument that will support your
proposal. All sources must be cited, including any data sources. This section must be extremely
well written and carefully organized with no fluff or filler.

5. Work Plan and major project activities timeline

Project Start and End Dates (use September 1, 2020 as the start and August 31, 2022 as the
end).

6. Conclusions (0.5 to 1 page)

In this section, you revisit your thesis statement and review the points you have raised in
your arguments that support your position. At the end you answer the “so what?” question as
your conclusion. What are the implications of these findings? What conclusions can be drawn?
Are there any limitations/weakness to the research? What next steps should be taken? How
should the organization respond to these issues to be successful?


7. References

In this section, list in alphabetical order all sources (journals and data) cited in the paper,
including websites. Use APA format when listing your sources. It may be helpful to use
Mendeley to complete your citations and reference list. The reference section is NOT included
in the 5-7-page limit. See the Library’s website for information about how to use Mendeley.

Frequently Asked Questions:


What is a scholarly journal?

To ensure you have a scholarly peer-reviewed reference, check off these options when
specifying your search parameters in the library’s electronic databases. Then all the references
that come up are appropriate. Scholarly journals usually have the name “journal” or “quarterly”
in the title. If a reference comes up in your search that is less than 3 pages or has no author, it
is probably not a scholarly reference.

What kinds of references are not acceptable?

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It is NOT acceptable to rely only on textbooks, magazines, company/industry websites, trade
journals (e.g., Marketing News), or newspapers (e.g., Globe & Mail) as sources. These sources
often contain a specific (biased) viewpoint, and the content has not been peer reviewed in the
way scholarly journals have. One minor exception might be referencing up-to-date numbers
(e.g., crime statistics for the GTA) from newspapers or magazines. You may use them to
support ideas in Assignment #4, the proposal, since sources such as trade or industry journals
may provide information or evidence on how other companies are responding to certain issues.

How do we use these references?

There should be only limited use of direct quotations (i.e., phrases, sentences or paragraphs in
quotation marks) in your paper. The point of a paper is not to have a list of connected quotes
from other sources but rather to have you read all the material written on a topic to come up
with your own view of the factors that are important and to put these ideas into a coherent
argument that represents your view of how things fit together. Some of your ideas will be the
same as those who have previously written on the topic. These ideas must be cited. If you
present an idea that was someone else’s, paraphrase it and be sure to reference the original
source(s). It is possible to have more than one reference for an idea, and all that you have read
on the topic should be cited for the one idea (if applicable).

Example: Several researchers have documented the relationship between eye colour and
type of vehicle preferred (Atherton, 2001; Mayberry & Spivak, 2000; Warden, 2005).

How many government and/or scholarly references do we need?

The short answer is as many as it takes to do the job. The long answer is probably no fewer
than 5, but a more reasonable number would be more than 8. All references should come from
credible sources. This applies to any newspapers, trade journals and magazines you use over
and above the required scholarly sources. The use of Wikipedia is discouraged and will
disappoint and depress your professor.

Can we just cut and paste the tables we use from the original document?

You should not do this because they will take up too much space and probably have too much
data. Data tables you find will likely contain much more data than you need. You want to focus
your audience’s attention on the data that is important for this paper. To do this, you will adapt
from the original source. Remember to source all tables (e.g., “Source: Smith, 2019” or
“Adapted from: Smith, 2019”).

Should we use sub-headings?

Sub-headings reinforce organization and enhance readability and are usually an element of a
well-written report.

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How do we know we are analysing and not just describing?

This is the key differentiator between an excellent and a so-so paper. A paper that focuses on
analysis answers the question “why?” or “so what?”, whereas a paper that focuses on
description answers the question “what?”.

Example: If we were to suggest that post-secondary education is a good investment and


our “proof” is that those with this level of education earn more money, we are simply
describing. However, if we want to move up to analysis, we focus on why society values
post-secondary education (and thus pays more for jobs requiring that level of education)
and discuss issues such as the movement to a knowledge economy (ideas not things),
globalization (increasing competition) and the impact of technology (process shifts).

How does a student get a good mark in this assignment?

• Start early. These papers cannot be thrown together at the last minute. The report requires
thinking and researching, drafting and re-drafting AND proper use of in-text citations and
referencing. Excellent papers usually go through 3 or more complete drafts.
• Seek writing assistance if writing is not your strength. This paper, more than any of the
other assignments, focuses on your writing ability. If you know your writing is weak, then go
for help and go early! For on-campus assistance, visit the GAs, the Writing Centre or the
English Language Support Centre.
• Keep asking yourself the questions: “why?” or “so what?” When your answers to these
questions no longer lead to another “why?” question, that signals that you have
incorporated analysis rather than the descriptive level of discussion.
• Spend a lot of time in the electronic databases. For every 50 references you uncover, you
will be fortunate if more than one or two are suitable for your paper. A good strategy is to
look at the bibliographies of the papers that are useful and follow-up on these. In addition,
sometimes a particular journal is good and it may be useful to simply go through it issue by
issue to identify other relevant articles.
• Do not have “dense” tables. It is important to summarize and simplify any large data tables
into something that a reader can understand readily. Be sure they have a meaningful title
and are properly labelled and cited.
• Do not exceed the page limits. If you exceed the limits, you will lose marks. It is easier to
write more than less because you don’t have to be precise or choose your words wisely
when you have unlimited space. Your job is to present compelling arguments concisely and
convincingly.

Take this as an opportunity to research, prepare and present a professional, comprehensive


project with your group. This is a chance to practice and apply core communication skills you
will use in your specialized fields of engineering.

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