University of New South Wales - UNSW

This 6 UoC course aims to help students to develop an advanced understanding of an aspect of safety within the aviation industry while developing research, report writing and presentation skills.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this course students should be able to:

Demonstrate an advanced understanding of a specific aviation safety topic;
Demonstrate an understanding of the research process as applied to safety management;
Develop a research proposal on a specific aviation safety topic;
Write a report evidencing good practice in report writing;
Present their work to peers in an oral or poster format in a seminar environment;
Summarise their work in leaflet format; and
Gain an overview of a variety of safety-related topics via student seminars.

Lecturers

Dr. Brett Molesworth

Location

This course runs for fourteen weeks in Session 2 2007.

Lectures are held in: Red Centre Theatre at 0900 - 1300 on Mondays.

The course is delivered via a series of lectures, workshops, seminars and student consultations.

Assessment

Assessment components relate specifically to the learning outcomes for this course and key graduate attributes expected of UNSW students. There are four forms of assessment for this course:

Research Proposal (20%) --— Students are required to prepare a research proposal detailing how they would approach the research if they were to use primary and data collection methods and possibly secondary data collections methods, as well as a literature review. Guidance on how to prepare a research proposal will be provided in lectures and workshops. See separate handout for further details on this assessment.

Research Report (50%) — Students must prepare a report on a chosen area concerning aviation safety management. Guidance on how to prepare the report will be provided in lectures and workshops. See separate handout for further details on this assessment.

Presentation (20%) — Each student will give a short presentation of their work to the class OR prepare a poster presentation of their report, to be displayed and attended during the student seminar. See separate handout for further details on this assessment. Dates for presentations will be allocated during lectures.

Leaflet (10%) -— Students will prepare a professional-looking two-side A4 leaflet that gives an overview of their report. See separate handout for further details on this assessment.

Required Texts

Kumar, R. (1996). Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners. Melbourne: Addison Wesley Longman. S 001.4/33C, S 001.4/33D.

Recommended Texts

Bell, J (1999) Doing your Research Project: a Guide for First-Time Researchers in Education and Social Science. Milton Keynes, England: Open University Press. Earlier editions: S 370.78/100, G 370.78/100 A.
Blaxter, L., Hughes, C. and Tight, M (1996) How to Research. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1996. Earlier editions: G 001.42/34
Corbetta, P (2003) Social Research: Theory, Methods and Techniques. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Creswell, J.W (2003) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Method Approaches (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. S 300.72/239 C.
Gray, D.E (2004) Doing Research in the Real World. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Rozakis, L.E (2004) Complete Idiot's Guide to Research Methods. Alpha books.

All of the above are available via the UNSW Bookshop. Other safety-related books, journal articles, conference proceedings, reports, etc., and will depend on your chosen topic for research.

You will find that safety-related books and periodicals are spread among various sections in the library – use the Library Resource Database. Additional readings and resources will be indicated during lectures. Also check MyCourse@UNSWLibrary regularly for course readings.

Learning Resources

The University of New South Wales provides a range of resources to help students develop their skills and to realise their full potential. The Learning Centre, located at the entrance to the Library provides guidance material, which is also available on-line.

In particular, students may wish to access the following:

Note-Taking Skills
The Basics of Essay Writing
Answering Assignment Questions
Report Writing FAQs
The Basics of Studying for Exams
Surviving Exams
Exam Skills
Plagiarism
The American Psychological Association (APA) Referencing System