You will apply the skills and knowledge gained through the core and option modules and the research methods module to an independent piece of research. The work will focus on a Community Arts-based topic chosen by the student and undertaken through independent study of extant literature and, in many cases, through primary social research. The research may draw on the practical and work-related experiences of the researcher.

You will define the research problem and objectives, formulate a research design, apply for ethical approval, organise your research activity, review the extant literature relevant to the chosen topic, analyse materials and produce a proposal, a provisional literature review, and the written dissertation.

The module incorporates three inter-related learning strategies. There will be workshop sessions delivered via Blackboard, which will give students an overview of the requirements of the module and the assessments (18 hours). There will be individual tutorial sessions, in which students will receive support and guidance in relation to their individual research (12 hours). Students will also receive formative feedback on drafts of their proposal, literature review and dissertation in the tutorials. Finally, the students will pursue independent study (570 hours), which will allow them to research and write their proposal, literature review and dissertation. The module will run over three semesters.

Course textbooks to be supplied by the university.
Computer and internet for access to Blackboard and relevant websites.
Library, where you will find relevant electronic textbooks, electronic journals, and audio-visual materials.
The Blackboard virtual learning environment; details will be supplied in the module handbook..

Biggam, J. (2008) Succeeding With Your Master's Dissertation : A Step-by-Step Handbook, Open University Press
Burnett, J. (2009) Doing Your Social Science Dissertation, Sage
McMillan, K. and Weyers, J. (2010) How To Write Dissertations and Project Reports, Prentice Hall
Walliman, N. (2011) Your Research Project, 3rd edition, Sage.

A Research Proposal, 2000 words, 15% [Assesses Learning Outcomes 1-4]
A Literature Review, 2000 words, 15% [Assesses Learning Outcomes 1, 2 & 4]
A Dissertation, 15,000 words, 70% [Assesses Learning Outcomes 1-6]

September start: The research proposal will be due at the end of Semester 1, the literature review will be due towards the end of Semester 2, and the dissertation will be due at the end of Semester 3.

February start: The research proposal will be due at the end of Semester 2, the literature review will be due towards the end of Semester 3, and the dissertation will be due at the end of Semester 1.

All elements of assessment must be passed