Reference no: EM133809770

Project Specification Report

Placement / Industry Supervisor (PS or IS)
A supervisor within the workplace who is responsible for your supervision in the workplace and the coordination of your work.
The PS will:
Guide/supervise you on a day to day basis
Provide you with suitable industry-based tasks that allow you to gain genuine workplace experience in your chosen field
Provide safe and responsible working conditions while on your placement
Provide feedback to your AS
Provide an evaluation of your performance. They are encouraged to discuss their evaluation with you during and at the end of the placement.
The PS and the Student will jointly determine the scope of the work and tasks to be undertaken and agree on a suitable timeframe for their completion.
You or your PS may contact the AS at any time, and should not wait for an Academic Supervisor's visit to express any concerns or seek advice.

WORKPLACE VISIT(S)
Where possible, the AS will visit you at your place of work, and it is important to make contact early to negotiate and confirm the times that will work best for everyone, including the PS. Ideally, for a 60 day/12-week placement the workplace visit will be by the end of the 4th week of placement (20th working day) to ensure you have settled in well. For a 100 day/20-week placement the visit should be by the end of the 7th week of placement (35th working
day). A second visit is recommended if the student feels this will be beneficial, however, if progress is going as expected, then email communication or a phone/video call will suffice.
If you are working in a remote or overseas location, alternative arrangements will be made to ensure you are supported and the objectives of the placement are being met, such as meeting online via MS Teams or Zoom.

The WIL topics will be graded according to the University's standard grading system. Staff from within the College, and possibly the PS, will contribute to the assessment processes.

Full details are provided in the ‘Statement of Assessment Methods' (SAM) - supplied separately.
You must submit all written materials through FLO/Canvas [*] and notify your Academic Supervisor when you have done so.
[*] Intellectual Property (IP) or Sensitive Projects
Where you are working on projects containing commercially sensitive material or are IP sensitive, you should consult both your Placement and Academic Supervisors with respect to submitting the required assessable work. If this is the case, you must not upload your assessment items to FLO, but instead submit assessment items directly to your AS in the manner required by your WIL provider. You will also need to submit a plain, single-page document to FLO, noting when you sent your assessments to your AS.

General Information about Reports
Reports are in the public domain. Hence, they should not be unduly critical of, nor reflect poorly on, the company (your WIL host), the University or individuals.
If you have any serious concerns, these should be communicated in writing to your AS and the Topic Coordinator(s).
You must arrange for reports to be vetted by your Placement host prior to submission to avoid any breach of confidentiality or the release of other sensitive information.
The reports will conform to the following specifications and format:
A cover sheet including the University and College names, Topic name, Unit value, Student's full name, Student number, Student FAN, Placement Organisation name, Placement Supervisors' names, dates of your placement, and the date of submission.
Margins of between 2 and 2.5cm on all four sides, all pages numbered, a summary page, and a table of contents.
Diagrams and tables must be neatly drawn and centred, or computer generated and clearly annotated.
Appendices may be used and their content will not be included in the page count. Other material may be attached if necessary (e.g. organisational charts, photographs, plant and equipment details, company or product brochures).
You are strongly encouraged to include figures and tables to enhance your reports. The reports should have a strong emphasis on technical and commercial aspects (with a balance appropriate to the work undertaken). It is important the reports clearly indicate the project's significance and how your work contributed to the company's objectives. You are advised to discuss the format of the reports and Logbook with your AS, and alter them if necessary, due to discipline specific reasons.

Specification Report
Your Specification Report (Report 1) should follow the structure and tools learnt through your Project Management topic.
Synopsis
Your 1-page synopsis should include your name, the degree(s) you are pursuing at Flinders, the placement topic you are enrolled in and your 100-200 word synopsis. Get your answer now!
It should describe what your project is about, its key milestones, the key stakeholders, and the benefits/significance to the company/organisation and/or community/sector.

Final Report
The Final Report (Report 2) should be no less than 30 and no more than 40 pages in length for 13.5-unit WIL topics, and no less than 20 and no more than 25 pages in length for 9-unit WIL topics.
The Final Report should detail the technical project work undertaken by the student during their WIL placement - hence, this report should have a strong technical bias. Additionally, it is important that all project decisions are justified and explained and that the report clearly indicates the project's significance and how the student's WIL project and work contributed to the objectives of the host organisation/company.

The Final Report shall refer to the earlier Specification Report (Report 1), where appropriate, and include:
A Title Page that lists the student's name, FAN and student number; the Topic Code, Name and Unit value; the student's Industry and Academic Supervisors; the start and end dates of the WIL Placement; and the date the report was submitted (*)
An Executive Summary (no longer than a page) that describes the main work undertaken, the achievements, and other significant outcomes (*)
Appropriate Acknowledgment of relevant staff or colleagues who supported, guided or assisted with parts of the project (*)
A Table of Contents, and where relevant, other tables (for figures and tables) (*)
A brief Introduction, including a section on the background to the company (your WIL host), a statement of the project(s) aim(s), significance, and any changes to the aims and objectives of the project that were contained in the earlier Specification Report (Report 1).
The formal part of the Final Report should then follow, and can include (where relevant and appropriate) the following information:
A description of all project work that was undertaken, and where multiple projects have been undertaken during the WIL placement, the order should reflect the time spent on each project (from most amount of time to least)
Details of any planning and design work undertaken to demonstrate the project or design process undertaken
Justification of project decisions (such as component selection, etc)
Validation or simulation of any design work
Details of any construction, prototyping, implementation and testing of hardware and software (where appropriate)
Records and analysis of measurements, and a critical appraisal of performance
Discussion of the milestones set and the processes used to ensure that they were met, including a discussion when and if milestones were not met or changed
Where appropriate, a final budget or financial assessment of the project(s) indicating all project costs, an analysis of the costs, and if financial or cost optimisation was used during the WIL placement to improve the project outcome
A reflection on the student's overall WIL experience, including their Transferable Skills Reflection self-assessment
Recommendations on the next steps for the project
Conclusions
Appendices where appropriate and numbered accordingly.

Appendices may include: data sheets, code (select sections or full programs), appropriate screenshots of work, appropriate and relevant protocols or standard operating procedures, ancillary project information or documentation, relevant meeting minutes, ancillary project plans (Gantt Charts, network diagrams, etc.), ancillary CAD models, early prototype designs and/or sketches, ancillary images, brainstorming exercises, etc. (*)

The Final Report should be written in an appropriate 12-point font, with 1.5 line spacing, and between 2cm and 2.5cm spacing for all margins. All pages should be numbered, and all headings should be appropriately titled and numbered.

The Transferable Skills Survey
You are required to complete a questionnaire about your employability skills prior to, in the middle of, and following completion of your placement. For 20-week students, the middle of the placement is the 50th working day from the start of the placement, while for the all other students undertaking a 12-week placement, it is the 30th working day after start of the placement. The survey will take about 10 minutes.
By completing the survey before, in the middle and after your placement, you will be able to assess the extent to which your WIL placement contributed towards the development of your employability skills and to identify areas for further development. The sharing of your experiences will assist in the improvement of the planning and delivery of future placement programs. We are keen to deliver a service and resources that are as useful as possible both to students and placement providers.
This survey is a self-diagnostic tool. By completing the survey before, in the middle and after your placement, you can compare to what extent your skills have improved. Your industry supervisors will also complete the same survey about your skills. However, their responses are confidential as we wish to ensure confidentiality to both parties. If they wish to share their responses with you, we advise them to discuss their responses personally with you.
Please note that the survey has an attached Information Sheet and e-mail content (see the following page). Please read it carefully as it allows you to decide whether you wish that your numerical responses (0-10) be used for educational publications or not. The Information Sheet and attached e-mail provide instructions, so that you can make an informed decision.

Laboratory book or Logbook

A Laboratory book or Logbook is an important tool used by many professionals such as consultants, scientists and engineers. It identifies the amount of work you have done, when you did that work, the nature of the work undertaken, and how and why you went about undertaking that work.
Students are expected to make entries for each day of their WIL Placement. Students may submit an electronic or paper (hardcopy) version(s) of their Logbook for inspection each week by their PS's. AS's can request to see the logbook at any point during the placement.
The final Logbook should be submitted via FLO (except where the project is defined as an having Intellectual Property or Sensitive Project status - see page 4).
Given confidentiality considerations, the focus of the Logbook is on your learning and skill development. The format of the Logbook should be discussed and finalised with your AS and PS, and altered as necessary to any discipline-specific requirements.

An engineering/scientific Logbook is both a professional and personal reference on project learning and results. It should be bound so that no insertion or removal of pages is possible, handwritten, dated and contain consecutive pages numbered, in order to protect IP in the workplace. However, if no IP materials are involved, an electronic version is acceptable.
If your placement provider uses source-control, revision-management or a similar system that creates a persistent history of your work over the time, you may use this in place of writing a Logbook. For this you will need approval of your AS - please seek timely support and approval as required.
Another usage of the Logbook is as a monitoring tool to ascertain where an individual has invested time and how learning has been achieved. From this information, successes and failures can be observed and learned from.

Part 1. WIL Showcase Day Oral Presentations

PLEASE NOTE: On WIL Showcase Day you will be presenting your project to a wider audience including high schools students, high school teachers, other placement supervisors, other WIL or non-WIL industry representatives, and University representatives and staff members. It is important that you present yourself as if you are attending a job interview, as potential employers may be present and watching. Additionally, you are representing the company that you are currently performing your WIL placement at, so a high level of professionalism is expected.
All WIL students are required to prepare a 5-minute talk that provides an overview of their WIL experience. When school groups and the general public come around to each ‘station', all students are expected to give an interesting and engaging overview and summary of their WIL experience to date. PowerPoint slides on a laptop can supplement the talk, as can the student's poster (see ‘Part 2') and any artefact/product or output from the WIL project.
When talking to the public, please include following in your talk:
A brief overview of your host organisation,
Explain the nature of your project,
Show an understanding of the project aims and goals,
Provide a brief explanation of methods/processes used to achieve or plan to achieve project goals,
What outcomes/outputs your placement achieved to date, and
Emphasise your own contribution to the project and to the company.

Additionally, think about your talk ‘style':
Speak clearly and confidently using verbal and non-verbal clues (preferably do not read from notes or your slides or poster),
Maintain an even pace - don't speak at a million miles an hour,
Engage the audience and hold their attention, and
Try to address asked questions and respond appropriately.

Part 2. WIL Showcase Day Poster Displays (Exhibition) Layout:
The format of the poster is A1 Landscape.
Your title should be across the whole width of the poster, with the author's name and affiliation below it. You should also include the names of your placement and academic supervisors.
In general, use just three to four columns for a "landscape" oriented poster.
The order of reading should be down the columns rather than across the rows.
Please allow at least 15 mm margin from the top and bottom edge of the poster, otherwise some text or the title may be obstructed from view when hung.

Some key considerations:
Most posters will be observed from a distance of 1 to 2 m away. Hence, design your poster to be easily seen, using appropriate font sizes. Use approximately 100 to 200 point for Title and at least 36 point for main text.
Use no more than three different fonts (usually 2).
Restrict boldface to title or headings.
Acronyms and other shorthand would not make sense to somebody who is not familiar with your project/research area and should be avoided.

Content:
The posters should be mainly about your Placement projects, and not your Placement Organisation, although acknowledgment to the Placement Organisation and University could be expressed by incorporating the official logos within the poster.
Suggested content includes:
Title in Block Letters followed below by:
your full name and course title including level of studies
Placement and Academic supervisor titles and names
Project overview including background, objectives, and methods
Project management tools used in planning, execution and finalising project results
Application of quality management tools and lessons learnt through project implementation if applicable
Conclusions, including statement regarding your own personal contributions to the project and the organisation
A list of references and resources used.
As the poster is already a concise overview of the project, it does not need an abstract.

International Engineering Practicum Video Presentation Guidelines
All students who undertake their WIL Placement overseas are required to produce a 5-to-8-minute video of their WIL presentation - so you still need to prepare slides and then record yourself giving the presentation.

The video presentation needs to follow the same rules/specs as the students based in Adelaide - so provide an overview of where you are (which company/institution you are working at) and then an overview of your project.
Make sure you emphasise what you have actually been doing on the project and what you have achieved. This is important - articulate your role within the company/institution and your project's significance.
With respect to the video, preferred formats are .mp4, .wmv or .avi.
With respect to the video, please ensure all external noise (noise other than your voice, so environmental noise) is eliminated or negligible - we want to be able to hear you.

Additionally, with respect to the video, please ensure that your slides are the main focus and that the part that shows you talking is smaller and out of the way, similar to how Zoom or MS Teams call shows you what you look like when you are on a video call (your video feed is smaller and down on the right-hand side). We need to be able to read and see your slides clearly!
Lastly, if you are doing an IP sensitive project, ignore all of the above as special arrangements will be made for you.

Professional Performance Assessment
The mark for this component is allocated by the AS and is based on feedback received from the PS, based on each student's overall professional performance, conduct and effort during their WIL Placement. It is largely based on the student's attitude and professionalism in the workplace, how they conducted and presented themselves, and how they integrated into a team environment for 12 or 20 weeks.

Timely submission of all placement documentation and assessments is taken into consideration, as is the level of professionalism displayed by the student when responding to University correspondence. Students must check their Flinders email regularly, action and respond accordingly, and ensure that all communication is conducted and written in a professional manner.