Course Title: Project 1

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Project 1

Credit Points: 12.00

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
MEDS1131	Bundoora Campus	Postgraduate	160H Medical Sciences	Internet	Sem 1 2006, Sem 2 2006, Sem 1 2007, Sem 2 2007, Sem 1 2008, Sem 2 2008, Sem 1 2009, Sem 2 2009

Course Coordinator: Associate Professor Theo Macrides

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 99247070

Course Coordinator Email: theo.macrides@rmit.edu.au

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

Students will normally have completed the eight coursework courses in the masters structure by the time they enrol in this course.  To be eligible to enrol in the course students must have attained a cumulative GPA of 2.75 in their coursework courses and must have submitted evidence that they have appropriate supervision in their laboratory along with access to the resources needed to successfuly complete their project.

Course Description

This course will allow students the opportunity to develop competency in the design and documentation of a project proposal. This process will draw on those skills developed during the coursework part of the program.

Project proposals will be reviewed by Masters Program Team and must be approval before the student can proceed on their experimental work. Projects should be laboratory based, however where the student’s employment may require them to perform significant administrative or management functions, then a project in that area may be considered.

Students undertaking a project at their place of employment MUST have an approved laboratory based supervisor. The determination of appropriate workplace supervision will be part of the overall project proposal review. Students undertaking projects at their place of employment will be required to provide written authorisation from their workplace supervisor that they will be able to devote sufficient time to complete the project and that they will be able to access the resources of the laboratory to successfully undertake their project.

Where required, projects must have prior Ethics Committee (Animal and/or Human) approval before experimental work is commenced.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Having studied this course it is intended that you should be able to:

1. Plan and design an experimental project to test a hypothesis;
2. Develop and utilise effective project management skills;
3. Plan a project budget, identify and allocate appropriate resources, and
4. Research and review relevant literature.

This course will allow students the opportunity to develop competency in the design, management and documentation of a research project proposal.

Overview of Learning Activities

The learning activities in this course include: research of the literature, project planning and project management, writing project proposals and writing ethics applications.

Overview of Learning Resources

Prescribed and Recommended References: Determined by students.

Overview of Assessment

As this course is part one of a two component project and thesis, in order to proceed to Project 2 students must have their project application completed and approved and have evidence of substantial experimental work in planning and in process.   Students will be required to submit evidence of their research of the literature at the time of submittinmg their project proposal.