SCI3930: Career Skills For Scientists Sem 1 Individual Assignment Brief - MU

SCI3930 OVERVIEW:

Reading news can help stimulate the brain generating improved critical thinking skills, balanced viewpoints, and enhanced cognition. Business professionals need to know what is happening in the professional world. Successful business people read the news every day. For example, billionaire investor Warren Buffett spends 80% of his day reading (Goudreau, 2015). 

Once, in an interview, Buffett said 'my job is essentially just corralling more and more and more facts and information, and occasionally seeing whether that leads to some action' (Baer, 2016). Experts argue that staying up to date with business news will help you gain experience, identify opportunities for growth, and provide a competitive edge. Reading business news can help you advance your professional career by 

• excelling in your day-to-day job 
• improving your business relationships 
• helping you succeed in your job search 
• helping you to learn from events that you cannot attend in person 
• providing excellent business advice after reading published interviews (Catalano, 2019)

Reading business news and keeping informed with business trends also boosts your professional skills, helping you to remain competitive and thrive in an increasingly globalised environment (Wagner, 2008). Further, Herrity (2023) argues that professionals willing to learn new information and skills may receive more attention from hiring employers.

This task aims to enhance your knowledge through peer collaboration. You will read a piece of business news and participate in an online discussion forum with your peers. Through the online discussion board activity you will learn by networking. You will discover how it provides opportunities to seek, obtain, and share information (Nor et al., 2010). Research shows that online forums also foster a sense of being part of a learning community (Mohamad & Shaharuddin, 2014, p. 61).

SCI3930 OBJECTIVE: 

This task engages students with contemporary news, companies and industries. It provides an opportunity to conduct research into an issue, develop their own opinion and analysis, and engage in constructive dialogue about the issue with their peers. Each forum task is ongoing during the period in which the forum is active to allow students to develop and improve their skills.

This assignment reinforces the following general skills and applied areas of knowledge: 

• Critically analyse news articles
• Develop communication and reflective thinking skills through group discussion and written reflection
• Compare different perspectives in media reporting 
• Engage in collegial discussion and interact in a professional manner

LEARNING OUTCOMES OF SCI3930: 

Three times during the semester students will be presented with a news item. The news item will be accompanied by a short contextual statement and general guidance from the Chief Examiner. The statement and guidance provided are meant to spark students' curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. 

For each news item that is posted, students are required to:

• Familiarise themselves with the news item and the issues it raises and connect it to the course content
• Conduct research and develop a position in response to the news item 
• Post their written response to a group discussion board
• Engage with a post from another student
• Use academic-appropriate writing and referencing

SCI3930 DUE DATES:

Students will complete three (3) online discussion board tasks during the semester. The details for the timing of these tasks are as follows:

SCI3930 YOUR TASK: 

• Your overall contribution in each Online Discussion Board activity will be assessed based on Knowledge Development/Application and Engagement.
• will be allocated to your main contribution and 2 markswill be allocated for your engagement with peers. Each Online Discussion Board activity scores out of 5 will contribute to the overall task total of 10%.
• Only the top two marks of the three Discussion Boards will be counted.
• While no marks have been assigned for Presentation, a maximum of 1 mark will be deducted if the posts (main contribution and engagement) are poorly presented.

• A well-presented forum post is written and presented to a good academic standard.
• A poorly presented forum post has several flaws in writing and/or presentation, with considerable scope for improving some or all of the following: clarity, grammar, spelling, quotations, referencing and/or presentation.

SCI3930 Knowledge Development / Application: 

SCI3930 Engagement: