Deadlines & Policies

The project module is 30 credits, which means you should spend around 300 hours on it. This is roughly 10 hours per week if you work through most of the holiday and exam periods. It's up to you to work out a project plan that takes into account your other modules and their expected workload. Treat the project as an activity that you work on every week, right from the start. Allocate one day (or more) per week when you will work on your project. Don't make the mistake of thinking that these deadlines are far in the future, leading you to ignore the project in the first semester. There is a long stretch between the proposal and video deadlines, so you need to stay focused.

If you need regular contact with your supervisor, please ask for it explicitly, otherwise they might think you are getting on with things independently. It's in your best interest to meet your supervisor regularly, with clear goals to achieve by each meeting, as this will help you to pace your workload.

We would expect background reading and requirements gathering to take place in the first few weeks so you have a solid basis for the detailed proposal. The rest of the first semester should be spent on designing and realising your project. In the second semester your focus should turn to testing and evaluation, then to preparing your video and writing the final dissertation.

Additional Considerations Policy

The additional considerations policy applies to assessments CA1 (Detailed Proposal) and CA3 (Dissertation), which means you can submit your work up to 7 calendar days after the deadline without penalty. If you have a support plan that permits extensions, you can submit up to 14 calendar days after the deadline without penalty. You do not need to fill in any forms or request late submission in advance. Just submit when you're ready. Canvas is set up with a personal 'avaliable until' date for each student, and this shows the absolute final deadline for your work. After that time, submission will not be possible.

Important: This policy does not apply to assessment CA2 (Project Video). There is no opportunity to submit after the deadline because the Q&A session must be scheduled in the following week. Therefore, if you miss the published deadline you will receive a mark of zero and the Q&A will not be scheduled. If you have a genuine reason to miss the submission, or you cannot attend the Q&A as scheduled, you can submit a PEC claim (see below).

Personal Extenuating Circumstances

The extenuating circumstances policy also applies to the project module. If you encounter an unexpected circumstance that impacts your work or your submission date, or if you have a long-term issue that might affect your project work, you can submit a PEC claim in the usual way. Many PEC claims are rejected because they do not fall within the policy, or because no evidence is provided. Of those that are accepted, the most likely outcomes are waiving an assessment mark, allowing a summer resit, or taking the circumstances into account when looking at the final degree classification. Please contact our student experience team for help and advice.

Time Management

The project module learning outcomes expect you to demonstrate professionalism and time management skills. You should always plan your time so you can submit before the published deadline (shown above). The additional considerations policy is intended to support you if you have an unexpected problem. If you treat the absolute final deadline as your target deadline, you will have no extra time to correct problems if they occur.

If you miss the final deadline you will receive a mark of zero. There will be no exceptions, since this is a university policy. Your supervisor cannot grant extensions. The module coordinator cannot grant extensions. If you have a genuine reason why you could not submit something, you should make a PEC claim as soon as possible after the deadline.

Policy on Use of Generative AI

The policy on the use of generative AI applies to all assessments. CA1 (Detailed Proposal) and CA2 (Project Video) fall into GenAI Tier 2, while CA3 (Project Dissertation) falls into GenAI Tier 3.

• Tier 2 — GenAI is permitted for planning, editing and structuring your work, as a tool to aid learning. You must declare this use clearly within the assessment.
• Tier 3 — Wider use of GenAI is permitted for generating code, creating software assets, and analysing data. You must declare and critically reflect on this use within the assessment.

Canvas Submissions

You must submit all work via Canvas. We cannot accept work via any other system, including email. Canvas will show you the intended deadline and an 'available until' date, which is your personal final deadline. This deadline is strictly enforced by Canvas. If you are in the middle of submitting something when the final deadline closes, your work will not be submitted and you will receive a mark of zero. This is a university policy, so please plan ahead and do not leave things until the very last moment.

Final Submission Policy

The university has a one and final submission policy, which means that you should only make one submission, and be sure that it is your final version. Do not submit drafts. Canvas will allow two submissions, but the second should only be used if you quickly realise you submitted the wrong file by mistake. The correct file should be submitted within 24 hours of the first, and always before the deadline. You cannot use the second submission to improve or edit your work.

Dissertation Submission

It is a requirement of our programme accreditation that every student submits an extended piece of writing for the project module. If you do not submit a dissertation, you will receive a mark of zero for CA3 (Project Dissertation). Please be aware that submitting a code archive carries no marks on its own, so do not assume that you can pass the module on the strength of a good implementation alone. You must submit a dissertation that explains your software development.

Submission Problems

Last-minute technical problems are not a valid reason to apply for extenuating circumstances. Your claim would be rejected because it is not in line with the policy. Make sure you leave plenty of time for your video submission to be processed by Canvas Studio, and for your ZIP archive to be uploaded if it's really big. Do not leave things until the afternoon of the deadline and then panic when it takes too long. Planning ahead and anticipating problems are part of the learning outcomes for this module.