Course Coordinator:Sajid Anwar (sanwar@usc.edu.au) School:School of Business and Creative Industries
Online |
Online | You can do this course without coming onto campus, unless your program has specified a mandatory onsite requirement. |
Please go to usc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
This course develops your skills in planning and producing a high-quality literature review in the Business discipline. You will learn to locate, evaluate, organize, and critically analyze relevant sources to create a comprehensive review that effectively supports your own research. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on the ethical and responsible use of AI, ensuring you can integrate emerging technologies thoughtfully while maintaining academic integrity and producing work that meets rigorous scholarly standards.
| Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
| Online | |||
| Learning materials – Interactive online learning activities. | 1hr | Week 1 | 11 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 1 – Scheduled online workshops (Recorded). | 2hrs | Week 1 | 10 times |
The Big Picture
Finding the Literature
Reading and Managing Literature
Evaluating and Critiquing Literature
Analysis and Synthesis
Structuring the literature review
Writing Journal Articles
500 Level (Advanced)
12 units
| Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... | Graduate Qualities Mapping Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming... | Professional Standard Mapping * Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business | |
| 1 | Design, collect and reflect on research and data in order to support the development of a research question. | Engaged |
PC1.1, PC3 |
| 2 | Analyse and synthesise current literature to identify gaps. | Creative and critical thinker |
PC1.1, PC3 |
| 3 | Identify both the strengths and weaknesses of specific research methodologies and how they relate to views of knowledge and research. |
Creative and critical thinker Engaged |
PC1.1, PC3 |
| CODE | COMPETENCY |
| Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business | |
| PC1.1 | Written Communication |
| PC3 | Creative and Critical Thinking |
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
Enrolled in any honours program or postgraduate coursework program
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Standard Grading (GRD)
| High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
Early feedback will be received in the workshops through active engagement and discussion of your research topic.
| Delivery mode | Task No. | Assessment Product | Individual or Group | Weighting % | What is the duration / length? | When should I submit? | Where should I submit it? |
| All | 1 | Literature Review (or component) | Individual | 10% | 500 words |
Week 5 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All | 2 | Oral and Written Piece | Individual | 40% | 15 minute presentation and a 500 words summary |
Week 8 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All | 3 | Literature Review (or component) | Individual | 50% | 3,000 words |
Week 12 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All - Assessment Task 1:Draft plan of literature review | |||||||||||||
| Goal: | The purpose of creating the draft literature review is for you to provide a foundation for your research; this is a short and concise document that creates a template for your larger literature review (Task 3). This task requires the identification and analysis of the parent and immediate disciplines, identification of the relevant journals articles and a coherent outline of the topics chosen for inclusion in the literature review. |
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| Product: | Literature Review (or component) | ||||||||||||
| Format: | You will submit a short essay outlining your topic and rationale, research question or key themes, supported by 5–10 recently published papers from relevant high-quality journals, and concluding with the next steps for developing your full literature review. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Information literacy |
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| All - Assessment Task 2:Critique a journal article | |||||||||||||
| Goal: | This task has two parts: a presentation (or recorded video) and a written summary. You will critically evaluate a peer-reviewed journal article relevant to your research interests, identifying its strengths, weaknesses, and the relevant parent and immediate disciplines. The 15-minute presentation or video is worth 30% of the course mark, and the 500-word written summary is worth 10%. Further details about the task and submission requirements will be provided on the Canvas site, and measures will be taken to ensure the presentation is authentically delivered by you. |
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| Product: | Oral and Written Piece | ||||||||||||
| Format: | Presentation and an essay |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Organisation, Information literacy |
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| All - Assessment Task 3:Literature review | ||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | You are required to write a clear and concise literature review based on your research question, using skills gained in the course. This task involves a comprehensive and critical analysis of key journal articles highlighting the gaps in the literature. Furthermore, attention to the development of a logical and flowing argument and the concise and accurate communication and presentation of the literature review are necessary. |
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| Product: | Literature Review (or component) | |||||||||||||||
| Format: | Discipline format |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Organisation |
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| Programme Delivery Mode | Assessment Type | Title | Competency | Teaching Methods |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 UniSC Business School Standards Undergraduate | ||||
| All delivery modes | Literature Review (or component) | Draft plan of literature review | PC1.1 | Taught, Practiced, Assessed |
| Literature review | PC1.1 | Taught, Practiced, Assessed | ||
| PC1.3 | Practiced, Assessed | |||
| Oral and Written Piece | Critique a journal article | PC1.1 | Taught, Practiced, Assessed | |
| PC1.2 | Assessed | |||
A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.
Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.
Please note that you need to have regular access to the resource(s) listed below. Resources may be required or recommended.
| Required? | Author | Year | Title | Edition | Publisher |
| Required | Ridley, D | 2012 | The Literature Review, A Step-by-Step Guide for Students | 2nd Ed. | Sage. |
Not applicable
Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.
Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.
In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.
Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment
Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying:
(a) The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%; and
(b) The course is graded using the Standard Grading scaleEligibility for Supplementary Assessment Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying: The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4% The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale You have not failed an assessment task in the course due to academic misconduct
Late submissions may be penalised up to and including the following maximum percentage of the assessment task’s identified value, with weekdays and weekends included in the calculation of days late:
(a) One day: deduct 5%;
(b) Two days: deduct 10%;
(c) Three days: deduct 20%;
(d) Four days: deduct 40%;
(e) Five days: deduct 60%;
(f) Six days: deduct 80%;
(g) Seven days: A result of zero is awarded for the assessment task.The following penalties will apply for a late submission for an online examination:
Less than 15 minutes: No penalty
From 15 minutes to 30 minutes: 20% penalty
More than 30 minutes: 100% penalty
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