Critically discuss typical phases of diffusion of innovation, and outline the factors that affect the innovation adoption.

Assessment Brief

Module Name:

Module Code	Level	Credit Value	Module Leader
BSOM078	7	20	Mahdi Seify

Assessment title:	Final Report (Individual)
Weighting:	60%
Submission dates:	Friday 20th May 2022; 23:59 hrs (Turnitin)
Feedback and Grades due:	Friday 10th June 2022

Please read this assessment brief in its entirety before starting work on the Assessment Task.

The Assessment Task

You are expected to write a single report, completing all the following three tasks.

1. Critically discuss typical phases of diffusion of innovation, and outline the factors that affect the innovation adoption. You would then need to provide and substantiate your arguments with reliable and authoritative sources and provide examples (where necessary) to help the discussion. You would need to write 500 (±10%) words on this.
2. Critically assess a range of theories and concepts related to maintenance strategies used for infrastructural assets, and compare different maintenance strategy types and discuss the benefits and disadvantages of each. Substantiate your arguments with reliable and authoritative sources. You would need to write 1000 (±10%) words on this.
3. Formulate the following decision problem using an appropriate technique, discuss the approach used and the findings. You would need to write 500 (±10%) words on this. This includes the calculations, assumptions, list of decision variables, list of constraints. The word limit applies for both of the tasks listed below.

Case Study: A CTO of a big hospital to monitor the performance of specimen analyser machines intends to create a dashboard to monitor and evaluate the effectivity. In this purpose he needs to configurate a network including sensor, transmitter and WiFi Access Point. To make this project feasible he has decided to purchase in scale and at least 700 sensors, 700 transmitters and 5 WiFi Access Points for the construction of a Wireless Sensory Network. The team pursued a tender process to secure its required raw materials from eligible suppliers. A final list of 8 eligible suppliers is put together, and the total cost of the materials that each supplier can supply are provided (please see Table 1).

Table 1: List of Suppliers/Tender List

Items	S1	S2	S3	S4	S5	S6	S7	S8
Sensors	500	–	100	200	1000	120	50	250
WiFi Access Point	–	4	5	2	2	1	2	5
Transmitter	500	200	200	–	500	–	50	300
Total Bid cost	3000	3200	2100	1000	4800	600	1100	3800

1. Formulate the decision problem and calculate the minimum cost (monetary unit) for purchasing at least 700 sensors, 5 WiFi Access Points and 700 transmitters?
2. Considering the high number of sensors and transmitters required for project, the team is asked to ensure that at least 4 suppliers are secured for supplying sensors, and at least 4 suppliers for transmitters. What would be the new minimum cost? Please note that a supplier can provide both sensors and transmitters.

Your work to be bookended by appropriate introduction and conclusion sections. You would need to write 400 (±10%) words on both.

The overall word count excludes table of contents, title page and the full references section at the end of the report. Please note any in-text-citation will be still considered as part of different sections’ word count.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this assessment, you will be able to:

• Evaluate different approaches in devising appropriate maintenance strategies for infrastructure asset management.
• Formulate suitable optimisation techniques for pertinent decision problems.
• Develop critical responses to existing theoretical discourses or practices, and suggest new concepts or approaches using different communication means such as report writing, use of ICT and presentation.
• Autonomously evaluate specialised contexts, requiring selection and application from a wide range of information sources.

Your grade will depend on the extent to which you meet these learning outcomes in the way relevant for this assessment. Please see the grading rubric on NILE for further details of the criteria against which you will be assessed.

Assessment Support

Specific support sessions for this assessment will be provided by the module team and notified through NILE. You can also access individual support and guidance for your assessments from Library and Learning Services. Visit the Skills Hub to access this support and to discover the online support also available for assessments and academic skills.

Academic Integrity and Misconduct

Unless this is a group assessment,the work you produce must be your own, with work taken from any other source properly referenced and attributed. For the avoidance of doubt this means that it is an infringement of academic integrity and, therefore, academic misconduct to ask someone else to carry out all or some of the work for you, whether paid or unpaid, or to use the work of another student whether current or previously submitted.

For further guidance on what constitutes plagiarism, contract cheating or collusion, or any other infringement of academic integrity, please read the University’s Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy. Also useful resources to help with understanding academic integrity are available from UNPAC – the University of Northampton’s Plagiarism Avoidance Course.

N.B. The penalties for academic misconduct are severe and include failing the assessment, failing the module and even expulsion from the university.

Assessment Submission

To submit your work, please go to the ‘Submit your work’ area on the NILE site and use the relevant submission point to upload your report. The deadline for this is 11.59pm (UK local time) on the date of submission. Please note that essays and text-based reports should be submitted as word documents and not PDFs or Mac files.

Written work submitted to TURNITIN will be subject to anti-plagiarism detection software. Turnitin checks student work for possible textual matches against internet available resources and its own proprietary database.

When you upload your work correctly to TURNITIN you will receive a receipt which is your record and proof of submission. If your assessment is not submitted to TURNITIN, rather than a receipt, you will see a green banner at the top of the screen that denotes successful submission.

N.B Work emailed directly to your tutor will not be marked.

Late submission of work

For first sits, if an item of assessment is submitted late and an extension has not been granted, the following will apply:

• Within one week of the original deadline – work will be marked and returned with full feedback, and awarded a maximum bare pass grade.
• More than one week from original deadline – grade achievable LG (L indicating late).

For resits there are no allowances for work submitted late and it will be treated as a non-submission.

Please see the Assessment and Feedback Policy for full information on the processes related to assessment, grading and feedback, including anonymous grading. You will also find the generic grading criteria for achievement at University Grading Criteria. Also explained there are the meanings of the various G grades at the bottom of the grading scale including LG mentioned above.

Extensions

The University of Northampton’s general policy with regard to extensions is to be supportive of students who have genuine difficulties, but not against pressures of work that could have reasonably been anticipated.

For full details please refer to the Extensions Policy. Extensions are only available for first sits – they are not available for resits.

Mitigating Circumstances

For guidance on Mitigating circumstances please go to Mitigating Circumstances where you will find detailed guidance on the policy as well as guidance and the form for making an application.

Please note, however, that an application to defer an assessment on the grounds of mitigating circumstances should normally be made in advance of the submission deadline or examination date.

Feedback and Grades

These can be accessed through clicking on the Feedback and Grades tab on NILE. Feedback will be provided by a rubric with summary comments.

Grading Rubric

	FAIL	A Pass – A very good Pass – An outstanding Pass	A Merit – A very strong Merit – An outstanding merit	A clear Distinction – A very strong Distinction – An outstanding Distinction
Score Aspect	G (0) AG (1) NG (2) LG (3) ZZ (4)	F- (5-27) F (28-44)	F+ (45 – 49)	C- (50-52) C (53-56) C+ (57-59)	B- (60-62) B (63-66) B+ (67-69)	A-(70-74) A (75-79) A+(80 – 100)
Phase of diffusion innovation and the factors that affect the innovation adoption. (25%)	No discussion on this task.	Some elements are introduced in a very broad and shallow section; no sources are identified. This seems to be the very first draft of work.	There is section on the concepts, however it is either incomplete or confused. No citations.	A satisfactory discussion on the concepts. There are still instances of confusion or incorrect discussion. The sources are cited, but inconsistent styling.	A very good attempt in critically discussing the concepts with minimum errors.	Excellent/Outstanding critical discussion for this task. Examples are provided.
Critical analyse of the theory related to maintenance strategy (25%)	There is no discussion based for this section.	The discussion for this section is limited and/or confused	Some relevant concepts are introduced; however, types and benefits are omitted. A token of few citations	A satisfactory discussion on Key assignment concepts types and benefits are discussed. There are still errors or inconsistency in the section.	A very good/excellent attempt providing a critical discussion on the topic. This may entail minor errors.	An outstanding attempt in discussing the notions in a critical way.
Formulation of the decision problem and result (25%)	There is no discussion based for this section.	The right technique has been identified, however the discussion does not include the decision variables, constraints, etc.	The right technique has been identified, however the discussion does not include the decision variables, constraints, etc. and the output result is also incorrect.	A satisfactory optimisation and relevant discussion, however there are still confusing discussions	A very good optimisation and discussion; constraints and decision variables are identified. The steps are followed. There might be slight issues in the work.	Excellent work with no obvious errors either in the optimisation or the discussion.
Vocabulary, Materials, Report (25%)	Report is incomprehensible, or completely off-topic. Report contains no recognisable references.	A report that is on-topic but plagued with numerous typos and/or grammatical errors. A token attempt to make one or two references, or Report with irrelevant non-approved references.	A report that is let down by a poor material it may appear to be a first draft or something that has been rushed. A less than or barely passable attempt to provide a few references, but with obvious mistakes or inconsistent styling.	A well-presented work but with some minor issues, typos and/or grammatical errors; A good attempt at using a specialist vocabulary. Good referencing in an appropriate Harvard (or very close to) style but with some obvious referencing opportunities missed or inconsistent styling.	A confident report that answers the tasks posed and has good materials and is well presented; consistent use of a specialist vocabulary. Very good, consistent use of references in an appropriate Harvard style including a number drawn from academic and/or obviously authoritative sources. The group fairly split the tasks and Report load.	An excellent report: with confidence and authority; Excellent use of a specialist vocabulary drawn from the module materials and beyond. The layout design is outstanding. Excellent and critical use of up-to-date references throughout drawing from the module materials and beyond. The group worked in harmony and utmost efficiency.