Copyright © EduQual Ltd. 2016 EduQual Diploma in Business and Marketing Management (SCQF Level 8) COMBINED ASSIGNMENT TWO: Business Environment, IT and Law for BusinessPage 1 of 9 BMM Combined Assignment 2: Business Environment, Copyright © EduQual Ltd. 2016 IT and Law for Business (SCQF), Issue 1.0, March 2017 Contents Assessment Guidelines 2 Context 2 Confidentiality 2 Assessment Criteria and Mark Sheets 2 Tutor Guidance 2 Word Count 2 Referencing and Professionalism 3 Plagiarism and Collusion 3 Combined Assignment 2: Business Environment; IT and Law for Business 4 Task 1 4 Task 2 4 Task 3 4 Task 4 5 Assignment Word Count 5 Combined Assignment 2: Criteria and Mark Scheme 6 Assessment Criteria for All Assessments 9Page 2 of 9 Back to Contents BMM Combined Assignment 2: Business Environment, Copyright © EduQual Ltd. 2016 IT and Law for Business (SCQF), Issue 1.0, March 2017 Assessment Guidelines Learners of EduQual qualifications must complete the tasks given in the assignment brief approved by EduQual. Learners are able to request assistance from tutors about completing the tasks, mark schemes and grade descriptors. Learners are expected to adhere to policies and guidelines set out by the centre, which includes word/page/slide count and plagiarism/collusion. Context Learners are required to refer to the guidance notes and assignment brief in order to present an answer that would fall within the required context. Confidentiality Learners must seek permission and advice when using organisational/business information that would be considered sensitive or confidential within their assignments. If the organisation’s consent is given, and anonymity is a given requirement of the organisation, then the learner must respect this. Assessment Criteria and Mark Sheets The assignment brief will include the mark scheme along with grade descriptors for learners to refer to if needed. The guidance notes before the assignment questions should be used for reference in order to ensure that learners are equipped with the information and formats required. Learners are requested to obtain necessary advice on assignment context, format and other supporting information to clarify and help understand the requirements. The assessment criteria and the mark sheets will help learners identify how and where themarks have been allocated and allow them to structure their answers accordingly. Please note that learners must achieve a minimum of 40% of the marks allocated for each task and that the average mark awarded to all tasks of an assignment must be a minimum of 40% of the overall marks awarded. Tutor Guidance Learners are allowed one piece of feedback for draft answers they present. Any subject-related questions relating to the module can also be directed to the tutor. Word Count It is mandatory that learners adhere to the specified word count given in the assignment brief within a margin of -/+10%. For certain tasks, the assignment brief may specify the page count depending on the task requirement and, although a word count may not always be applicable for these, the page count must be adhered to at all times. All tables, charts, diagrams, referencing (in-text) will be considered a part of the assignment word count.Page 3 of 9 Back to Contents BMM Combined Assignment 2: Business Environment, Copyright © EduQual Ltd. 2016 IT and Law for Business (SCQF), Issue 1.0, March 2017 If the task requires learners to make a presentation, the word count will only be applicable to the notes provided. The assignment questions may also specify the number of slides, in which case the learners are also required to adhere to this. Any supporting documents used to reinforce a learner’s answer need to be attached at the end of the report as appendices. Such supplementary material will equip the examiner with the required background knowledge on the information provided within the report. However, these will not be considered for grading nor as part of the word/page count. All assignments submitted with clear disregard for the stipulated page/word counts may be discounted, and the learners may have to resubmit his/her work for assessment pending revision/review of their work. Referencing and Professionalism To ensure that they follow a professional stance at all times, learnersmust:  Use the Harvard system of referencing for all citations and references (including in-text)  Use professional, formal English in presenting theirwork  Refrain from writing in a first-person perspective (i.e. ‘I’, ‘We’, ‘Me’, etc. should not be used within the answer). Learners should bear in mind that marks are awarded for professional format and presentation, and that considerable marks can be awarded for validity and quality of referencing. Therefore, referencing and professionalism will be assessed in every task. Plagiarism and Collusion Plagiarism and collusion will be considered an academic offence and will be dealt with as a serious issue. Plagiarism can be defined as: the presentation of the work of another author without appropriate referencing and/or attribution (leading to the false assumption that the learner is the originator of the text). Collusion can be defined as a circumstance in which: two or more learners present work with distinct similarities in concept and ideas. Learners must have access to valid plagiarism software (i.e. Turnitin) to assess ‘similarity index’ between their work and work that has been published elsewhere. This Turnitin report must be submitted along with their final assignment scripts for reference purposes.1 Excessive referencing (i.e. where unneeded/irrelevant) will also be considered an academic offence, which will lead to learners being penalised in marks awarded for structure and format of their work or, in serious cases, leading to the work of learners being discounted as unfit for assessment. Such matters will be decided by academic panel along with EduQual. 1 Note that centres must provide their learners with access to Turnitin software or else submit learners’ work for analysis via Turnitin upon receiving learner assignment scripts. In either case, the Turnitin report must be included with the submission of any learner work for assessment.Page 4 of 9 Back to Contents BMM Combined Assignment 2: Business Environment, Copyright © EduQual Ltd. 2016 IT and Law for Business (SCQF), Issue 1.0, March 2017 Combined Assignment 2: Business Environment; IT and Law for Business The four tasks shown below constitute 90% of the overall mark (see Mark Scheme). 10% of the overall marks for the assignment must be given to ‘Structure and Format’. As a senior Manager for your company, your CEO has asked for a report on how different organisations respond to their environment with consideration of their IT needs and the legal awareness they must have. Formulate a report that encompasses the following elements: Task 1  For a minimum of three selected, different types of organisation; explain their responsibilities and how they try to meet them.  Explain the typical, elements for the formation of a legal contract between organisations and a third party and: o Describe the importance of different terms in a contract, giving examples  Apply knowledge of contract and tort to selected business scenarios with your response showing: o Evaluate the impact of, and possible problems with, different types of contract in given scenarios o Compare, distinguish between, contractual liability and liability in negligence o Explain the importance of vicarious liability to business organisations giving examples of such liability Business Environment: LO 1; Law for Business: LO 1; Law for Business: LO 2; Law for Business: LO 3 Task 2  Explain the impact of the UK business environment and international trade on selected business organisations.  Explain the benefits and barriers to a business, including those relating to security, which face an online business organisation. Within your answer you should describe scope and types of ebusiness processes and transactions  Explain the legal issues facing an online business organisation. Business Environment: LO 2; IT for Business: LO 1 Task 3  Explain how market forces affect a range of different organisations and their impact onPage 5 of 9 Back to Contents BMM Combined Assignment 2: Business Environment, Copyright © EduQual Ltd. 2016 IT and Law for Business (SCQF), Issue 1.0, March 2017 determination of pricing and output decisions of organisations.  Evaluate the impact of environmental factors on markets.  Evaluate the benefits and elements of internetmarketing and explain the tools that may be used for effective internet marketing.  Explain the key features of interactive order processing. Business Environment: LO 3; IT for Business: LO 2 Task 4  Evaluate existing communication and information systems in a selected organisation. Your considerations should cover collection, storage, and sharing of information and knowledge  Create a plan to improve existing communication and information security and storage systems for a chosen organisation. IT for Business: LO 3 Assignment Word Count Task 1 1500 words Task 2 750 words Task 3 750 words Task 4 Presentation with notes and a maximum of 12 slidesPage 6 of 9 Back to Contents BMM Combined Assignment 2: Business Environment, Copyright © EduQual Ltd. 2016 IT and Law for Business (SCQF), Issue 1.0, March 2017 Combined Assignment 2: Criteria and Mark Scheme Assessment Criteria Marks allocated Typical Content Mark Given Task 1:  For a minimum of three selected, different types of organisation; explain their responsibilities and how they try to meet them.  Explain the typical, elements for the formation of a legal contract between organisations and a third party and: o Describe the importance of different terms in a contract, giving examples  Apply knowledge of contract and tort to selected business scenarios with your response showing: o Evaluate the impact of, and possible problems with, different types of contract in given scenarios o Compare, distinguish between, contractual liability and liability in negligence o Explain the importance of vicarious liability to business organisations giving examples of such liability Business Environment: LO 1; Law for Business: LO 1; Law for Business: LO 2; Law for Business: LO 3 90 Type: E.g. private company, public company, government, voluntary organisation, cooperative, charitable. Purposes: Mission; vision; aims; objectives; goals; values; profits; market share; growth; return on capital employed; sales; service level; customer satisfaction; corporate responsibility; ethical issues. Responsibilities of organisations: Stakeholder interests; conflict of expectations; powerinfluence matrix; meeting stakeholder objectives; legal responsibilities (e.g. consumer legislation, employee legislation, equal opportunities and anti- discriminatory legislation, environmental legislation, health and safety legislation); ethical issues. Essential elements: Offer and acceptance; intention to create legal relations; consideration; capacity; privity of contract. Types of contract: Verbal; written; distance selling; impact of type of contract. Types of terms: condition; warranty; innominate term; express; implied; exclusion clauses and their validity. Case Law: Cited wherever appropriate. Negligence: Differences to contract; duty of care; breach of duty; damage – causation and remoteness of damage; personal injuries; damage to property; economic loss; occupier liability. Liability: Employer’s liability; vicarious liability; health and safety issues. Case Law: Cited wherever appropriate. Elements of contract: Express and implied terms; exclusion clauses; effects of terms; breaches of contract and remedies. Principles of liability in negligence: Differences compared with contract, duty of care, breach of duty, remoteness of damage, occupier and employer liability, defences and remedies. Case Law: Cited wherever appropriate. Task 2:  Explain the impact of the UK business environment and international trade on selected business organisations.  Explain the benefits and barriers to a business, including those relating to security, which face an online business organisation. Within your answer you should describe scope and types of e- 35 The UK economy: Size (GDP, GNP); structure; population; labour force, business and consumer behaviour; government policies and their impact on business. Global factors: International trade and the UK economy; market opportunities; global growth; protectionism; World Trade Organisation (WTO); emerging markets; EUPage 7 of 9 Back to Contents BMM Combined Assignment 2: Business Environment, Copyright © EduQual Ltd. 2016 IT and Law for Business (SCQF), Issue 1.0, March 2017 business processes and transactions  Explain the legal issues facing an online business organisation. Business Environment: LO 2; IT for Business: LO 1 membership. The internet; the worldwide web (www); intranets; extranets; e-business and ecommerce; transaction types: Business-toconsumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), customer-to-customer (C2C), customer-tobusiness (C2B). Benefits to businesses of e-business: E.g. 24/7 trading, global marketplace; overt and covert information collection; reduce transaction and marketing costs. Barriers: Set-up costs; difficulty of changing processes; ongoing maintenance (e.g. lack of skill, security and protection concerns); managing a 24/7 global response; methods and role of security in e-business. Task 3:  Explain how market forces affect a range of different organisations and their impact on determination of pricing and output decisions of organisations.  Evaluate the impact of environmental factors on markets.  Evaluate the benefits and elements of internet marketing and explain the tools that may be used for effective internet marketing.  Explain the key features of interactive order processing. Business Environment: LO 3; IT for Business: LO 2 35 Markets: Market structures; market forces; PESTEL analysis. Supply and Demand considerations. The elements of internet marketing: Definition of digital marketing; definition of ecommerce and e- business; the internet micro- and macro- environment. Benefits of internet marketing: E.g. reach, scope, immediacy, interactivity, targeting; adaptive and closed-loop marketing. The internet marketing mix: Product and branding; place (e.g. channels, virtual organisations); price (e.g. auctions); promotions; people; processes; physical evidence; digital marketing tools/e-tools; the online marketing matrix including business and consumer markets. Interactive order processing: Order tracking, payment Task 4: IT for Business LO 3  Evaluate existing communication and information systems in a selected organisation. Your considerations should cover collection, storage, and sharing of information and knowledge  Create a plan to improve existing communication and information security and storage systems for a chosen organisation. IT for Business: LO 3 20 Types: Meetings and conferences, workshops and training events, internet and email, written, telephone, video conferencing, oneto-one meetings. Information sharing and storage: controlling access to information, data protection and privacy issues and legislation, security of information, anti- malware and spam controls (e.g. consideration of technologies to support globalisation); communication; change; networks and virtual teams; global and cross-cultural teams Structure and Format  Relevance to the tasks, professional tone and format of 20Page 8 of 9 Back to Contents BMM Combined Assignment 2: Business Environment, Copyright © EduQual Ltd. 2016 IT and Law for Business (SCQF), Issue 1.0, March 2017 response (2 marks). Harvard Referencing (8 marks)  In-text citation  Bibliography, listed correctly and correlates to references made  Accurate, correctly-formatted footnotes  Integration of: supporting concepts, frameworks, critical thinking. Total Mark 200Page 9 of 9 Back to Contents BMM Combined Assignment 2: Business Environment, Copyright © EduQual Ltd. 2016 IT and Law for Business (SCQF), Issue 1.0, March 2017 Assessment Criteria for All Assessments Marks Criteria 70-100  The answer submitted has an outstanding result with negligible amount of mistakes.  The answer shows an appreciative level of knowledge and clear understanding of related models, theories and frameworks. Analytical techniques used show the wide area of knowledge the learner has.  The ability to apply and contextualise the models, theories and frameworks is clearly recognisable.  The analysis and the use of research data, as well as the ability to use the data to reach acceptable and accurate conclusions, is exceptional.  Answers show independent thought and clarity of the learner has led to an overall focused and evaluative answer.  The answer has followed proper Harvard referencing. 60-69  The answer shows an above average standard with few errors.  The answer shows a decent level of knowledge and fairly clear understanding of related models, theories and frameworks. There is a very good level, and use of, analytical techniques that is obvious throughout the answer.  The ability to apply and contextualise the models, theories and frameworks is of a good standard.  The analysis and the use of research data, as well as the ability to use the data to reach acceptable and accurate conclusions, is above average level.  Answers show independent thought and clarity of the learner answer has led to an overall focused and evaluative answer with little inconsistency.  The answer has followed proper Harvard referencing. 50-59  The answer shows an above average standard with errors.  The answer shows a general level of knowledge and a fairly clear understanding of related models, theories and frameworks. There is a good level, and use of, analytical techniques that is obvious throughout the answer.  The ability to apply and contextualise the models, theories and frameworks is of a reasonable standard. However, the link between theory and practical knowledge appears to be restricted/limited.  The answer shows more assumptions than conclusive deductions/evidences and valid arguments. However, the ability to interpret and evaluate is evident.  Answers show independent thought and clarity of the learner answer has led to an overall focused and evaluative answer with some inconsistencies.  The answer has followed Harvard referencing at an acceptable level. 40-49  There are several shortcomings throughout the answer.  The knowledge level reflected in the answer is limited, especially in understanding of related models, theories and frameworks.  The case material has been repeated instead of evidencing knowledge.  The use of analytical techniques is inadequate.  A certain level of relevance is evidence in Harvard referencing. 30-39  Answer submitted is quite weak and lacks proper focus.  The answer shows a number of spelling errors and/or poor grammar/syntax.  The lack of understanding in subject knowledge, related models, theories and frameworks is evident.  Contextualisation, interpretation, and evaluation are of a poor standard.  Reflects only basic levels of Harvard referencing. 0-29  Requires more work on answering skills; overall output is well below the required standard. Answer has little relevance to the assignment briefs. Spelling/syntax poor.  Little or no evidence of appropriate subject knowledge.  Use of models, theories and frameworks is quite poor.  Little to no evidence of, and/or unacceptable mistakes in, Harvard referencing. A mark of 40% or greater can only be given where all assignment learning outcomes for all tasks have been met.