MIS770 Assignment One 1 | P a g e
FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND LAW
Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics
MIS770 – Foundation Skills in Data Analysis
Assignment 1 – Analysing the Visual Presentation of an Organisation’s Annual Report
Particulars
• Due: Week 5, 9am, Thursday 10th August, 2017
• Marks: 20%
• Words: 2,000 (See Item 1, Guidelines)
• Submission: Online to the MIS770 assignment one drop box in the Cloud Unit Site.
Email submissions will not be accepted
• Note: This assignment is to be completed individually
Assurance of Learning
This assignment assesses following Graduate Learning Outcomes and related Unit Learning Outcomes:
Graduate Learning Outcome (GLO) Unit Learning Outcome (ULO)
GLO1: Discipline knowledge and capabilities:
appropriate to the level of study related to a
discipline or profession
ULO1: Apply the fundamentals of quantitative
reasoning to solve real-world problems
Overview
For this assignment, we will use the ideas and concepts introduced in Module 1 to evaluate the
presentation of information.
The evaluation will centre on the suitability of Charts, Tables and/or Graphs used to represent, or
visualise, data. The source document for these Charts, Tables and/or Graphs will be a published report
from a Government or significant Organisation of your choice. (An example of a suitable annual report
can be found at the end of this document under “Supporting Materials”.)
There are many suitable reports that you can use for your evaluation and you might be comfortable
selecting a document that is aligned with your current field of study. For instance, if you were a Business
student then you might like to choose a listed (public) company’s Annual Investor Presentation such as
the example shown under “Supporting Materials”. These types of reports can be sourced from a public
company’s website (usually under Investor Centre) or the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Other suitable
sources could be international organisations (e.g. World Health Organisation (WHO)), government
departments or enterprises (e.g. Education Departments, water authorities, etc.).
When selecting a report to evaluate, ensure that the document is publically available and has a wide
selection of Charts, Tables and Graphs.MIS770 Assignment One 2 | P a g e
Scenario
In this assignment, you will undertake two distinct tasks divided as Part A and Part B.
First, you will develop a list of generic evaluation criteria that critique valid practices when developing, or
constructing, Charts, Tables and Graphs (i.e. visualisations), i.e. Part A.
Second, you will use the criteria you have just developed to evaluate the suitability of the Charts, Tables
and Graphs (i.e. visualisations) utilised in a publically available report of your choice (subject to the
conditions listed later in this document) i.e. Part B.
Requirements
• Part A: Develop Evaluation Criteria
Your evaluation criteria need to be objective, in that they stipulate the rules you would use in
establishing whether a Chart, Table or Graph utilised in your selected Report, is appropriate for the
data being presented. You need to make sure that each of your criterion is written in such a manner
that a reasonable person can readily understand, or appreciate, the message being conveyed. You are
expected to address approximately 20 criteria.
You should also group your criteria by visualisation type. For example, you might choose “Common”,
“Chart”, “Table” and “Graph”, or some other suitable grouping. You are not restricted to these
specific headings. It’s also important that you number each separate criterion as you will need to
refer to its specific number when undertaking Task 2.
An example of an appropriate criterion:
Line Charts should be used when analysing trends over time. To be effective, the time series should
be placed on the x-axis with the measure on the y-axis.
An example of an unacceptable criterion:
Line Charts should have nice colours.
This last example fails on two counts: it has an inadequate description (or explanation); and, it is
subjective (i.e. the authors opinion) – your criteria need to be objective.
• Part B: Report Evaluation
Select 12 to 15 diverse Charts, Tables or Graphs from your chosen Report (but not including any
“Infographics”) and evaluate these visualisations using your criterion developed in Part A. It would
not be unusual for an individual visualisation from your report to refer to multiple criteria. Further,
any given visualisation you select may conform to some of your criterion but be in contravention of
others, and this would need to be reported.
It is expected that each of your criterion would be used at least once when evaluating your chosen
Charts, Tables or Graphs.
Note: When evaluating the report, include an image of the Charts, Tables and Graphs you have
selected and make sure you associate them back to a specific criterion by using the criterion number
you utilised in Part A.MIS770 Assignment One 3 | P a g e
Guidelines
1. The following word counts should be used as a guide for this assessment.
Criteria: Qty 20 with 20 to 30 words in each (i.e. 400 to 600 words)
Evaluation: Qty 12 with 100 to 120 words in each (i.e. 1200 to 1440 words), or
Qty 15 with 100 to 120 words in each (i.e. 1500 to 1800 words)
Therefore, using the above guidelines, your assignment should be no less than 1600 words and no
more than 2400 words (i.e. 2000 words plus or minus 20%)
2. For this assignment, we are only interested in the Charts, Tables and Graphs contained in your
selected published report but do not include any items commonly known as “Infographics”.
Submission
Your completed work should be a single Word document divided into two sections:
Part A. Evaluation Criteria
Part B. Report Evaluation
In addition, please also submit a copy, or a link, of the Published Report that you used as part of your
evaluation.
The assignment is to be submitted to the MIS770 assignment box in Deakin’s Cloud Campus. Please
ensure you include your name and student details in your Word document as well as naming the file in
the following format: yourstudentid_A1.docx. Failure to follow this naming convention may lead to a
delay in receiving feedback and marks.
Notes
• Penalties for late submission: The following marking penalties will apply if you submit an
assessment task after the due date without an approved extension: 5% will be deducted from
available marks for each day up to five days, and work that is submitted more than five days after
the due date will not be marked. You will receive 0% for the task. 'Day' means working day for
paper submissions and calendar day for electronic submissions. The Unit Chair may refuse to accept
a late submission where it is unreasonable or impracticable to assess the task after the due date.
• For more information about academic misconduct, special consideration, extensions, and
assessment feedback, please refer to the document Your rights and responsibilities as a student
in this Unit in the first folder next to the Unit Guide of the Resources area in the CloudDeakin unit
site.
• Building evidence of your experiences, skills and knowledge (Portfolio) - Building a portfolio that
evidences your skills, knowledge and experience will provide you with a valuable tool to help you
prepare for interviews and to showcase to potential employers. There are a number of tools that
you can use to build a portfolio. You are provided with cloud space through OneDrive, or through
the Portfolio tool in the Cloud Unit Site, but you can use any storage repository system that you
like. Remember that a Portfolio is YOUR tool. You should be able to store your assessment work,
reflections, achievements and artefacts in YOUR Portfolio. Once you have completed this
assessment piece, add it to your personal Portfolio to use and showcase your learning later, when
applying for jobs, or further studies. Curate your work by adding meaningful tags to your artefacts
that describe what the artefact represents.MIS770 Assignment One 4 | P a g e
Supporting Materials
Example of a suitable Annual Report:
• NAB Full Year Investor Presentation
Note: This document is to be utilised as an example only and it is not to form any part of your assignment
submission.
Marking Rubric
Poor Needs
Improvement Satisfactory Good Very Good Exemplary
Part A:
Develop
Evaluation
Criteria
(Marks: 7)
Create rules by
which charts,
graphs & tables
are to be judged
0 points
Proposes no valid
criteria which
indicates no
comprehension
of the task
0 – 2 Marks
2.1 points
Proposes only a
few valid criteria
that indicate little
comprehension
of the task
2.1 – 3.4 Marks
3.5 points
Proposes several
more satisfactory
creative criteria
that indicates
satisfactory
comprehension
of the task
3.5 – 4.1 Marks
4.2 points
Proposes a
reasonably good
number of
creative criteria
that indicates a
good
comprehension
of the task
4.2 – 4.8 Marks
4.9 points
Proposes many
very good
creative criteria
that indicates a
deep
comprehension
of the task
4.9 – 5.5 Marks
7 points
Proposes
comprehensive
creative criteria
that meets best
practice and are
grounded in
empirical theory.
All criteria reflect
a high level of
judgement
5.6 – 7 Marks
Part B:
Report
Evaluation
(Marks: 10)
Apply the rules
you created in
Part A to your
selection of
charts, graphs &
tables
0 points
Provides no
direction as to
how criteria
might be
implemented
0 – 2.9 Marks
3 points
Provides little
direction as to
how criteria
might be
implemented
3 – 4.9 Marks
5 points
Provides
acceptable
direction as to
how criteria
might be
implemented in a
satisfactory
manner
5 – 5.9 Marks
6 points
Provides a good
direction as to
how criteria
might be
implemented
6 – 6.9 Marks
7 points
Provides a
detailed and
insightful
direction as to
how criteria
might be
implemented
7 – 7.9 Marks
10 points
Provides
outstanding
detail and
insightful
direction as to
how criteria
might be
implemented
8 – 10 Marks
Overall
Assignment
Presentation
(Marks: 3)
0 points
No attempt has
been made to
follow
assignment
particulars.
Poorly presented
0 – 0.8 Marks
0.9 points
Little attempt has
been made to
follow
assignment
particulars.
Unsatisfactorily
presented
0.9 – 1.4 Marks
1.5 point
Most of the
assignment
particulars have
been followed.
Satisfactorily
presented
1.5 – 1.7 Marks
1.8 point
Majority of the
assignment
particulars have
been followed.
Good
presentation
1.8– 2 Marks
2.1 points
All of the
assignment
particulars have
been followed.
Very good
presentation
2.1 – 2.3 Marks
2.4 points
All of the
assignment
particulars have
been dealt with
meticulously.
Faultless
assignment
presentation
2.4 – 3 Marks