There is only one assessment in this course. In the individual essay project, students will be asked to undertake analysis of new trends in innovation. Each student will select two new trends in innovation such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, 3 D printing, Big Data, Inclusive Innovation, Social Innovation, Virtual Reality, etc. and perform an analysis of the evolution of the innovation (technology) landscape of this area over the past 5 years. The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate student’s ability to analyse, discuss and present new trends in innovation and explain to what extend these new trends impact on how individuals and organisations innovate together. Each student is free to choose two innovation trends to explore. The students will be required to demonstrate their ability to apply the knowledge/concepts (such as social innovation, disruptive innovation, open innovation, and many more) from the lectures to critically discuss current innovation trends by using real-life business cases. The task will be to analyse the main innovation technological developments in the two chosen areas. These findings will be summarised in a 2,500-word essay. The essay should identify: • The core unpinning technologies/ innovations and two new trends in innovation and changes in these core technologies/ innovations over the last 5 years • The key innovations that emerged over the past 5 years • The most important inventors, firms and countries and how these have changed over time. • To what extend these new trends impact on how individuals and organisations innovate together. Detailed instructions and examples will be provided in class. Students are encouraged to use their personal contacts, newspaper articles, websites, academic papers, trade press to develop their essays. Each student will be responsible for writing a 2,500-word essay. The essay will be marked on the basis of context- main body (40%), analysis (40%), and structure and organisation (20%). The Main Body: n Develop your key arguments and discuss different points of view n Support by evidence and reference correctly n Use paragraphs to express your ideas. n Each paragraph should have an opening or early statement which tells your reader the topic. n Show when you are moving on to a different stage of your argument or new area by providing a ‘signpost’, for example, ‘However, Clark explains …’ or ‘Another view is that …’.
n Produce a coherent piece of work that progresses logically and answers the question n Demonstrate that you have read, understood and evaluated your material n Link the different ideas to form a cohesive and coherent argument n Make clear connections to the conclusions that you reach. Critical Analysis consists of process: n Breaking topic down into key elements n Asking challenging questions of topic n Gathering evidence to answer questions n Using evidence to construct analysis n Forming reliable conclusions