CIPD written assignment
Assessment guidance
Your assessment for this unit is made up of two activities, both of which must be completed and submitted by 20th December 2015 at midnight. The function of this assessment guidance is to explain the Assessment brief for this unit’s activities in more detail so that you understand exactly what you need to submit and in what format.
Activity 1
The assessment brief provides the following description of activity 1:
Produce a written response in which you:
Identify examples of metrics used to inform and measure L&D.
Evaluate a range of primary and secondary L&D data sources.
For this activity, we would suggest that you use the following questions on which to base your response:
Which metrics should you be using as a modern L&D professional and how are they useful?
Which additional primary, secondary and benchmark data sources are useful to the modern L&D professional?
Make sure you give specific examples, classifying each metric or data source appropriately and mentioning its value. The word limit is 500 words, so be as succinct as possible and focus on demonstrating your knowledge rather than writing beautifully. Submit this activity as a Word document using the Assessment submission link on the course page.
You need to provide a brief outline of different ways of classifying metrics (for example: qualitative, quantitative, and input/process/output metrics) and include workplace examples such as: training spend, training recipients, time spend, L&D staff, evaluation costs and trends in L&D.
Evaluation of a range of L&D data sources:
When evaluating key sources of secondary research, you should compare and contrast data from a range of sources and publications (for example: academic, professional and industry).
When evaluating key sources of primary research, you should consider a range of methods (for example: questionnaires, unstructured/structured interviews, observations, focus groups, and online diaries/blogs). You could consider issues of currency, authenticity, reliability and validity.
Activity 2
We would suggest using your report to make a business case for a learning intervention within your organisation or to explain how an existing learning programme or event could be improved.
*If you are not currently working or would prefer not to use your own organisation, you could use the scenario provided here
Alternative scenario
If you are not currently working, use this scenario as a basis for your assessment project:
A charitable organisation focusing on making workplace learning more accessible is open to applications for funding for projects to help meet its current most important business goal.
The business goal is to increase the number of organisations certified as having fully accessible L&D programmes by 10% in the next 18 months.
By ‘certified’ they mean meeting a set of requirements that show the learning materials are friendly to learners with special learning requirements, such as dyslexia, visual impairment or mobility problems.
- The title should clearly show what the report focuses on.
- There needs to be an explanation of the purpose of the report and why it will benefit the stakeholders at which it is aimed.
- State your objectives clearly.
- Explain the data collection methods and acknowledge the limitations. Make sure you include the reasoning behind your choice of participants or respondents if you have used them.
- Make the findings clear, using visuals and language that is free of jargon.
- Add your conclusion and recommendations, making it clear what the limitations of your research are.
- Use appendices to present any information that you feel is valuable to your case but would interrupt the flow of the report were it to be included in the main text.
- Reference all your sources and provide a bibliography in a recognised format such as Harvard style.
If you have not yet started preparing for your assignment, you could use the following steps to help you complete it:
Identify a business goal that L&D could help reach.
- Identify the factors that affect reaching this goal and which of those can be affected by L&D.
- Carry out a needs analysis with your target demographic of learners.
- Research the most effective learning intervention finding relevant data to make your case.
- Estimate the cost of the intervention.
- Present the application as a business case in the form of a report, as shown in Week 6 and above, which you can submit for this assignment activity.
The word limit is 2,500 words not including appendices, bibliography, references and the contents pace. Make sure you stay within the word limit and format your work in a manner appropriate for a business report. Submit this activity as a separate Word document using the Assessment submission link on the course page.
If you have any additional questions on these activities, post them on the forum in the Assessment tab and your tutor or the community manager will answer them.
