7.2. Mid-Project Demonstration

The Mid-Project Demonstration is an opportunity for your Second Marker to see your technical progress. It will give you the opportunity to practice a demonstration. You will receive feedback from your Second Marker about their reaction to your progress and your ability to talk about your work.

At this point, we expect that you are making progress with the technical aspects of your project. You should be able to show the technical work you have done at that point. Also, you should be in a position to reflect on the methodology or process you are following and whether it is working as expected.

This section highlights:

  • Assessment - the topics that are assessed.

  • Feedback - a summary of the feedback that you will receive.

  • Marking form - a list of the marking criteria that the the markers will use.

Assessment

You will demonstrate your work to your second marker.

This stage of the project is assessed and this is worth 5% of your overall project mark.

You will be allocated a time slot for your demonstration. It will take 15 minutes in total. You should plan a demonstration of what you have done so far, taking into account the topics being assessed (see below). Don’t plan more than 10 minutes, as you will need time to answer questions from your second marker.

For assessment purposes, you will be judged against the following topics.

  • Project Description - This considers:

    • To what extent are you able to clearly describe the aims of the project?

    • When questioned about the project, did you demonstrate that you understand the topic and the work that you are undertaking?

    • What method or process are you following to manage the project?

    • Are there any problems with your use of the method or process?

  • Technical Work - This considers:

    • How advanced is the technical work?

    • What work did you demonstrate?

    • Were you able to explain what had been done and justify the choices that you have made?

  • Technical Issues - This considers:

    • To what extent do you understand the technologies and technical issues in the project?

    • Which technologies are you using and why have you selected them?

    • At this stage in the project, do you think that these technologies are appropriate?

    • In light of your work so far, do you expect to change any of the selected technologies? If so, why?

Feedback

You will receive verbal feedback during the demonstration. You should take some notes about the main items that you discuss. In addition, you will receive a copy of the feedback from your marker about a week after all of the Mid-Project demonstrations have finished.

An example of the information you might expect as feedback is shown in the Marking form section. The feedback will include an overall mark and a breakdown of the mark for the three areas being assessed. There will also be a few sentences of textual feedback.

If your marker returns Adequate or Inadequate for some sections, think carefully about what was discussed for the sections. Consider how you can improve in those sections to avoid the risk of a low mark or even a failure on the module.

Marking form

The weighting for the three topics is shown below:

For each of these topics, your marker will select a number from 0 to 5. The descriptions for each mark is shown in the following sub-sections.

Project description

How well was the student able to explain what the project is about and the general process or method used.

[5] Very good - The student demonstrated a very good understanding of the project and process.

[4] Good - As for Very good, but there were one or two areas where the student was less specific.

[3] Average - As for Good, but there were more areas where the student was less specific.

[2] Adequate - The description provided a general outline of the project, but even with further questions the student did not demonstrate an appropriate level of understanding about the project’s background and aims.

[1] Inadequate - The description and further discussion did not clarify what the project is attempting to achieve.

[0] No appropriate description was provided.

Technical work

How advanced is the technical work?

[5] Very good - The demonstrated work is very well advanced for this stage of the project.

[4] Good - The demonstrated work is well advanced. Some areas appear to be underdeveloped.

[3] Average - The demonstrated work is making reasonable progress, but several areas appear to be underdeveloped.

[2] Adequate - There is some technical work, but it is not particularly advanced at this stage.

[1] Inadequate - The demonstrated work is very limited at this stage.

[0] No technical progress was demonstrated.

Technical issues

To what extent does the student understand the technologies and technical issues in the project?

[5] Very good - The student demonstrated a very good understanding of the technical issues and the technologies used on the project.

[4] Good - As for Very good, but with some topics where the discussion is more general.

[3] Average - As for Good, but with several topics where the discussion is more general.

[2] Adequate - The student demonstrated an adequate understanding of the main issues, but is unable to talk in detail about any of the topics.

[1] Inadequate - The student demonstrated a limited understanding of the technical issues.

[0] No technical understanding was demonstrated.