Assessment 1 - Innovation webpage
Task
Background
This task is effectively an interim report on - the innovation audit of your workplace - or organisation of choice. The aim of Assessment Item 1 is to provide the opportunity for you to share with your fellow students what you are learning about innovation and the background and capabilities of the organisation you are examining.
Task
Your task is to create a webpage (using Weebly*) that very clearly and concisely reports on selected aspects of the innovation capabilities of the organisation you will be critically evaluating.
On your webpage you should:
- provide (concise) relevant information on your organisation
- present three issues that you are focusing on in your written report
- explain the importance of these issues to your chosen organisation
Consider whether any/all of your three identified issues are shaped by the context of your organisation- its size, types of products, types of consumers, nature of the industry etc.
Your webpage should be visually appealing. Consider how you can use multimedia (including images, charts or diagrams, videos and more) to represent your ideas or key issues clearly and concisely, but without oversimplifying NPD concepts. Your page should be informative and engaging, structured clearly to make it attractive and easily understandable by your audience.
Your webpage should stand-alone from your written report, which is to be submitted at a later date. Referencing, where necessary, should be APA Style. Your reference list can be a created as a link from your main web page.
When working with images online it is also important that you respect copyright. This CSU library guide contains useful information for you on using images in your assessment items. libguides.csu.edu.au/using-images-at-university
To make your job easier, you can use your own images or do an advanced search in Google images so that you limit your search to images that are "free to use, share or modify, even commerically". See details: https://webtegrity.com/our-blog/seo-tips/can-i-use-google-images-for-free-on-my-website-or-blog/. When you select Images in a Google search - click on Settings (RHS under camera icon) select Advanced search and near the bottom of page you will see usage rights. Select for images that are free to use. (I also select for colour on this page if I am working for an integrated colour scheme!).
Rationale -
This task ensures that you get to share your workplace learning and observe challenges in innovation management in a diverse range of organisations. You will also learn to use Weebly - a tool that allows you to create and creatively share your knowledge and enhance your digital literacy.
This task aligns with subject learning outcomes 1 and 2:
- to be able to critically reflect on the role of innovation in organisations and the challenges companies face in new product development.
- to be able to synthesise innovation literature to develop a theoretical framework for use in an audit of innovation practices of a specific organisation and make recommendations for improvement.
Assessment 2 - Presentation and reflection
Task
Background
You have focused on an organisation of your choice, often your own workplace. This has particular advantages for you including the potential for you to experience and understand subject content in the context of your own workplace, your access to key information to allow substantial analysis and the capacity for you to make a contribution to your workplace both now and into the future.
What you have not yet experienced is the opportunity to gain insights into how NPD or NSD is practiced in a range of different contexts and how context influences key considerations for companies in regard to new product or new service development.
Task
Assessment task provides the opportunity for you to share findings from your assignments, gain further insights into NPD and NSD in a variety of contexts, and reflect on and consolidate your learning on new product development success factors. There are two parts to this task:
Part A: Group presentation
Part B: Individual reflection
Task A: Group presentation -
Your task is to reflect on your experience in completing Assessment (individual report on NPD practices) and draw out a number of key issues to present to your colleagues in a short, snappy but insightful presentation. There will be a number of online meetings scheduled for discussion of each of the presentations. (The format of the online presentation -will be detailed following the content)
Your presentation needs to include:
- Brief background to company/market
- Key issues that came out of your critical analysis of an organisation's new product development practice?
- Recommendations for improvement
- Personal comments on what you learnt.
- Commentary that reflects an understanding of relevant NPD or NSD theory
In preparing for discussion in the online sessions you should focus in detail on presentations of two other students. You will be provided with further direction in regard to this when dates for online sessions are finalised. This preparation will help form a solid foundation for completion of Task 4B.
Part B: Individual reflection
Your task in assessment is to reflect on and write about how your understanding of new product or service development has been developed and/ or changed by the presentations (Task A) on new product development practices and success factors across a variety of organisations. Consider what you have become aware of/ or had reinforced by completing your own presentation as well as listening to those of others. Underpin you discussion with reference to relevant NPD theory.
Your reflection on NPD should focus on the differing perspectives and contexts provided by your class members (What did you learn from each other? What new insight or opinion was offered?), as well as similarities and differences in key aspects of new product development practice between the organisation you studied and the organisations studied by your fellow students.
You will need to include a short reference list in APA in style (This is excluded from word count).
Note: Use of first person e.g. "I was surprised to find....) is appropriate in this type of task.
Rationale
This assessment task (parts A & B) have been are designed to help you consolidate your learning. You will do this by participating in a collaborative learning environment and considering alternative situations regarding NPD, based on different organisational and industry contexts.
This task aligns with subject learning outcomes:
- to be able to evaluate the new product practices of an organisation and make recommendations for improvement that demonstrate knowledge of success factors in new product development
- to be able to examine and critically evaluate current new product activities in the market.
Attachment:- Assignment File.rar