Draft Schedule for #MMUBigAg 2017-18

The following is a rough structure of the work that we will do with students on The Big Agency this year. We will be in a computer-based room so they can do research in-class.

Students will be supported to do the assessed tasks in class, although they are expected to do further work outside of the taught sessions. Short videos on any of these topics to show students in class much appreciated (and seeking projects too)!

Week 1: 25/09/17: Introductions and Motivations

• Taught: Introduction to the unit and assignments
• Tasks: Professional behaviours, personal values and motivations.

Week 2: 02/10/17: Intro to PDP & Skills Analysis

• Taught: What is an agency?
• Short Task: Elevator Pitches
• Assessed Task: Research agencies and the roles within them. *Would love more of these kind of videos about different roles.

Week 3: 09/10/17: Creative Briefs and Pitches

• Taught: What is a creative brief?
• Assessed Task: Engaging with the briefs submitted by companies, summarising choices/why they think they are a good fit, etc.

Week 4: 16/10/17: ‘People buy people’

• Taught: Why is relationships/client comms important?
• Assessed Task: Work through client comms scenarios, e.g. first email to client, ensuring have a clear contact ‘team leader’ designated.

Week 5: 23/10/17 (then PDW): Pitching for Clients

• Assessed Task: Pitch presentation *Place presentation in appendices, plus initial communication with client arranging first discussion, etc.
• Submit PDP (not assessed, but assessed work must refer to this)
• By end of week let them know which is their client, who student ‘team leader’ should contact before the next teaching slot

Week 6: 06/10/17: Reflective Practice

• Taught: Intro to reflective practice, and 1-2-1 PDP Feedback
• Short Task: Perceptions of time and time management
• Assessed Task: Experimenting with reflective practice in assessing problem solving in an agency setting.

Week 7: 13/11/17: Customer Insight

• Taught: Assignment briefing and persona templates
• Assessed Task: Research the client company and develop 3 appropriate personas

Week 8: 20/11/17: Desk Research

• Taught: Competitor Analysis (SWOT, PESTLE, etc.)
• Assessed Task: Researching your client and at least two competitors, create SWOT analyses, PESTLE, etc.

Week 9: 27/11/17: Primary Research & Project Management

• Taught: Primary research and project management planning
• Assessed Task: Ethics form & research plan (what/how) to include Gantt chart and/or Kanban for client project.

Week 10: 04/12/17: Research Questions

• Assessed task: Research questions, ensuring questionnaire (or other appropriate primary research) is ready to circulate before Christmas.
• Space for assignment support

Week 11: 11/12/17: PDR Drop-In (then Christmas)

• Drop-ins for support, primary research must be circulated before Christmas.

DUE DATE FOR ASSIGNMENT

Week 12: 08/01/18: Creativity and Video

• Taught: Video Briefing; What is creativity/producing creative work?
• Assessed Task: Creative Bag of Tricks

Week 13: 15/01/18: Assignment Feedback

• Taught: Overview feedback, and introduction to blogging.
• 1-2-1’s Feedback
• Assessed Task: Research and blog about what constitutes a good blog post.

Week 14: 22/01/18: Assignment & Critical Thinking

• Taught: Assignment Brief 2; Introduction to critical thinking
• Assessed Task: Reflect upon the credibility of various sources of evidence (research related to client drawing upon models), as a reflective piece drawing on evidence.

Week 15: 29/01/18: Analyse Research

• Taught: Analysing and presenting research well
• Assessed Task: Drawing upon your learning from critical thinking, analyse th e research you have collected, and present it visually/appropriately.

Week 16: 05/02/18: Creative Brief (then PDW)

• Taught: What makes for a good creative brief?
• Assessed Task: Taking your client’s original brief, and the research you have done, develop it into a creative brief, highlighting deliverables.

Week 17: 19/02/18: Sector Trends

• Taught: The digital environment
• Assessed Task: Look at digital options other than social media, and make appropriate recommendations for your client. This may feed into your creative brief.

Week 18: 26/02/18:  Creativity & Storytelling

• Task: Think back to ‘what is creative thinking’, and your creative brief, and drawing on the research that you’ve done, work on creative outputs for your client.
• Assessed Task: Exercise in telling a story creatively

Week 19: 05/03/18:  Video Assignment Support

• Taught: Feeding back to the client appropriately
• Assessed Task: Storyboard assessed video
• Task: Continue working on creative outputs for your client.

Week 20: 12/03/18:  Assignment Support

• Taught: Assignment reminders and Q&A
• Assessed Task: Revised elevator pitch for an agency focused CV
• Task: Continue working on creative outputs for your client: your appendices should give a clear indication of who has worked on what/over what time frame.

Week 21: 19/02/18

• Students to present videos to their tutor(s), as if returning the work to the client. Video on USB, uploaded to this blog if appropriate. (20% of Coursework 2)
• Assessed Task: Seek feedback from client to place in appendix (on quality of communication/work produced).

DUE DATE FOR ASSIGNMENT

The students submit two pieces of coursework, for which the ‘assessed task’ must be in the appendices, worth 40% of each piece of coursework. The assessed task should be tied to their client work.

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