Assessment Task 2: Empirical and Comprehensive Study and Report Due: 9 may 12pm
Submission: Via Turnitin portal on the Moodle page
Word length: 1200 words ± 10% (10 minutes)
Weight: 30% of final mark
Problem Statement
Real-time information sharing between farmers, field agents, procurement officers, and agriculture experts enables service providers to supply real-time and personalized services based on a wide range of factors such as location, crop, management practices, mechanization level, irrigation type, farm size, soil type, etc. This allows farmers to make informed choices and take swift agriculture actions when necessary.
An empirical study on existing mobile-based personalized services delivery platform that enables two-way data and information exchange between the end-users (farmers and field agents), repositories of knowledge (virtual knowledge banks and agriculture experts), and procurement officers is the need of the present world. So that such mobile-based personalized service platform or ICT enabled platform may be improved for better services in real-time.
Objectives
Student needs to analyze the existing mobile-based or ICT-enabled two-way service platform for its effectiveness by taking a case study of such service delivery platform into consideration (preferably from Australia). Upon successful analysis of the case study, student should be able to:
· give a brief description of the platform in terms of its concept, technology framework, product(s), target market(s), location, and legal structure.
· provide a brief comparative profit and loss statement analysis.
· comment briefly on cost and timeliness, benefit impact of the innovations, implementation challenges, replicability, future potential, and scalability.
The structure of the report should be
· Title page
· Table of contents with page numbers
· Executive summary
· Introduction
· Major points, responses, or arguments, set out as separate subsections which include the service platform in terms of its concept, technology framework, product(s), target market(s), location, legal structure, profit, and loss statement analysis, cost and timeliness, benefit impact of the innovations, implementation challenges, replicability, future potential, and scalability.
· Discussion and recommendations (for the improvements in existing such platforms) · Conclusion
· References
· Appendices (if any)
Examples
Students can refer to the following mobile-based personalized services delivery platform available in Australia e.g.
Graincast, (https://www.csiro.au/en/research/plants/crops/Grains/Graincast) Grazplan (https://grazplan.csiro.au/)
another good example which students can refer to is: The revolutionary PRIDE™ model by mKRISHI® – empowering farmers to live with dignity, available at:
http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6733e.pdf
http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/pdf/ICT%20sucess%20stories.pdf
Report Format
This sample template is designed to assist you in the preparation of a report. Requirements may vary from unit to unit, so please check the assessment instructions on Moodle before commencing your report.
While a report still requires the critical thinking like an essay, it is different because a report is a presentation of facts and information, rather than a discussion of various opinions. It is often written for a very specific industry audience. It usually uses numbered headings and subheadings (e.g. 2.1 Executive summary) and dot points were applicable. Where possible, reports should include uses graphics (e.g. tables, graphs, illustrations). A report aims to:
· examine how an objective is achieved;
· highlight a problem and suggest a solution;
· offer information, interpretation (e.g. surveys), analysis, and recommendations. While assessments vary from unit to unit, a standard template for a report is usually:
· Letter or memorandum: provided to the person or group who commissioned the report, stating the purpose of the report, brief summary and/or recommendations, and acknowledging others who have contributed.
· Title page: Clearly describes what the report is about.
· Abstract or Executive Summary: Approximately 200 words. States the problem, how it was investigated, what was found, and what the findings mean.
· Table of contents: A list of the major and minor sections of the report.
· Introduction: Sets the scene and gives some background information about the topic. States the aim/purpose of the investigation and outlines of the sections in the body of the report.
· Main body: Organised into sections: what was investigated, how it was investigated it, what was found (evidence), and interpretations.
· Conclusion: Summary, what the report achieved – did it meet its aims, the significance of the findings and a discussion and interpretation of the findings.
· Recommendations: What is recommended as a course of action following the conclusion?
· References: A list of all the sources you used.
· Appendices: Any information (graphs, charts, tables or other data) referred to in your report but not included in the body.
Please be sure to reference properly as this will affect your grades. You can find out how many references are required for your essay in the “assessment tasks” document on Moodle.
