CAPSTON PROJECT

**Assignment Purpose **

The purpose of this assignment is to help you develop the core components of your capstone project proposal. You will refine your research or project idea by clearly:

1. Introducing your research aims and questions
2. Situating your work within relevant academic literature published in the last 5-7 years.
3. Justifying an appropriate research or project design

This assignment represents a key step toward a well-defined, feasible capstone project.

Students need to write between **1600 and 1800 words **

**Due: Monday 30th March 2026 **

Assignment Task

You are required to produce a written report that includes the following three sections:

Part 1: Introduction [400 words]

In this section, you will introduce your project idea. You need to start by stating your research question and explaining why it is important. Second, what the issue or problem is that needs to be addressed.

Think about the following questions when you write your introduction:

• What is the aim of your research/project? What will you focus on, and why?
• What is your research question? What are your sub-questions (if any)?
• How does the research contribute to the UAE context? (specify what qualifies: policy, practice, setting, or population) (at least 1-2 UAE context sources, e.g., agendas, visions, and SDGs)
• Briefly reflect on one potential limitation of your research question (for example, whether it is too broad or too narrow).

Part 2: Literature review [700-800 words]

In this section, you will present a review of the literature about your chosen topic. The review should:

Draw on 7 peer-reviewed articles that are directly relevant to your research or project idea.

Summarise, synthesise, and critically evaluate the literature, showing how studies connect, overlap, or differ (organise thematically; not one paragraph per article)

Identify a clear gap in the literature by explaining what is missing, underexplored, or unresolved in prior research.

Explain how your research, project, or product aims to address this gap.

All projects, including design- or community-based projects, must be grounded in relevant academic literature.

Part 3: Logic and method [500 words]

In this section, you will explain the reasoning behind your research, project, or product and describe how your chosen research design and methods will support answering your research question.

1. Logic of the research design

• Explain your selected design and why this design makes sense for your research question(s). Use up to3references to support your claims.

a. Methods

Clearly outline the methods you will use. Depending on your project type, this may include:

• Data collection: Describe how you will gather information (e.g., surveys, interviews, observations). Include examples such as a draft list of interview/survey questions and a description of who your study participants will be.
• Data analysis: Describe how you will analyse your data (statistical analysis, qualitative analysis (thematic analysis)), justifying why these methods of analysis are suitable for your data.
• Project/product** design**: If you are creating a product or project, identify the tools, technologies, or resources you will need to build and test it.

b. Connection to logic

• Explain how the methods you select will help you carry out your logical design and achieve your project goals. – Why are you selecting that method to help you answer your research question? Why is it better than another method? Think critically about your choices.

THIS WAY YOU WILL HAVE 10 REFERENCES IN TOTAL FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT

Footnotes

You are required to footnote LOs covered in Unit 3 in this assignment:

#LO3_evaluate: Identify and utilise appropriate measures and rubrics to develop and evaluate work products.

#LO4_organize: Select, organize, and present essential content for an intended purpose.

#SourceQuality: Distinguish between categories and types of information to determine source quality.

#ProfessionalWorkProduct: Follows the established guidelines for the task and academic conventions in writing and presentations.

LO Grading

Your assignment will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Clarity and focus of the research question and project purpose

Relevance and quality of academic sources used

Depth of synthesis and critical engagement in the literature review

Clear identification of a research or practice gap

Logical alignment between research question, design, and methods

Professional academic writing and adherence to APA convention

Style Guidelines: follow each of the guidelines below to avoid penalties

• Use your research topic as the title of your paper.
• Footnote LO usage (do not use an appendix for this). In the footnote text (at the bottom of the page), provide the hashtag of the LO and a short explanation of your application. Help the professor understand exactly why this constitutes a strong application. For a given LO, create at most one footnote per page. Footnotes do not count towards the word limits for assignments.

You need to insert in-text citations to support any ideas or claims you put throughout the paper (introduction, literature review, and the justification of your research methods).

• Use APA formatting for your references ( is information on APA formatting).

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html

• Indicate the final word count, excluding the title page, references, and footnotes, at the end of the assignment.

Late work reminder: See your syllabus for policies on late and missing assignments

Assignment Information

Length:

1600-1800 words

Weight:

35%

Learning Outcomes Added

• : Distinguish between categories and types of information to determine source quality.
• : Identify and utilize appropriate measures and rubrics to develop and evaluate work products.
• : Select, organize, and present essential content for an intended purpose.
• : Follows the established guidelines for the task and academic conventions in writing and presentations.