Coursework - Module BENV0032 - Methods of Environmental Analysis

C/W: Environmental and learning conditions in lecture theatres: A case study from UCL

The main aim of the coursework is to provide you with a sound grounding in the basic techniques and skills needed to complete a building analysis task in the environmental field and write a report that communicates the work carried out, the methods applied and the outcomes of your analysis work. These skills will be invaluable when you undertake your research dissertation (and hopefully in your future professional life).

The main aim of peer-to-peer reviewing is to learn to critically evaluate the use of literature and methods in research projects. The option of providing feedback to others will help you think more systemically about what constitutes good research and writing, which will help you in your own work.

The context of this work is that you have been commissioned to produce a research report by UCL authorities on the environmental and learning conditions in UCL lecture theatres. On the basis of the report, a range of policy decisions will be made regarding the best way of improving lecture theatre conditions, and this could be your entry into an under-developed area of environmental research.

The projects have the following output: a report written in the style of a scientific paper. The report has a short (around 300-word) abstract. You need to convince the reader succinctly (as a manager has many items to read) that the report is worthy of their further attention, essentially by conveying very clearly:

You have 4 options for the content of your coursework. Please chose one and specify it further in your aim(s) and objectives. You can also combine some of the elements if desired.

Option 1: The focus of lighting or acoustics and its effects on student experience and learning

Option 2: A focus on the effects of air movement and temperature on thermal comfort and learning

Option 3: A focus on different sub-groups and their different experience, e.g. because they have different gender, sit somewhere different in the lecture theatre.

Option 4: A focus on different physical characteristics of lecture theatres (seating and/or lighting and/or ventilation) and their effects on student experience such as the lecture theatre design.

The coursework has four main work packages (WPs). Preparatory work will be needed in order to manage your time and resources, review the existing knowledge in the field and formulate the aim and objectives of your study (WP 1). At the same time, you will set out to collect original data via a survey of UCL students and monitoring of a lecture theatre (WP2). The third part will concentrate on improving your analytical skills (WP 3). The last part is to bring it all together into a coherent report, draw final conclusions and offer potential retrofit recommendations (WP 4).

The Work Packages (WPs) of the project are summarised in the workflow diagram below.

WP 1 - Project management, research aim and literature review with causal map

Before you start, you will need to spend some time planning how you will complete the project by the

deadline and what is required for the report, which means identifying exactly what needs to be done, and by when. Don’t forget to back up everything. As early as possible, you should start identifying the structure,

length, and contents of the final report, paragraph by paragraph. You will have to carry out background

research on current knowledge and standards for lecture theatres, identify an existing knowledge gap and set out the study aims and objectives. The literature review needs to critically summarise and evaluate

relevant literature. You also need to provide a causal map that gives an overview on the causal links that have been recognized in the literature.

WP2 - Data collection through survey (submission on 3 November)

In WP2 you can work with a partner if two of you have the same allocated lecture theatre. You only need to collect and submit data once per team.

WP2.1 - Physical survey: You will need to physically survey your allocated case study lecture theatre by measuring factors that contribute to its environmental quality, including its thermal and lighting performance. You will have to draw a plan and sections with good approximations of the measurements. You will subsequently need a simple A4 version of the plan when you carry out the questionnaire survey (WP1.2) to allow students attending a lecture to mark on it where they are sitting. More details on seat measurements can be found in Appendix 2. Additional information, including e.g. numbers and areas of vents and arrangements for heating or cooling can be useful later and should be added to the drawing and reported in column DY of your spreadsheet. Please report student feedback in column DX.

WP2.2 - Indoor questionnaire survey: You need to obtain responses from students (not other EDE/HWSB  students) on their perceptions of the environmental and learning conditions in the lecture theatre. (If less than 30 questionnaires are returned, you need to go a second time and can combine data from both visits.) You should arrange with the lecturer before a lecture in your allocated space, to place the HOBO and to hand out  the questionnaires with the plan on the back. You can attach the introductory letter found in Appendix 3 when you contact the lecturer. The questionnaire can be found in Appendix 4. The survey should be undertaken over the course of one 60– 180 minute lecture. You will have to photocopy a sufficient quantity of questionnaires with a copy of your A4 sized plan on the back, for handout in your allocated lecture theatre.

You will also have access to HOBO dataloggers for monitoring indoor dry bulb temperature, relative humidity and lighting levels during the duration of the survey. Respondents should mark their seating position on the    plan. After the lecture you should collect all the completed questionnaires and enter all your data into the coursework data entry template.

WP2.3 - Data cleaning: We will take over the task of aggregating the individual data sheets into a joint Excel spreadsheet for you. As a group, you will then need to clean the data because people may make mistakes, e.g. reporting millimetres instead of meters, wrongly converting clothing levels to numbers, etc. Please highlight areas that include obvious mistakes and include a comment what needs to be done and what has been done once completed in column DZ.

WP3 - Analysis of survey data

This part of the project will involve analysis of the overall spreadsheet in order to identify the key results on the environmental and learning conditions in the surveyed lecture theatres, and any relationships between  them. For instance, you may attempt to explore which environmental factors, e.g. thermal comfort, are correlated with the reported learning conditions. You can begin a statistical analysis for all lecture theatres and compare your case study with these results. You are looking for evidence for general relationships and to identify the specific conditions of your case study. You have to conduct a test to find out whether your lecture  theatre is different from the other lecture theatres. You are also required to make some kind of use of the verbal feedback in the spreadsheet.

WP4 - Putting it all together in a final report

The finished report should combine all the work and analysis into a coherent structure. The final report needs to be your own work and include a section on your case study lecture theatre and a section on all lecture theatres (of a specific kind). You find more guidelines in Appendix 4. You have to summarise the key findings for your case study and for UCL lecture theatres in general, as well as any recommended actions. Give sufficient emphasis to the discussion of implications. You also need to relate your findings and implications back to the literature. Why should we think differently based on your study? How do we need to act differently based on your study? A well-structured report that presents all the information and analysis concisely and in   a consistent way, so that the evidence, environmental issues and remedies are all clearly identified, will receive higher marks.

This course attempts to reflect real world research conditions, so there is a strong emphasis on self-learning and discovery of useful resources, but there will also be technical support and advice on academic writing and statistics both on the module Moodle site and through tutorials.

In total, the main text must not exceed 3000 words and must not exceed 18 pages, excluding references, appendices and the executive summary/abstract. Words in tables and figures do not count towards the word limit. It is not easy keeping to these restrictions, as you must include relevant data (including a summary of the questionnaire, monitoring data) and link all aspects of the work together in the conclusions. Figures also   need to be readable and appropriately labelled. Try to only include information that is relevant. A sample of    the collected data may be included as an appendix, but this is not essential. Other supporting information can also go in the appendix, such as a copy of the questionnaire.

Documents to be handed in

Please submit the following documents on the Methods of Environmental Analysis Moodle site:

Survey data

•    Please submit the cleaned data that you / your team collected to the submission area on Moodle.

Draft aims and objectives submission (NOT mandatory)

•    If you find it helpful, please submit your draft aims and objectives that include a bit on the motivation   of your work as you would write in the introductory chapter with clearly motivated aims and objectives of your study to the submission area on Moodle.

•    This submission will not be assessed formally, but thinking through formulating your aim and objectives clearly is a truly valuable learning experience.

•    We want to see correctly-named, plagiarism-free submissions that motivate and narrow down a good research question.

Article/Report

•    Please submit the final article/report with appropriate appendices to the submission area on Moodle.

•    You will have to submit:

•    a soft copy (electronic version) of your report in PDF format; and

•    the accompanying Excel workbook with all the data and charts you generated (this will not be

marked but it may be used as part of the general supporting information when judging a report on the boundary between grades).

All submissions will have to be submitted at the date and time that is indicated on the Methods of Environmental Analysis Moodle site. Make sure you name your files accordingly, otherwise this will be reflected in the mark you receive for presentation and we may not even be able to associate a submission with you.

Marking criteria

As a guide to the way this coursework will be marked, note that you are likely to receive a B if you include all the sections as mentioned above and describe your work well. If you make no mistakes and have developed coherent and well-defined strategies against your chosen standard, along with a thoughtful analysis of the appropriate strategies that is insightful and demonstrates a link into best practice, then you are likely to get an A. If you miss out some of the above sections, if you make many mistakes or if you go beyond the word or page limit, you will have marks deducted. Please see below for details of late and word limit penalties. A well- structured report that links the sections well will be marked higher than a less well structured one. In the assessment, marks will be awarded for the following, in the proportion shown.

Please note that there are penalties for submitting the coursework late and for exceeding the word or page limit, as set out below (See UCL Academic Manual, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/acd_regs).

In the case of coursework that is submitted late and is also over length, only the lateness penalty will apply.

Please submit your report as instructed by the Course Director.

Please ensure you keep a full back-up copy of all the work you submit.

The seat measurements should follow the diagram below:

A   seat width from centre of arm rest to centre of arm rest

B   seat depth of topside of seat cushion from front to back

C   seat height from topside of cushion to floor

D   thickness of cushion

E   leg space (horizontal distance from back of your seat to back of seat in front of you)

F   writing space (depth of available desk)

G   arm space (horizontal distance from front of seat to front of desk space)

H   height of desk space (possibly vertical height from floor to top of writing surface)

Appendix 3

Questionnaire (overleaf)

Tips for preparing your coursework

•    To help with writing the report, you should read the report on academic writing found under section ‘Coursework’ on Moodle ‘Julienne Hanson – Notes on how to write an academic paper’. It will also  help you in your dissertation.

•    The methods section should be a description sufficient for the reader to repeat the work.

•    As there is a large amount of potential analysis, you need to ensure that every element (every

paragraph, every graphic) of the report is contributing to the overall product. Do not just include all your results and analysis just because you have them.

•    As far as possible, treat the report as a scientific or professional paper, so include references to any relevant sources.

•    Before handing in, go through the report and identify the purpose of each paragraph and graph– in other words, be a tough editor on yourself.

•    Assume that the reader is educated but not necessary specialist in this field. It also will help if you

have someone else (such as another student or a friend, who is unfamiliar with the project) read the report.

Tips for checking your coursework

Abstract

Required structure

•    Motivation

•    Summary of current state of research

•    Research gap

•    Purpose / aim of study, objectives

•    Methods

•    Results

•    Implications

Guiding questions

•    Is the abstract concise and well written?

•    Does it give a good overview of the research?

Introduction

Required structure

-      Motivation

-      Summary of current state of research

-      Research gap

-      Purpose / aim of own study, objectives

-      Methods

Guiding questions

•    Is the research well motivated? I.e., has it been explained why it is particularly important or current? Does it become clear why this research should be done?

•    Does the introduction include a very brief statement about the state of the art of research in this area?

•    Does the introduction clearly state the research gap, aims and objectives or research question?

•    Does the introduction very briefly state how the author is going to answer the research question (i.e. with what methods)?

Literature review

•    Has the research been put into context?

•    Does the literature review focus on the research that is really relevant to the research question?

•    Does the literature review have a logical structure, i.e. historical, or point of view - counterargument, etc.?

•    Does the author give a critical overview of the relevant research? Does she/he state what are the

strengths and weaknesses of the state of the art of the literature, what methods others used and how reliable their findings are?

•    Does the literature review include a suitable causal diagram that is well described in the text, e.g. describing each variable and link?

Methods

Below you find a number of aspects that would ideally be included. The students may group them slightly differently and if this is done sensibly, it is fine.

•    Has the background and method of data collection been well described?

o Overall idea of the study

o All lecture theatre study

. No of lecture theatres

. Study timing

. Generic aspects of the physical, monitoring and user survey

o Individual lecture theatre study

. Physical survey

•    Theatre dimensions

•    Theatre capacity

. Monitoring survey

•    Time, duration and location of the study

•    External weather conditions during the survey

•    Hobo placement, variables monitored

•    Characteristics of the surrounding urban environment and the building

•    Building system characteristics

•    If possible, plan of the lecture theatre with hobo placement, windows, building systems

•    Range and accuracy of the monitoring equipment

•    Further elements relating to sampling, students and their behaviour, etc.

. User survey

•    A detailed justification brief description of the questionnaire content etc.

•    Response rate

•    Sample sizes and statistical representativeness

•    Data cleaning

•    Has the type of data used been well described?

o Relevant questions and variables

o Null and alternative hypotheses

o Which variables are used to analyse which hypotheses

o When and why are average values vs. the entire dataset used

•    Has the method of data analysis been well described?

o Where will correlations be used and why

o Where will t-tests be used and why

o Significance level chosen

•    Do the descriptions honestly report any use of AI tools

Results

•    Does the coursework contain descriptive statistics, correlations and t-tests?

•    Is there a logic between elements that focus on the single case and all cases and is this logic made clear?

•    Is the descriptive and informational content accurate, relevant and complete?

o E.g., do scatterplots contain fit lines with their equation where necessary or not contain them where not adequate? Do they contain coefficients of determinations and the p-value of correlations?

•    Do the analyses relate well to the research question(s)?

•    Has it been described whether or not the hypotheses have been disconfirmed?