Masters Study Cycle

This handout will give you information about the Masters Study Cycle, working deadlines and module
grading. Please read it carefully as it will be useful throughout your entire Master's Programme.

Programme Information
The master's programme is an academic degree that entails studying online within taught classes and
completing a dissertation (or a Consultancy Project for the MBA). This is a University of Liverpool degree,
delivered by the staff of Laureate Online Education. Academic modules comprise the first 120 credit points in
the master's degree programme. The balance of 60 credit points is awarded for a passing dissertation. The
learning environment is collaborative and modules are taught by University of Liverpool authorised instructors.
Some modules are compulsory to the programme and some modules are elective. You may refer to this Web
site for programme-specific information.

The Study Cycle

The online study programme is very challenging, as you would expect of any masters degree. You will be
contributing to classroom discussions, doing background reading and research, answering Discussion
Questions, liaising with other students and, in some modules, undertaking projects.

The path to follow to achieve your master's degree is the following:

Student Eight Dissertation Graduation

Readiness programme (60 credits)
Orientation modules
(120 credits)

Although most modules have the same format, in some there are differences in the kinds of assignments and
interaction that students will experience. You can normally expect to meet and study with new people from
module to module.

The Academic Week

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday

On average our students report spending about 20 hours each week in their studies. The exact time
you need for your studies will depend on your own background and experience, and your knowledge of
the module subject.
The workload can vary from week to week. Check your module syllabus for detailed workload and
deadlines.
1. The academic week begins on Thursday, when your requirements are posted. You are
encouraged to submit your assignments early in the week but no later than the deadline.
2. You will have 1 or 2 Discussion Questions (DQ) every week, depending on your programme.
3. Participating in class discussion is a fundamental requirement. The objective is to go into the
DQ in more depth, and build further knowledge with your experiences, ideas and research
contributions. Participation in discussion is required 3 days out of 7 each week.
Foundations for Academic Success
Copyright - Laureate Online Education All rights reserved, 2000 2012,
The module, in all its parts: syllabus, guidelines, lectures, discussion questions, technical notes, images and any additional
material is copyrighted by Laureate Online Education B.V.
Last update: January 2012
 4. Most Wednesdays, at the end of the academic week, you will have an assignment due. This
could be called an Integration Paper, Hand-in Assignment or Final Project. Note that your
course may have group projects that are one or more weeks in duration.

Work Deadlines
Once you have started a module you must make sure you can meet the weekly work requirements and
submission deadlines. If you fail to meet a deadline, and have not made contact in advance with your instructor
to explain a problem you have with meeting a deadline and provide a legitimate reason for this, your grade for
that piece of work will be a Fail.

Class participation; the three out of seven day rule

Each study week of the module begins on Thursday and ends the following Wednesday. If something is
due on a certain day, it means by 23:59 your time of that day.

In addition to the assignments you must complete each week, your Instructor will assess and grade your
participation (also called Discussion Question Follow-on) in the class discussions which, depending on your
classroom, will usually involve responding to 35 student-postings over a period of three days.

The reply posts requirements will vary according to programme, but you can expect a minimum of 200500
words as you reply to each of the 35 original postings. You may also be required to include at least two
references from published material.

Your comments must add positively and significantly to the classroom discussion. You will need to read the
answers made by other students, and any comments made about your own answers by other students and
respond appropriately. Quality is more important than quantity; concise, relevant postings are better than
long, irrelevant ones or a greater number of short insignificant ones.

Online Library
As a user of the University of Liverpool's online Library you will have access to nearly 20,000 online academic
journals, 40,000 e-books, and an extensive range of other information sources, such as company information,
conference proceedings, dissertations and theses, market research reports, news, official publications, patents,
encyclopedias, standards, statistics. Your textbooks will not be available from the online library.

You will be e-mailed with an invitation to register to the online library before week 2 of your Intake module
commences. In the meantime, you may use Google Scholar to locate suitable reference materials.

Travel Plans
Prior to starting your programme, you must inform your Enrolment Advisor of any travel plans that are coming
up in your agenda, and confirm that you will have access to a reliable internet connection over this period.

It is extremely important to keep this in mind when you decide your start date. If you are travelling without
internet access while you are in your module, you will not be able to complete and submit your assignments in
time for your deadlines. You will then fail those weeks for which you are away which could ultimately lead to you
failing the module entirely.

If you will be travelling during a module, please inform your Student Support Manager prior to the module start.

About Module Grading

In the beginning of every class each syllabus has a section called assessment explaining the weight given to
each component you complete and submit for every week.

Foundations for Academic Success

Copyright - Laureate Online Education All rights reserved, 2000 2012,
The module, in all its parts: syllabus, guidelines, lectures, discussion questions, technical notes, images and any additional
material is copyrighted by Laureate Online Education B.V.
Last update: January 2012
Some parts of the work may weigh very high while others are relatively low. For example a project may be as
high as 50% of the entire module grade while the DQ and participation may hold 20%.
You might want to keep in mind the importance of the assignments as youre working throughout the week.

Example: Lets take a look at the grading grid below. Please note that grading grids may differ by
programme. This grid is an example and should not be considered an exact replica of grading grids you
may encounter.

For instance, Hand-in Assignments are equal to 20 % of the total End of Module grade, whilst DQs Initial
Responses count for 32%. While the quality of your work for each assignment is important, you may want to
proportion the time and effort spent for each assessment point according to its weight in the grading grid.

Weight
Week
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 %
DQ Initial Response X X X X X X X X 32
DQ Follow-on X X X X X X X X 20
Hand-in Assignments X X X X 20
Module Project Part I X X 14
Module Project Final X 14

Please refer to the Student Handbook for more detailed information about module grading.

Foundations for Academic Success

Copyright - Laureate Online Education All rights reserved, 2000 2012,
The module, in all its parts: syllabus, guidelines, lectures, discussion questions, technical notes, images and any additional
material is copyrighted by Laureate Online Education B.V.
Last update: January 2012