OBESITY MANAGEMENT

Level 4 Masters module offered by the

School of Biosciences.

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 MODULE DESCRIPTION DOCUMENT
D24BD3 Obesity Management 2018

Masters Level: – 20 credits

Pre-requisites: none.

Aims:
to enable participants to enhance their knowledge and skills in the area of obesity
management and to explore the underpinning evidence base.

Assessment:
Coursework 1: Case study or literature search 4500 words (80%)
Coursework 2: 2000 word report (20%)

LEARNING OUTCOMES.

By the end of the module you should be able to demonstrate the following learning:

1. Summarise the current policy drivers, clinical and public health guidelines and care
pathways developed to enhance obesity prevention and management across the different
life stages.
2. Describe the metabolic and psychological causes/consequences of being obese.
3. Appraise the use of different dietary, physical activity and behaviour change strategies
used in weight management.
4. Appraise the evidence for group intervention versus one-to-one interventions in weight
management.
5. Describe how pharmacotherapy and/or bariatric surgery may have a role in obesity
management and the additional support required.
6. Evaluate cost effective care pathways/strategies/services and action plans suitable for
obese people in a range of clinical and community settings and across the different life
stages.

TEACHING and LEARNING STRATEGY

The module will run over a period of 4 months, and will be delivered over four contact days
as timetabled above. Taught sessions will include lectures, group work and interactive
sessions. Learners will be encouraged to focus on specific issues and problems outlined in the
coursework documents, reassess knowledge through guided reading of the published research
and plan further refinements to their clinical approach to integrate this knowledge into
practice. This approach incorporates reflection and action and encourages students to
problem-solve and achieve change. Students are expected to carry out their own reading,
research and reflection outside of the taught material time, with an emphasis on self-directed
learning. (170 self directed learning hours)

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Indicative Assessment:

No. Assessment Weight (%) Type/Duration/Word count Deadline

1 Short report 20 2000 words November 23th
2018
2 Case study or literature 80 4500 words December 30th
review 2018

Assessment Rationale:
Appropriate assessment will ensure that learning outcomes for the module can be met. These
fall into four categories:
 Knowledge & understanding
 Intellectual skills
 Practical & professional skills
 Transferable or key skills
The following table demonstrates which learning outcomes are being assessed by each
assignment.

Categories of Learning Outcomes Assessed by:

Knowledge & understanding
Intellectual skills
Practical & professional skills
Transferable/key skills
Case study/literature review & short
report
Case study/literature review and
short report
Case study/literature review and
short report
Case study/literature review and
short report

Assessment Criteria:

Case study or literature review or planning of a local weight management service: 80%
of the total module mark. Students will write a 4500 word case study or literature review (or
service development proposal). Case studies/literature reviews may be suggested by the
student after discussion with the tutor
The work should be presented in Times New Roman (font 12) 1.5 line spacing. The 4500
word limit should be declared on the cover sheet.

Criteria (for case study):

 The case study subject must be relevant.
 The individuals(s) must be supported/treated or have been supported/treated by the
student in question.
 The case history must be worthy of discussion i.e. requiring sufficient skills to be
demonstrated by the student so that the learning outcomes for this module may be met.
 Full confidentiality must be given to all those used in the case study.
 In the case of current patients, permission to be used must be sought and given and a copy
of this signed statement (which also assures the patient of confidentiality) must be given
in evidence.

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Criteria Description % Marks
Background / Aims Concise description of the individual (note 10%
of treatment/ confidentiality), including the reasons for their
Rationale for using referral to you. Why you feel they make a good
as a subject (~1000 subject for a case study and the proposed aims of
words) treatment.
History (~500 Summary of the patient history including all aspects 10%
words) that you consider to be relevant.
Proposed treatment Outline the proposed treatment for the individual, 30%
modality (~1000 including an evidence-based justification.
words)
Analysis / Reflection Reflective discussion using concrete examples of 30%
on changes meetings or discussions with the patient, on how
(~1000 words) things have gone, progress made, any unexpected
changes whether positive or negative, and how you
propose to go from there.
Future needs Summary of the changes which have taken place 10%
(~800 words) over the course of the treatment time, as well as an
evidence-based summary of what is needed in the
future.
Referencing / Show evidence of critical appraisal, correctly 10%
Presentation etc referenced statements, current/topical references and
HARVARD style of referencing. Correctly
structured, scientific, focused piece of work.

Short Report (2000 words);

This piece of coursework will contribute 20% of the overall module marks. The report will
present a critical examination of the evidence supporting group interventions versus one to
one interventions in weight management OR the use of technology to support weight
management interventions. The report can include tables and information can be presented in
bullet/essay style and show evidence of critical appraisal, correctly referenced statements,
current/topical references and HARVARD style of referencing. This piece of coursework will
be submitted before the group discussion on day 3.

Coursework deadlines;
Coursework assignments should be handed in on time unless a case for extenuating
circumstances has been submitted.

Bibliography & Learning Support Material

All students are advised to consult with information and online learning materials located on
the University online learning environment, Moodle. The course team will update this
information as necessary throughout the course.

All students are advised to make good use of peer reviewed scientific research articles
throughout this module.

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Referencing WWW and Internet sites

Using World Wide Web pages and internet sites (newsgroups, discussion groups etc.) as
sources of information for research requires special care. It is important to recognise that such
sites are not refereed and that the information they contain is very unlikely to have been
subjected to any kind of expert scrutiny or peer review. Even the information published by
“moderated” sites has usually only been checked for acceptability and relevance, not veracity.
This makes such sources intrinsically unreliable compared with other published material.
Secondly, be aware that WWW sites are inherently unstable. The owner of the site can, and
probably will, update or modify its content on a regular basis (the immediacy and transience
of the medium are two of its great attractions). A site’s location can change at any time and
may even be shut down altogether. Unlike conventional library or archive material, it may not
be there next time you or your reader needs it.

If you wish to cite a WWW page or internet site, give the following information in your
reference:
the full address, usually starting with http:// and giving the complete names of all sub-pages
(NB, some web browsers routinely truncate page addresses on the screen, especially if they
have more than a very small number of “slash” (/) dividers)
any source date attached to the article
the full date (day/month/year) on which you last accessed the location
the title of the page or article
the name and professional affiliation of any individual associated with the article
the name of the organisation hosting the site (if this is not obvious from the site address).

Example:
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (1998) IV/6. Agricultural biological
diversity. Texts Of The Decisions Adopted By The Fourth Meeting Of The Conference Of
The Parties (25/6/98). HREF="http://www.biodiv.org/cop4/FinalRep-/6.html" (Accessed
19/8/98)

As with all other referencing operations, your aims are

to give full recognition to your source of information and avoid the risk of plagiarism
to absolve yourself from any direct responsibility for the material, and
to provide sufficient detail for someone else to locate the information.

Periodical references

Students are encouraged to make full use of articles published in peer-reviewed journals
throughout their course. These enable students to gain access to up-to-date and relevant
material, develop critical appraisal skills, and refine their ability to communicate their
findings using scientific language.

Referencing & Plagiarism

You are expected to reference using the HARVARD system throughout your MSc. This
encompasses two parts. First, within your work you should acknowledge that you have used
somebody else's work; and second at the end of your work, you must include a list of
references directing the reader/marker to where you found that work. This differs from a
bibliography which lists sources of information you have read, but have not used directly.

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Plagiarism: Should you fail to reference correctly within your written work, you may be
accused of plagiarism. This is a serious form of cheating defined as submission of material
(written, visual or oral) originally produced by another person or persons, without
acknowledgement, such that the work might be assumed to be your own. Plagiarism covers
both direct copying and paraphrasing with only minor adjustments. It is not permissible to
copy text or a picture into your report and include the source in your list of references. Any
direct quotation must be put in quotation marks and the source noted on that page. Pictures
or tables may not be copied directly, but they may be redrawn if properly referenced.
Similarly, any paraphrased text must be referenced.

Good practice:
You can include things in your report if they are entirely your own work, or if they are:
 Diagrams when drawn as originals by you, or redrawn from someone else's original
(reference original source in the diagram title);
 Formulae originated by others must be referenced unless generally known (e.g., body
mass index) - although you should always state the name of the source (e.g. “Body
size as estimated using Body Mass Index (kg/m2)…”);
 Tables from others' work (reference original source in the table title);
Quotes from someone else's work should be used only where absolutely essential (i.e.,
when you are unable to paraphrase the section of interest). Keep quotes short,
surrounded by quotation marks (") and formatted with larger margins (i.e., indent
section);
 Ideas can be explained in your own words, referring to the person whose idea this was
originally by including a reference to where you read or heard this.

Things to avoid:
It is crucial that you do not include in any coursework documents things which you did not
produce yourself (by writing, drawing, photography or otherwise), unless these are correctly
referenced. You should strive to avoid use of:
 Large amounts of text from a book or paper;
 Pictures photocopied or scanned from a book or paper;
 Text or pictures from the web;
 Copies of data sheets;
 Copies of parts of lecturers’ notes or others' project reports.

You can include small amounts of text from such sources if this is essential and there is no
way for you to re-write it. Where this is the case, put the copied text in quotation marks (“),
indent the section, and include a reference to the original including a page number for the
original source.
If you get written permission from the copyright holder, you can include a diagram, picture or
data from somewhere else. This must then have a reference, and a postscript stating "used by
kind permission of..." added to the title. A copy of the permission letter must be included at
the back of the report. You should only do this if you cannot represent the same information
using your own words or images.

HARVARD Referencing:
The Harvard referencing style requires use of author names – and not numbers – within text.
Some example scenarios for referencing guidelines are given below.

Scenarios:

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1. Author’s name cited as part of the sentence, put the author’s name followed by the year of
publication in brackets. E.g., “Jenkins and colleagues (1992) attributed the negative
finding of this study to the exclusion of men with a history of diabetes or myocardial
infarction.”
2. Author’s name not cited directly in the essay, include both the author’s name and year at
the end of the sentence in brackets. E.g., “Making reference to published work appears to
be characteristic of writing for a professional audience (Cormack 1994).”

3. More than one author’s work can be cited in a single sentence. All references should be
listed in one of two ways:

a. E.g., Jones (1946) and Smith (1948) have both shown…

b. Several authors demonstrate… (Jones 1946; Smith 1948).

4. Where journal articles are written by two authors, both should be noted in your work.
E.g., “Smith and Jones (2002) reported that…” or “Published evidence indicates that…
(Smith and Jones, 2002).”

5. If more than two authors have published a paper, within the text, this should be cited as
the first author followed either by “and colleagues” or “et al.,” E.g., “Robertson and
colleagues (2002) found that the majority…” or “Recent research has indicated that the
majority of… (Robertson et al., 2002)”. In the reference list at the end of the document
however, all author names should be listed.

6. If no author name is listed, you should use the title of the work and the date of the
publication. The title should be written in italics.

7. If no date is published, use the abbreviation (n.d.)

8. If direct quotations are used, give page numbers within reference e.g., “Cunliffe et al.,
2001; pp 211). For quotations from books, use ‘p’ while for journals use ‘pp’ as
abbreviation for page number.

9. If more than one article published by an author in your reference list is cited from the
same year, suffix the year of publication e.g., 2002a, 2002b to distinguish these.

10. Where you are referencing a chapter of a book, or a sub-section of a larger piece of work,
reference the author of the chapter within the text. In the reference list, give details of
both the chapter author and title, and the entire document/book. E.g., “Robertson, CE and
Vineis P (2006) Chapter 3: Biomarkers for nutrient-gene interactions. In: Nutrient-gene
interactions in cancer. S.-W. Choi and S. Friso. Boca Raton, London, New York, Taylor &
Frances Group: p.37-55.”

11. If the work cited is by a recognised organisation (e.g., the World Health Organisation) and
has no personal author, the author of the work is usually cited under the body that
commissioned the work. It is acceptable to use standard abbreviations for these bodies,
i.e. DoH, WHO in your essay text, but the full name must first be given within the text,
with the abbreviation in brackets. The full name is the preferred format in the reference
list.

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12. Second-hand references, i.e., where a reference you read cites another paper you cannot
source, you must cite the source you have had access to E.g., “Brown, 1992 as cited in
Elliott, 2004”. Only the Elliott document should be included in your reference list.

13. Where tables or figures are taken from another sources, the title should include a
reference to the source and must include both the author and page E.g., “Smith, 2005:
pp33” to enable the reader to verify the data.

14. Internet
references should be given with author information (if available), title, source,
date published and date accessed information. E.g., BBC Thursday, 5 July 2007
“Sandwiches 'rival crisps on salt” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6266164.stm)
Accessed 9th July 2007.

15. Where a journal article is found online, but a hard copy version is located (e.g., pdf with
journal name, page numbers etc), no web-page reference is required.

16. Allbooks should be cited using author/editor name, year of publication, title of book,
location of publisher then place of publication.

All queries regarding coursework to be addressed to Amanda Avery.

Contacting Module Convenor / Lecturer:

General queries relating to the module (including coursework and examinations) can be
discussed with the module convenor / lecturer during the timetabled teaching session. If you
have queries outside of this time, the module convenor will be available at certain times.
Convenors may not always be able to respond to such queries by email or may choose to
reply to the whole class list in response to common problems.

Support on Moodle
All course information is available on the module page within Moodle. All students enrolled
on the module should have access, but if you have problems let Amanda know.

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CLASS % QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA - GENERAL GUIDELINE

Pass with
distinction 100 a. Excellent report structure with professional presentation of figures, tables, diagram
A1 90 originality/novelty in presentation.
A2 80 b. Deep understanding of subject; all arguments carefully developed and clearly expo
A3 73 c. Considerable and effective use of literature information, beyond that supplied as ta
A4 d. Clear evidence of critical thinking, originality and novelty.
Pass with
merit 68 a. Well organised report; appropriate choice of illustrative figures, tables, diagrams et
B1 65 b. Sound grasp of subject material; generally logical arguments.
B2 62 c. Reasonable evidence of wider study beyond lecture material.
B3 d. Some evidence of independent thinking and originality.

pass
C1 58 a. Generally clear report conforming with accepted format but with some errors in sty
C2 55 illustrative figures.
C3 52 b. Reasonable understanding of subject material, but some flaws in the logic of argum
c. Only limited evidence of wider study and use of literature information.
d. Very little evidence of independent thinking or originality.
fail
D1 48 a. Little attention given to report structure; limited use of illustrative figures, tables e
D2 45 b. Limited understanding of subject; considerable factual errors demonstrated.
D3 42 c. Virtually no inclusion of literature information beyond lecture material.
d. Virtually no evidence of independent thinking or originality.
fail
E 35 a. Very poorly structured; disorganised; missing sections; minimal presentation of sup
b. Minimal understanding of subject; serious factual errors; general lack of any logic
c. Virtually no inclusion of literature information.
d. No evidence of independent thinking or originality.
Fail
F1 25 Very poor coverage of material with little information that is relevant.
Virtually no evidence of understanding the question; minimal attempt to provide a stru
Fail
F2 10 A few lines of relevant material
Fail
F3 0 No relevant material
 School of Biosciences Qualitative Marking Schemes
Supplementary Guidelines

Marking at Different Levels Within Degree Programmes

The School’s qualitative marking schemes provide general guidance for assessment of
various types of work. However, in applying these schemes to individual assessments,
account must be taken of the level at which students are working. The criteria outlined below
provide general guidance, and not all criteria will be applicable to all forms of assessment.

Academic Levels

Level 4 Masters levels, generally taken by post-graduate or year 4 undergraduate

students

Major considerations

Mark Class A (pass with distinction)

Level 4: Detailed, orderly and critical work with clearly specified focus/foci exhibiting
rigorous analysis, synthesis and evaluation. There must be evidence that the
student has developed their own arguments.

Mark Class B (pass with merit)

Level 4: Evidence of originality and significant critical analysis. There is evidence of

integration of material from a variety of sources.

Mark Class C (pass)

Level 4: There is reasonable understanding and analysis supported by a range of

relevant evidence.

Mark Class D (fail)

Level 4: Basic understanding with limited evidence of understanding and some attempt
at analysis.

Mark Classes E/F (fail)

All levels: Work does not demonstrate above criteria and reference should be made the
qualitative criteria in deciding final mark.