ATS3222 Developing Research Literacy
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · S2 2026ATS3222 Overview
- Level 3 unit
- Semester 2 2026
- Monash University
- Three written assessments
- Weekly two-hour workshops
ATS3222 Developing Research Literacy at Monash University is a third-year unit about how academic research is designed, judged and explained.
- Assessed by Mapping 30%, feasibility report 30%, research proposal 40%
- Hardest step Turning listed risks into argued changes to the design
- How to prepare Keep one project file and add a justified decision each week
How ATS3222 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| A1 Research mapping exercise | 30% | Written; 1,000 words plus or minus 10%; five guide questions and a reference list; at least ten references; due Sunday 23 August 2026 |
| A2 Feasibility report | 30% | Written; 1,200 words plus or minus 10%; overview, ethics, operational, organisational and critical reflection sections; at least eight references; due Friday 25 September 2026 after a one-week extension |
| A3 Research proposal | 40% | Written pitch to a non-expert panel; 1,500 words plus or minus 10%; context, problem, design and outcomes; at least ten references; due Friday 23 October 2026 |
Weights are from the Monash Handbook 2026 entry for ATS3222 and match the unit Assessments page on Moodle. The Week 1 slides list earlier due dates for A1 and A2; the Assessments page and the extension announcement are the later record.
What ATS3222 covers
Twelve chapters follow the twelve teaching weeks: the foundations of knowledge and research design, gathering and analysing data, ethics and feasibility, and communicating research to people outside your field.
Research and the Production of Knowledge
Why research matters, knowledge as something produced, ontology and epistemology, and how a thesis structure carries an argument02Core Concepts and the Shape of a Research Design
Concept, analysis and theory, the components of a research design, methodology, ethics and bias, and the skeleton thesis plan03Knowledge, Data and Positionality
What counts as data in HASS, positivist, interpretivist and critical realist positions, unit of analysis, research purpose, inductive and deductive logic, and positionality04Mapping Your Research Interest Against the Literature
The A1 research mapping exercise: guide questions, scholarly debates, the purposes of a literature review, references and the marking rubric05Quantitative Data, Variables and Survey Design
Hypotheses, populations, independent and dependent variables, Likert and multiple-choice items, and the strengths and limits of surveys06Qualitative Data and the Research Interview
Semi-structured interviewing, the Week 5 interview guide, probing, constant comparison, and what qualitative data can and cannot show07Concepts and Conceptual Frameworks
Defining concepts, mapping relationships between them, the purpose of a conceptual framework, and how it guides analysis08Theoretical Frameworks and Qualitative Coding
How theory informs questions and methods, coding a transcript, clustering codes into themes, and inductive and deductive coding09Research Ethics in Practice
Informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, avoiding harm and integrity, applied to three ethics-committee scenarios10Operational and Organisational Feasibility
The A2 feasibility report: its five sections, time, cost, access and skills, the student researcher's position, and critical reflection11Communicating Research to Non-Expert Audiences
Research accessibility, plain language, metaphor and analogy, the Three Minute Thesis format, and why communication is part of research12Writing the Research Proposal Pitch
The A3 research proposal: context and significance, research problem, research design, expected outcomes and benefits, and final draftingIt starts from two philosophical ideas, epistemology, the theory of how knowledge is reached, and ontology, the question of what exists to be known, and follows them into the design of studies, choice of methods, ethical practice and the sharing of results.
The unit is taught over twelve weeks in four modules: fundamentals of research literacy, context-specific research design, research design and feasibility, and communicating research.
Each week combines pre-class reading and short videos with a workshop of about two hours, in which you build your own research project step by step.
The workshops cover thesis structure and design, positions on knowledge in the humanities and social sciences, survey design and hypotheses, interviewing and constant comparison, conceptual and theoretical frameworks, coding a transcript, ethics-committee scenarios, operational and organisational constraints, and pitching research to a non-expert audience.
This guide follows that sequence in twelve chapters.
Each chapter explains the week's ideas, works a model answer in the shape of an assessment question, and closes with practice tasks. The three written assessments form one project, so the guide keeps returning to the same move: make a choice, justify it, and show what it changes.
Worked example · free
Turn a broad interest into a researchable, feasible question
- +1Narrow the population and moment: international undergraduates in their first semester, when networks are thinnest.
- +1Write a question about experience, which suits interviews: how do first-semester international undergraduates describe building, or failing to build, social connections?
- +1Name the position and logic: interpretivist and inductive, because the aim is to understand meanings in students' own words before measuring anything.
- +1Choose a feasible method: about ten to twelve semi-structured interviews, recruited through a general notice rather than through teaching staff to avoid pressure.
- +1State the main limit: a small sample explains how connection is built but cannot show how common loneliness is across all international students.
Key terms
- Ontology
- The branch of philosophy concerned with what exists, which shapes what a researcher assumes is there to be studied.
- Epistemology
- The branch of philosophy concerned with how knowledge is reached and justified, which decides what evidence can support a claim.
- Research design
- The plan linking a research problem to its concepts, participants, framework, method and analysis.
- Unit of analysis
- The main entity a study examines, such as a person, a household, an organisation, an object or a theory.
- Positionality
- A researcher's standpoint in relation to the topic and participants, and how it shapes access and interpretation.
- Conceptual framework
- A set of defined concepts and the relationships expected among them, usually shown as a diagram.
- Thematic coding
- Labelling the meaning of passages in qualitative data and clustering the labels into broader themes.
- Informed consent
- Voluntary agreement to take part in research, given with enough information to understand what participation involves.
- Research feasibility
- Whether a project can realistically be carried out given ethical, practical and organisational constraints.
ATS3222 FAQ
How is this unit assessed?
Three written tasks make up the grade: a research mapping exercise worth 30%, a feasibility report worth 30% and a research proposal worth 40%. Each builds on the one before, so the proposal is the same project you mapped and then tested for feasibility.
Is the research mapping exercise a literature review?
No. The instructions describe a short reflective piece that answers set guide questions about your interest and the scholarly debates around it. You engage with literature and name questions to explore, but you are not required to identify a research gap.
What sections does the feasibility report need?
Five headed sections with suggested lengths: overview, ethics, operational considerations, organisational considerations and critical reflection, followed by a reference list of at least eight sources on a separate page. Section titles should match the instructions.
Who is the audience for the research proposal?
You write as a researcher early in their career, pitching to colleagues who are not specialists in your field. Clarity, accessibility and persuasiveness matter as much as the design, and the rubric weights context, problem, design and outcomes equally.
How strict are the word counts and references?
Each task allows ten per cent either side of its target, references excluded. The mapping exercise and the proposal expect at least ten references and the feasibility report at least eight, all cited with a consistent author-year system.
Can I use generative AI tools?
The Assessments page says educators will explain how AI and generative AI may be used for each task, and that the guideline sits in the individual Moodle task. Read that guidance before drafting rather than assuming one rule covers all three.
Do I have to attend the weekly workshops?
The unit says workshop attendance is not compulsory but highly recommended, because many activities build the project your assessments are based on. At least one lecture or seminar is recorded for revision, but recordings are not a substitute for attending.
How to prepare for the assessments
Treat the semester as one research project told in three drafts. After each workshop, add one paragraph to a running project file: the decision you made that week and the reason for it. By Week 4 that file holds the material for the mapping exercise; by Week 9 it shows the constraints the feasibility report must weigh; and by Week 11 it contains the design you will pitch.
When you revise, read each chapter's model answer, then rewrite the same move for your own topic before checking it against the rubric criteria. Leave time in the final fortnight for a read-aloud pass, because a fifth of the proposal's marks depend on how clearly it communicates to readers outside your field.
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