The University of Sydney Foundation Program

Economics A (Macroeconomics)
Research Task Winter Semester 2021

Date of Notification: 16/8/21 (Monday Week 6)

Weighting: 30% of course assessment

PART 1: Research an Article

1. Find an online news/current affairs article (no economic papers/journals/texts) focusing on

ONE economy where there has been:
• a change in economic growth OR inflation OR unemployment that has taken place
over the last 6 months.
• The article can relate to any economy and must have a main theme/focus on ONE of
the three economic issues mentioned above. (Although it may mention all three)
• The article must be no older than 6 months and can have been published in any
country or countries.

2. Submit by Monday 6/9/21 (Week 9).

• the URL (web) address of your article (submission link in Study Smart under the
Assessment tile)
• AND a summary of the change(s) in economic growth OR inflation OR unemployment
in the economy over the last 6 months discussed in the article.
▪ 100 word maximum
▪ key points from the article
▪ in a Word doc or PDF.
• You can submit the URL for your chosen article earlier than the due date for your
teacher to check if your article is appropriate. You can have your article checked up
until the Friday 3/9/21. If you do this, you must email your teacher to let them know
that you have submitted a URL for an article to be checked.
• You can only submit one (1) article’s URL for checking at a time.
• You cannot change your article you have chosen for part 2 after the due date unless
instructed to by your teacher.

3. Check your grade on study smart which will be available by Monday 13/9/21 (Week 10).

• A grade of 5 plus means your article was satisfactory and you can proceed to part 2.
• A grade of 0 means your article is not satisfactory and you will need to submit a new
article and summary before proceeding to part 2.
• Note if your article is not satisfactory you will not receive a grade for the summary.
• If you need to submit an article for approval after Monday 6/9/21 (Week 9) you will
forfeit the 5 marks allocated for a satisfactory article.

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 • Students must email their class teacher each time they submit a new article into
study smart for checking. Failure to do so may result in a zero award.

Note for Repeat Students: You cannot resubmit a previously submitted assignment. This is considered
self-plagiarism and penalties apply https://www.turnitin.com/blog/is-recycling-your-own-work-plagiarism

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PART 2: Video Presentation
Referring to your article previously submitted in part 1, explain the following in a VIDEO
PRESENTATION using economic concepts, diagrams.
1. the reasons for the change in economic growth OR inflation OR unemployment over the last 6
months (Question 1)
2. Using an income and expenditure diagram, the effects of the changes in economic growth OR
inflation OR unemployment on the level of economic activity in the economy (Question 2)

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
• Your video should be 3 to 4 minutes long (+/-10% allowance). Note teachers will not watch
video footage beyond the time limit.
• Your video must contain:
- a video of yourself speaking and
- a shared screen where you can refer to a document displaying diagrams, brief
bullet points, relevant article quotes etc.
• It is suggested you use Screencast-O-Matic (https://screencast-o-matic.com) to create
your video but you can use any tool as long as the file type is MP4, MOV or M4v.
• Upload your video to OneDrive and paste the link into the Study Smart Part 2 video
submission under the Assessment tile by the Monday 11/10/21 (Week 12).

NOTE: For instructions on sharing video in OneDrive see appendix.

PENALTIES will be applied for:

• No head and shoulders video footage of yourself speaking and or sound is inaudible, will
result in a grade of zero awarded.
• Failure to submit Part 2 by due date incurs a 10% per day penalty, up to 5 days, after
which a grade of zero will be awarded.
• Any responses suspected of being not of the student’s own work may receive a zero-
award subject to an interview.

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 Marking Rubric GRADE
Part 1
Satisfactory Article No Attempt Poor Satisfactory
submitted
0 0 5

Article Summary 0 1 2

Part 2
Video quality: No slides used. Poor Basic Good
• clear visual and audio
of student 0 1 2 3
• slides well laid out,
visually pleasing.
• minimal text (brief
bullet points only)
Oral Presentation: Incomprehensible Poor Basic Good
• Very brief
introduction of article 0 1 2 3
• well-paced
• no reading of
notes/slides etc.
Question 1: response No attempt Poor Basic Good Excellent
with use of
relevant/accurate 0 1 2 3 4
explained diagrams and
references to article.
Question 2: response No attempt Poor Basic Good Excellent
with use of
relevant/accurate 0 1 2 3 4
explained diagrams and
references to article.
Ability of the student to Unable to answer. Poor Basic Good Excellent
answer (in-class) teacher
questions on their video 0 0 2 3 4
content*

TOTAL /25

*The following is a list of questions teachers may draw from for this part of the marking rubric. Your
teacher will ask you a question(s) based on one of the following:

1. Define the following words that you have used in your presentation.
2. Explain the meaning of the following sentence that you used.
3. What is the main theme of your article?
4. Explain the meaning of the following quote that you referred to or read out.
5. Clarify what you mean by the following statement that you made.
6. Identify the key terms that you have learnt in Economics that are relevant to this
article.

Note: your teacher may ask you further questions to clarify/understand the answer you provide.

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A guide to the rubric classification of assignment questions
Poor: Tends to summarize article rather than address questions i.e., no to poor application of
economic concepts, no diagrams or many factual errors.

Basic: Rudimentary theory approach, limited but some application/links to article. Diagrams provided
but many be poorly labeled with limited explanation.

Good: Economic concepts applied and linked to article. Possible points missed and minor errors.
Diagrams and their explanation are clear.

Excellent: Many economic concepts used appropriately (see point 3 in Part 2) and linked to article.
Good use of and explanation of diagrams. Possible effects (Q2) based on/linked to evidence in article.

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Appendix
OneDrive – Sharing Video Instructions

1. Login in to your student OneDrive account - https://login.microsoftonline.com

2. Click the OneDrive icon

3. Upload your Video File

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4. Select the Video you want to share

5. Click Share

6. Click ‘Get a Link’

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7. Copy and paste this link in to in Study Smart:
• Click into Research Task VIDEO Submission PART 2 under the assessment tile
• Click on Add submission button at bottom of screen (under grading criteria)
• Paste your shared OneDrive link into Online text box and click on save changes

• Agree that this is your own work by ticking the certification box and then click
on continue

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