Critical thinking semester 2 assignment

BAA1045 2026 Semester 2: Assignment (40%)

Word count: 1,500 words

Submission date: Thursday 19th February (4pm)

Submission format: please submit a Word file via the upload link on the BAA1045 Loop

page. This upload link can be found in the final tile of the BAA1045 Loop page, entitled

Section 3: Critical thinking in Academic Research.

Student name and student number must be included on all submitted work.

This assignment is worth 40% of the overall BAA1045 module grade.

PART1: Design a qualitative interview-based research paper [60 marks]

You are required in this part of the assignment to design your own qualitative interview-based research

paper. Your area of research can be within business or society or, indeed, any area that you think is

worthy of research.

Please complete the following steps:

(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) Research question: briefly set out the general area in which your research resides. Briefly

explain why this area warrants further research. Within this research area, state your

specific research question or research issue.

Existing literature: identify three academic readings or reports that are relevant to your

specific research question. Briefly explain how they relate to your general research area

(1-2 sentences per paper is sufficient).

Note: Full reference details for these three readings must be provided. You can place

these in a short bibliography at the end of your assignment if you wish. No other

references are required for the purposes of this reflective academic assignment. You are

free to choose the referencing format for your bibliography (e.g. Harvard referencing style

etc). Online news items, online blog posts, or online explainers (e.g. Wikipedia;

Investopedia etc.) are not acceptable readings for the purposes of this assignment.

Readings must be published academic readings or reports. Reading material can be

accessed via DCU Library.

Data collection via interview: briefly state what selection criteria you would follow in

order to ensure that your interviewees are relevant for the purposes of your research.

Interview questions: Set out a minimum of four key interview questions that you would

put to these interviewees.

Note: These questions should not merely pertain to general interviewee characteristics

(e.g. what age are you?). These questions should engage with your specific research

issue.

(v) Data analysis: briefly outline how you would analyse the qualitative data collected via your

interview methodology. [hint: see, for example, BAA1045 Semester 2 Lecture 3]PART 2: Testing the wording of our interview questions

[20 marks]

In this section, we would like to check how the wording of our interview questions might be

interpreted. For the purposes of this assignment, well see if GEN AI tool Gemini interprets

our interview questions as we had intended.

Via prompt, tell Gemini what type of interview respondent they are meant to be. Then ask

each of your four questions to Gemini. Specify that each answer should be 40 words. Then

paste your prompt(s) and the 40 word answers into your assignment document. Note: these

AI-generated answers wont be counted as part of the assignment word count.

Now set out a brief reflection on Geminis interpretation of your interview questions.

[in your answer you might consider the following: do you feel that Gemini interpreted the

wording of your interview questions as you had intended? Are there aspects of your interview

questions that you now feel could be further refined in order to ensure that they are

interpreted as you has intended?]PART 3: Reflection [20 marks]

In our BAA1045 workshops, we used a three-question reflective framework (How? – Why? – What

next?). In this part of the assignment, we adopt a similar approach. Please answer the following

questions:

(i) (ii) (iii) How might you ensure that the interview process is well organised and well undertaken?

Why do you think that an interview-based methodology would be well suited to your

specific research question?

What next?: briefly suggest a follow-on piece of research that you could undertake which

would be of relevance to the general research area you have focused on in Part 1 above