Postgraduate Course: MSc Clinical Anatomy dissertation (BIME11155)
Course Outline
| School | Deanery of Biomedical Sciences |
College | College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 60 |
ECTS Credits | 30 |
| Summary | The Clinical Anatomy dissertation will run throughout semester 3. Students will carry out research on a topic closely related to the taught elements of the Clinical Anatomy course (e.g. radiological, anatomical or surgical topics, or an anatomical, morphological or surgical-related, laboratory research project). The research project is specifically designed to provide students with practical experience of a wide range of current research techniques in anatomy, surgery, radiology and/or cell biology.
A wide range of topics are considered suitable for these dissertations, drawing on a large pool of potential projects and supervisors from within Anatomy, Biomedical Sciences, and the wider CMVM community. Students may have their own ideas and contacts for a research project; but approval must be obtained from the Course Organiser to ensure that these suggestions are appropriate to the learning outcomes of this course.
Dissertation projects list and allocation:
Mid-October: projects list will be provided to students. Students will be encouraged to contact the supervisors and discuss these projects.
Beginning of November: students must submit their best 3 projects choices that they wish to conduct to the course organiser. Project allocation will be carried out by the course organiser.
Supervisor discussion:
Mid-November to mid-Jan: students will be contacting/meeting with their allocated supervisors:
1. to discuss the project including aims, materials & methods and ethics.
2. identify the skills and training which are needed to conduct the project.
3. Draw the project timeline.
4. To prepare the dissertation proposal.
Proposal submission:
Mid-Jan: students must submit their dissertation proposal to the course director.
Skills and training
Semester 1:
Core skills week programme: this includes induction to research and research themes.
Core skills: data analysis and experimentation
Basic human anatomy, Imaging and Embryology 1 academic writing workshop - how to write a scientific abstract
Semester 2:
Core skills: data analysis and experimental design
Basic human anatomy, Imaging and Embryology 2 academic writing workshop - how to write a scientific manuscript which includes abstract, introduction, materials and methods, statistical analysis, results, discussion, conclusion and references.
Dissertation workshop - how to write your MSc dissertation - this would cover in details (1) the structure of each chapter of the dissertation (i.e. introduction, materials and methods, ethics, results, discussion, conclusion and references), and (2) statistical workshop which includes reliability tests, ANOVA, MANOVA, t.test, Chi square, as well as some statistical charts such as bar chart, histogram, pie chart and line graph.
Semester 1 & 2:
Training at the institute for Academic Development/ information services: this includes (1) MS word, PPT, Excel, (2) statistics: SPSS, Graphed, (3) photoshops, imageJ/Fiji, endnote (references), PUBMED (research engine).
Third semester meetings:
Three official face-to-face meetings with the supervisor will take a place during the 1st, 5th and 9th week. The aims of these meeting are:
1. Students monitoring and engagement.
2. To give feedback and feedforwards.
3. To discuss any points related to the research.
4. To practice, discuss, assess and proofread their research.
Dissertation timeline:
Week 1 - 4: reading, data collection and start writing up the introduction.
Week 4 - 8: reading and writing-up materials & methods and results.
Week 9 -12: reading and writing-up the discussion and conclusion.
Week 12: reading, practice presentation and final dissertation assessment.
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| Course description |
The research project will teach students good research practice. The project also permits students to gain analytical skills, critical appraisal and scientific writing skills. In addition, students will be able to access school level support in the form of evening lectures and a week of sessions covering different aspects of research design, data collection and data analysis.
Submission:
After carrying out their research project the students write up the results as a dissertation to be submitted on Monday of the first week of August for assessment that will contribute towards award of an MSc in Clinical Anatomy.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Block 5 (Sem 2) and beyond |
| Course Start Date |
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Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
600
(
Dissertation/Project Supervision Hours 13,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Other Study Hours 14,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 12,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
560 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
Other study hours may include learning skills sessions, research skills or library and IT inductions
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The Clinical anatomy dissertation comprises:
1. A 10,000-word written dissertation (80%): will be submitted on Monday of the first week of August.
2. An oral presentation (20%): will take a place during the first week of August.
For the oral presentation, students will present their work and they may be assessed on: presentation content, structure, oral presentation skills, use of technology, question handling and time keeping.
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| Feedback |
Feedback will be sent to students after the Board of Examiners. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Planning and execution of a significant project of research/investigation.
- Ability to critically evaluate and analyse data, drawing relevant conclusions, and formulate meaningful approaches to advance the project.
- Critically review, consolidate and extend knowledge within the subject discipline.
- Communication of subject specific research to a range of audiences with a range of levels of relevant knowledge.
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Reading List
| Literature and text books relevant to the research topic and laboratory techniques to be used during the research project. As additional support, students will be encouraged to attend courses provided by Institute of Academic Development. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Specify a topic of enquiry suitable for a dissertation and justify its theoretical significance, professional relevance and practical feasibility;
- Identify and reflect critically on relevant literature, research reports and other scholarly evidence with specific reference to the research process used;
- Collect and analyse evidence, justifying the approaches used and identify the implications of these decisions in terms of the status of the evidence and the findings based upon it;
- Demonstrate that the work complies with relevant ethical guidelines;
- Present their work, observing appropriate academic conventions in relation to style, tone, paragraphing, paraphrasing, sectioning of the text, proof-reading and referencing.
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| Special Arrangements |
This course is only available to students enrolled upon the MSc programme in Clinical Anatomy who have met the progression requirements:
80 credits at SCQF Level 11 passed at 50% or above and an average of 50% or above over the taught phase of their degree and students must pass Basic Human Anatomy, Imaging and Embryology 2 with a mark of at least 50%. |
| Keywords | Laboratory project,human anatomy,presentation skills,academic writing |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Abduelmenem Alashkham
Tel: (0131 6)50 2924
Email: Abduelmenem.Alashkham@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Dan Yan
Tel: (131 6)515470
Email: Dan.Yan@ed.ac.uk |
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