Overview
This unit represents the culmination of your formal studies as a building professional and seeks to equip you with the necessary research skills to allow you to continue in the challenging, yet rewarding career, of a practicing building professional. In this unit, you will produce a dissertation detailing the results of the research project you will undertake. Between the research project and the dissertation, you will demonstrate your analysis, reflection and judgment skills through solving technical problems, evaluating project processes, outcomes and related learning experiences. The unit will give you an opportunity to develop your personal and interpersonal skills and apply the principles of social innovation to a research project. Note: Prior to the commencement of term and before an enrolment can be accepted, you must confirm with the Unit Coordinator that you have completed the prerequisite research planning unit BLAR14019, that the research remains viable and an academic supervisor is available. Students who have successfully completed BLCN13021 or BLSV14015 should not enrol in this unit.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisite: BLAR14019 Built Environment Research Plan, and Condition: Successfully completed 144 units of credits in the Building Surveying (Honours) or Construction Management (Honours) course.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2023
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 12-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation survey.
It was suggested by a student that the rubrics in the marking sheet of the assessment items may need to be updated.
The teaching team will review and update the assessment marking rubrics to ensure that these are aligned with the unit weekly Modules and lecture discussions.
Feedback from Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation survey.
Some students pointed to the need to include additional tutorials throughout the term to assist them in managing the research journey.
The teaching team will ensure that weekly consultation sessions are offered to students to discuss their research in progress.
- Apply appropriate strategies and social innovation principles to resolve technical problems and evaluate project processes, outcomes and related learning experiences
- Develop and evaluate accepted standards of research and scholarship using sound analysis, reflection and judgement to write a concise dissertation
- Demonstrate professional practice skills
- Employ effective scholarly and professional communication skills.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 40% | ||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 60% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 40% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 60% | ||||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Microphone and camera for use with Zoom
- MS Office (mainly Word and Powerpoint)
- MS Teams
- EndNote (bibliographical software). EndNote bibliographic software to format your references is NOT mandatory. However, it will be a great tool to manage your research references and cite them in texts. Consult ITD for instructions on how to download this software. It is easy to use and very helpful. See https://my.cqu.edu.au/group/it-services/endonte to access the software
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
b.zhao@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Topic 1 – Relevant communication skills
Chapter
Please refer to the Moodle site for specific readings and additional unit information
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 2 – Effective literature review and research
Chapter
Please refer to the Moodle site for specific readings and additional unit information
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 2 – Effective literature review and research
Chapter
Please refer to the Moodle site for specific readings and additional unit information
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 2 – Effective literature review and research
Chapter
Please refer to the Moodle site for specific readings and additional unit information
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 2 – Effective literature review and research
Chapter
Please refer to the Moodle site for specific readings and additional unit information
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 2 – Effective literature review and research
Chapter
Please refer to the Moodle site for specific readings and additional unit information
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 3 – Final dissertation writing
Chapter
Please refer to the Moodle site for specific readings and additional unit information
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 3 – Final dissertation writing
Chapter
Please refer to the Moodle site for specific readings and additional unit information
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 3 – Final dissertation writing
Chapter
Please refer to the Moodle site for specific readings and additional unit information
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 3 – Final dissertation writing
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 3 – Final dissertation writing
Chapter
Please refer to the Moodle site for specific readings and additional unit information
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 3 – Final dissertation writing
Chapter
Please refer to the Moodle site for specific readings and additional unit information
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Final dissertation Due: Review/Exam Week Monday (9 Oct 2023) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Written Assessment
You are required to submit a 4000-word working draft copy of the dissertation as completed at this stage of term. This draft should include:
1. Research background, scope, proposed research problem, objectives, and research significance;
2. Ongoing literature review with comprehensiveness and depth; and
3. Research design, data collection method, and data analysis methods.
Week 6 Monday (21 Aug 2023) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 8 Monday (4 Sept 2023)
You are required to submit a working draft copy of the dissertation as completed at this stage of term. This draft should include:
1. Professional format and clear layout with sufficient references in Harvard style (5 marks)
2. Research background, scope, proposed research problem, at least 3 specific objectives, and research significance (15 marks)
3. Draft on the ongoing literature review with comprehensiveness and depth (10 marks)
4. Draft on your research design, data collection method, and data analysis methods (10 marks)
- Apply appropriate strategies and social innovation principles to resolve technical problems and evaluate project processes, outcomes and related learning experiences
- Develop and evaluate accepted standards of research and scholarship using sound analysis, reflection and judgement to write a concise dissertation
- Demonstrate professional practice skills
- Employ effective scholarly and professional communication skills.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Ethical practice
- Social Innovation
2 Written Assessment
You will submit the final dissertation, at least 10,000 words long. You should follow the dissertation format strictly, and revise the dissertation based on the feedback your draft in Assignment 1.
Review/Exam Week Monday (9 Oct 2023) 11:45 pm AEST
Exam Week Monday (16 Oct 2023)
Within two weeks of submission and before the certification of the grades.
- Formulate and operate a research plan.
- Apply detailed technical knowledge and industry based methodologies, assess safety and risk factors, and prepare a feasible plan and implementation schedule.
- Discover and use information sources and technology to collect, analyze and interpret data, notes and references.
- Practice personal and interpersonal skills.
- Use effectively different modes of communication.
- Apply appropriate strategies and social innovation principles to resolve technical problems and evaluate project processes, outcomes and related learning experiences
- Develop and evaluate accepted standards of research and scholarship using sound analysis, reflection and judgement to write a concise dissertation
- Demonstrate professional practice skills
- Employ effective scholarly and professional communication skills.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Ethical practice
- Social Innovation
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
