Overview
The unit is designed as a foundation for students entering tertiary health sciences courses. Students will learn to identify, retrieve and critically evaluate information pertaining to the health sciences. This unit will provide students with the necessary skills to assist further study in their chosen course with a focus on proficiency of written and oral communications, understanding research methodology and ethical practice, introducing basic statistics in informing clinical practise and presenting students with critical information gathering and recording strategies. Students will also be introduced to evidence based practise and understand its importance in their specific profession or discipline.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
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 3 - 2017
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 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 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 Email
Many distance students liked the added use of ZOOM to provide live access to lectures.
The addition of using ZOOM to access lectures live for distance students will remain.
Feedback from Email, phone, ZOOM
Students liked the opportunity to have a permanent day long drop in session via ZOOM to assist with any aspect of the unit. ...especially software related issues with Endnote.
The permanent ZOOM drop in session will remain for future deliveries of this unit.
- Identify, retrieve and critically evaluate information pertaining to the health sciences
- Demonstrate awareness of the different methods of written and oral communication in health science research
- Describe research methodology and the role of research in informing clinical practice and decision making
- Describe the main uses of statistics in health science analysis and research
- Understand evidence-based practice and identify its use in specific professions and disciplines
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
1 - Online Test - 40% | |||||
2 - Written Assessment - 60% |
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
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 - Online Test - 40% | ||||||||||
2 - Written Assessment - 60% |
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- EndNote (bibliographical software). You MUST use EndNote bibliographic software to format your references for the main assessment item. This software is available to both on-campus and flex students and is available for Windows and Mac users. Consult ITD for instructions on how to download this software. You are encouraged to trial this software early as I will be providing tips on its use and links to instructions each week. 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 styles below:
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
c.kean@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Introduction to study and research skills.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Critical thinking: Evaluation of evidence and reflective practice.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Information searching skills: Databases such as Cochrane Library, Medline, CINAHL and SPORTDiscus.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Plagiarism, referencing and EndNote.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
EndNote and Microsoft Word.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Introduction to scientific writing.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Writing: Important rules and tips.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Oral presentation skills.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Understanding research.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Research design and ethical concerns.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
An introduction to using and understanding statistics: Descriptive statistics, probability and commonly used statistical terms and tests.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
An introduction to using and understanding statistics: Measuring differences and relationships.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
This unit has NO exam
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Online Test
The online quiz will consist of 30 randomly generated questions to be completed in 60 MINUTES. Questions will be presented as multiple choice, written (take care with spelling), true/false, and matching questions. The content for questions will be taken from key knowledge, concepts, and associated readings discussed over term from Week 1 through to Week 12 (inclusive).
It is your responsibility to log onto Moodle and complete the 60 minute quiz within the 48 hour time period allocated. Once logged on, you must complete the quiz as it cannot be saved and you cannot return to it later. The quiz will be made available over a 48 hour period from Wednesday 5.00 pm to Friday 5.00 pm AEST in Week 12.
You will receive your mark immediately on completion of the quiz. However, correct answers will not be released until certification of grades.
NOTE: Further details for the final quiz will be posted on the Moodle site.
Week 12 Friday (9 Feb 2018) 5:00 pm AEST
The online quiz will open on Wednesday (Week 12) at 5.00 pm and will close on Friday (Week 12) at 5.00 pm.
Exam Week Friday (16 Feb 2018)
You will receive your mark out of 40 immediately but correct answers will only be made available after certification of grades.
The final quiz will be marked as right or wrong.
Students should take care with spelling (Australian English) and grammar, as answers are spelling and grammar sensitive.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Ethical practice
- Identify, retrieve and critically evaluate information pertaining to the health sciences
- Demonstrate awareness of the different methods of written and oral communication in health science research
- Describe research methodology and the role of research in informing clinical practice and decision making
- Describe the main uses of statistics in health science analysis and research
- Understand evidence-based practice and identify its use in specific professions and disciplines
2 Written Assessment
This assessment piece requires you to locate and use recent (published within the last five [5] years) primary source material for your 200 word summary on a topic of interest to you. Your summary should provide a very brief introductory overview of what the key issue is, focussing on two important aspects of the issue that you have chosen whilst considering their value and drawbacks. The summary should be completed with a final concluding statement. In this assessment, you should aim to make use of recent primary scientific journal articles and case reports, to make your work as up-to-date as possible and to obtain the best possible mark. A video presentation on this assessment task will be available on the Moodle site for this unit, to give you further support.
The primary focus of this assessment piece is to encourage students to:
(1) Develop an appropriate research question/topic (any topic of interest – some will be provided)
(2) Search appropriate literature from academic/scientific databases
(3) Export the literature into a bibliographic software package (EndNote)
(4) Utilise EndNote to assist with appropriate in-text referencing (APA or Harvard) and develop a reference list
(5) Critically analyse the information and provide a 200 word written and referenced summary
Please note the following details:
• Text should be word-processed using Microsoft Word, with formatting as specified in the assessment criteria, correct grammar and spelling, and in-text referencing.
• All references will be required to be downloaded into EndNote. A minimum of five (5) references are required for the file with three (3) of the references including the accompanying full text manuscripts.
• The list of references should form the last section at the end of the assessment. Referencing should be in either APA or Harvard format.
• Please save/upload your EndNote library file as a COMPRESSED Library file with the full-text manuscripts included in the library (i.e., as an .enlx file).
*** You MUST use EndNote bibliographic software to format your references for this main assessment item. This software is available to both on-campus and distance students and is available for Windows and Mac users. Consult ITD for instructions on how to download this software. You are encouraged to trial this software early (week one) as I will be providing tips on its use and links to instructions each week. It is easy to use and very helpful. See https://my.cqu.edu.au/group/it-services/endonte to access the software.
Week 7 Friday (5 Jan 2018) 5:00 pm AEST
Submitted through Moodle unit site.
Week 9 Friday (19 Jan 2018)
Grades will be sent to you through the Moodle unit site, along with a marking rubric and comments from our marking team. Unit coordinator will post global comments back to all students via Moodle the week after all assignments have been marked.
There are very detailed assessment criteria for this assessment piece. See Unit Moodle site under the Assessment Block for the actual Assessment Rubric. In summary, the following criteria are critical:
(1) Develop an appropriate research question/topic of interest.
(2) Search appropriate literature from academic/scientific databases such as Cochrane Library, Medline, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus
(3) Export the literature into a bibliographic software package (EndNote)
(4) Utilise EndNote to assist with appropriate in-text referencing (APA or Harvard) and creation of a reference list
(5) Critically analyse the information and provide a 200 word written and referenced summary
(6) Formatting: double spacing with size 12pt standard fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri).
(7) Spelling and Grammar
See the unit Moodle site under the Assessment Block for detailed assessment criteria.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Ethical practice
- Identify, retrieve and critically evaluate information pertaining to the health sciences
- Demonstrate awareness of the different methods of written and oral communication in health science research
- Describe research methodology and the role of research in informing clinical practice and decision making
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.