Overview
At a global level, there are rising demands for health care, limited resources and increasing inequalities in health. Community health needs assessments have a vital part to play, enabling practitioners, managers and policy-makers to identify those in greatest need and to ensure that health care resources are used to maximise health improvement. For health promotion practitioners, the ability to conduct a community health assessment is a core skill. This unit will introduce students to the different types of community needs assessments which can be undertaken with local communities. Students examine the history and role of community needs assessments and review a range of methods that can be used to implement and evaluate needs assessments in their local community. Students will have the opportunity to complete a community profile and also undertake a community needs assessment in a community of their choice.
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 1 - 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 Course evaluation
I think there could have been a few more collaborate sessions at the beginning so the class could interact prior to the group assessment.
Incorporate more interactive tutorials early in course that are aimed at skills building for data collection but has the additional benefit of allowing the groups to interact.
Feedback from Course evaluation
Could have more of a structure for the group assessment - it was very challenging to complete via distance, with totally unexperienced group members.
Identify and incorporate specific resources on dispersed group work. This scenario is quite likely in student's future work places so these skills will be of benefit.
- Argue the importance of community needs assessment as part of the planning, conduct and evaluation of a health promotion project.
- Analyse the behavioural, social, political and environmental determinants on the health of individuals and populations and their influence on the community needs assessment
- Justify different sources of information to be used for the community needs assessment
- Apply appropriate methods and models to assess the needs of a community, including database management and generation of visual representations of data
- Discuss concepts used to analyse and prioritise the information gathered from the community needs assessment
- Explain how ethical considerations are incorporated into community needs assessment
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 30% | ||||||
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) - 20% | ||||||
| 3 - Group Work - 50% | ||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 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 - 30% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) - 20% | ||||||||||
| 3 - Group Work - 50% | ||||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Zoom (for online tutorials)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing styles below:
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
e.langham@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Introducing and contextualising community assets and needs assessment
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
The determinants of health and the significance of diversity and disparity in community assets and needs assessments
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Engaging effectively with communities
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Quiz 1 open this week
Module/Topic
Planning models and methods to assess health assets and needs
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Community health assessment: the process
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Collecting, analysing and interpreting quantitative data
Identifying, characterising and defining the health problem
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Submit Community Profile Monday, 17 April, 2017 at 9am.
Written Assessment - Community Profile Due: Week 6 Monday (17 Apr 2017) 9:00 am AEST
Module/Topic
Collecting, analysing and interpreting qualitative data
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Quiz 2 open this week
Module/Topic
Analysing and interpreting mixed methods data
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Identifying, characterising and defining the community's assets and needs
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Quiz 3 open this week
Module/Topic
Prioritising needs, and ethical considerations
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Evaluating the community health assessment process
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Quiz 4 open this week
Module/Topic
Putting it all together: the report and the relationship between health policy, health assets, health needs, community resources and program planning
Chapter
Prescribed learning activities - combination of journal articles, chapter readings and online activities.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Submit Community Assets and Needs Report Monday, 5 June, 2017 at 9am.
Group Work - 5000 Word Group Report Due: Review/Exam Week Monday (5 June 2017) 5:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Written Assessment
This assessment requires you to produce a report which provides a detailed community profile which considers both the definition and the elements of community, outlined by Issel (2009). The profile you develop should therefore, incorporate information about people, place and interaction and include a commentary about assets available within the community. To obtain this information you will be expected to collect and analyse data from multiple sources (for example; census data, local media, published reports etc). As the content of this assessment may form the basis of assessment item 3 it is crucial that your research and description of the community is both thorough and accurate.
As part of the report you will need to acknowledge the strengths and limitations of the information you present, discuss how and from where further data may be obtained and in what ways this additional information may contribute to a comprehensive health assessment of the community you have described. Further information about the assessment can be found on the Moodle site.
Week 6 Monday (17 Apr 2017) 9:00 am AEST
Monday (1 May 2017)
Grades and feedback for this assessment item will be available through Moodle
This report will be marked using criterion-referenced assessment. Criterion includes
the following:
- Report writing skills.
- Demonstrated knowledge and considerable understanding of people, place,
- interaction and infrastructure within a community.
- Ability to locate and evaluate basic data.
- Ability to identify and discuss limitations of information presented within the
- community profile.
- Ability to reference using Harvard.
Further information can be found on the Moodle site.
- Argue the importance of community needs assessment as part of the planning, conduct and evaluation of a health promotion project.
- Communication
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
2 Online Quiz(zes)
Online Quiz - Set of Four (Multiple Choice)
There are 4 short quizzes of 5 multiple choice items each designed to check your understanding of some of the core concepts related to community asset and needs assessments.
Using the online Moodle site for the course you are to complete a series of knowledge tests by the end of Week 11. These tests will culminate in an overall grade for assessment 2.
You will only get one (1) opportunity for each of the tests. The questions are directly related to course content. Therefore, you must have in depth knowledge of:
- Community needs assessments/ Community health assessments
- Determinants of health
- Community development
- Planning models for health programs
- Sources of data and methods of analysis
- Ethics in health promotion
NOTE: You MUST answer ALL questions when you undertake the tests and complete these in the allocated time (30 minutes), as they will not be available to you again.
4
Other
Friday Week 3, Friday Week 7, Friday Week 9 and Friday Week 11
Quizzes will be undertaken and marked online. Each quiz will be worth 5% and results for each week will be allocated upon completion of the quiz.
Quizzes will be undertaken and marked online. Each quiz will be worth 5% and
results for each week will be allocated upon completion of the quiz.
- Argue the importance of community needs assessment as part of the planning, conduct and evaluation of a health promotion project.
- Analyse the behavioural, social, political and environmental determinants on the health of individuals and populations and their influence on the community needs assessment
- Justify different sources of information to be used for the community needs assessment
- Apply appropriate methods and models to assess the needs of a community, including database management and generation of visual representations of data
- Discuss concepts used to analyse and prioritise the information gathered from the community needs assessment
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
3 Group Work
Assessment item 3 is a Group Task that requires you to produce a comprehensive community health assessment report. This report should be
structured in such a way that it could eventually be used to inform and plan an appropriate, effective and culturally sensitive health promotion intervention to
address a health need which you identify as a priority within the community. As such the report you submit must be comprehensive and constitute a significant body
of work.
Students will work in small groups for this assessment and groups need to be formed by the beginning of Week 6. Each working group will consist of 4 or 5
members.
The ability to work in project teams is an important attribute for any health professional particularly those involved in the development, implementation and
evaluation of health promotion programs. Group work promotes the development of many of CQUniversity’s Graduate Attributes including teamwork, critical evaluation,
feedback and communication skills as well as academic honesty. A process of self and peer assessment will be used within this assessment and final marks will be
calculated by appropriate adjustments to the group marks. (Specific details of the peer assessment process will be available on the Moodle site from Week 6).
Review/Exam Week Monday (5 June 2017) 5:00 pm AEST
In accordance with university policy the report will be marked within 2 weeks of submission, marks will not be available until after certification of grades..
The group report will be marked using criterion-referenced assessment. Criterion used include:
- Report writing skills
- Knowledge and understanding of types of data that can be utilised for a
- community health assessment.
- Data analysis and presentation skills.
- Consideration of ethical and cultural requirements.
- Clear recommendations which are consistent with the health assessment.
- Referencing skills
Peer assessment is worth 15% and students will complete a peer assessment form which will be used to rank group member contributions based on:
- Responsibility
- Teamwork
- Contribution
- Attitude
Further information can be found on the Moodle site.
- Argue the importance of community needs assessment as part of the planning, conduct and evaluation of a health promotion project.
- Analyse the behavioural, social, political and environmental determinants on the health of individuals and populations and their influence on the community needs assessment
- Justify different sources of information to be used for the community needs assessment
- Apply appropriate methods and models to assess the needs of a community, including database management and generation of visual representations of data
- Discuss concepts used to analyse and prioritise the information gathered from the community needs assessment
- Explain how ethical considerations are incorporated into community needs assessment
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Ethical practice
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?
