Overview
This unit will develop student understanding of public health nutrition, which encompasses the biological, social and environmental dimensions of health in promoting and maintaining the nutritional health of populations. Nutritional issues facing population groups in Australia and the role of public health practitioners in promoting health and preventing disease will be considered. Frameworks, policies and legislation relating to nutrition and health promotion practice will be explored along with practical aspects of public health nutrition practice.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Prerequisite: BMED19006 or NUTR12002
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 - 2020
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 Student evaluations
Limiting final reporting to 2000 words made the task difficult.
Word length for final written report will be reviewed with the likelihood of being extended to ensure students are able to comfortably respond to the task requirements.
Feedback from Student evaluations
Multiple Zoom tutorial sessions and journal club meetings were interesting and supportive of our understanding of topics.
Multiple opportunities for engaging with students and journal club meetings will be maintained in the unit.
- Examine ecological issues of food supply and food policy.
- Interpret government policy on nutrition guidelines, food standards and food regulation legislation.
- Describe food consumption trends and nutrition related problems of at-risk Australian groups and communities.
- Demonstrate understanding of public health nutrition concepts and how they relate to the health of our populations and communities.
- Undertake research which illustrates systematic analysis of a current issue in public health nutrition.
- Demonstrate skills in data collection, analysis and reporting of public health nutrition data.
- Demonstrate skills in group education for public health nutrition promotion.
Per NPC1118
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
1 - Practical and Written Assessment - 70% | |||||||
2 - Group Work - 30% |
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
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 - Practical and Written Assessment - 70% | ||||||||||
2 - Group Work - 30% |
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Microphone and camera for use with Zoom
- Access to PowerPoint or similar
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing styles below:
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
s.p.williams@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
1. What is Public Health Nutrition
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Tuesday 10th March 11.00am to 12 midday: Tutorial - Introduction and Orientation to Public Health Nutrition (Zoom online session)
Module/Topic
2. Communities, Settings and At-Risk Groups
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Tutorial: Group work and assessment tasks (Day and time to be confirmed in consultation with enrolled students)
Module/Topic
3. Needs assessment
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Tutorial: Communities, settings and at-risk groups (Day and time to be confirmed in consultation with enrolled students)
Module/Topic
4. Research Methods and Skills
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Tutorial: Assessing Healthy Diets (Day and time to be confirmed in consultation with enrolled students)
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Data entry due for completion
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Tutorial: Data analysis, tables and graphs (Day and time to be confirmed in consultation with enrolled students)
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Tutorial: Report writing
Module/Topic
5. Oral Presentations and Reporting
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Tutorial: Oral Presentations
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Tutorial: Professional Practice in Public Health Nutrition
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Online Oral Presentations will be scheduled this week
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Your Unit Coordinator and Lecturer this term is: Dr. Susan Williams, Room LG1.13/Building7, CQUniversity Bruce Highway, North Rockhampton. You may contact the Unit Coordinator via the forum Moodle site, telephone 07 49 232213 or email (s.p.williams@cqu.edu.au).
Learning design - What is different about this unit?
This unit is a core unit in the Bachelor of Medical Science (Nutrition) course.
This unit is based on the concept of experiential learning (learning through reflection and 'doing') where you are expected to play an active role in your learning. Your assessment tasks provide the framework for your learning but it is expected that you will explore learning topics beyond the basic concepts provided and develop appreciation for how your learning can be applied to different contexts. By way of professional development and shared learning, it is also expected that you will share your learning and exploration with the group.
The unit learning content has been divided into key modules and key concepts are introduced in recorded lectures. Your learning will be supported by regular tutorials and group meetings held throughout the term.
Group Work
Throughout this unit you should assume the role of a member of a community health organisation which employs public health nutritionists and who as a group, are responsible for achieving a set of activities (i.e. your assessment tasks). As with most good workplaces, staff are expected to communicate regularly (and in a professional manner) and work together to develop understanding of topics/issues, problem solve, share stories/experiences etc. Staff members are also expected to attend regular meetings and contribute to achieving the group goals. To this end, you are encouraged to use our Moodle site (and its resources) regularly and frequently and if you are ‘off sick’ or ‘out of the office’ for more than a couple of days, please let us all know.
Please appreciate that this unit involves some group work and completion of some activities are somewhat dependent on others in the group (in particular completion of data collection and submission of data to group Excel dataset). It is therefore important that we communicate with each other frequently and if you feel you are unable to make a deadline – please let the Unit Coordinator know as soon as possible.
To help in developing our group, I would like you to say hello and get to know each other early in the term. Please post a brief introduction to our General Discussion Forum on our Moodle site) to tell us who you are, where you live, what you are interested in (professionally and personally), where you are at with your program of study and some of the family/work or other commitments you have outside of study for this unit. I would like you to complete this introduction before the end of week 1.
Communication
Throughout the term, all NON-PERSONAL communications between students and the Unit Coordinator (for example, questions relating to assessment tasks, due dates, learning activities etc) must be held via the relevant forums in the unit Moodle site. Any PERSONAL communications (personal illness, life events) should be held with the Unit Coordinator via email or telephone. All emails must include your name, contact details, the unit code and a brief message that clearly outlines your question/communication.
All requests for extensions on assessment task due dates, must be made via the Assessment Extension Request (AER) system in Moodle.
Discussion of topics and issues is integral to developing appreciation and understanding of the depth and breadth of public health nutrition issues in our populations. Open discussion is important however, we expect that you will ALWAYS weigh up the 'evidence' and respect the right of every individual to have an opinion (which may be different to your own). Please respect your fellow peers and do not use harsh language. As an active participant in this unit, it is important that you communicate in a professional manner at all times.
1 Practical and Written Assessment
The food intakes of Australians are influenced by a range of individual, community and societal factors. Public health nutrition (PHN) focuses on issues affecting whole populations rather than individuals and to develop effective PHN strategies, it is important to understand the impact of population/community level factors on the behaviours and intakes of individuals. This assessment task will allow you to research Australian communities and develop an understanding of factors that impact food access and affordability and health of community members.
This task requires you to demonstrate capacity to engage in a research activity to develop understanding and appreciation of community nutrition issues in context. You will be required to work within the Public Health Nutrition 'group' that will include all students enrolled in the unit.
To complete this task you will be required to:
1. Conduct a problem analysis of an at-risk community in Australia in relation to food access and affordability (30 marks allocated for this component). This will include:
- Research of previous food access and affordability studies conducted across Australia and development of a table of your findings that will be included in your final written report (10 marks).
- Research of communities in Australia and documentation of relevant census data that describes the characteristics of a specific community (10 marks).
- Collection of food cost and availability data for your community (Formative).
- Entry of data collected from your community into a shared group datasheet (Formative).
- Conduct of basic analysis of this group data (Formative).
- Development of a written evidence-based report (approximately 2000 words (+/-10%) that discusses previous evidence, describes your community of interest and implications of your data analysis for your community of interest.
Your report should include at least two (2) tables that support discussion of your results.
The tables should be presented in APA table format. Your final report should include at least 10 references (references are not included in word count).
2. Develop and deliver a ten (10) minute online oral presentation to your peers to provide insight into food access and affordability issues affecting Australian communities (20 marks allocated for this component with peer review contributing 50% of these marks).
Week 11 Friday (29 May 2020) 5:00 pm AEST
Your written report is due for submission on Friday 29th May. Oral presentations will be scheduled to occur in week 12 (specific days and times will be established in consultation with enrolled students at the start of term)
Exam Week Friday (19 June 2020)
Detailed marking criteria will be available in the unit Assessment Guide that will be available from the unit Moodle site.
For the Written report criteria will be based on
- Quality of writing;
- Competence in addressing all aspects of the task;
- Formulation of arguments, critical analysis, interpretation and explanation;
- Relevance of discussion; Accuracy in use of supporting evidence; and
- Organisation of report.
General written assessment standards will be used as follows:
High Distinction (85-100%)
For a high distinction the written assessment should demonstrate confidence & competence in addressing all aspects of the specified tasks & areas of inquiry. The assignment:
- Includes discussion which is highly relevant & valid throughout, & provides clear evidence of mastery of the subject matter.
- Is coherent & flows clearly from point to point.
- Is drawn from extensive research. Is creative, thorough, & accurate in its use of supporting evidence.
- Exhibits an exceptional level of critical thought and extensive analysis, interpretation & explanation, as basis for formulation of arguments.
- Includes original thinking throughout, is based on clearly evaluated evidence & logical carefully framed assertions.
- Is presented & organised almost faultlessly.
Distinction (75-84%)
For a distinction the written assessment should demonstrate confidence & competence in addressing most aspects of the specified tasks & areas of inquiry. The assignment:
- Includes discussion which is mostly relevant & valid.
- Is mostly coherent, & presented in a mostly logical & clear manner.
- Is drawn from mostly relevant research & uses supporting evidence accurately.
- Demonstrates a high level of critical thought, and thorough analysis, interpretation & explanation in formulating arguments.
- Is focused, but some areas lack creativity &/or originality in the interpretations of ideas.
- Includes a few inconsistencies/errors in presentation & organisation.
Credit (65-74%)
For a credit the written assessment should demonstrate conscientious effort & emergent competence in addressing the specified tasks & areas of inquiry. The assignment:
- Includes discussion which is relevant & valid, but some areas are inappropriate &/or unconvincing.
- Is logical but some areas of discussion have marginal value &/or relevance.
- Is drawn from research but some evidence is irrelevant &/or is used inaccurately.
- Demonstrates some critical appraisal & includes some areas where ideas are merely described.
- Has some connections between ideas, but generally lacks creativity &/or originality.
- Includes several faults in presentation &/or organisation.
Pass (50-64%)
For a pass the written assessment should demonstrate some effort & emergent competence in addressing the specified tasks & areas of inquiry. The assignment:
- Includes discussion which has only some degree of relevance & validity.
- Shows minimal or no critical thought.
- Is generally coherent in some parts, but lack of clarity in expressions in other parts leads to confusion & ambiguity.
- Demonstrates some evidence of research but contains many erroneous assertions & irrelevant materials.
- The approach is mostly descriptive & reproductive; it provides little or no evidence of analysis or synthesis.
- Contains numerous faults &/or organisation is inconsistent &/or incomplete.
Fail (<50%)
A fail written response to an assignment demonstrates lack of competence, & little or no attempt to address the assigned tasks. The assignment:
- Includes discussion which is poorly conceived, shows minimal or no relevance to the task & fails to establish validity for the work.
- Contains too many significant faults to be regarded as a University standard piece of work.
- Does not demonstrate engagement in &/or understanding of course work materials.
- Shows little or no evidence of research.
- Overall, is presented &/or organised in a manner which does not satisfactorily meet academic standards.
For the Oral presentation criteria will be based on:
- Background information,
- Confidence and competence in delivery of presentation,
- Clarity and flow of presentation,
- Body language, diction and pace of presentation,
- Content and organisation of slides, and
- Engagement with content of presentation.
No submission method provided.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
- Examine ecological issues of food supply and food policy.
- Interpret government policy on nutrition guidelines, food standards and food regulation legislation.
- Describe food consumption trends and nutrition related problems of at-risk Australian groups and communities.
- Demonstrate understanding of public health nutrition concepts and how they relate to the health of our populations and communities.
- Undertake research which illustrates systematic analysis of a current issue in public health nutrition.
- Demonstrate skills in data collection, analysis and reporting of public health nutrition data.
- Demonstrate skills in group education for public health nutrition promotion.
2 Group Work
As students (and in your future role as health practitioners) you are required to read many journal articles across a range of disciplines. It would be unreasonable to think that we will always understand everything that is contained in these articles (especially data analysis techniques). It is however, important to develop confidence in understanding much of what we are reading and conducting further investigation of issues/topics when we do not understand what is written/read.
This task requires you to demonstrate capacity to engage with others in an online learning environment to develop understanding and appreciation for research skills used in research and professional practice. Through supported group discussion, you will be given opportunity to develop understanding of key learning topics in public health nutrition and skills in evaluating published journal articles using an evidence based and objective approach.
To complete this assessment task you will be required to:
- Participate in AND contribute to three (3) online journal club meetings presented as synchronous discussions (using online Zoom sessions).
- Develop a reflective report of key learning outcomes from your participation in the journal club meetings.
Task details:
Online journal club meetings:
A list of journal articles will be provided to students at the start of term and from this list, each student will choose one journal article that they will critique and discuss with the group during scheduled journal club meetings.
The specific days and times for each meeting will be determined upon consultation with all students at the commencement of term.
Prior to each meeting, you will be required to:
- Read, review and critique your chosen journal article,
- Consider the evaluation criteria (see below) to be able to present and lead discussion of the article during the meeting, and
- Use the Journal Club Evaluation Tool (available in the ASSESSMENT RESOURCES TAB on unit Moodle site) to document your responses to the following criteria:
- What was the purpose of the study?
- Why is the research being conducted?
- Why the research is considered significant/important?
- Are the research questions/hypotheses clearly stated?
- What do you judge to be the standard of writing?
- Who were the subjects?
- What was the study design?
- What methods were used for measurement?
- What was the primary outcome measure (s)?
- What was the secondary outcome measure (s)?
- What methods were used for data analysis?
- What are the main outcomes/results?
- What is the significance of the results?
- What is the ‘take-home’ message (s) of this article?
Individual Reflective report:
You are required to develop and submit a brief reflective report (not exceeding 500 words) that includes the following:
- General overview of the journal articles that were discussed in each meeting, and a
- Written account of your reflections of how the journal evaluations and meetings impacted your learning e.g. increased your understanding of a topic; changed/confirmed your opinion and/or personal practices; prompted you to talk with others about the topic and your new knowledge/understanding, prompted you to engage in further research etc.
Week 10 Friday (22 May 2020) 5:00 pm AEST
During week 2 of term, all students will be consulted to arranged specific days and times that each journal club meeting will be held. Reflective report will be due for submission by the above date.
Marks for this task will be collated following completion of all meetings and marking of all reflective reports.
Marks will be allocated for each of the following criteria (for a mark out of 30 that will contribute to your overall grade):
- Attendance to two or more journal club meetings (5 marks for each meeting - maximum 10 marks),
- Online presentation/discussion of outcomes of evaluation of one (1) journal article (5 marks),
- Completion and submission of evaluation of journal article (5 marks),
- Submission of Reflective report (10 marks) - written account of reflections that clearly demonstrates how the students understanding of topics has developed as a result of their involvement in the journal club meetings.
NOTE: reflection can be written in first person. References are NOT required in reflective report.
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Team Work
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
- Examine ecological issues of food supply and food policy.
- Interpret government policy on nutrition guidelines, food standards and food regulation legislation.
- Describe food consumption trends and nutrition related problems of at-risk Australian groups and communities.
- Demonstrate understanding of public health nutrition concepts and how they relate to the health of our populations and communities.
- Demonstrate skills in data collection, analysis and reporting of public health nutrition data.
- Demonstrate skills in group education for public health nutrition promotion.
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.