This task provides you with the opportunity to work with other students in an online space to objectively review and discuss research related to Public Health Nutrition and enhance your ability to use and communicate evidence in practice. 

TASK DETAILS

This Group Work assessment task includes four (4) parts and all parts must be completed.

PART 1: CHOICE OF JOURNAL ARTICLE (formative part, no marks allocated)

For this part, you are required to:

• choose one (1) article from a list of journal articles (see List of Journal Articles in the Assessment tile on Moodle); and
• complete the ‘Choice’ activity in the Assessment Tile on Moodle to communicate your choice of article to all other students.
• You should complete this part by Thursday 28 March (Week 4).

NOTE: To promote breadth of reading, no two students may choose the same journal article to annotate. The final choice for any journal article will be based on a ‘first in – first served’ basis hence the requirement to communicate your choice to other students.

PART 2: ANNOTATION AND DEFINITIONS OF UNFAMILIAR TERMS, METHODS OR METHODOLOGIES (10 marks)

For this part, you are required to:

• read your article thoroughly (and likely several times);
• annotate your article (See resource 'Annotating journal articles' in the Assessment tile on Moodle) (your annotation should be no longer than 300 words);
• identify and develop a total of six (6) written definitions and working examples of key terms (three (3) primary and three (3) secondary terms- See below) that are unfamiliar to you or that you do not fully understand. This will include:
  • from reading your article: identification of, and development of written definitions and working examples for three (3) primary terms; and
  • for each of these primary terms, identification and development of written definitions (no working example required for secondary terms) of at least one (1) secondary term (See resource 'How to create definitions' in the Assessment tile on Moodle); and
• upload your completed annotation, definitions and working example to the Group Discussion forum on Moodle (see link in the Assessment tab or Assessment tile on Moodle) to enable online group work to commence (see below).
• You should complete this part by 21st April (end of Week 6).

NOTEs:

• When uploading your annotation, definitions and working example to the Group Discussion forum, you should ‘Add a new discussion topic’, to allow other students to post a ‘Reply’ and contribute to subsequent discussions of each article.

PART 3: ONLINE GROUP DISCUSSIONS (20 marks)

For this part you will contribute to online group discussions of public health nutrition topics during weeks 7 through 10 of the term.

For this part you are required to:

• read two (2) journal articles and related annotations and definitions that have been uploaded to the Group Discussion forum by other students;
• for each of these articles you will:
  • create and post a ‘Reply’ in the Moodle Group Discussion forum that provides an in-depth discussion of one (1) element of the students post that you found interesting and/or that contrasts with your thoughts/understanding of the article; and
  • post at least two (2) additional replies that expand on the initial discussions of the journal articles and definitions created by other students, and which moves the discussion in a new and/or provocative direction.
• You should complete this part by 19th May (end of Week 10).

NOTEs:

• It is expected that all students will participate in the online discussions in an ongoing manner across weeks 7 through 10 by checking and/or posting to the discussion forums regularly and frequently in any given week.
• Group Discussion forum posts should include hyperlinks to additional resources and/or sources of information that support your thoughts/ideas etc. and references must be included.
• References must be included when additional research or sources are referred to in contributions.
• There are no word limits to any of the contributions.

PART 4. SUBMIT A COPY OF YOUR ANNOTATION, DEFINITIONS AND LIST OF DISCUSSION FORUM POSTS

For this part, you are required to:

• Submit a copy of your annotation, definitions, working example and listing of your Group Discussion forum posts to the Assessment tab on Moodle to enable marking of your Group Work activities.
• This part is due on Friday 31 May (Week 12).

You annotation, definitions and contributions to group discussions will be marked according to how well your work addresses the following criteria:

• Annotation - Accuracy and thoroughness of interpretation of journal articles (5 marks)
• Definitions - Clarity of definitions of primary terms; Sources of definitions of primary terms referenced; Working example of primary terms are provided in laypersons language and are related to public health/health; Secondary definitions defined, and sources of definitions referenced (15 marks)
• Contributions to Group Discussions - Active participation in group work; Online communication/writing skills; Independent thought and critical thinking; Use of appropriate and relevant references/sources (10 marks).

The affordability of our diets is a key determinant of our food choices and dietary intakes. Food costs and affordability are constantly challenged by national and international events (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, various severe weather events). Monitoring the cost and affordability of foods, with consideration for the cost of healthy versus unhealthy foods and diets, can provide information that helps to improve affordability, health equity and food security.

This Practical and Written assessment task provides you with opportunity to develop your understanding and appreciation of public health nutrition issues in context with a specific focus on geographical differences in food costs and affordability.

TASK DETAILS

This term-long assessment task includes four (4) parts, and all parts must be completed. Each part has a different due date as detailed below.

PART 1: ESSAY ON FOOD COSTS AND AFFORDABILITY IN AUSTRALIA (1000 words +/- 10 %) (20 marks)

For Part 1 you will be required to:

• develop an essay that demonstrates your understanding of current evidence related to foods costs and affordability in Australia and how the Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing (ASAP) method is used to assess, compare and monitor the price, price differential and affordability of healthy (recommended) and current (unhealthy) diets in Australia. 

As a guide your essay should include:

• an Introduction that outline of the role of food costs on food choices and dietary intake behaviours and risk of chronic disease; 
• Body of essay that discusses monitoring practices of food environments in Australia over the past 20 years; why the ASAP method was developed; and an overview of studies that have used the ASAP protocol since its development in 2018;
• a Conclusion that summarises information included in the body of your essay and a concluding statement regarding the role of monitoring of food prices in public health nutrition; and
• a Reference list: Minimum of 15 references (not included in word count). NOTE: you should use a range of reliable sources to develop your essay and the following journal articles should be used as a basis of your report: 

1. 1. Lee, A. J., Kane, S., Ramsey, R., Good, E., & Dick, M. (2016). Testing the price and affordability of healthy and current (unhealthy) diets and the potential impacts of policy change in Australia. BMC public health, 16, 315. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-2996-y
   2. Lee, A. J., Kane, S., Lewis, M., Good, E., Pollard, C. M., Landrigan, T. J., & Dick, M. (2018). Healthy diets ASAP - Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing methods protocol. Nutrition journal, 17(1), 88. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-018-0396-0 
   3. Lee, A., & Lewis, M. (2018). Testing the Price of Healthy and Current Diets in Remote Aboriginal Communities to Improve Food Security: Development of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) Methods. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(12), 2912. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122912
   4. Love, P., Whelan, J., Bell, C., Grainger, F., Russell, C., Lewis, M., & Lee, A. (2018). Healthy Diets in Rural Victoria—Cheaper than Unhealthy Alternatives, Yet Unaffordable. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 15, 2469. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112469
   5. Lee, A. J., Kane, S., Herron, L. M., Matsuyama, M., & Lewis, M. (2020). A tale of two cities: the cost, price-differential, and affordability of current and healthy diets in Sydney and Canberra, Australia. The Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act, 17(1), 80. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-020-00981-0
   6. Lewis, M., McNaughton, S. A., Rychetnik, L., Chatfield, M. D., & Lee, A. J. (2021). Dietary Intake, Cost, and Affordability by Socioeconomic Group in Australia. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 18(24), 13315. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413315
   7. Lee, A., Patay, D., Herron, LM. et al. (2021). Affordability of current, and healthy, more equitable, sustainable diets by area of socioeconomic disadvantage and remoteness in Queensland: insights into food choice. Int J Equity Health 20, 153. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01481-8
   8. Herath, M. P., Murray, S., Lewis, M., Holloway, T. P., Hughes, R., Jayasinghe, S., Soward, R., Patterson, K. A. E., Byrne, N. M., Lee, A. J., Hills, A. P., & Ahuja, K. D. K. (2023). Habitual Diets Are More Expensive than Recommended Healthy Diets. Nutrients, 15(18), 3908. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15183908

PART 2: COLLECT DATA ON THE COST OF HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY DIETS AND YOUR COMMUNITY CHARACTERISTICS 

For Part 2 you will be required to:

• collect data on food costs and community characteristics to enable assessment and comparison of the price, price differential and affordability of healthy (recommended) and current (unhealthy) diets for a reference family of four (see journal article by Lee et al., 2018 for explanation of this reference family). 

To collect your data, you will use:

• the Healthy Diets Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing (ASAP) protocol and survey tool (See links to these resources in the Assessment tile on Moodle) to collect data on food costs of healthy and unhealthy diets in your community. This will include the collection of data from:
  • One (1) major supermarket (e.g., Coles or Woolworths);
  • One (1) independent supermarket (e.g., Foodstore, IGA, or others);
  • One (1) online store (including details of whether online delivery is available in your community/living location or not. If you do not have online services available, you should still collect this data from an online supermarket (of any type i.e., major, or independent) and make note in the datasheet that delivery is not available in your community; and
  • Take-away food outlets (as available in your community) including Pizza Hut™, McDonald’s™, a fish and chips outlet and an independent bakery (NOTE: if these stores do not exist in your community, please advise the Unit Coordinator); AND
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census data (2021) to collect data on the characteristics of your community (Local Government Area (LGA)) including:
  • geographical location;
  • total population;
  • median age of population; and
  • median household income.

PART 3: ANAYLSE AND REPORT ON DATA FOR THE COST OF HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY DIETS IN OUR COMMUNITIES

For Part 3 you will be required to:

• enter your collected data into a group spreadsheet (using Google Sheets) by the end of week 6 (19 April) (a link to Google sheets will be made available to students during the term);
• analyse the group data using Microsoft Excel including:

• • calculation of the total costs and average costs of all food items included in the Healthy Foods ASAP survey (healthy and unhealthy diets), each food group, and discretionary foods; 
  • comparison of the costs of healthy and unhealthy diets across different geographical locations of our Public Health Nutrition group; and
  • determination of the affordability of each diet according to the Healthy Diets ASAP protocol and calculated as a proportion of median gross household income (where 30% household income is used as the acceptable maximum proportional cost); and
• develop a report of your data collection methods, analysis and results (1000 words +/- 10%). This report should include academic reporting of:  
  • methods you used to collect and analyse your data;
  • results of your analysis of group data;
  • at least one table of results (presented in APA table style); 
  • your results in comparison to the communities represented by other students in our Public Health Nutrition group AND findings from previous studies that have used the ASAP protocol (as included in your essay (Part 1)); and
  • a reference list (references will not be included in total word count for the report).

NOTE: Tutorials will be held throughout the term to discuss data collection, the group datasheet and analysis, and reporting requirements including the development of tables APA style.

PART 4: ORAL PRESENTATION ON FOOD COSTS AND AFFORDABILITY IN OUR COMMUNITIES and PEER REVIEW (20 marks).

For Part 4 you will be required to:

• develop and deliver an oral presentation (10 minutes duration) to your peers to demonstrate your insight into food access and affordability of healthy and unhealthy diets in our communities.

NOTEs:

• Your presentation should be drawn from all other parts of the assessment task and will be delivered to our Public Health Nutrition group during an online Zoom session to be held in week 12.
• Each student will also complete peer reviews of other student presentations during the online Zoom session (NOTE: 50% of marks for this presentation will be allocated from peer reviews and a template for the peer reviews, will be available in the Assessment tile on the unit Moodle site). 
• All students attending the online Zoom presentation session/s will be encouraged to ask questions and provide general feedback on each of the other student presentations. Five (5) minutes will be allocated at the end of each presentation to allow for comments, and questions and answers.
• A tutorial will be held during the term to provide instructions and tips for developing your Oral Presentation and conducting peer reviews.

Detailed marking rubrics for each of the following will be provided in the Assessment tile on Moodle.

Part 1: Essay on food costs and affordability in Australia (20 marks)

The following criteria will be used to assess your essay. 

• Competence in addressing all aspects of the task
• Quality of writing and organisation of report
• Formulation of arguments, critical analysis, interpretation, and explanation
• Relevance of discussion
• Accuracy in use of supporting evidence.

Part 3: Report on data for the cost of healthy and unhealthy diets in our communities (30 marks)

• Accuracy in data analysis 
• Interpretation, critical analysis, formulation of arguments and explanation of results 
• Accuracy in developing table of results that is aligned to reported results 
• Accuracy in use of supporting evidence 
• Quality of writing and organisation of report.

Part 4: Oral presentation (20 marks)

The following criteria will be used by the Unit Coordinator and student peer reviewers to assess the oral presentation. 50% of marks (i.e., 10 marks) for the Oral Presentation will be contributed by peer reviewers. An online marking sheet will be provided to all students to enable peer review of oral presentations.

• 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 presentation
• Engagement with content of presentation.