AINV12003 - Victim Pathology

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit will provide students with an alternative approach to traditional methods of accident reconstruction. Students will begin with the study of nature of injury pathology, and learn how different regions of the human body react with different tolerance to impact trauma. The body is comprised of tissues, which also have different tolerance to force and acceleration. Students will then learn the use of victim pathology as the starting point for research or investigation in case studies ranging from simple vehicle collisions to very complex cases of multi-system severe or fatal injuries sustained where factual data may be sparse, or non existing. Students will solve cases of misadventure resulting in death or severe traumatic injuries, based on the methods of victim pathology.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

48 credit points

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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

There are no availabilities for this unit on or after Term 3 - 2024

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).

Assessment Overview

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.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 30%
2. Written Assessment 40%
3. Written Assessment 30%

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

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2020 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 55.56% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 31.03% response rate.

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.

Source: Student evaluations
Feedback
Specific tutorials for the assessments would be beneficial for students' understanding of the assessment requirements and to establish expectations.
Recommendation
Run a Zoom tutorial session several weeks before each assessment due date to provide another forum for students to seek clarification of the requirements for the assessments and to establish expectations with regard to the depth of analysis.
Action Taken
These additional tutorials were provided, but attendance was low.
Source: Coordinator observations
Feedback
Students would benefit from seeing high quality submissions from previous students for the case study assessment to better visualise what they are being asked to provide in their own submissions.
Recommendation
Provide exemplars for the case study assessment so that students can examine the quality and depth of analysis of a successful submission.
Action Taken
This was not provided to students.
Source: Coordinator reflection
Feedback
The case studies and scenarios provided for the assessment items should be updated regularly for academic integrity reasons and to allow the provision of exemplars, as per the previous recommendation.
Recommendation
The case studies and the specific details of the hypothetical scenarios used for the assessments should be updated for the 2020 offering of this unit.
Action Taken
Additional information was provided on these scenarios by the outgoing Unit Coordinator before departure.
Source: CQU Restructure
Feedback
There are no further recommendations for improvement as this was the last offering of this unit.
Recommendation
No further recommendations can be implemented.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Analyse the relevance of victim pathology in establishing causality.
  2. Explain and elaborate on differential human tolerance to trauma based on tissues and body regions.
  3. Interpret published data on human tolerance to impact.
  4. Analyse complex case scenarios involving multiple severe or fatal traumatic injuries and determine likely causal events.
  5. Demonstrate reflective skills appropriate to the development of the intermediate practitioner.
  6. Demonstrate ability in confidentiality and ethical practice appropriate for a forensic practitioner.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Written Assessment • • • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • • • •
3 - Written Assessment • • • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
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 • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10