BLAR11045 - Built Environment 1

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit is an introduction to the impacts of the building design and construction sectors on the environment viz: Natural ecosystems including climate, hydrological cycle, basic thermodynamics, consequences of modification; ecosystem interdependency, capacity of the environment to assimilate changes; background to greenhouse concerns from the Rio Summit through to current global negotiations: social, legislative and political issues associated with modification of the natural and developed environments including environmental impact assessments; and environmental impact of development-mining and mineral processing, materials and manufacturing industries as related to the building and construction sector. This unit then provides an introduction to current activity to minimise impacts through shift to service rather than consumption based economy in the building and construction sector. This unit also requires the student to develop an understanding of requirements for regional and urban development including the legislative framework for planning control, feasibility studies, consultation and communication processes.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 1
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the 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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2023

Term 2 - 2023 Profile
Online

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

This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see assessment details from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.

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 4.2 (on a 5 point Likert scale), based on a 35.82% 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
Feedback
Assignment questions have room for improvement
Recommendation
Assignment briefs will be clearly written and include a basic checklist
Action Taken
Assignments were rewritten.
Source: Student
Feedback
Moodle hard to navigate
Recommendation
Will use Microsoft Teams instead
Action Taken
MS Teams was introduced but confusion remained.
Source: Student Feedback
Feedback
Moodle hard to use.
Recommendation
MS Teams will only be used for unit communications. Moodle is undergoing a major refresh/design to make it simpler to use.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student Feedback
Feedback
Assignment marks were slow to be released.
Recommendation
Marks will be returned within two weeks of submission. Additional marking staff will be used when required to meet this target.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Lecturer
Feedback
Students failed to follow assignment presentation requirements.
Recommendation
The assignments are required as professional reports and the details of such are clearly detailed in Moodle and by tutors. However, for 2021 a report template will be provided for assignment one.
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes
This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see Learning Outcomes from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.