Unit Synopsis
In this unit, you will learn the role of geotechnical investigations in the design process, and soil mechanics including description of physical properties, soil classification, bearing capacity, permeability, compressibility, shear strength, slope stability, flow of water, and foundations and footings including investigations into basic principles of subsurface rock and soil materials and their ability to support structures.
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 |
BLAR11049 Built Environment Communication and Skills Or COMM11003 Professional and Technical Communication (before 2012 term 1) 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 - 2025
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.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 30% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 25% |
| 3. Online Quiz(zes) | 10% |
| 4. Written Assessment | 35% |
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%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web 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.
Source: Student Unit Teaching Evaluation (SUTE)- T2- 2024
It is a good idea to attempt the weekly questions to expand everyone's knowledge through weekly tutorials. Simultaneously, weekly tutorial videos and the assessment tips were extremely helpful in passing this unit.
Similar teaching method will be adopted for next and future deliveries.
A similar teaching method, conducting weekly live tutorials to attempt examples/questions from the lecture content in advance, was adopted. Simultaneously, the students were provided with the recorded weekly tutorials upon completion of the live sessions, along with tips to guide their answers to assessment questions. Positive informal student feedback in class (during tutorials) along with increased weekly student progression data in CQU success suggests that these teaching methods are effective in the current delivery.
Source: Student Unit Teaching Evaluation (SUTE)- T2- 2024
Students are satisfied with the sufficient learning materials given with the unit learning. However, they have requested a summarised glossary type document to cover all symbols and abbreviations in each topic.
A document covering all symbols and abbreviations will be given to students from next delivery.
All lectures and tutorial documents clearly presented any symbols and abbreviations with correct descriptions. No such request was received from the students in the current delivery, which indicates the effectiveness of the action taken. The lecturer made sure any abbreviated term used in the lectures or tutorials to be expanded or further explained.
Source: The unit coordinator and lecturer
It is better to continue facilitating formative online quizzes with the aid of the textbook publisher.
The lecturer will continuously liaise with the textbook publisher and try facilitating formative online quizzes with the aid of them.
The current delivery has included formative online quizzes provided by the publisher from the beginning. It is observed that a few students have attempted some of these online quizzes. Opening avenues for students to easily access platforms to enhance learning and knowledge can lead to their increased progression of the unit and retention of the course.
Source: Unsolicited student email to appreciate the lecturer
Students find that the unit context is difficult due to engineering and mathematics exposure. However, they find the lecturer's assessment tips and tutorial recordings have been beneficial for the unit's success.
The learning context will be discussed with the Built environment discipline team and the course reference committee to confirm the relevance of the unit learning to the roles of building professionals. The lecturer will adopt the same strategy to enhance students' learning.
The conversation with the Built Environment discipline and the Course Reference Committee is continuing, and different strategies will follow to mitigate the problem based on their comments and feedback. The lecturer adopted the same strategy (assessment tips, tutorial examples, and tutorial recordings) in the current delivery, and he received positive feedback from students in class and via SUTE. No absent fails for this unit is also an evidence for this triggering to enhanced student progression.
Source: Student Unit Teaching Evaluation (SUTE)- T2-2024 (Section 3 score)
Some students question the unit relevance to their qualification/ degree.
The unit is recommended by the course accredited professional bodies; hence, this concern will be raised at Built Environment regular meetings and then discussed with the professional bodies for strategies to address.
The conversation is ongoing, but the lecturer extensively used discussion forums and live sessions to convey the benefits of unit learning to students, to help them apply it in their current industry practice. This strategic action might have helped improve the scores for 'Useful Knowledge Skills' and 'Unit Relevant to Degree' in the current SUTE survey. The current score for these two categories of learning and teaching is at moderate (75% for both aspects).
Source: Student Unit Teaching Evaluation (SUTE)- T2- 2025
Students finds using more real world examples in teaching is effective in understanding the theory and practice.
The lecturer has already included many examples in his teaching. However, it is recommended to add latest real world examples in both lecture and tutorial materials in addition to the remaining ones.
In Progress
Source: The Teaching Team based on scores of SUTE- T2- 2025
The unit continuously requires some improvements to convince the students that the unit is relevant to degree and it gives useful knowledge/ skills to them to practice in industry.
It is recommended embedding many industry related examples in lectures, tutorials and assessment tasks. In addition, the lecturer will demonstrate the unit's industry relevance in class and via forums.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Apply soil and rock mechanics principles in building design and construction.
- Interpret the influences of geological processes and natural environments on geotechnical design.
- Explain the use and limitations of geotechnical design in built environment projects.
- Perform basic geotechnical calculations including soil phase relationships, strength, stability, stress, compressibility, permeability and bearing capacity.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | • | • |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | |||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | |||||||
| 3 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | • | |||||||
| 4 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | |||||||