BLAR12053 - Professional Practice

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit introduces you to the roles and responsibilities of being a professional practitioner in the building and construction sector through consideration of professional ethics; personal actions and liabilities; and stakeholder collaboration and involvement. In this unit you will also gain an understanding and be taught the application of organisational psychology - theory and practice; project management and control; financial management; construction business planning; trust and general accounts; contemporary office management practices; establishing quality management systems and identifying opportunities to implement social innovation practice.

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 1 - 2024

Term 1 - 2024 Profile
Online
Term 1 - 2025 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

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Online Quiz(zes) 10%
2. Written Assessment 40%
3. Online Quiz(zes) 10%
4. Written Assessment 40%

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

To view Past Exams,
please login
Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 50.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 37.84% 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
MS Teams was difficult to start using but became very helpful and supportive.
Recommendation
Students are introduced to MS Teams as it is a widely used tool in industry. Throughout the unit, students are supported via MS teams with quick responses to questions.
Action Taken
Instructional videos were provided on the use of MS Teams. The first tutorial included a worked example.
Source: Student
Feedback
I found the personality and management styles helpful in understanding past issues and improving my staff interactions.
Recommendation
The soft skills of the unit are aimed at interpersonal and business harmony. This will be continued and made relevant by the use of more case studies.
Action Taken
More focus was placed on the student's personal work experience and environment to underpin the real-life benefit of the unit's soft skills.
Source: Student
Feedback
The questions for the assessments were very broad, which I understand is the intention, but I found it difficult to research effectively with such broad topics.
Recommendation
The intention is for students to develop responses based on their own work/private life experiences. This will improve the student's confidence in working relationships.
Action Taken
Students were provided with the opportunity to have one-on-one discussions with the lecturer via MS Teams to support the broad nature of the assessments.
Source: Student
Feedback
The unit would benefit from a dedicated textbook.
Recommendation
No textbook currently covers the unit's broad knowledge area adequately. The Unit study guide will continue to provide a comprehensive and tailored learning resource complemented by additional material on the Moodle site.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Lecturer
Feedback
Students do not attend the live tutorials or watch the recordings..
Recommendation
Students will continue to be encouraged to attend the tutorials to better understand the unit and the assessments.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student
Feedback
MS Teams was very helpful and the lecturer provided prompt support in the evenings after I returned from work.
Recommendation
MS Teams will continue to be used and encouraged as it also allows students to discuss the unit between themselves, increasing engagement and cooperation.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Lecturer
Feedback
The unit needs to be more aligned with students' employment situations to improve its relevance.
Recommendation
This feedback is valuable and will inform the next unit update to incorporate more employment situations in the learning examples and tutorial discussions.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Explain how organisational behaviour - theory and practice and your personal traits influence your professional development
  2. Identify and apply strategies to implement effective professional and social innovation practice within the building industry
  3. Show problem solving, creativity and communication techniques for dealing with clients and projects
  4. Use computer hardware, software and the Internet to solve workplace practice problems and scenarios
  5. Apply financial management principles to start, grow and maintain a practice.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Online Quiz(zes) • •
2 - Written Assessment • • •
3 - Online Quiz(zes) •
4 - Written Assessment • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Communication • • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • • • •
6 - Information Technology Competence • • • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence •
8 - Ethical practice • • • •
9 - Social Innovation •
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
2 - Written Assessment • • • • • • • •
4 - Written Assessment • • • • • • •
1 - Online Quiz(zes) • • • • •
3 - Online Quiz(zes) • • • • •