Unit Synopsis
This unit will help you become a programmer even if you have had no programming experience. You will learn and practise topics such as pseudocode, variables, constants, data types, operators, expressions, statements, classes, objects, control constructs, methods, passing parameters and arrays. In addition, you will learn how to design, implement and test programs using a modern Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
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 1 - 2026
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. Practical Assessment | 30% |
| 2. Practical Assessment | 20% |
| 3. Examination | 50% |
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 .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 80.26% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 12.48% 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: Teacher Evaluation (Term 2, 2024)
The lecture content lacks sufficient interactive elements, potentially limiting student engagement and participation.
To make the class more interactive, consider incorporating more real-world examples to create a more engaging learning environment.
In response, the tutorials were further enhanced to increase student engagement. Existing in-class activities were given greater assessment weighting to encourage regular participation and practice. These activities were also redesigned with simple, real-world examples to make lecture content clearer and easier to apply.
Source: Teacher Evaluation (Term 2, 2024).
Students found the current number of examples illustrating Python custom classes to be inadequate for a comprehensive understanding of the concept.
Increase the number of examples illustrating Python custom classes in the lecture to enhance student comprehension and application skills.
To support student learning, more examples of Python custom classes were added in lectures. This was done to make the concepts clearer, improve understanding, and help students apply the skills more effectively.
Source: Student feedback
Explanation of programming concepts were simple, clear, and the lecturer was extremely helpful and friendly.
Continue to explain concepts in a clear, approachable, and student-friendly manner.
In Progress
Source: Student feedback
The handwriting tool used during lectures was sometimes illegible; clearer demonstrations and more real-world examples were requested.
Consider replacing handwriting with programming demonstrations or step-by-step slides, and incorporate more real-world examples to improve clarity and application.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Develop clearly documented and thoroughly tested applications using an industry-standard integrated development environment (IDE)
- Apply procedural concepts (methods, iteration, selection) and design principles (encapsulation, coupling and cohesion) to the realisation of object behaviour in applications
- Implement standard algorithms such as searching, sorting and sequential processing for arrays and lists of objects in applications
- Employ stream abstraction to process records contained in sequential text files
- Apply concepts presented in this unit, including language syntax, memory models, execution models, types, scope rules, methods, parameter passing, classes, objects and algorithms.
- Programming/Software Development (PROG)
- Functional Testing (TEST)
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment | • | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Practical Assessment | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Examination | • | • | |||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • | • |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | • | • | • |
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | ||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |