COIT11223 - Information Technology and Society

General Information

Unit Synopsis

Technology is at the forefront of social change in the 21st century. As an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professional, it is important for you to be aware of how ICT can change our social fabric. This unit will help you understand how the use of technology can support society's needs whilst also contributing to social, ethical, and legal dilemmas. You will critically analyse these dilemmas in an ICT context, looking at how the Information Age has been driven by advances in artificial intelligence and computer networking and covering topics such as cyber security, privacy, intellectual property, censorship, the workforce, and information overload. You will be asked to apply philosophical theories and professional codes of conduct to develop persuasive arguments for various scenarios in personal and professional organisational contexts.

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

Co-requisite: COIT11239 Professional Communications Skills for ICT or COMM11003 Communication in Professional Contexts or ENEG11005 Fundamentals of Professional Engineering

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 - 2024

Term 2 - 2024 Profile
Brisbane
Cairns
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton
Sydney
Term 3 - 2024 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Brisbane
Cairns
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton
Sydney
Term 3 - 2025 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton
Sydney

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. Practical Assessment 20%
2. Written Assessment 30%
3. Practical Assessment 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%).

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 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 84.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 26.6% 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: ACS Accreditation recommendation
Feedback
Add more Cyber security-related content reflecting changing practices in the ICT industry.
Recommendation
Reorganise the unit to include a security-specific week.
Action Taken
More Cyber Security content added, with a new week focused on security.
Source: Student Feedback.
Feedback
Add noteworthy topics from the news, such as Generative AI and the impact on society.
Recommendation
Review the sector and incorporate new content on these items as it becomes available, updating case study examples as required.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Describe the roles of technologies such as artificial intelligence and computer networking on the social contexts of the information age
  2. Explain how your professional and ethical responsibilities as an ICT professional affect society
  3. Discuss ethical, social, and security issues related to areas such as intellectual property, privacy, cybercrime, and information overload
  4. Evaluate ethical, social, and cyber security issues using tools of critical analysis such as philosophical theories and professional codes of conduct.

The Australian Computer Society (ACS), the professional association for Australia's ICT sector, recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is adopted by organisations, governments, and individuals in many countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles. ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile.

This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA 8 (the SFIA code is included):

  • Enterprise IT Governance (GOVN)
  • Information Assurance (INAS)
  • Change Implementation Planning and Management (CIPM)
  • Information Content Authoring (INCA)
  • IT Management (ITMG)
  • Problem Management (PBMG)
  • Information Security (SCTY).

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Practical Assessment • •
2 - Written Assessment • •
3 - Practical Assessment • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
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