Unit Synopsis
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a collection of networked sensors that feed information to applications to make smart decisions. In this unit, you will learn the fundamentals of the IoT as well as the opportunities IoT brings to the connected smart world. This unit will develop your understanding of the hardware and software components of IoT systems, including sensors, gateways, and applications, as well as the network protocols used to communicate between devices. You will learn to store and present IoT data using a dashboard, and learn of the challenges associated with the proliferation of IoT, such as standardisation of communication protocols, reliability, and sustainability, and identify how they impact future IoT deployments. Finally, the unit will cover privacy, security and ethical issues raised by the connected smart world of IoT.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 9 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisite: COIT20245 Introduction to Programming
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 Postgraduate 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 | 20% |
| 2. Group Work | 30% |
| 3. Project (applied) | 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 2 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 90.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 24.39% 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: Unit Coordinator's reflection, and feedback from students during class
Some students struggled to access and visualise the sensor data from NodeRED installed in the lab computers.
The newly deployed scalable IoT network needs to be further fine-tuned and Node-RED needs to be updated in the lab computers to ensure better accessibility of sensor data.
The IoT network was fine tuned. The DL identified that some IoT sensor batteries had depleted. After battery replacements on the Melbourne campus, the sensors resumed normal operation, allowing students to view data from those sensors as expected.
Source: Unit coordinator's reflection
The unit content does not reflect the recent innovations.
The unit effectively addresses key innovations in IoT and related fields. However, given the rapid advancements in this emerging area, updating some of the lecture contents to incorporate recent developments would enhance the unit's relevance and provide greater value to students.
In Progress
Source: Unit Coordinator's reflection
Assessment 1 and Assessment 2 may be susceptible to GenAI influence.
The specification for Assignment 2 was revised in Term 2, 2024 to encourage students to engage in reflection and critical thinking while responding to the questions. This approach aimed to enhance higher-order thinking skills and reduce reliance on generative AI tools. However, the use of GenAI tools was not formally incorporated into the assignment. It is recommended that GenAI tools be incorporated into both Assignment 1 and Assignment 2 in future offerings to help students develop an understanding of how to use GenAI tools ethically and responsibly as part of their learning process.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Evaluate the concepts and the technologies of IoT
- Analyse IoT devices, sensor types, protocols and standards appropriate in different scenarios
- Design and develop an IoT network dashboard for presenting live data for social and business solutions
- Evaluate the ethical and security concerns related to IoT technologies.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) 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 7 (the SFIA code is included):
- Network Design(NTDS)
- Systems Design (DESN)
- System Integration and Build (SINT)
- Application Support (ASUP)
- Solution architecture (ARCH)
- IT Infrastructure (ITOP)
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Group Work | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Project (applied) | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | ||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Research | • | |||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | ||||||
| 2 - Group Work | • | • | • | • | |||||
| 3 - Project (applied) | • | • | • | ||||||