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Unit Synopsis
This unit explores how the human body changes as we age, including differentiating between normal ageing processes and those associated with disease. You will discover how ageing impacts individuals’ ability to communicate and participate socially and in service provision contexts. Having an understanding of the ageing process and the underlying physiological mechanisms will give you an essential foundation to work well with older people and create strategies to promote healthy ageing. This unit will encourage you to self-reflect on your own professional practice and generate evidence based solutions to enhance service provision.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 8 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| 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 - 2019
Term 1 - 2023 Profile
Term 2 - 2023 Profile
Term 1 - 2024 Profile
Term 2 - 2024 Profile
Term 1 - 2025 Profile
Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
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 | 40% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 10% |
| 3. Presentation | 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.
No previous feedback available
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 verbal feedback in Zoom Q & A sessions.
Regular online tutorials - were appreciated and received positively by the students in this unit. The students who attended these regularly commented on "the value of these in preparing for assessments".
Unit coordinator to continue to offer regular online Q & A tutorials to enable students to discuss learning content and its application to the two assessments. This approach enables the students to consider how the learning outcomes could be applied to each assessment.
The unit coordinator implemented regular online Q&A tutorials to support student engagement with learning content and its application to the two assessments. These sessions provided the students with the opportunity to clarify the assessment task, ask questions, and explore how the learning outcomes align with the assessment requirements; therefore, they enhanced their understanding of the assessment task and performance of grades.
Source: SUTE Unit Comments Report, T 1, 2024.
The unit coordinator has been great at assisting and guiding. She is also an excellent lecturer, and the course material was well explained.
Unit coordinator to continue to provide contemporary evidence-based lecture content that aligns with practice in caring for older people. Continue to have a clear and succinct Moodle site and written course materials to enhance student learning in the unit.
The unit coordinator continues to deliver contemporary evidence-based content and assessment tasks that reflect current best practices for the care of older people. The Moodle content has been maintained to be clear, well-organised, succinct, supporting student navigation and enhancing overall learning engagement within the unit.
Source: Student verbal feedback after their oral presentation assessment.
Assessments were really interesting, I never thought of hypertension affecting the older adult in the way it can, especially an older adult with dementia.
The unit coordinator to continue to design assessments that encourage critical thinking and real-world application of clinical concepts, particularly in complex scenarios involving older adults with comorbidities such as dementia. Consider incorporating more case-based assessment to further enhance students’ understanding of the multifaceted impact of conditions like hypertension in older people.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Differentiate between cognitive and sensory changes associated with the normal ageing processes and those related to chronic and acute illnesses
- Examine the implications of sensory and cognitive changes on communication
- Critically appraise common strategies used to manage communication difficulties against best practice principles
- Develop communication strategies to enhance and promote respect and personhood.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||
| 3 - Presentation | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Research | • | • | • | • |
| 5 - Self-management | • | |||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | • | ||
| 7 - Leadership | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | ||||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||
| 3 - Presentation | • | • | • | • | • | ||||