DSMG29004 - Contemporary Issues in Emergency and Disaster Management

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit is a review of contemporary issues related to emergency and disaster management, focusing on those issues that have particular significance for you and your specific industry context. You will identify one contemporary emergency or disaster management related issue of interest and investigate that issue comprehensively. Based on your investigation, you will then identify future directions and recommendations and communicate your findings in an appropriate genre to the academic community and your specific industry context.

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-requisites:        DSMG28001 Foundations of Emergency and Disaster Management

                               DSMG20003 Research for Emergency and Disaster Management

                             


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 - 2026

Term 2 - 2026 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 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

This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see assessment details from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.

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 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 33.33% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 25% 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: Self-reflection
Feedback
Assessment topic examples
Recommendation
Include additional topic examples in the unit, which students can use for their assessment work.
Action Taken
Additional topic examples were incorporated into the unit to support students in developing their assessment ideas. These examples were embedded within weekly learning materials and discussed during class to help students understand how different themes can be applied in their self‑reflection tasks. This created more accessible starting points for students and encouraged greater confidence in selecting suitable topics.
Source: Self-reflection
Feedback
Signposting unit type and how that impacts unit learning
Recommendation
Include additional narrative in the Unit Profile and Moodle site so that students better understand that this unit is a capstone unit and is based on an individual topic that is selected by the student.
Action Taken
Additional narrative was added to both the Unit Profile and the Moodle site to clearly communicate that this unit functions as a capstone experience. Explanations were expanded to highlight the unit’s emphasis on independent inquiry and the requirement for students to select and develop their own individual topic. This clearer signposting helped students understand the purpose of the unit, how it differs from earlier coursework, and what is expected in terms of self‑directed learning.
Source: UC
Feedback
Additional drop-in sessions to be added for students who need options.
Recommendation
Add additional drop-in sessions to the schedule.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes
This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see Learning Outcomes from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.