ECHO11002 - Cardiac Structure and Function

General Information

Unit Synopsis

Accurate assessment of cardiac function requires comprehensive knowledge of anatomy, embryology, and physiology of the heart, lungs and surrounding structures. You will develop familiarity with the spatial relationship of thoracic structures and the heart. This unit exposes you to data acquired from multiple imaging modalities, including angiography, electrocardiograms (ECG), and echocardiography. You will explore normal ECG complexes, learn how a standard 12-lead ECG is generated, and learn to competently perform a standard 12-lead ECG. Attendance at a residential school is a requirement of this unit.

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

Pre-requisite: Students must be enrolled in CV69 Bachelor of Echocardiography (Cardiac Physiology)/Graduate Diploma of Echocardiography

AND

Co-requisite: BMSC11002 Human Body Systems 2 or BMSC11011 Human Anatomy and Physiology 2


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 Compulsory Residential School
View Unit Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2025

Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Mixed Mode
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Mixed Mode

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. Online Quiz(zes) 60%
2. Practical Assessment 0%
3. Online Test 40%

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 42.86% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 15.22% 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: Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation
Feedback
Students noted that the lecture recordings were overly dense and lengthy, making it difficult to absorb and retain all the information effectively.
Recommendation
Lecture content will be reviewed and redeveloped where required. The length of each lecture will be also be reconsidered and segmented where necessary to improve content retention and accessibility.
Action Taken
Lectures were restructured into clearer, more focused segments to support improved content retention, and unnecessary repetition was removed to streamline delivery. Where appropriate, longer topics were divided into shorter, more accessible sections to reduce cognitive load for first-year students.
Source: Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation
Feedback
Students noted that the lecture notes could benefit from more content matching the lecture recording.
Recommendation
The lecture slides are intentionally designed to foster active learning and discourage rote memorization, ensuring students engage critically with the material rather than simply replicating content in their assessments. However, the slides will be reviewed to identify opportunities for improvement and to better cater to diverse learning preferences.
Action Taken
The lecture slides were reviewed and updated throughout the term. Additional guiding notes and clearer labelling were incorporated to support student comprehension while still maintaining an active-learning approach. A dedicated summary page was added at the end of each lecture to consolidate the key concepts covered, helping students better connect the lecture content with their own note-taking and revision.
Source: Residential school feedback
Feedback
Students appreciated the group activities during the residential school and expressed a desire for more opportunities to participate in group activities to connect with their peers.
Recommendation
More group-based activities will be incorporated into next year's residential school delivery to encourage students to connect with and get to know their classmates.
Action Taken
To enhance peer connection and engagement, several newly designed group-based activities were introduced during this year’s residential school. These activities were more interactive and collaborative, encouraging students to work together and apply their learning in a supported environment. Student feedback was highly positive, with many noting that the new activities helped them feel more connected to their peers and improved their overall learning experience.
Source: Residential school feedback
Feedback
Many students found the medical device company's presentation during the residential school quite valuable, engaging and helpful in connecting their theoretical knowledge to real-world technologies and clinical practice.
Recommendation
Consider continuing to include presentations on real-world clinical technologies from medical device companies in future residential schools to enhance integration of students' theoretical and clinical knowledge.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE feedback
Feedback
Some students raised concerns about needing to refer to external resources and additional readings to strengthen their understanding of certain topics.
Recommendation
Continue promoting the use of high-quality external sources and encouraging students to access Academic Learning Centre support to develop independent learning skills and deepen their understanding of key topics.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Describe the anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular and respiratory system
  2. Identify anatomical structures on diagrams and medical images of the thorax and cardiovascular system
  3. Describe the embryological development of the cardiovascular system
  4. Explain the formation of an electrocardiogram (ECG) complex, and its representation on a normal 12-lead ECG
  5. Perform a 12-lead ECG.

Linked to National and International Standards
1. ASAR Accreditation Standards for Cardiac Sonography - critical practice Unit 8 - Cardiac
2. European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging Core Syllabus
3. American Registry for Cardiac Sonography Core Syllabus

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Online Quiz(zes) • • •
2 - Practical Assessment •
3 - Online Test • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Communication • • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • • •
6 - Information Technology Competence • • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence •
8 - Ethical practice •
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