EVST19020 - Environmental Management Systems

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit will examine the nature of Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14001) as developed by the International Organisation for Standards (ISO) and Standards Australia. Topics include: concepts of EMS, ISO 14000 series (including ISO 14001 and ISO 14004), implementing EMS, auditing and certification, relationships with Environmental Impact Assessment and ongoing issues. Case studies will review the implementation and functioning of EMS in Australia and in other countries.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites Prerequisite: Minimum of 18 credit points

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 3 - 2024

There are no availabilities for this unit on or after Term 3 - 2024

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. Written Assessment 70%
2. Online Quiz(zes) 30%

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 1 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 19.23% 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: 2022 SUTE Unit comments.
Feedback
A number of Bachelor of Education Secondary students take this unit as part of their Geography minor. There was a comment by one of these education students to say that this unit is not directly relevant to them as prospective teachers, and that the unit is also "overwhelming".
Recommendation
Consult with the Head of the Bachelor of Education Secondary course and suggest that they inform students who plan to take the Geography minor about the nature of this unit and advise those students that this unit is a choice in the minor, and students do not have to take it if they don't wish to.
Action Taken
This was actioned, however still there was quite a number of Education students who took the unit in 2023.
Source: Self reflection from the unit coordinator.
Feedback
As part of the unit coordinator's self reflection, it was noted that the zoom sessions that provide specific information, advice and scaffolded learning for various stages/parts of the major assignment worked well and helped students considerably.
Recommendation
Continue zoom sessions and enhance them with added information on where students might 'go wrong' in their actual submitted assignments based on marked assignments from previous years.
Action Taken
This was actioned and did help students to better understand what they had to do for the final assessment piece.
Source: Student feedback through SUTE teacher evaluations.
Feedback
Teacher to foster more student interaction.
Recommendation
Schedule two more zoom sessions with the aim of allowing the students to lead discussion around aspects of the unit content.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. explain the concepts and key features of ISO 14001 and 14004
  2. access ISO and Standards Australia documents, publications, and other resources, and use appropriate information technologies to engage in research and other data/information-gathering activities regarding EMS
  3. develop a draft EMS with adequate documentation for a hypothetical (or actual) small organisation.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Written Assessment • • •
2 - Online Quiz(zes) • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Communication • •
2 - Problem Solving • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • •
4 - Information Literacy • • •
6 - Information Technology Competence •
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
1 - Written Assessment • • • •
2 - Online Quiz(zes) • • •