Unit Synopsis
On completion of this unit, you will be able to identify and discuss the clinical significance of viruses, fungi and parasites causing human disease. You will investigate the morphological characteristics, epidemiology, laboratory identification of these microorganisms and will be able to debate causes of mycological, parasitic and viral infectious diseases. You will discuss the life cycle of important parasites and their relevance to disease control. You will be able to interpret basic serological tests for the detection of human pathogenic viruses. Problem-solving and decision making skills will be developed through the use of authentic case studies. Skill development in instrument calibration, best practice measurement, interpretation of test results and test quality control monitoring will occur through practical exercises. You will be required to attend a residential school on the Rockhampton campus in order to promote the development of unit learning outcomes. The residential school may be scheduled outside of the term of offering of the unit.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 8 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Prerequisite Enrolment in Master of Laboratory Medicine (CM18). 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 - 2026
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
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%).
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 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 95.83% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 19.51% 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: SUTE Feedback
The lecturer needs to use Kahoot! quizzes to facilitate more interaction.
Students would like more interactive content in tutorials. Interactive content, such as Kahoot! quizzes, will be developed to support weekly content.
Kahoot quizzes were considered but not used due to time constraints. Instead, short-answer questions were provided in advance, discussed in detail during tutorials, and model answers were made available on Moodle afterward.
Source: Self-reflection
The use of workbooks for assessing the Residential School practical isn't sufficient to assess student competency.
The unit coordinator will seek to implement a practical assessment on the final day of the Residential School for future offerings.
This was considered; however, the laboratory program is highly intensive and delivered over only three days, leaving insufficient time to add further assessment components without compromising the core lab‑based activities.
Source: SUTE
Students enjoyed the 'flipped classroom' style of teaching
Consider continuing to use the flipped classroom/lectorial style of delivery
In Progress
Source: SUTE , self-reflection
Students liked the weekly “Test Your Knowledge” tutorial questions and the fact that the answers were discussed and then uploaded to the subject Moodle site.
Continue the weekly “Test Your Knowledge” tutorial questions, with answers discussed and uploaded to Moodle.
In Progress
Source: SUTE, Self-reflection
The student evaluation response rate was low
Encourage and promote the importance of student surveys to increase participation in the evaluation process.
In Progress
To see Learning Outcomes from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.