Unit Synopsis
This unit will expand on your prior study of x-ray equipment and imaging processes of specialised imaging technologies. The primary focus of the unit is on the technical fundamentals (both theoretical and practical) of Computed Tomography to enable safe and effective scan technique. You will examine in detail the equipment operation of computed tomography and its processes such as data acquisition, processing, reconstruction and display. You will further explore dose and image optimisation strategies and quality assurance testing, including image artefacts. You will also be introduced to the physical and operational principles of advanced and/or newly emerging medical imaging modalities such as angiography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound imaging, nuclear medicine imaging, positron emission tomography CT, EOS and spectral CT.
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 |
Pre-requisites MEDI11006 Imaging Science 1 MEDI12002 Imaging Science 2 MEDI12005 Imaging Science 3 MEDI12011 Medical Imaging Clinical Experience 1 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 - 2026
Term 1 - 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 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. Laboratory/Practical | 0% |
| 2. In-class Test(s) | 20% |
| 3. In-class Test(s) | 50% |
| 4. In-class Test(s) | 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%).
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 1 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 88.89% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 34.62% 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: Teaching team feedback
Addition of theory of new and emerging imaging modalities will enhance relevance of content to advancements in new technologies.
Review the current unit weekly schedule and content to allow space to introduce new technology content.
New content was added to the unit introducing students to the new and emerging technology of Spectral photon-counting CT scanning. This unit content addition keeps students up-to-date with the technological advancements in medical imaging.
Source: Unit coordinator and student feedback
The Week 5 Online Quiz encourages early student engagement with the unit material.
Maintain the application of the online quiz early in the term to motivate students to engage with unit content and to provide them with timely assessment feedback.
The Week 5 Online Quiz was maintained as the initial assessment of the unit. The early timing of this assessment encourages students to engage with the unit content from Week 1.
Source: Unit coordinator and teaching team feedback
The greater proportion of higher grade results may be attributed to the assessments all being online open-book tests.
Replace one of the online tests with an in-class closed book test to better assess factual recall of the unit content.
The final test was changed from an online test to a supervised in-class test to better reflect the knowledge gained from unit content. This modification of assessment strategy has demonstrated a greater distribution of students' grades.
Source: Teaching team reflection
The Practical CT Equipment Use assessment encourages a high level of attendance at CT lab activities and ensures application of the CT theoretical knowledge obtained through weekly content.
Maintain the inclusion of the CT Practical Equipment Use assessment to encourage student engagement and application of CT skills with the CT equipment on-campus.
In Progress
Source: Unit Coordinator & Team reflection
The Weeks 5 & 9 online tests assess the science and instrumentation of CT scanning, and the final supervised in-class test in Week 13 assesses this same content to a lesser extent with a focus on the 7 other imaging modalities covered in the latter part of the term. As CT is a vital component of the course accreditation Professional Capabilities requirements, the CT theoretical knowledge would be better assessed by changing the Week 9 test to a supervised in-class test to reflect the factual CT knowledge required by graduates in meeting accreditation standards.
Investigate the modification of the unit assessment strategy by changing the Week 9 Online Quiz to a supervised in-class test to best assess students' CT knowledge, and change the final assessment from an in-class test to an online quiz to assess the knowledge of the 7 additional imaging modalities that include new and emerging technologies.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Discuss processes such as data acquisition, processing, image reconstruction, reformatting, display, quality assurance testing and artefacts in computed tomography.
- Operate computed tomography equipment, with consideration to patient dose, image quality and equipment conservation.
- Apply underlying knowledge to manipulate multi-planar and three-dimensional (3D) data sets in computed tomography.
- Discuss the design, operational features and clinical safety considerations of computed tomography (CT).
- Discuss the design, operational features and clinical safety considerations of advanced medical imaging modalities such as angiography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound imaging, nuclear medicine imaging, positron emission tomography CT (PETCT), EOS and spectral CT.
This unit maps to the following components of the Medical Radiation Practice Board of Australia's Professional Capabilities for Medical Radiation Practice (2020 version):
- Domain 1A
- capability 3, enabling components a & f
- Domain 5
- capability 1, enabling components a-d & f
- capability 2, enabling component e
- capability 3, enabling component a-c
- capability 4, enabling component a & c
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Laboratory/Practical | • | • | |||
| 2 - In-class Test(s) | • | • | |||
| 3 - In-class Test(s) | • | • | • | ||
| 4 - In-class Test(s) | • | ||||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • | • |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | |||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | ||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |