OCHS12019 - Human Factors

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit introduces you to the discipline of human factors and how a knowledge of human strengths and limitations, both cognitive and physical, can lead to better safety outcomes. This unit addresses end-user design issues and human variability in occupational contexts. You will explore human factors principles and learn to assess human interaction concerns using a variety of human factors methods. You will also develop skills to make human factors design recommendations to enhance human performance.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-requisite study of 24 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

Term 2 - 2025 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 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. Portfolio 25%
2. Written Assessment 25%
3. Group Work 50%

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 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 75.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 26.67% 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 & Teaching Evaluation Data
Feedback
Students desire greater clarity on how to form teams.
Recommendation
It is recommended that the 'Term Specific Information' within the Unit Profile highlight that this unit contains teamwork, provide details on team formation and the purpose of learning in teams, as well as a short, pre-recorded message available in Moodle.
Action Taken
This recommendation was actioned and appreciated by students as evidenced by the 100% rating for Clear Unit Requirements.
Source: Student Unit & Teaching Evaluation Data
Feedback
Students appreciate the real-world nature of assessment items.
Recommendation
It is recommended that students continue to be presented with assessment items that entail real-world settings.
Action Taken
This recommendation was continued. Students were presented with assessment items relevant to their degrees and that have real-world application in industry.
Source: Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation comments
Feedback
Student expectations of what the tutorials should contain needs to be clarified. In this unit the lectures cover the theory behind Human Factors, while the tutorials cover practical skills in the field that are needed and useful for completing assessment tasks.
Recommendation
In the welcome message, remind students that they need to attend/watch all lectures and tutorials as each of these cover different topics.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation comments
Feedback
Students expressed a desire to divide the team and individual grades for teamwork assignments equally.
Recommendation
During the tutorial on assessment work, elaborate on the reasons behind the division of grades for the team and individual components of a team project. Specifically, note that equal grades for the team and individual efforts tends to lead to reduced team effort and often a poorer final outcome for all students..
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Apply knowledge of the discipline of human factors including physical, cognitive and organisational ergonomics in a variety of contexts
  2. Analyse work systems and equipment design in accordance with user needs, capabilities and limitations
  3. Demonstrate the use of human factors assessment tools for addressing human interaction problems within various occupational contexts
  4. Develop teamwork and project management skills through the application of human factors assessment and problem solving.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Portfolio •
2 - Written Assessment • • •
3 - Group Work • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Communication • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • •
5 - Team Work •
6 - Information Technology Competence • • • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence •
8 - Ethical practice • •
9 - Social Innovation • • • •
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 - Portfolio • • • • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • • •
3 - Group Work • • • • • • • • •