Unit Synopsis
Investigative Interviewing: Witnesses is a core unit in the Graduate Certificate in Applied Forensic Psychology. It is designed to introduce you to the key concepts, debates, and theories that underpin the interviewing of witnesses in criminal investigations. In the unit you will study the history of eyewitness testimony research, the development of research methods, and many of the leading interviewing techniques and protocols. Special focus will be on the interviewing of children, credibility assessment tools and those with 'vulnerabilities' (e.g., mental illness, intellectual disability, illiteracy, drug dependence, cultural and religious factors, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people). It will feature engaged teaching and learning, with real-world content, designed to prepare you to work with community based organisations, or in private practice. For example, the teaching will include practical skills training in interviewing techniques and feature an authentic assessment: a face-to-face interview.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 9 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
There are no pre-requisites for the unit.
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
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
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Essay | 30% |
| 2. Case Study | 30% |
| 3. Laboratory/Practical | 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%).
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 - 2020 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 33.33% 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 email.
Students appreciated the support offered during the semester and flexibility over assignment deadlines.
Support will continue to be offered throughout the semester and deadlines can be renegotiated.
The unit has gone into teach out as the course it is housed within has been discontinued. T1 2021 will be the final term of offering.
Source: Student email
The weekly lectures were well received, with students commenting positively on the lecturing style, and choice of case materials with in-depth critical analysis of those materials.
The popular positive lecturing style will be continued, as will the popular in-depth analysis of key cases.
The unit has gone into teach out as the course it is housed within has been discontinued. T1 2021 will be the final term of offering.
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Evaluate the efficacy of major models of investigative interviewing
- Apply creative strategies to design an effective interviewing strategy
- Investigate and synthesise complex case information involving a child witness.
N/A
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Essay | • | • | |
| 2 - Case Study | • | • | |
| 3 - Laboratory/Practical | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | |
| 4 - Research | • | • | • |
| 5 - Self-management | • | • | • |
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | • | |
| 7 - Leadership | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |