SOCL11055 - Sociology of Australian Society

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit provides you with an understanding of Australian society in an increasingly diverse and globalising world and how it has developed over time. It will examine how Australian history has helped to define Australian national identities. You will explore issues of power and social change and consider a range of social issues using sociological concepts. This will give you an understanding of the politico economic distribution of resources that shape social inequalities around culture, ethnicity, "race", gender and sexuality. You will develop an understanding of Australian Indigenous issues, processes of settlement and colonisation and multiculturalism and the implications of the globalisation of society. In this way the unit will be the basis for a professional career in human service and other workplaces.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 1
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 - 2025

Term 1 - 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

This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
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%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

To view Past Exams,
please login
Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2022 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 78.57% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 15.22% 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: Unit evaluation
Feedback
The textbook was complex and difficult to understand.
Recommendation
Alternative first year textbooks and CQU library eBook options will be explored as a possible replacement.
Action Taken
Additional resources were provided to students to support their sociological learning and these were placed in the weekly tiles and relevant eBook sections. Suitable first-year sociology textbooks have been reviewed and a new textbook is being adopted in 2023.
Source: Unit evaluation & email
Feedback
Check and fix broken links and communicate when extra resources provided on Moodle.
Recommendation
Extra effort will be directed to ensuring all functional links to resources & timely delivery.
Action Taken
Links to resources on Moodle were checked and any broken links were promptly fixed. New resources were highlighted to students and given a 'NEW' label to make identifying the resource easy.
Source: Unit evaluation
Feedback
More time is needed per question for the timed online multiple choice quiz and too many concepts tested.
Recommendation
Additional time will be provided to students due to their lack of familiarity with online quiz assessments. More practice quizzes will be provided to increase the learning of concepts and deeper understanding in preparation for the assessment quiz.
Action Taken
An additional 5 minutes were provided to students for the online quiz. A number of quizzes were provided to students along with a larger practice quiz to familiarise students with the format of the multiple choice quiz and the type of questions likely to be used.
Source: Unit evaluation
Feedback
Some topics were difficult to grasp such as globalisation and identities (gender and sexuality)
Recommendation
Resources for learning about these topics will be incorporated into their respective weeks by encouraging the use of the sociological perspective and examining examples (newspaper, social media, film) of social reality. Tutorials and Moodle material will be structured to allow students to practice their skills and to scaffold their learning.
Action Taken
Additional resources and examples were provided to support students' understanding of the sociological perspective. There were newspaper articles and youtube videos used in tutorials and links provided as learning resources in the weekly tiles.
Source: Student feedback SUTE
Feedback
The Zoom tutorial sessions were interactive and helped in understanding the content.
Recommendation
The unit coordinator will endeavour to continue to deliver the tutorials and unit material in an engaging and informative way to support students' learning.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student feedback SUTE
Feedback
The assessment help sessions on Zoom were invaluable and provided useful additional knowledge.
Recommendation
The unit coordinator will continue to provide additional assessment help sessions to advise students on their assignment preparation.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student feedback SUTE
Feedback
The assignment feedback needs to be clear and usable.
Recommendation
The unit coordinator will work closely with markers and provide further direction providing students with clearer and more constructive feedback. While only a small number of students identified this as an issue, further instruction and clearer feedback content will be provided to markers.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student feedback SUTE
Feedback
Use more examples or elaboration and link content to real-world applications.
Recommendation
The unit coordinator will update the learning materials, including readings, with more examples and explanations to support students' understanding of the topics, key concepts, theories and processes. More real-world examples and evidence of application will be provided around social work topics and societal issues for social work students.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes
This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see Learning Outcomes from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.