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 - 2026

Term 1 - 2026 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

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 66.67% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 17.44% 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 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
Zoom tutorial sessions will continue weekly and be recorded. A drop-in ZOOM consultation hour with the unit coordinator will be implemented to provide students with an opportunity to speak with the unit coordinator about their assessment and the weekly material to further support first year first term students.
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
Assessment information and help ZOOM sessions were provided to students a few weeks before the due dates and additional sessions were included leading up to the due dates to further assist students.
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
Expert moderation was undertaken for each written assessment and students received feedback comments at the end of each section and guidance on academic writing and referencing in their assignments. Feedback studio provided scores against the criteria and a final comment pointed out areas of strength, areas to improve and where to seek further assistance from the Academic Learning Centre.
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
Tutorial sessions focused on real world examples using media articles, videos and the assessments required students to focus on a social issue of their choice and respond to questions about current social issues (Changing family structure, impacts of colonisation on Indigenous Australians, poverty and social determinants of health, and privilege and oppression in Australian society).
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Students wanted more student engagement to be fostered in the unit.
Recommendation
The unit coordinator will pose questions on the discussion forum to encourage students to post to the Q&A discussion forum and to converse with other students to foster peer learning. Students will be encouraged to prepare and attend tutorials to share answers, compare viewpoints and build professional communication skills.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Students prefer more visual learning resources.
Recommendation
To better support visual learners, more resources in the form of diagrams, tables and images will be used alongside written information.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Students reported the lecturer was helpful.
Recommendation
Continued support will be provided to students with their assessments, and understanding of the sociological perspective and the sociological content of the unit. A weekly ZOOM consultation hour will be available for students to attend and talk with the unit coordinator.
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.