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The information below is relevant from 28/10/2013 to 08/03/2015
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SOCL11059 - Policy, Power and Politics

General Information

Unit Synopsis

The Policy, Power and Place plan enables students to explore the 'power of place' including its politics and the policy processes this entails. Students will be able to explore a range of 'place' related issues including rural society, community analysis, social services, health and medical challenges, ethnic diversity and gender policies. Students who have satisfactorily completed SOCL19062 Policy, Power and Politics do not need to complete this new course.

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 - 2014

Term 1 - 2017 Profile
Distance
Term 1 - 2018 Profile
Distance
Term 1 - 2019 Profile
Online
Term 1 - 2020 Profile
Online
Term 1 - 2021 Profile
Online
Term 1 - 2022 Profile
Online
Term 1 - 2023 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. Written Assessment 20%
2. Portfolio 45%
3. Written Assessment 35%

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 - 2022 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 62.50% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 15.38% 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: Moodle Site
Feedback
I think that the unit has to be restructured. The assessment task was confusing and sometimes didn't relate to the unit work. Some content was biased and did not give students a realistic view on issues and counter-opinions.
Recommendation
The unit will be restructured to give a broader understanding of social change.
Action Taken
The unit has been revised and a new format adopted to support student learning of social change processes and the global mega-trends and their associated social issues.
Source: Moodle Site
Feedback
The unit was not designed in a way that led me to understand what I should be studying each week. The moodle pages lacked content. Assignments introduced concepts that were briefly considered in the unit materials.
Recommendation
Implementation of a top-down restructuring of the unit with a clear scaffolded approach will assist students.
Action Taken
The restructured unit builds student knowledge of key concepts, processes and information from wicked social problems, change processes and leadership to social movements and social change in the first half of the unit. This scaffolding supports student understanding of the next half covering different global megatrends using their newly acquired knowledge.
Source: Moodle Site
Feedback
Lindsay was a great help navigating us through this unit. He made sure that we all could understand the work and he was very engaging on the unit topic. I enjoyed the genuine local focus, organisational relevance, and real-world situational awareness provided by Lindsay Greer.
Recommendation
Implementation of new unit structure and continue with a grounded approach to teaching social change to engage students in sociological thinking.
Action Taken
The sociological perspective is taught to students in the first week of the unit and then used throughout the discussions around the real-world global megatrends and social impacts to provide a global and local understanding of social change.
Source: Student Unit Evaluation
Feedback
Release of the weekly topic lecture at the start of the week.
Recommendation
Early release of the lecture notes and recording will be implemented.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student Unit Evaluation
Feedback
Include more information on key concepts and topics in the PowerPoint lecture notes.
Recommendation
The PowerPoint lecture notes will be updated and attention given to providing students with more information on key concepts and topics to scaffold student learning and support the set readings.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student Unit Evaluation
Feedback
Found the lectures to be good and of a suitable length.
Recommendation
Attention will continue to be invested in providing useful lectures and in a format to support student learning.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student Unit Evaluation
Feedback
Great feedback on the assignments provided.
Recommendation
Students' learning and development of academic thinking and writing skills will continue to be supported through feedback.
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Describe and analyse the key issues in political sociology.
  2. Identify and explain aspects of political culture and ideology.
  3. Outline the structure of the state and democracy, and of Australian government in particular; its role in the political process; and relationships with political parties and social movements.
  4. Discuss the nature of public policy; the major stages of the policy process; and approaches adopted in analysing policy-making.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Written Assessment
2 - Portfolio
3 - Written Assessment
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
6 - Information Technology Competence
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 - Written Assessment
2 - Portfolio
3 - Written Assessment