In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
This unit equips you with the foundation knowledge, skills and techniques for planning and designing a postgraduate research project on a chosen topic relating to your discipline. You will learn how to identify and review credible and relevant literature. You will develop the necessary competencies to identify a research gap and articulate research questions. You will consider qualitative and quantitative approaches, and choose appropriate data collection methods for your project with the final outcome of the unit being the development of a research proposal. The unit is designed to help you develop essential problem-solving and research skills for evaluating or conducting independent research projects including the ethical issues involved.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this 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).
Offerings For 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.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
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.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
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.
Feedback from Direct meeting with the students during the term
The due dates for assessments caused unnecessary stress to the students. They needed to be rescheduled.
The due dates should be revised to distribute the load evenly over the weeks. Also, the number of assessments should be revised by merging them together and minimising the effort required to achieve the learning outcomes.
Feedback from SUTE and Direct meetings with the students during the term
Requirements of the assessments were not fully clear.
More emphasis should be given to elucidating the assessment requirements at the early stages of the term.
- Identify and review credible literature to inform the articulation of a research question within your discipline
- Select appropriate research approaches, methods and skills for testing the research question
- Employ relevant ethical practices that consider the social, cultural and legal responsibilities of researchers
- Apply relevant project management principles to effectively plan your research project
- Develop a rigorous research proposal with all necessary components.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 40% | |||||
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) - 20% | |||||
| 3 - Research Proposal - 40% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | |||||
| 2 - Communication | |||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | |||||
| 4 - Research | |||||
| 5 - Self-management | |||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | |||||
| 7 - Leadership | |||||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||