Unit Synopsis
In this unit, you will be introduced to basic systems and calculations applied to structures of residential and commercial buildings. You will then extend your understanding of fundamental concepts and principles by referring to structural drawings and computational methods associated with various structures including timber, reinforced concrete and steel structures. The unit learning will cover essential knowledge areas of structural mechanics including loading and load paths, support systems, determinate and indeterminate structures, main structural elements (e.g. beams, columns), tension members and compression members. By the end of this unit, you will have developed a sound understanding of the application of design processes for common structures.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| 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
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 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. Online Quiz(zes) | 10% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 3. Online Quiz(zes) | 10% |
| 4. Written Assessment | 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 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 53.85% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 29.55% 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 Unit Teaching Evaluation Unit comments Report- T1- 2024
Fabulous examples were embedded in the lectures and tutorials. This made the process for assessments quite easy to follow. Lecturer explained the concepts really well.
Similar teaching strategy is recommended to adopt in the next and future deliveries.
The current delivery adopted the same teaching strategy. Positive student feedback is evidence of the effectiveness of this teaching strategy.
Source: Five Year Built Environment Course Review in 2020 aligned with the recommendation given by the Building Design Queensland (BDQ)/ National Association of Building Designers (BDAA) in CU65 accreditation renewal in 2019.
It is suggested to merge two structural units into one in expense of a unit added to all built environment courses that enhances built environment students' CAD drafting skills.
It is recommended to implement this task in one year time.
Implementation of the merged unit started with this delivery. Built environment students now have the opportunity to include a CAD drafting unit in their study planner.
Source: Students Unit Teaching Evaluation Unit Comments Report- T1- 2025
Students found the unit was well presented, and the lecturer incorporated student feedback into his teaching and the unit delivery.
The same teaching strategy is recommended to adopt for the next delivery.
In Progress
Source: Students Unit Teaching Evaluation Unit Comments Report- T1- 2025
Some of the assessment questions could be further improved for clarity.
Generally, all assessment questions are peer-reviewed internally to improve clarity before they are released in Moodle. Apart from that, it is recommended to discuss all the assessment questions in class and in online forums, mainly using 'Discussion Forum'. Students are encouraged to contact the teaching team if further clarification is required.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Calculate supporting reactions of different loading systems by applying the concept of equilibrium
- Calculate basic section properties of structural elements such as first and second moment of area, centroid, bending and shear stresses
- Apply the principles of structural analysis to identify determinate and indeterminate structures
- Size and design simple structural members including beams and columns.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | ||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||
| 3 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | ||
| 4 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | ||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |