Unit Synopsis
Building upon the foundational knowledge of how the immune system functions gained in Foundations of Immunology you will now examine the consequences of a malfunctioning immune system including immune deficiencies and autoimmunity. This will include a case-based learning approach and practical laboratory sessions to explore immune dysfunction.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Prerequisites BMSC11012 Foundations of Immunology 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 |
Compulsory Residential School View Unit 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 Test | 20% |
| 2. Laboratory/Practical | 0% |
| 3. Oral Examination | 40% |
| 4. Examination | 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 72.73% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 22.45% 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
Some students reported that they felt overwhelmed with the level of content in the unit
Consider implementing a mid-session assessment to spread the content of the unit over the semester.
A mid-session test was introduced to allow the unit content to be assessed in two parts during the course of the term.
Source: Student feedback, SUTE comments
Some students felt that they would benefit from examples being provided for the written assessment
Consider providing more examples for the level of information expected for the written assessment.
Exemplars from previous students’ written assessments were provided to support student understanding of expectations and assessment standards.
Source: SUTE
The written assessment was effective in assessing knowledge; however, students felt it was excessively long.
Review the written assessment to ensure its length and scope are appropriate while still effectively assessing student knowledge and learning outcomes.
In Progress
Source: Student feedback
Students appreciated the flipped classroom model with worksheets and interactive tutorials as they strongly supported student engagement and understanding of complex topics
Continue the use of the flipped classroom model and interactive tutorials to encourage student engagement and success.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Discuss immune function and dysfunction at the molecular and cellular levels
- Explain how aberrations in immune regulation underlie autoimmunity, immunodeficiency, allergy and cancer
- Explain how aberrations in immune regulation can be measured in the laboratory and corrected by directed therapeutics
- Discuss the application of the principles of immunology to the development of vaccines and diagnostic techniques
- Demonstrate competence in the use of primary resource material for experimental and research assignment purposes.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Online Test | • | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Laboratory/Practical | • | ||||
| 3 - Oral Examination | • | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Examination | • | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • | • |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | ||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |