Unit Synopsis
This unit provides students with a comprehensive understanding of disaster risk, reduction, and resilience within the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. You will critically analyse these concepts and gain skills in applying the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction principles to community-level activities and initiatives while aligning them with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through this unit, you will learn how to develop appropriate disaster risk reduction strategies at a community level and facilitate collaborative and evidence-based decision-making regarding disaster resilience, preparedness, and hazard mitigation while addressing the interconnected goals of sustainable development. In this unit, you will learn how to reduce disaster risk through sustainable planning, building community partnerships, reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience, with a particular emphasis on risks that impact public health.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 9 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisites Students enrolled in the CM40 Bachelor of Paramedic Science/Graduate Certificate in Emergency and Disaster Management must have a minimum of 48 credit points to enrol in 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). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from 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.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 30% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 3. Presentation | 30% |
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 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 95.83% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 16.9% 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: SUTE
Provided clear instructions for each assessment.
Continue to provide clear assessment instructions. Continue to discuss assessment requirements at weekly drop-in sessions for students. Record these sessions for students who cannot participate live. Consider different times for conducting these drop-in sessions.
Clear and detailed instructions were provided for each assessment across the unit. Weekly drop‑in sessions were held to discuss assessment requirements, and recordings were made available for students unable to attend live. Session times were varied throughout the term to improve accessibility and accommodate different student schedules.
Source: SUTE
For the weekly tutorials cover the topics that have been presented and have discussions on the relevance of the information. Concentrate on the subject and less on how to get a good mark
Trial a fortnightly 'tutorial' session, with a focus on the subject content and the associated learning materials. Create an opportunity for students to engage with the subject matter, in a collaborative, non-threatening, way.
A fortnightly tutorial session was introduced to provide dedicated time for exploring subject content and related learning materials. These sessions focused on discussing key concepts, their relevance, and real‑world application, rather than assessment strategies. Activities were designed to encourage collaborative, low‑pressure engagement, giving students space to deepen their understanding of the material and participate in meaningful discussion.
Source: SUTE
Assessment feedback to be more consistent across assessments.
To provide clearer guidance to casual markers regarding the requirements for feedback as effectively as possible.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Critically analyse the concepts of disaster risk, disaster risk reduction and disaster resilience
- Apply the principles of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction to community-level activities aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals
- Develop appropriate disaster risk reduction strategies at a community level
- Facilitate collaborative and evidence-based decision-making regarding disaster resilience, preparedness and hazard mitigation.
Not applicable.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Presentation | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | ||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Research | • | • | • | • |
| 5 - Self-management | • | • | • | • |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |