DSMG29003 - Building Adaptive Capacity with Communities

General Information

Unit Synopsis

In this unit, you will explore adaptive capacity building within communities and community resilience from a partnerships perspective. You will come to understand policy levers, available tools, programs and information that support adaptation. You will also develop skills to help facilitate partnerships and networks across government, non-government and community agencies to build community resilience. A key part of this unit involves understanding how these processes influence community change.

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

The co-requisite for the unit is DSMG28001 Foundations of Emergency and Disaster Management.

 

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 2 - 2025

Term 1 - 2026 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 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. Presentation 40%
2. Written Assessment 60%

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 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 25.49% 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: Teaching reflection Student assessment
Feedback
Some students were confused about the case studies for Assessments 2 and 3.
Recommendation
Provide the same case studies for Assessment 2 and 3 so that students can build on understanding concepts with the same contextual material.
Action Taken
The lecturer provided the same case studies for all unit assessments for clarity.
Source: Teaching Reflection Student evaluation Student assessment
Feedback
Assessment 1: Group Discussion was valued by some students as it helped them understand unit content and key concepts.
Recommendation
Reiterate to students that the discussion board can help them further understand unit material. Reduce the number of compulsory topics to facilitate more in-depth discussion.
Action Taken
The lecturer reiterated the value of the discussion board for supporting students with grasping the unit material, and the number of topics were simplified, although it should be noted that this was a formative rather than summative assessment for this term.
Source: Teaching Reflection Discussion with colleagues
Feedback
Assessing the Assessment 1: Group Discussion was labour intensive.
Recommendation
Integrate marking within the Moodle site for discussion board.
Action Taken
Following submission and approval of an Update to Unit Proposal, the Unit Coordinator removed Assessment 1 (Group Discussion), reducing the number of assessments in the unit from three to two.
Source: Teaching reflection Student assessment
Feedback
Assessment 2: Presentation provides a good opportunity to check students' understanding and knowledge through questions.
Recommendation
Add a marking criterion for response to questions.
Action Taken
The unit coordinator added a marking criterion in the rubric to assess students' responses to the questions following the presentations for this assessment.
Source: Teaching Reflection Student evaluation
Feedback
The Moodle layout and organisation . This may be because other DSMG units use Moodle Book.
Recommendation
Consider changing to a Moodle Book as per other DSMG units.
Action Taken
The unit coordinator changed the Moodle site to use Moodle Book (Learning Guide), similar to other Emergency and Disaster Management units.
Source: Teaching Reflection Student evaluation
Feedback
Students would like more video resources.
Recommendation
Integrate more video resources to replace or complement reading materials.
Action Taken
The unit coordinator integrated more video resources to supplement the Moodle Book, lecture slides, and readings to cater to various learning styles and needs.
Source: SUTE Teacher Evaluations
Feedback
Students felt the lecturer could use more examples and elaboration.
Recommendation
Incorporate more examples and elaborate on concepts through the learning materials (e.g., slides, Zoom sessions, videos, Moodle book).
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student Unit Evaluation comments
Feedback
Students appreciate the detailed explanations about unit content and assessments.
Recommendation
Continue to provide detailed explanations in the lecture content, unit materials, and assessments in various formats (e.g., live Zoom sessions, weekly announcements, Moodle Book).
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student Unit Evaluation comments
Feedback
Students felt it would be useful to incorporate activities that require interaction between students to foster peer learning.
Recommendation
Incorporate learning and/or assessment activities that require student interaction and collaboration for peer learning.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student Unit Evaluation comments
Feedback
Students identified that certain links in the reading material did not work.
Recommendation
Check that all links to reading material work before and during the term.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Evaluate the relationship between both adaptive capacity building and community resilience and the contribution they make to how communities deal with change
  2. Critically analyse and prioritise strategies that support community resilience, considering diverse community needs and agency perspectives
  3. Critically evaluate the effectiveness of principles and strategies to build community partnerships
  4. Design community resilience and/or adaptive capacity initiatives in collaboration with communities.

N/A

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Presentation • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Knowledge • • •
2 - Communication • •
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills • • • •
4 - Research • • • •
5 - Self-management • •
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility • • • •
7 - Leadership •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8