Unit Synopsis
The Modern World Emerges provides a broad overview of world history from 1500-1900CE. It examines the emergence of new world patterns to 1800 and of the modern world of today. Specific areas of exploration to 1800 include Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment and Revolutionary Europe, the New World, Africa, the Muslim Empires, and the East Asian World and political, economic, social and cultural developments in, and interactions between, these spheres. The unit then surveys the 19th and 20th century world of industrialisation and rise of mass society in the West, new imperialism and global war, nationalism, revolution and independence. As an introductory level offering, the unit also introduces students to a preliminary understanding of the problems of historical evidence and emphasizes both discipline-specific and generic skills. Students will require computer and internet access to complete some assessment for this unit. Together with Ancient and Medieval Civilisations: An Historical Introduction, an optional introductory companion unit, The Modern World Emerges provides a firm foundation for more specialised history studies offered at CQU.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 1 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| 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 2 - 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. Written Assessment | 30% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 3. Online Quiz(zes) | 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 72.73% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 20% 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: Verbal Student feedback
Students noted that some slides were text-heavy and not engaging.
Update the lecture slides with more visual sources.
Slides have been updated.
Source: Verbal Student feedback
Students asked for greater clarity on the ethical use of generative AI.
The assessment rules should be updated to clearly explain how generative AI may and may not be used in written History assessments.
There is extra information on how to ethically use AI both in the first lecture and in the assessment instructions.
Source: Student in class feedback
Lecture slides were text-heavy
Update lectures to include audio and visual sources
In Progress
Source: Student in class feedback
Not enough in class discussion
The quiz will be retired and replaced with a group discussion assessment
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Have a broad knowledge of the political, economic, social and cultural history of major world civilizations and their interactions from c1500 to c1900;
- Have an unprejudiced understanding of the differing worldviews of these civilizations and an acceptance of others' informed opinions;
- Have an understanding of key historical problems of the period and evidence-backed solutions to these problems.
- Have the ability to explain the significance of historical events and processes in world history, including alternative worlds, and longitudinal and intergenerational studies
- Have the ability to critique historical interpretations and their applications to contemporary global issues
Nil
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • | • |
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | • | • | • | • |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | |||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||
| 3 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||