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HLTH12032 - Community Needs Assessment

General Information

Unit Synopsis

At a global level, rising demands for health and social supports, constrained resources, and widening health inequalities have made community needs assessments an essential tool in public health practice. This unit introduces you to the principles and practices of community needs assessment, equipping you with the skills to identify populations in greatest need and to map the physical, economic, social, and cultural assets within communities. You will explore various types of needs assessments and their application in local contexts, with a particular focus on health promotion. Through critical examination of assessment methods and evaluation strategies, you will learn how to effectively plan, implement, and assess community-based initiatives that aim to maximise health equity and resource allocation.

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

48-credit unit pre-requisite

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
Melbourne
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 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

This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see assessment details from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.

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 30.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 34.48% 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
Feedback
Some students found the Moodle tiles and modular design difficult when planning their study.
Recommendation
Improve Moodle design, making greater use of headings and provide students with the opportunity to mark activities as "done". Scaffold the "modular" design of the unit in early tutorials so that students are clear about learning to work at their own pace. Reduce the number of Discussion forums.
Action Taken
Moodle is reorganised in Modules format.
Source: Student feedback and personal reflection
Feedback
Marking criteria are not clear enough to guide students.
Recommendation
Revise marking criteria.
Action Taken
Marking criteria were revised.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Some students found the volume of content to be excessive, particularly with respect to the number of assessment tasks.
Recommendation
In 2024, the volume of content was reduced despite not being flagged as an issue in previous years. A redesign of Assessment task 2 tasks may address the issue of "volume".
Action Taken
Contents were revised.
Source: Teaching team evaluation and student feedback.
Feedback
Assessment task 2 presented problems around teamwork.
Recommendation
Redesign Assessment task 2 to be less complex.
Action Taken
Assessment 2 was re-designed.
Source: UC feedback
Feedback
Students from non-public health disciplines have difficulty using the community based lens for this unit.
Recommendation
Scaffold the "community lens" in the first module so students are clear about how this applies in assets and needs assessments.
Action Taken
Materials were simplified.
Source: UC feedback
Feedback
Some students found teamwork challenging
Recommendation
Provide an improved introduction to working in teams early in the term and make the expectations for team engagement explicit.
Action Taken
Groups were supported with one on one meeting.
Source: UC feedback
Feedback
Some students had the expectation that they would be given immediate on-on-one coaching.
Recommendation
Make expectations for communication with the lecturer explicit from the start of term, including CQU's expected turnaround times and the need for all course-related communication to be via the Discussion Forums.
Action Taken
Students were offered one on one meeting with coordinator.
Source: SUTE Unit Comments Report
Feedback
Found the module and assessment contents to be too cluttered and made it confusing and worried most of the times. Some of the reading links didn't work. The assessment requirements were made a lot clearer by more concise information via separate announcements on Moodle from the coordinator who took over from week three.
Recommendation
The evaluation feedback indicates a need to refine the Moodle content and assessment information to enhance clarity and support student learning.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE Unit Comments Report
Feedback
The unit needs to be completely restructured. The Moodle is hard to navigate due to the organisation of resources, I could never remember where anything was, it is not clear .
Recommendation
This suggests that a complete refresh of the unit is needed to provide clear, effective and easy-to-navigate resources to facilitate student engagement and learning.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE Unit Comments Report
Feedback
Prefer the week by week content sections instead of the mixed weeks. The assessments were not clear and often confusing. Too much mixing of group work, solo work within the group work and working as a group but submitting separately.
Recommendation
Consideration of weekly content breakdown.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE Unit Comments Report
Feedback
I think the group assessment needs some work. The roles don't really make sense for what the assignment is. It doesn't make sense to our group to have a writer role when everyone is writing their own assessment.
Recommendation
Assessments will be reviewed for the next offering.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes
This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see Learning Outcomes from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.