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Unit Synopsis
In this unit you will be provided with essential knowledge on the role of microorganisms and infection control within the context of health care. The unit will also cover host defences and the immune response, including the host-pathogen relationship and the mechanisms of microbial disease. Microbial epidemiology will be examined, with emphasis on worldwide discipline-specific examples.
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 |
Prereq: BMSC11002 Human Body Systems 2 or BIOH11005 Introductory Anatomy and Physiology or ALLH11004 Anatomy and Physiology for Health Professionals 2 or BMSC11008 Medical Anatomy and Physiology 2 or BMSC11011 Human Anatomy and Physiology 2. Condition: Be enrolled in any of the following courses: CB77, CB29, CB66, CB70, CB86, CB26 or CM51. This unit is incompatible with MBIO19012 Microbiology. 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 - 2024
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 Quiz(zes) | 20% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 30% |
| 3. Online Test | 50% |
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 78.57% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 20.29% 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 comment
Students enjoyed the home practicals as they make the content relatable.
The home practicals will continue.
The home practicals continued as before.
Source: SUTE comment
Virtual labs disease table needs more explanation.
The structure and instructions of the virtual labs (disease transmission) will be revised and updated.
The virtual laboratory instructions were updated.
Source: SUTE comment
Oral health students claim content overlap between this and some of their other units.
Content mapping with oral health staff will continue.
Some content mapping with oral health staff took place and is ongoing.
Source: SUTE comment
One student would prefer the learning material to be in a format other than videos.
Lecture transcripts are available but this may not be clear to the students. This will be stated at the beginning of the unit, as well as instructions on how to access them.
In Progress
Source: SUTE comment
One student commented that the multiple parts to some assessments were a bit much.
The assessments will be evaluated and possibly revised to reduce the number of parts.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Describe the relationship between form and function in the major groups of microorganisms.
- Discuss the role of microorganisms in relation to human health, with particular reference to the normal microbiota and exogenous microorganisms
- Describe the mechanisms of microbial diseases, including host-microbe interactions and disease transmission
- Explain the fundamental principles of innate and adaptive (specific) immunity
- Describe the major cells and tissues of the immune system and state their function in the immune response
- Apply the fundamental principles of microbial epidemiology to current issues relating to human health
- Interpret the principles of sterilisation, disinfection, and infection control in relation to the student’s discipline area
- Interpret the results of laboratory experiments in the context of the underlying microbiological principles.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | |||||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | |||||
| 3 - Online Test | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • | |||
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | |||||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | |||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | |||||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | |||||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |