Unit Synopsis
In this unit you will develop a toolbox of practical skills for undertaking qualitative research. This unit covers how to design qualitative research, conduct interviews, thematically analyse qualitative data and evaluate the quality of qualitative research. It explores challenges and builds skills for first time researchers such as developing a research question, how to build rapport and trust with participants, ethical issues in gathering data and reporting qualitative research and what it means to be reflexive in research. You will develop self-awareness and reflexive skills, exploring your social, economic and political positions and how these shape your views on the world. By designing and developing a qualitative research proposal, you will learn how to practically apply your knowledge. Qualitative skills are highly sought after in many career paths. Ultimately this unit will equip you with skills that are of benefit to careers in research, business, government, community development and education.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
48 credit points. 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 |
Compulsory Residential School View Unit 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 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 | 20% |
| 2. Practical Assessment | 30% |
| 3. Written Assessment | 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 1 - 2021 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 90.48% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 47.73% 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: Evidence based practice (literature reviews) Self reflection Student feedback
Continue to deliver residential school online due to success of this method in 2020.
Pilot the use of streaming software and utilise new features in Zoom (such as the ability to use multiple cameras - May 2020 software update) to enable more interactive learning and further improve the quality of the audio and video streaming.
OBS (Open Broadcast Software) was used to improve the quality of the audio and video streaming and new features in Zoom such as gestures and polling were used during the residential to improve interaction.
Source: Not applicable
Not applicable
This unit is being discontinued at the end of 2021 T2. Therefore no further recommendations for quality enhancement are applicable for this unit.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Critically reflect on the philosophies and principles behind qualitative research
- Critique qualitative research in existing literature
- Exemplify qualitative skills in data collection.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | |
| 2 - Practical Assessment | • | • | |
| 3 - Written Assessment | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | ||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | ||
| 5 - Team Work | • | ||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | ||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | ||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | |
| 9 - Social Innovation | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |