Unit Synopsis
The unit has been designed specifically for provisional research candidates at either Masters or Doctoral level to develop the skills necessary to prepare a quality Confirmation of Candidature (CoC) document with the support of their supervisors. In this unit, candidates will be guided through research terminology, research ethics, and the steps required in the construction of a research proposal. Regardless of discipline area, this unit will provide the knowledge and skills necessary to critically analyse and synthesise relevant literature, explain various research methodologies, and justify proposed methods of data collection and analysis. The assessments in this unit are designed to create a quality literature review and construct a design for a research project.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | Not Applicable |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| 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 3 - 2025
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 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. Literature Review or Systematic Review | 0% |
| 2. Research Assignment | 0% |
This is a pass/fail (non-graded) unit. To pass the unit, you must pass all of the individual assessment tasks shown in the table above.
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 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 94.74% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 52.78% 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: Student feedback
A few science based exemplars would be good
Include more examples of quantitative and science based research within the teaching materials.
Teaching materials were updated to include a more equal focus between qualitative and quantitative research methods and data analysis.
Source: Student comments
More examples of quantitative-based research.
RSCH20001 was offered for the last time in Term 1, 2024. Recommendations were not included here due to the termination of this unit.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Identify and justify the scope of the search used to select relevant literature for the research project
- Appraise and synthesise relevant evidence to develop and support a research question
- Integrate theory to identify and justify an overall research approach that aligns to the research question
- Apply critical thinking, academic writing, and professional formatting to the development of a research proposal
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Literature Review or Systematic Review | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Research Assignment | • | • | • | |
| 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 | • | • | • | |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |