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Unit Summary
Unit type
UG Coursework Unit
Credit points
12
AQF level
Level of learning
Introductory
Former School/College
Pre-requisites
36 credit points from any SCU course
Unit aim
Introduces students to different types of methodologies used to inform evidence-based practice and the processes involved in conducting ethical research. Through both theoretical and practical components, students will learn the basic methods for: planning an investigation; collecting, analysing and interpreting data; and reporting and disseminating data findings.
Unit content
Understanding how evidence is created is a cornerstone learning foundation for all students of health sciences. This unit introduces students to understanding the nature of evidence in the health sciences:
- Ways of knowing and knowledge creation
- Identifying problems, purposes, aims, questions, hypotheses
- Ethical and cultural considerations in producing knowledge
- Methodological designs
- Data collection methods
- Data analysis including descriptive and inferential statistics, and thematic analysis
- Interpreting and reporting findings
Learning outcomes
Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.
| On completion of this unit, students should be able to: | GA1 | GA2 | GA3 | GA4 | GA5 | GA6 | GA7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | describe different philosophical approaches to knowledge creation | |||||||
| 2 | describe the strengths and limitations of various study designs | |||||||
| 3 | identify a question and plan an appropriate methodology that addresses it | |||||||
| 4 | evaluate ethical implications of a proposed inquiry | |||||||
| 5 | demonstrate an ability to conduct basic data analysis | |||||||
| 6 | demonstrate an ability to interpret and report findings. | |||||||
On completion of this unit, students should be able to:
-
describe different philosophical approaches to knowledge creation
- GA3:
-
describe the strengths and limitations of various study designs
- GA5:
-
identify a question and plan an appropriate methodology that addresses it
- GA5:
-
evaluate ethical implications of a proposed inquiry
- GA3:
-
demonstrate an ability to conduct basic data analysis
- GA1:
-
demonstrate an ability to interpret and report findings.
- GA1:
- GA5:
Prescribed texts
- This text is available to read online at the library so purchase is not required unless you prefer to read from a book: Portney, LG & Watkins, MP , 2015, Foundations of Clinical Research: Applications to Practice, 3rd edn, F. A. Davis, Philadelphia.
- This text is available to read online at the library so purchase is not required unless you prefer to read from a book: Portney, LG & Watkins, MP , 2015, Foundations of Clinical Research: Applications to Practice, 3rd edn, F. A. Davis, Philadelphia.
- This text is available to read online at the library so purchase is not required unless you prefer to read from a book: Portney, LG & Watkins, MP , 2015, Foundations of Clinical Research: Applications to Practice, 3rd edn, F. A. Davis, Philadelphia.