Course Coordinator:Harriot Beazley (hbeazley@usc.edu.au) School:School of Law and Society
UniSC Sunshine Coast |
Blended learning | Most of your course is on campus but you may be able to do some components of this course online. |
Please go to usc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
This course will introduce you to advanced issues related to development practice and evaluation in an international context, providing a critical reflection of practices and techniques used by development professionals and community workers in international settings. By emphasising agency, participation, capacity development, gender analysis, and cross-cultural values, you will develop an inclusive process for international community development planning and action. You will gain in-depth knowledge and skills about a range of development models and techniques.
Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
Blended learning | |||
Tutorial/Workshop 1 – Weekly workshops face to face | 2hrs | Week 1 | 13 times |
Learning materials – Weekly online learning materials | 1hr | Week 1 | 13 times |
Key principles in Community Development
Strengths based Approaches to Community Development (Appreciative Inquiry)
Participatory Action Research
Culture and Development
Gender and Development
Children, Young People and Development
Monitoring and Evaluation
Aid Effectiveness
700 Level (Specialised)
12 units
Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... | Graduate Qualities Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming... | |
1 | Understand the conceptual and practice principles, values and frameworks for international community development, including the institutions involved, their discourses and practices. | Knowledgeable |
2 | Comprehend the diversity of perspective and values in international community development, and learn to recognize and appreciate the complexity of scenarios and challenges that development practitioners may face. |
Knowledgeable Engaged |
3 | Be familiar with community development tools as well as knowledge and skills necessary to be more effective when working on a community development project. |
Empowered Ethical |
4 | Possess skills and techniques of international community development such as cross-cultural communication, gender analysis, participatory approaches, capacity development and monitoring and evaluation. | Ethical |
5 | Be aware of how to conduct oneself effectively and/or appropriately as a development practitioner | Ethical |
6 | Adopt flexible and adaptive work practices to suit local and national contexts in a variety of settings as well as in key program areas. | Empowered |
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
Enrolled in any PGRD Program
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Standard Grading (GRD)
High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
Timely and detailed feedback is provided for each assessment. Feedback is provided both within text and general comments to build scholarly skills. Students are able to seek feedback through face-to-face discussion with the course coordinator. Tutorials will include extended discussion and review of the assessment task requirements and scope.
Delivery mode | Task No. | Assessment Product | Individual or Group | Weighting % | What is the duration / length? | When should I submit? | Where should I submit it? |
All | 1 | Quiz/zes | Individual | 25% | 2000 words |
Week 6 | Online Test (Quiz) |
All | 2 | Oral | Individual | 35% | 15 Minutes |
Week 10 | In Class |
All | 3 | Case Study | Individual | 40% | 3500 words |
Week 13 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
All - Assessment Task 1:Online Test | |
Goal: | To critically apply your knowledge of key concepts and theories within current development practice |
Product: | Quiz/zes |
Format: | You will be required to write short responses to questions that will be posted on Canvas on the Monday of Week 5 and will be available for a week until Monday week 6. You will be required to answer ten questions with a maximum of 200 words for each question |
Criteria: |
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All - Assessment Task 2:Seminar Presentation | |
Goal: | You will present an individual seminar which will empower you to critically engage with a development scenario in a location of your interest. |
Product: | Oral |
Format: | Submit: Week 6-10. You will choose one week between Week 6 - Week 10 to present an individual seminar on a chosen topic. Choose a development practice issue in a 'developing' region or country in the world that interests you. Prepare a seminar on this issue as it relates to the course materials and readings. In particular you will be expected to focus on community development principles and values. Your scenario is expected to highlight key issues covered in the course, such as cross-cultural communication issues, gender analysis, children and development and participatory approaches to development. |
Criteria: |
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All - Assessment Task 3:Case Study Review | |
Goal: | Critical Review of a Development Project Case Study. An analytical review of 3,500 words which will require you to demonstrate a critical awareness of community development values, ethics and principles within the context of a specific development project. You will be expected to discuss the implications of the critique for an understanding of effective and appropriate community development practice. |
Product: | Case Study |
Format: | This final assignment will be in the form of a take home paper that will require a response to a real-life development scenario with specific questions. The emphasis will be to reflect on the community development practice frameworks which will have been discussed during the course, including problem analysis (together with a demonstration of gender and cross-cultural awareness), project design, and monitoring and evaluation. The answer will be approximately 4,000 words. The scenario (and supporting material) will be given out in week 9 and will be posted on Canvas the following day. For this essay, you will be required to provide a critical summary of the community development processes, principles and values which were applied, including relevant contextual factors and discussion of the relevant literature. The purpose of this assignment is to give participants in the course an opportunity to ground their theoretical and practical understanding of sustainable development practice in a particular case study. By linking theory to the issues, questions and dilemmas associated with community development, participants can gain an enhanced understanding of the analytical and practice frameworks presented in the course. |
Criteria: |
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A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.
Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.
Please note that you need to have regular access to the resource(s) listed below. Resources may be required or recommended.
Required? | Author | Year | Title | Edition | Publisher |
Recommended | Vandana Desai,Robert B. Potter | 0 | The Companion to Development Studies | 3rd | n/a |
Nil
Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.
Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.
In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.
Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying: The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4% The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale You have not failed an assessment task in the course due to academic misconduct
Late submission of assessment tasks may be penalised at the following maximum rate: - 5% (of the assessment task's identified value) per day for the first two days from the date identified as the due date for the assessment task. - 10% (of the assessment task's identified value) for the third day - 20% (of the assessment task's identified value) for the fourth day and subsequent days up to and including seven days from the date identified as the due date for the assessment task. - A result of zero is awarded for an assessment task submitted after seven days from the date identified as the due date for the assessment task. Weekdays and weekends are included in the calculation of days late. To request an extension you must contact your course coordinator to negotiate an outcome.
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