Course Coordinator:Christina Driver (cdriver@usc.edu.au) School:School of Health - Psychology
Online |
Online | You can do this course without coming onto campus. |
Please go to usc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
Dementia is a major cause of disability among older people, with 10 million new cases per year, worldwide. Healthy ageing is accompanied by changes that impact cognition and behaviour. Thus, there is a spectrum of declining cognitive function, with normal ageing at one end and diseases such as mild cognitive impairment and then dementia at the severe end. In this course you will address the neurobiological changes in these diseases. Lifestyle factors can protect against dementia risk by up to 50 percent, so you will also learn how lifestyle interventions can prevent onset and progression.
Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
Online | |||
Online – The online activities will include a variety of asynchronous, interactive learning materials, and options for lecturer and peer to peer collaborations, and lecturer and peer zoom drop-ins. | 3hrs | Week 1 | 13 times |
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 | Explain current processes in brain ageing in relation to physiological and neurobiological evidence, using most relevant academic literature. | Knowledgeable |
2 | Evaluate and justify traditional and recent evidence-based approaches to improve brain health outcomes in a healthy ageing population including from an ethical perspective. | Ethical |
3 | Model a multidisciplinary approach to healthy brain ageing and present to targeted specialist practitioners. | Empowered |
4 | Apply advanced communication skills to targeted audiences, incorporating appropriate skills relevant to presentation genre. | Empowered |
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
Enrolled in Program AR602, AR706, OR SC546
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Standard Grading (GRD)
High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
You will be provided with multiple opportunities to gain early formative feedback relevant to your first assessment task by engaging with your learning materials. These include interactive self-check activities in the modules, posting responses to discussion forums and responding to your practice activities in the indicated manner.
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 | Artefact - Creative | Individual | 20% | To fit on A3 size poster |
Week 6 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
All | 2 | Oral and Written Piece | Individual | 40% | 20 minutes |
Week 11 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
All | 3 | Written Piece | Individual | 40% | 3000 words |
Exam Period | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
All - Assessment Task 1:Infographic style poster | |
Goal: | The goal is to explain our current understanding of the processes involved in brain ageing to compare ‘healthy’ ageing versus other outcomes on the ageing spectrum. |
Product: | Artefact - Creative |
Format: | You will design an infographic poster to inform the public on our current knowledge of healthy brain ageing and will be presented in an A3 poster size, following the guidelines provided. Your evaluation will include physiological and neurobiological evidence, to provide the basis for current approaches to promote healthy ageing. |
Criteria: |
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All - Assessment Task 2:Education session presentation | |
Goal: | The goal is to model a lifestyle-based intervention (multidisciplinary) recommended for an ageing population to improve brain health outcomes, justified by recent evidence. |
Product: | Oral and Written Piece |
Format: | You will present an education session to a multidisciplinary audience of health practitioners who are involved in the care of the elderly population. You will develop a recorded presentation (slides and spoken audio), according to the guidelines provided, to present to this audience. You will present a model of a lifestyle-based intervention (based on more than one lifestyle approach) you have developed, and justify to your health practitioner audience the importance of a multidisciplinary approach. |
Criteria: |
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All - Assessment Task 3:Mock ‘debate’ style article | |
Goal: | The goal is to justify both traditional biomedical and recent multidisciplinary lifestyle evidence-based approaches to improve brain health outcomes in an ageing population, including from an ethical perspective. |
Product: | Written Piece |
Format: | You will be asked to prepare content for a mock ‘debate’, directed at a scientific or academic audience, according to guidelines provided. You will assume the position of two opposing authors and therefore perspectives, to justify the evidence-base for approaches from both a biomedical and multidisciplinary lifestyle basis. In doing so, you will be required to be sensitive to the ethical practices in these treatment approaches in an older population. |
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.
All work submitted for assessment is to be word processed and submitted electronically. It is expected that students will have ready access to a computer with common productivity software and reliable Internet access. Students will be able to participate in video conferencing, and therefore it is recommended to have computer capabilities to join these sessions (e.g. webcam, microphone).
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.
Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment 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 will 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 and supply the required documentation to negotiate an outcome.
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