Course Coordinator:Daniel Hermens (dhermens@usc.edu.au) School:School of Health - Psychology
Online |
Online | You can do this course without coming onto campus, unless your program has specified a mandatory onsite requirement. |
Please go to unisc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
This course focuses on the empirical component of the dissertation topic chosen with your Thompson Institute supervisor in Part A. In this course you will undertake data analysis based on existing datasets, which may be part of larger program of research and may therefore build on previous work carried out to date. The secondary data analyses may be quantitative or qualitative, with a focus on the methodology and statistical approaches undertaken. This empirical paper should represent an original contribution to the literature, relevant to the topic.
| Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
| Online | |||
| Independent Study/Research – Supervised independent study/research. | 300hrs | Throughout teaching period (refer to Format) | Once Only |
700 Level (Specialised)
24 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 | Identify research methods and analysis appropriate to mental health and neuroscience project. | Knowledgeable |
| 2 | Conceive, design and justify a research plan to address gaps in current mental health and neuroscience research. | Engaged |
| 3 | Apply advanced ethical considerations in designing an aspect of research activity. | Ethical |
| 4 | Execute a research data analysis project with a high level of personal autonomy and accountability. | Engaged |
| 5 | Apply scholarly writing skills, appropriate for submission to relevant journal style, to make a meaningful contribution to scholarly knowledge in mental health and neuroscience. | Empowered |
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
MHN711 and must be enrolled in program AR706
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Standard Grading (GRD)
| High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
An opportunity to submit a draft research plan will be provided in Week 3 for formative feedback.
| 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 | Written Piece | Individual | 30% | 2000 words |
Week 5 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All | 2 | Thesis | Individual | 70% | 4000-5000 words |
Exam Period | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All - Assessment Task 1:Research plan | ||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this assessment task is to plan and design a research project based on a secondary data set provided to you by your supervisor. |
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| Product: | Written Piece | |||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | ||||||||||||||||
| Format: | You will be required to conceive and design a research plan to utilise a secondary data set, with appropriate considerations for ethics, methodology and statistics. You will be guided by your supervisor in the data set use and required writing style. You will develop and justify this research plan which will then be the basis for your research manuscript in Assessment Task 2. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Organisation |
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| All - Assessment Task 2:Research manuscript | |||||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this assessment task is to enact your research plan and execute a research data analysis project, to then produce a research manuscript, appropriate for submission to a relevant journal. |
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| Product: | Thesis | ||||||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Based your research plan from Assessment Task 1, you will apply the relevant methodology and statistical analysis as defined in your plan. You will then write up your findings to produce a research manuscript, aligned to a particular journal style as guided by your supervisor. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Organisation |
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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.
This course may require the use of the software package SPSS. This is available for free via UniSC Anywhere, however, students may prefer to purchase their own licence (please discuss with Course Coordinator).
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:
(a) The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%; and
(b) The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale
Late submissions may be penalised up to and including the following maximum percentage of the assessment task’s identified value, with weekdays and weekends included in the calculation of days late:
(a) One day: deduct 5%;
(b) Two days: deduct 10%;
(c) Three days: deduct 20%;
(d) Four days: deduct 40%;
(e) Five days: deduct 60%;
(f) Six days: deduct 80%;
(g) Seven days: A result of zero is awarded for the assessment task.
The following penalties will apply for a late submission for an online examination:
Less than 15 minutes: No penalty
From 15 minutes to 30 minutes: 20% penalty
More than 30 minutes: 100% penalty
For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:
For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching
UniSC is committed to excellence in teaching, research and engagement in an environment that is inclusive, inspiring, safe and respectful. The Student Charter sets out what students can expect from the University, and what in turn is expected of students, to achieve these outcomes.
For course-specific questions, contact your teaching staff or Course Coordinator.
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