Course Coordinator:Trevor Gates-Crandall (tgates@usc.edu.au) School:School of Law and Society
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.
This course builds on your experiences from Social Work Field Education 1, providing the opportunity to reflect on and draw further learning from your experiences during placement. A critical framework will be used to examine key theories of organisations and management, culture, learning, funding and accountability structures. The course has a strong practice focus, enabling exploration of the role of social work in statutory and government organisations as well as non-government organisations and the impact of voluntarism. Implications for service users and their experiences of service systems is central.
Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
Online | |||
Online – online lecture (asynchronous/not timetabled) | 1hr | Week 1 | 13 times |
Online – online tutorial (synchronous/timetabled) | 2hrs | Week 2 | 12 times |
Weekly topics will be announced on Blackboard, and will include themes of social work in organisations, bureaucracies and public organisations, neoliberalism, practice settings, organisational culture, vision, values, conflict, relationships, and consumerism.
400 Level (Graduate)
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 | Develop a critical understanding of organisational theory and the role of social workers as agents of change within human service organisations. | Knowledgeable |
2 | Critically analyse the current socio-political context of human service organisations and understand the implications for social work practice. | Creative and critical thinker |
3 | Critically reflect upon your own human service organisation experiences in first placement and how they impacted on your presentation | Empowered |
4 | Identify ethical dilemmas inherent in human service organisations, and articulate how to effect change which facilitates an organisation's ability to work from an anti-oppressive framework. | Ethical |
5 | Utilise critical reflection as a means of sustaining yourself as you respond to oppressive organisational processes. | Sustainability-focussed |
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
(SWK301 and enrolled in Program AR362 or AR363) or AR707
Not applicable
SWK200
Not applicable
Standard Grading (GRD)
High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
Feedback will be provided in the first third of the course via online quizzes. Feedback will also be provided on the oral assessment during tutorials in the first third of the course.
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 | 30% | 3 quizzes |
Refer to Format | Online Test (Quiz) |
All | 2 | Oral | Individual | 30% | 7 minutes |
Week 6 | Online Self and Peer Assessment |
All | 3 | Case Study | Individual | 40% | 3,000 words |
Week 10 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
All - Assessment Task 1:Quizzes | ||||||||||||||||
Goal: | The goal of this task is to apply your understanding of human service organisations through multiple choice quizzes. |
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Product: | Quiz/zes | |||||||||||||||
Format: | Submit: Weeks 3, 4, and 5 Three (3) multiple choice quizzes. You will be assigned to read text chapters and other readings provided on Blackboard that pertain to the quiz topics. You will be required to respond to multiple choice questions about the text chapters and other materials. Quizzes are open-book. |
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Criteria: |
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Generic Skills: |
All - Assessment Task 2:Presentation on Organisational Behaviour | |||||||||||||||||||
Goal: | To analyse a contemporary human service organisational issue |
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Product: | Oral | ||||||||||||||||||
Format: | Students are to prepare a 7 minute presentation on a contemporary organisational behaviour topic. The purpose of the presentation is to educate your team on a contemporary organisational behaviour topic that interests you. Select from one of the following topics: • Workforce diversity in human service organisations • Work-life balance in human service organisations • Workplace harassment in human service organisations • Hostile work environments human service organisations The key elements of the presentation will be as follows: • Define the organisational behaviour topic that you chose using a clear statement of purpose/thesis statement • Describe theoretical issues surrounding the organisational behaviour topic • Provide a lived experience of your chosen organisational behaviour topic. You might provide a video clip or even tell your own story of how the organisational behaviour issue impacted you personally. Presentations will be peer-marked (10%) marked during the scheduled tutorial time. You must attend tutorial to have your presentation marked by your peers. Annotated slides will be placed on Blackboard for review by the tutor (20%). |
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Criteria: |
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Generic Skills: |
All - Assessment Task 3:Organisational Assessment/Case Study | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Goal: | To assess the strengths and opportunities within your field organisation |
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Product: | Case Study | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Format: | This assessment is designed to help you assess the strengths and opportunities of a past field organisation, using concepts of organisational culture discussed in course readings and lecture. For this assessment, you will focus on the culture of a particular organisation. For example, you may select an organisation from which you are employed for pay, you completed a field placement, or you serve as a volunteer. Any human service organisation in which you made a significant contribution, whether paid or unpaid, will be acceptable for this assessment. This assessment will be a chance for you to reflect on your learning, including your first placement, but also show some critical and theoretical sophistication, as it is expected to have personal dimensions, but be primarily an academic piece. |
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Criteria: |
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Generic Skills: |
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.
Period and Topic | Activities |
n/a |
n/a |
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 |
Required | Mark Hughes,Michael Wearing | 2016 | Organisations and Management in Social Work | n/a | Sage Publications Limited |
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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