QUIZ 1: Integrity Module Mastery Quiz (0%)

Integrity Model and proper referencing: Integrity Module (which you will need to complete to have full access to the rest of the course) and associated resources are available on the course iLearn. You will have to register for the Integrity module using your Student ID. Five topics are covered: what is academic integrity, acting with integrity, responsibility and rights, library searches, communication skills, referencing and plagiarism, and online exam (quizzes) and academic integrity. Therefore, Quiz 1 actually the integrity module quiz, so it is recommended that you go through and the entire module before attempting the quiz. The information provided in this module is necessary for all assessments in this unit.

It is recommended you complete this as soon as logging into the course, or by 13/8/20 – the day before your first assessment it due.  

Proper referencing: Note we will be using Harvard Style referencing, please familiarise you self with it as it will be what we expect you to use in assessments. The library has a great information on it: https://libguides.mq.edu.au/referencing/Harvard

SCIENCE LITERACY ASSESSMENTS (5% each topic, 20% total, 4 due dates)

These four assignments will help you understand what makes a good scientific source, the importance of good background and methods information, and how to interpret data output from experiments. Submit via TurnItIn. These assessments will help prepare you to do your poster assessment.

QUIZZES 2-11 (5% each topic, 50% total)

Weekly online quizzes: 25-min quizzes compiled of ~20 questions (23 marks; ~1 minute per question) and completed in iLearn. The time is short, and you only have one attempt as these quizzes are designed to be taken as closed note, i.e. you have studied and know the information before beginning the quiz. A variety of question types are included, including multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and matching. Quizzes test your knowledge of the content from the corresponding lectures and linked reading assignments. These quizzes will become available no later than the Friday after the associated lectures are completed (with exception of quiz 7 which will become available after due date for 2-6 has passed). 

Quizzes 2-6 are due by the first Friday of Mid-semester break – 18/9/20. Quizzes 7-11 are due by first Friday of Exams – 13/11/20. We strongly suggest that you do the quizzes each week rather than waiting until mid-break or the end of semester. It also is easier to do them when information is fresh.

SCIENTIFIC POSTER ASSESSMENT – this will account for 30% of your total grade and has three parts to it:

PART 1 - PRACTICE POSTER REVIEW (0%): 

In WORKSHOP you will be provided with three online example posters that require assessment in week 11 – 23/10/20. You must do them before you can submit your own poster to Workshop for Peer Review, but it is SUGGESTED you do this in advance of making/submitting your own poster so you can see what makes a good poster!

PART 2 – POSTER ASSESSMENT (25%):

Based on a real data set (provided in iLearn), the idea is to take on the role of the researcher and present the research findings as if they are your own. More detailed instructions will be provided in iLearn. Various resources to help you are available on iLearn under ‘Poster Assessment’. 

A poster communicating your research findings is due thefirst day ofweek 12 – 26/10/20. Submission is online via the Poster assessment links in TurnItIn AND Workshop. The poster should be created in PowerPoint, Keynote or Open Office only, and then converted to a pdf for online submission via TurnItIn AND Workshop. Twenty precent of your mark comes markers marking your TurnItIn poster, and 5% comes from your peers making it in Workshop (see below). There is no in-person presentation of the poster, just online submission. 

POSTERS MUST BE TURNED IN TO TURNITIN AND WORKSHOP ON DUE DATE TO AVOID LATE PENALTIES.

*** As this course has no final exam, the mark for this assessment will be release with your final grades. ***

PART 3 – PEER REVIEW MARKING (5%)

You will be randomly allocated five posters from your peers, and will be required to evaluate them online in iLearn by the in week 13 – due 6/11/20. This assignment and ability to mark will open approximately one week (~30/11/20) after poster submission to allow for approved late submissions. Your ability to mark appropriately (compared to other students and the convener) will be graded. Detailed instructions are provided in iLearn. You should also re-read the ‘poster summary’ in iLearn before reviewing (see ‘Poster Creation’ section in iLearn). 

In order for your poster to be marked by your peers, you will need to submit it via the peer review assessment workshoplink in iLearn. Again, please do this by the first day of week 12 – 26/10/20 (i.e. you will submit your poster to WORKSHOP AND TURNITIN). You will be provided with three online example posters that require assessment before you submit your own poster (complete in week 11 – 23/10/20) – this is to give you experience in peer review and to give you ideas for your own poster. You must complete the practice reviews before you can submit your poster to workshop!  

FINAL EXAM: There is no final exam! 

-------------

ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION DETAILS

All assessments must be submitted online in iLearn as word or PDF files only (see notes on specific requirements as posters must be PDF). General instructions on how to submit assessments in iLearn can be found on this help webpage.

Science literacy: Submitted to correct topic tab in the Science Literacy TurnItIn in as word document or pdf format that turnitin can assess for plagiarism – e.g. for example do not submit an excel file for the Handling Data assessment as TurnItIn does not format this properly so you may lose makes for unclear answers. If the document cannot be assessed for plagiarism by TurnItIn you will lose 10% off mark for first assessment with this issue and a zero for any additional assessments that cannot be plagiarism checked. 

Poster assessment: You should submit your poster PDF to the poster assessment link. The text included in your poster PDFis submitted to turnitin.com to check for plagiarism, so your original poster file must be created in PowerPoint, Keynote or Open Office only so that the text can be read by TurnItIn. Posters created in graphics-based programs like Photoshop and Illustrator will not be accepted by TurnItIn as they make words images. More specific instructions on how to submit TurnItIn assessments are found in the Poster Assessment section in iLearn under the ‘poster submission’ subheading. If the entire document cannot be assessed for plagiarism by TurnItIn you will lose 25% off mark, if parts of the document cannot be assessed for plagiarism you will lose 15% off your mark.

Peer review: First, before you submit your poster you should mark the three practice posters in the peer review link (scroll down to the bottom of the page when you enter workshop). We suggest you do this well before the due date so that you can get some ideas for your own poster. Second, you should submit your completed poster PDF to the peer review. The poster PDF submitted to the peer review link will then be randomly allocated and marked by your peers. Instructions on how to submit via the peer review link are found in iLearn under the ‘peer review’ subheading. Third, log back in and complete peer review of 5 of your fellow student’s poster.

EXTENSIONS AND LATE SUBMISSIONS PENALTIES: 

Assessments submitted after the due date and without an approved Special Consideration will be penalised 10% of the mark allocated for the assessment per day late. For example, if the assessment carries a value of 25% of the total unit grade and an initial score of 20/25 (80%) is achieved but has been submitted one day late, 10% of the initial possible mark (i.e. 25*10% = 2.5 points) will be subtracted from the initial score (i.e. 20-2.5 = 17.5 out of 25 = 70%).

All applications for extensions of deadlines with out penalty must be submitted to via the University’s special considerations form (see details and form link below). All applications for special consideration or extension must be sought before the due date unless this is absolutely impossible (in which case you have 3 days from the due date). 

PLAGERISM: 

All written work must be in the student's own words. Assessments submitted via Turnitin will be subjected to plagiarism detection. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Penalties for plagiarism range from loss of marks to awarding a zero, depending upon the level of plagiarism, and will be reported to the Faculty Disciplinary Committee.

ASSIGNMENT MARKS AND FEEDBACK:

Marks for each assessment can be found in the iLearn grade book (click on the Tools tab at the top of screen, and then on Grades). 

Science literacy: Feedback will be provided online via GradeMark in turnitin.

Poster: Feedback for the poster will be provided online via GradeMark – click on the ‘Poster assessment’ link to view. Instructions on how to view feedback and grades are found in iLearn under the ‘poster marks/comments’ subheading.

Quizzes: Quizzes are to be treated as exams, therefore feedback will not be provided. Marks will, however, be available in the grade book after you finish each quiz.

Lectures

There are 3 hours of lectures a week. Due to COVID-19 there are no face-to-face lectures in S2.  All lectures will be pre-recorded and made available in the week they are scheduled to be delivered in ECHO360 and in a folder under each week. An audio file of the lecture and PDFs of the slides presented will also be provided in the folder for those with low bandwidth. In addition, lectures will be live streamed on Zoom at link provided on iLearn by the course convenor during the assigned course times (see below). You can ask questions via chat during the lecture that the convenor will answer, or you can ask them at the end of the streamed lecture when the lecturer will be present for a 10+ minute question and answer session. Additional questions can be posted on the appropriate discussion board. 

Lecture times- Online Zoom stream- links provided on iLearn

Lecture 1 & 2 - Monday 3 - 5pm  

Lecture 3 - Wednesday 12 - 1pm 

Tutorials        

There are no formal tutorials in this course, look for online resources that will help you prepare for your assessments.

Readings

There is no textbook this year. However, relevant papers and book chapters are provided in iLearn under the ‘Required readings’ link each week, which will be included in the quizzes. Additional, “for interest” readings will also be provided, but will not be on quizzes.

Students with no science background (or it it has been long-time since your last science course)

Please see the “Science Introduction for non-science majors” tab on iLearn before starting this unit. There will be several readings that provide you with a crash course in biological and evolutionary concepts. Do the readings and then take the optional ‘biological and evolutionary concepts quiz’, which will test your recollection of the major concepts. This quiz closes at the end of week 4 and you have unlimited attempts. It is unscored, but will make sure you have the background you need to move forward in the course.

Discussion boards

Discussion boards are set-up for students to ask general questions that may be of interested to the entire class, e.g. questions about lecture or assessments (there will be separate discussion boards set-up for these topics). These discussion boards are moderated by the course convenor. However, if you know the answer to a fellow student's question, please feel free to respond, but be respectful to your fellow students or your comment will be deleted.

Do not post about personal matters on discussion boards, these should be directed to the course convenor via "Contact convenor privately" link.

Announcement board

This will be used by the course convenor to make course wide announcements about that impact everyone. For example, changes in schedule, reminders of due dates, updating of information, and general comment feed back about the assessments.

Communication and E-mail Etiquette 

If you need to privately contact the unit convenor please do so first via the iLearn “Contact Convenor Privately” (‘Dialogues’ short cut under activities).

If emailing a one of the other lecturers directly please put BIOL2320 as the first part of any email subject you send (i.e. emails not sent via iLearn). Primary contact should be the convenor unless you have a specific question about a lecture’s lecture content.

Emails will be addressed during the workweek only.  Please allow at least 24 hours for a response. 

Convenor Hours: Please note the convenor will check emails and discussion boards twice daily during working hours during the week. Out of work hour and weekend emails will be address during the next work hour check.

Etiquette note: Please politely and appropriately address the person you are contacting, and sign-off your emails with your preferred name to aid in communications.

There is no face-to-face lectures in 2020 S2 due to COVID-19. All lectures will be pre-recorded and made available in the week they are scheduled to be delivered in ECHO360 and in a folder under each week. An audio file of the lecture and PDFs of the slides presented will also be provided in the folder for those with low bandwidth. In addition, lectures will be live streamed on Zoom at link provided on iLearn by the course convenor during the assigned course times. Questions can be asked via chat during the lecture that the convenor will answer, during a 10+ minute question and answer session with the given lecturer after the streamed lecture, or on appropriate discussion board. 

There is now an assigned weekly reading that will replace the textbook, which is no longer in 'print'. These readings are required and will be on the weekly quiz