General Assessment Information 

Information concerning Macquarie University's assessment policy is available at https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/assessment. Grade descriptors and other information concerning grading requirements are contained in Schedule 1 of the Macquarie University Assessment Policy.

To pass this unit, students must demonstrate sufficient evidence of achievement of the learning outcomes. Further details for each assessment task will be available on iLearn, including marking rubrics.

All final grades in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences are determined by the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences Assessment Committee, and are approved by the Faculty Board. They are not the sole responsibility of the Unit Convenor. Students will be awarded an Assessment Grade plus a Standardised Numerical Grade (SNG). The SNG is not necessarily a summation of the individual assessment components. The final grade and SNG that are awarded reflect the corresponding grade descriptor in Schedule 1 of the Assessment Policy.

Students will be awarded one of these grades plus a Standardised Numerical Grade (SNG). The SNG is not necessarily a summation of the individual assessment components. The final grade and SNG that are awarded reflect the corresponding grade descriptor in Schedule 1 of the Assessment Policy. If there is a lack of sufficient evidence demonstrating that a student has met the required level of achievement in all learning outcomes they will be awarded a Fail grading with an assigned mark of 49 or less.

Extensions for Assessment Tasks

Applications for assessment task extensions may be considered for short-term, unexpected, serious, and unavoidable circumstances affecting assessment. Applications must be submitted via www.ask.mq.edu.au . For further details please refer to the Special Considerations Policy available at https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/special-consideration

Late Submission of Work

All assignments which are officially received after the due date, and where no extension has been granted by the Unit Convenor, will incur a deduction of 10% of the overall assessment weighting for the first day, and 10% for each subsequent day, including the actual day on which the work is received. Assessments received 5 days or more beyond the due date, without an approved extension, will be awarded a maximum of 50% of the overall assessment marks. Weekends and public holidays are included. For example:

Hurdle Assessment

The PHTY8105 Mastery Register is a hurdle assessment task. A hurdle requirement is an activity for which a minimum level of performance or participation is a condition of passing the unit in which it occurs. Students are required to achieve 60% completion of the Mastery Register for the 10 items (i.e. 6/10 items) by the due date to successfully complete the unit. A student who has obtained a SNG over 50, yet failed the hurdle assessment, fails the unit. Please see Macquarie University's assessment policy for more information about hurdle assessment tasks.

Assumed knowledge

This unit assumes that you have a good understanding of all content delivered in semester A. In particular this unit will draw from your previous knowledge on spinal anatomy, history taking, performing a physical examination and exercise prescription.

Teaching and Learning Strategy

The blended learning and teaching approach in this unit aims to help students develop a deep understanding of principles and the ability to independently solve problems, with the expectation that students can then translate this knowledge to different clinical scenarios (e.g. patients with slightly different presentations). Lectures covering foundation knowledge will be delivered live online via zoom and include discussion and learning activities. These will be recorded and made available via iLearn. These lectures will be complimented by fortnightly online tutorials and weekly on-campus practical sessions that will help students consolidate, extend and apply what they are learning each week. The online tutorials will take place in small groups via an online video conferencing platform and will involve the exploration of case studies designed to promote high-level clinical reasoning and prepare students for the practical classes. Practical sessions will focus on the development and application of technical skills and will take place on-campus in authentic learning environments to optimally prepare students for their future clinical placements. Additional video and reading resources as well as consolidation activities will be made available to students online to further facilitate learning.

Unit organisation

This is a ten credit point unit.

Attendance

In the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences professionalism is a key capability embedded in all our programs. As part of developing professionalism, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences students are expected to participate in all learning and teaching activities.

All lectures and tutorials are scheduled in your individual timetable. The timetable for classes can be found on the University web site at: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/. You may make a request to your unit convenor to attend a different tutorial on a one-off basis for extenuating circumstances.

Failure to attend any learning and teaching activities, including lectures and tutorials, may impact your final results. It is the responsibility of the student to contact their tutor or the unit convenor by email to inform tutors if they are going to be absent.

Unit materials and readings

There is no compulsory textbook for this unit. Weekly readings will come from journal articles and a range of text book chapters.  Most weekly readings will be available on e-reserve or as full text articles through the library. Where this is not possible a hard copy will be placed in the library reserve. Weekly readings will be listed on iLearn. We will provide a number of weekly consolidation resources. Some will be marked compulsory while others are optional useful resources that interested students can chose to use to deepen and broaden their knowledge.

Technology and equipment

On-campus

Teaching rooms are equipped with state of art audio-visual and ICT equipment including ipads, internet connection and multiple LCD screens. Students will use a range of physiotherapy specific equipment typically used in the assessment and management of people with a range of health conditions.

Off-campus

To study optimally when off campus you will need to have access to a reliable internet connection to retrieve unit information & at times to submit assessment tasks via iLearn.

Videos of many of the assessment and treatment skills will be available on the iLearn site.

Consultation with staff: All staff will be available for individual consultation. See iLearn for contact details.

This is the first Special Circumstances offering of this unit. It includes the addition of online tutorials to help consolidate, extend and apply the fundamental content covered in lectures and to help prepare for face to face practical classes. These online tutorials will enable efficient use of class time during practical sessions for practicing fundamental skills in assessment and management of patients. Lectures will be delivered live via zoom but also recorded and available via iLearn. Two online quiz assessments with 20% weighting each have been added to this offering in place of the previous written exam paper that was worth 40%. The change to online assessment mode reduces the travel burden on students and ensures effective social distancing. Reviewing exam papers from previous offerings will still be useful for students because the scope of questions in those exams will be similar to the quiz questions in the current offering.