Students

FOHS3050 – Critical Communication

2022 – Session 1, In person-scheduled-weekday, North Ryde

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff
Maria Herke
maria.herke@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
60cp at 2000 level or above
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

This unit aims to develop effective communication skills for professional practice in diverse institutional, organisational and workplace contexts. The unit examines how communication functions in professional contexts to achieve individual and institutional outcomes that are ethical and socially responsible. Students will draw on existing knowledge of their discipline and relevant regulatory, ethical or social frameworks to identify the critical communication demands of their field, for example whilst interacting with clients and negotiating with stakeholders. At the same time, students will develop the communication skills, practices and strategies to respond to these demands. Key outcomes of the unit are the ability to create written, spoken and multi-modal texts for diverse audiences and purposes; an ePortfolio demonstrating professional communication skills, practices and strategies; and a personal learning and professional development plan for ongoing development of communication skills. As well as equipping students with communication skills for the workplace, the unit is suitable for students who plan to undertake further study and/or research in their discipline.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Evaluate communication and its functions in your discipline and associated institutional, organisational, and workplace contexts.
  • ULO2: Communicate the implications of regulatory, ethical, or social frameworks for professional practice in your discipline to diverse audiences using various modalities and technologies.
  • ULO3: Develop skills, practices, and strategies to use communication to achieve ethical and socially responsible individual and institutional outcomes.
  • ULO4: Critique your communication practices to inform future learning and professional development.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Multimodal presentation 20% No Week 4
Personal learning and professional development plan 30% No Week 13
Professional communication portfolio 50% No Week 10

Multimodal presentation

Assessment Type 1: Presentation
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Week 4
Weighting: 20%

 

Students will research and present (face-to-face or online) on a regulatory, ethical or social framework that is relevant to their future profession or educational pathway. (Typically 3 minute presentation with 1 slide plus 2 minutes QA.)

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Communicate the implications of regulatory, ethical, or social frameworks for professional practice in your discipline to diverse audiences using various modalities and technologies.
  • Develop skills, practices, and strategies to use communication to achieve ethical and socially responsible individual and institutional outcomes.

Personal learning and professional development plan

Assessment Type 1: Learning plan
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Week 13
Weighting: 30%

 

Plan for ongoing development of communication skills in the workplace or future educational pathway. (Typically 2-4 pages.)

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Evaluate communication and its functions in your discipline and associated institutional, organisational, and workplace contexts.
  • Critique your communication practices to inform future learning and professional development.

Professional communication portfolio

Assessment Type 1: Portfolio
Indicative Time on Task 2: 50 hours
Due: Week 10
Weighting: 50%

 

Portfolio of professional texts with contrastive audiences (eg specialist v non-specialist), purposes (eg inform v persuade) and modes (eg written, spoken, multimodal) with accompanying critical, reflection commentary on regulatory, ethical or social framework(s) and the communication skills, practices and strategies used to achieve ethical and socially responsible individual and institutional outcomes through the texts. (Typically two significant professional texts commensate with spending 20 hours on each text, with a 500 word commentary on each text.)

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Evaluate communication and its functions in your discipline and associated institutional, organisational, and workplace contexts.
  • Communicate the implications of regulatory, ethical, or social frameworks for professional practice in your discipline to diverse audiences using various modalities and technologies.
  • Develop skills, practices, and strategies to use communication to achieve ethical and socially responsible individual and institutional outcomes.
  • Critique your communication practices to inform future learning and professional development.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

This unit is delivered through a combination of online and face-to-face learning activities.

(THERE ARE NO FACE-TO-FACE LECTURES BUT THERE ARE WEEKLY FACE-TO-FACE or ONLINE TUTORIALS.)

Online lectures and other learning activities are provided via iLearn (the Macquarie University Learning Management System) each week.

The face-to-face activities are two hour, weekly tutorials involving independent/collaborative learning activities and student-driven group/individual discussions to develop students’ communication knowledge/skills and scaffold the production of the texts required for the assessment tasks.

Students must take responsibility for their own learning, prepare for tutorials and make a positive contribution to the unit learning community.

There is no prescribed text book for this unit. 

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via AskMQ, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Unit information based on version 2022.02 of the Handbook