HUMA411 - Honours Advanced Coursework B

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Unit rationale, description and aim

Scholars in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences need to be able to explain and defend their research in terms of its methodological rigour and contribution to existing theoretical and empirical knowledge in their specialist field. This unit requires students to extend their studies in their chosen field of study. The field of study will complement the area of the Honours thesis, introducing students to advanced content, theory, methodology or scholarship in the field. The aim of this unit is for students to engage with advanced knowledge of theories, concepts and methodologies within their chosen field of study and understand, where relevant, the intersection of current multidisciplinary approaches and debates in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

The HUMA411 unit requirement may be satisfied via cross-institutional enrolment in a suitable unit at another institution. In this circumstance, the unit content, learning objectives, reference materials, assessment activities and assessment requirements will differ from student to student, in line with their enrolled unit. Units chosen must be at or above AQF-Level 8 and clearly align with Course Learning Outcomes.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Articulate advanced theories, concepts and scholarly positions relevant to the area of study (GA4, GA5, GA8)

LO2 - Critically analyse and evaluate complex debates and ideas in the field, by generating and transmitting sustained arguments in relation to them (GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8)

LO3 - Apply advanced discipline-specific cognitive, technical/methodological and communication skills to transform information and complete a range of activities (GA5, GA7, GA9, GA10)

Graduate attributes

GA4 - Think critically and reflectively

GA5 - Demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession

GA6 - Solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - Work both autonomously and collaboratively

GA8 - Locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information

GA9 - Demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media

GA10 - Utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively

Content

Where the unit is taken at ACU:

• Current interdisciplinary approaches and debates in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
• Advanced theoretical, conceptual and methodological knowledge and skills relevant to the field
• Scholarly approaches to a theme or area of study. This theme will be set by the lecturer in charge.

Where the unit is taken cross-institutionally:

Topics will be identified in the unit specification for the replaced unit.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

Mode at ACU: National Multimode: workshops, web consultation, live online seminars, online collaborative annotation of readings, computer workshops, online research tasks and live online seminar presentations.

This multidisciplinary unit at honours level enables students to deepen their knowledge and understanding of their own discipline and provides them with broader disciplinary perspectives on the production of scholarship. Through engagement and dialogue between disciplines, this unit enables students to develop an important self-reflexivity in relation to their own discipline. Through this approach, students will come to understand the value of interdisciplinary approaches to the production of knowledge in the liberal arts and humanities. The unit embraces active learning involving online activities through which students will:

1) gain a deep understanding of the content covered in the unit.

 The activities in this unit include reading, writing, discussion and online debates aimed at promoting analysis and synthesis of class content. Students will examine a range of perspectives in order to understand the complex relationships between disciplinary approaches to the key events and issues explored in the unit.

2) acquire, develop and hone skills fundamental to their discipline.

 This will include the refining of skills relevant to their discipline including: the ability to understand and apply disciplinary methodologies and how they intersect with methodologies in other disciplines and to identify high-quality secondary sources and incorporate them into their own research and analysis. Students will acquire the ability to take a position within debates and to communicate their findings in a scholarly manner.

150 hours in total with a normal expectation of 24 hours of directed study. The total contact hours should not exceed 24 hours. The directed study might include online live lectures, tutorials, webinars, discussion boards, advanced library and database challenges, podcasts etc. The balance of the hours then become private study to take part in workshops or seminars by guest speakers or researchers, to complete readings and research and to prepare seminar presentations or assessment tasks for the unit.

Where the unit is taken cross-institutionally:

Recognising that Honours students are advanced learners capable of self-directed learning, the ACU advanced coursework units for the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) enables students to identify and pursue suitable cross-institutional specialist units at Honours level (AQF level 8) that advance theoretical, conceptual and methodological knowledge and refine skills relevant to the student’s specialist field.

The learning and teaching strategy will vary, depending on the particular cross-institutional unit being taken, the disciplinary field and the institution. The mode of delivery for the unit could include on-campus teaching, mixed-mode or fully online learning and may include such things as workshops, web consultation, seminars, computer workshops, library tasks and presentations and written assessments. Engagement in this unit via classes and assessment tasks will contribute to, and support, student learning and the development of more advanced academic skills in their chosen discipline area. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

A range of assessment procedures will be used to meet the unit Learning Outcomes and develop Graduate Attributes consistent with University assessment requirements.

The assessment tasks and their weighting for this unit are designed to demonstrate the achievement of each Learning Outcome. In order to pass this unit, students are required to submit and participate in all assessment tasks.

The first assessment task develops a broad understanding of the range of disciplinary perspectives and approaches to the topic under consideration. It requires students to synthesise and critically engage with unit content through collaborative annotation and reading of key texts, as well as through reflecting on the possibilities and limits of research in digital repositories.

The second task requires students to communicate their own disciplinary knowledge, and respond to, the perspectives of others. This task will develop advanced online skills and will enhance students’ digital literacy.

The third assessment invites students to explore, in-depth, a particular aspect of the topic under consideration through the lens of their own discipline.

Overview of assessments

Where the unit is taken at ACU:;

Where the unit is taken cross-institutionally:Assessment strategies will be defined by the conditions of the cross-institutional unit approved for course work contributing to ACU Honours:

Representative texts and references

Where the unit is taken cross-institutionally: texts and references appropriate to the topics will be identified in the unit specification for the replaced unit.

Where the unit is offered on campus: texts and references will be appropriate to current interdisciplinary approaches and debates in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; advanced theoretical, conceptual and methodological knowledge, and skills relevant to the field; and scholarly approaches to a theme or area of study. This theme will be set by the lecturer in charge and may change year to year.

Altschuler, Sari and Elizabeth Maddock Dillon. ‘Humanities in the Time of COVID: The Humanities Coronavirus Syllabus’. Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment. 27:4 (2020): 836-58.

Benneworth, Paul., Magnus Gulbrandsen, and Ellen Hazelkorn. The Impact and Future of Arts and Humanities Research. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2016.

Gold, Matthew K. and Lauren F. Klein, eds. Debates in the Digital Humanities. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2019.

Law, Stephen. Humanism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Nealon, Jeffrey and Susan Searls Giroux. The Theory Toolbox: Critical Concepts for the Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012.

Small, Helen. The Value of the Humanities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.