Year
2023Credit points
10Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Prerequisites
NilIncompatible
GLST200 Global Health
Unit rationale, description and aim
A range of professions require an understanding of the biological, social and environmental determinants of health and to encourage critical thinking in relation to the causes, incidence, distribution, treatment, and prevention of global diseases. The unit will examine global health inequalities and the burden of disease between rich and poor countries where population growth, ageing, lifestyle changes and pandemics of chronic disease manifest differently. It will investigate the diseases that are the leading cause of death globally and the impact of potential health threats posed by trauma and injury in war zones, major disasters, nuclear weapons and bioterrorism. Given that health is a fundamental right of all people, including the 370 million Indigenous peoples worldwide, the unit will also discuss the importance of major global initiatives to improve world health through vaccination programs, interventions to prevent transmission of infectious disease and healthier food and water supplies. The unit aims to explore global health as part of a broader understanding of health and societies. This unit includes a module on working with children, young people and vulnerable adults that will focus on responding to concerns and strategies to keep ourselves and others safe and support children, young people and vulnerable adults.
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 - Recognise the importance of, and policies and strategies for, building safe and supportive environments for working with children, young people and vulnerable adults (GA1, GA5)
LO2 - 2Demonstrate an understanding of the concept of global health and identify the biological, cultural, social and environmental determinants of global health (GA5)
LO3 - Analyse the causes, distribution, treatment and prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases in low, middle and high-income countries (GA5, GA6)
LO4 - Examine the risks and challenges in applying global health interventions and strategies in the treatment and prevention of global health disease and illness (GA6, GA8)
LO5 - Apply skills in analysis of data relating to the incidence of global health disease and illness within and between countries, including prevalence, trends, and burden of disease (GA6, GA8)
Graduate attributes
GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity
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
GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information
Content
Topics will be drawn from the following list:
- Biological, cultural, social and environmental determinants of health
- Global stratification and global health inequalities
- Communicable and non-communicable diseases
- The role of vaccine and immunisation in promoting and maintaining global health
- Basic principles of biostatistics and epidemiology
- Global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents
- Global epidemics and pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases
- Hunger, food security and undernutrition
- Child and women’s health; sexual and reproductive health
- Culture and global health
- Mental health, treatment and prevention including drug and alcohol abuse
- Working in global health: challenges, risks and responses
- The health of Indigenous peoples: challenges and responses
- Potential threats to global health – irradiation, bioterrorism and disasters
- UN Sustainable Development Goals and WHO interventions to promote global health
- Building safe and supportive environments for working with children, young people and vulnerable adults.
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Global Health is a national, fully online unit. The mode of teaching provides for inclusive access to students located across ACU national and offshore students in the Thai-Burma border. Learning in SOCS243 is facilitated through online lecture material which delivers content and theory and formative online activities that require students to apply knowledge to case studies, consider real-world scenarios and develop skills necessary to analyse and interpret data and assess and evaluate health interventions in a global health context. Students will also apply their learning in online assessment tasks.
The Working with Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults’ module is an online module that will take approximately 2 hours to complete. Successful participants will be given a record of completion.
This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit, as described in the learning and teaching strategy and the assessment strategy.
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 achievement of each learning outcome. In order to pass this unit, students are required to submit and participate in all assessment tasks.
The hurdle task is an online ACU module that all students complete that requires students to recognise the importance of, and policies and strategies for, building safe and supportive environments for working with children, young people and vulnerable adults.
The Application of Knowledge Task will be in the form of a quiz or similar activity to assess for knowledge and on global health including application of tools used in analysis of trends in global health. This will assess learning outcomes two and three which relate biological, cultural, social and environmental determinants of global health and the causes, distribution, treatment and prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases in low, middle and high-income countries.
The Authentic Assessment Task requires each student to adopt the role of a global health worker in assessing and evaluating interventions and strategies of global health. This provides students with the opportunity to consider case-studies and specific health scenarios in a variety of locations or contexts. This assesses learning outcomes 3 and 4.
The Analytical Task will be online analytical tasks and activities including scenarios, case studies and data analysis relating to the incidence of global health disease and illness within and between countries, including prevalence, trends, and burden of disease. This assesses learning outcome 5.
The order of assessment tasks may be altered with permission from the Course Implementation Committee.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes | Graduate Attributes |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment Task Working with Vulnerable Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults online module: Online multiple choice or short answer questions in 4 sub-modules. At the completion of each of 4 parts. Students will need to pass the first sub-module with a pass mark of 75% percent before progressing to the next sub-module.
Note: Completion of this module does not exempt students from seeking a Working with Children Card or a Police Check where this is appropriate or mandated. Note also: Students who have previously completed this module in another unit may submit their certificate of completion. | Nil (Hurdle requirement) | LO1 | GA1, GA5 |
Application of knowledge task A quiz or similar activity to assess for knowledge and on global health including application of tools used in analysis of trends in global health. | 30% | LO2, LO3 | GA5, GA6 |
Authentic assessment task Submission of written report/s or equivalent in which student adopts the role of a global health worker in assessing and evaluating interventions and strategies of global health. | 30% | LO3, LO4 | GA5, GA6, GA8 |
Analytical task Submission of written responses to online tasks and activities embedded in the unit, including scenarios, case studies and data analysis. | 40% | LO5 | GA6, GA8 |
Representative texts and references
Australian Children’s Commissioners and Guardians. (2013). Submission to royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse issues paper 3 – child safe institutions principles for child safety in organisations. Http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/getattachment/b35a65c0-70e4-48bb-a215-d679892ec014/36-australian-childrens-commissioners-and-guardian
Birn, A. E., Pillay, Y., and Holtz, T. H. (2009). Textbook of international health: global health in a dynamic world, New York: Oxford University Press.
Crisp, N. (2010). Turning the world upside down: the search for global health in the 21st century. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jacobsen, K. H. (2007). Introduction to global health. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Levine, R. (2007). Case studies in global health: millions saved. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Markle, W., Fisher, F., and Smego, R. (2007). Understanding global health. New York: Mcgraw-Hill Professional.
Nichter, M (2008). Global health: why cultural perceptions, social representations, and biopolitics matter. Arizona: University of Arizona Press.
Rosenberg, M. L., Hayes, E. S., Mcintyre, M.H., and Neill, N. (2010). Real collaboration: what it takes for global health to succeed. San Francisco: University of California Press.
Skolnik, R. (2016). Global health 101: essential public health, 3rd edition. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Ullah, A. (2016). Globalization and the Health of Indigenous Peoples: From Colonization to Self-rule. Taylor & Francis.
Wortley, R., and Smallbone, S. (2006). ‘Applying situational principles to sexual offenses against children’. In R. Wortley and S. Smallbone (eds.). Situational prevention of child sexual abuse. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.