Stage 2 – QA Unit Proforma
Office of Learning &
Teaching
Guidelines for completion of Unit Proforma 2015
These notes accompany the Quality Assurance New/Redeveloped Unit Proforma and should be used as a resource for unit developers and at the review stage of unit
quality assurance. This document is available electronically at http://www.cdu.edu.au/olt/heaccreditation.html
Unit Details
Unit Code
and Title
Ownership
1. Unit
Administration
Credit
Points
Field of
Education
(FOE) Code
and
FOE
Description:
2. Unit
Offering
Details
Teaching
Period
If you wish to change the unit title, you will need to complete a UASA1 Change to Unit Administration Form found at
http://www.cdu.edu.au/olt/heaccreditation.html
For new units: you may propose a unit code, the Senior Course Systems Officer will check if the code can be used and fits in
with the current CDU unit nomenclature.
Go to www.cdu.edu.au/units and search for the current unit by code, or part of the unit title if you are not sure of the current
title, and/or if you want to check approved assumed knowledge or pre-requisites for the unit.
Name of the school and faculty that this unit will be reported under.
At Charles Darwin University, units have either 10 credit points or a multiple of 10.
A 10 credit point unit represents a quarter of a load for a semester and should equate to 10 - 12 hours total study time for a
week for an average student.
Level indicates whether it is a 100, 200, 300 etc unit.
Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) Field of Education (FOE) Code
Refer to the ASCED FOE table to find the Field of Education and description. Use link below to go to the ASCED website.
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/6E04E37B83201BCFCA256AAF001FCA5D?opendocument
FOEs trigger student fees at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Unit Offerings are managed annually through Area 52 eQUIP. Information collected at this stage will be used in eQUIP for the
initial year the unit is offered.
Indicate the teaching period for when any redeveloped units will take affect or the teaching period for when new units are to be
introduced.
Indicate the unit offering location. It can be either EXT (external) or at a specified location or a combination of both.
Location
More rows can be added if there are multiple location offerings in the first year.
Online Reliant - learning material is provided on-line through Learnline. Students must access this material to complete the
requirements of the unit. Students should log into Learnline on the first day of the teaching period
Learning
Method
Online Supported - supplementary material is available on-line through Learnline. Students are encouraged to access this
material, however this is not essential to complete the requirements of the unit
Print based Materials - print-based study material is mailed to students from External Student Support.
No Material – Only to be used against External mode offerings such as Honours thesis units where no material is available or
provided either printed or on-line. Justification of choice must be made if this learning method is chosen.
Intensive
Intensive (ITV) units run less than 50% of the normal semester duration, e.g. less than 12 weeks in semester 1 and 2, and
Summer Semester
External units may have intensives that can either be compulsory or optional.
Unit
Coordinator
3. Teaching
Responsibility
The Unit Coordinator is required to be a member of the relevant School as either a permanent staff member or employed on a
full-time, long-term contract.
Units are owned by one school, but teaching can be shared across schools or across faculties.
Note: Shared teaching responsibility is also included in VCAG reports to show teaching load performance against schools.
Shared
Teaching
If shared teaching occurs, advise on the percentages between schools.
Please ensure that the shared responsibilities add to 100%.
If this unit does not replace an existing unit – go to question 4b.
4a. New Unit
Details
Equivalent
Units
If this unit does replace an existing unit, is it equivalent to the unit being replaced? A unit is equivalent when the content,
learning outcomes, volume of learning and learning and assessment approaches are comparable;
This means that a student would be entitled to credit transfer of the new unit if they had successfully completed the old unit
and the student is only able to enroll in one of the units – not the new unit and the existing unit as they are equivalent.
A replacement unit will be deemed to preclude a new unit when:

Precluding
Units
4b.
Redeveloped
Units
Indicate the date that the existing version of this unit will be last offered.
Are there confirmed pathways, advanced standing and articulation arrangements in place for students commencing this
course? Define the arrangements in place.
Is there written evidence that the following activities have been undertaken?
5. Cross
Institutional
Credit
Transfer
Arrangements
(Unit to Unit)
6. Academic
Details


The new unit is not deemed equivalent, however, the old unit is being replaced by another within the requirements for
the course;
A student enrolling in a new course would NOT be entitled to credit transfer of the new unit;
Under the course transitional arrangements a student can enroll in either unit but not both units to meet course
requirements, therefore a student would be prevented from enrolling in both units.

mapping, comparing and evaluating the extent to which there is comparability and equivalence of learning outcomes,
volume of learning, program of study including content and learning and assessment approaches have been considered.

making a judgment of the credit outcomes to be assigned between the matched components of the two courses;

ensuring that students will meet course learning outcomes, graduate attributes, and if relevant meet professional
requirements?
Are there formalised cross-institutional credit transfer, articulation or pathway arrangements in place? If so, please attach a
copy of the arrangement so it can be entered into the Precedents data base and promoted to students on relevant CDU course
websites.
Students enrolling into certain units are assumed to have particular knowledge. This knowledge may comprise of discrete or
broad, formal or informal concepts and/or skills. Students who do not have the assumed knowledge will not be prevented from
enrolling in the unit, but may experience difficulties and achieve suboptimal results.
Assumed
Knowledge
Provide unit codes and rationale.
Go to www.cdu.edu.au/units and search for the current unit by code, or part of the unit title if you are not sure of the current
title or if you want to check approved assumed knowledge or pre-requisites for the unit.
A prerequisite is one, or more, accredited units of study that must be successfully completed before enrolment into
the specified unit is allowed.
A unit would normally be an accredited CDU unit. In some cases, credit transfer from another institution, approved by
an authorised CDU staff member, may satisfy requirements.
Prerequisite
Progression through the recommended study plan, unit offerings, assessment items and grade release dates need to be
considered when applying a pre-requisite to any unit.
Note: a pre-requisite is applied to a unit, not to a unit within a specific course, so please ensure that any pre-requisites applied
are achievable by all students required to undertake this unit as part of their qualification.
Provide unit codes and rationale.
Go to www.cdu.edu.au/units and search for the current unit by code, or part of the unit title if you are not sure of the current
title or if you want to check approved assumed knowledge or pre-requisites for the unit.
A unit marked repeatable can count more than once towards the course requirements.
For example: thesis and project units are marked repeatable to indicate that the student can either:
Repeatable


complete a thesis/project over several semester; or
complete two units in the same area with different content and outcomes
It is not used to allow students to improve a grade, e.g. from C to D etc
A student cannot enroll in more than one unit marked repeatable in any one teaching period (e.g. semester).
Unit Title
Override
This facility is used for units that are offered with a generic title and allows the school to offer different topics each semester.
The school should advise the Team Leader Accreditation and Registration of the proposed titles prior to unit offering
confirmation for the following year (eQUIP).
Does this unit meet DIISRTE Work Experience in Industry (WEI) rules? Units of study are considered to consist wholly of work
experience in industry (WEI) where the University is not providing direction to a student’s learning and performance in regards
to work undertaken outside of a provider.
a) Where the University does not provide support for WEI units, the unit is exempt from student contribution amounts and
tuition fees
DICSRTE
Work
Experience
b) However, if the provider is providing support to the student, it may charge the student a student contribution amount or
tuition fee
For further information on WEI and codes, please visit the link below and go to page 41.
http://www.innovation.gov.au/HigherEducation/ResourcesAndPublications/Resources/Documents/AIPFeb2012.pdf
CAUTION: Any placements/practical units that require payment of CDU or non-CDU staff (such as hospitals or schools or
other employers) must attract fees and EFTSL to ensure the University does not operate at a loss.
If YES, indicate WEI level
If you choose level 1 – students still get charged and their EFTSL counts, if you choose level 2 – the student does not get
charged and EFTSL does not count.
Course
Codes
7. IT
Requirements
8. Unit
Description
9. Calibrated
Unit
Course information is required so that any changes to existing accredited awards can be considered.
Indicate the main course that this unit has been developed for. Also indicate any other courses that the unit may form part of
the course structure as either a core or specialist elective. This is particularly important for new/redeveloped units that replace
existing units.
Note: When developing a new unit or redeveloping an existing unit schools need to consider the impact on other qualifications.
Identify if this unit requires any additional software requirements that would not normally be found on computers accessed by CDU students.
Please include any software that only runs on a specific operating system.
Unit descriptions are published to the web providing an overview of the unit for students.
Indicate if this unit will is a capstone unit and will be validated as part of the Innovative Research University’s Calibrate project.
SECTION B – LEARNING AND TEACHING AND CURRICULUM
List the specific learning outcomes for the unit as they would appear in the unit outline. Unit learning outcomes are a
clear set of around 4-6 statements (limited to maximum of eight) that inform the development of teaching strategies,
learning activities/tasks and assessment.
Further details on writing learning outcome statements can be found at:
http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/t4l/teachinglearning/unitdesign.html
1. Unit Learning Outcomes
Contact the Higher Education Development Team for further information regarding support in developing learning
outcomes.
Unit level learning should also convey to students the level of understanding, specific skills, knowledge and capabilities
they are expected to gain by successfully completing the unit. These outcomes are more specific than course level
learning outcomes and breaks student learning into chunks, which when added together make up the more complex
course learning outcomes.
Before writing learning outcomes consider the following questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What do you want your students to be able to do or know when they have finished this unit?
What new skills knowledge or attitudes would you like your students be able to show?
How will you know that students have achieved your learning outcomes?
What activities will you need to engage students in the learning process?
The first 2 questions focus on the learning outcomes, the last 2 on assessment and learning activities. Time spent
thinking about these questions will help you to more easily align learning outcomes, learning activities and assessment
this document.
2. Approaches To Learning
And Teaching

Learning and Teaching
Strategies
This should be a statement that provides a brief indication of how students will be expected to learn in the unit (e.g.
through case-based learning, collaborative group work etc. individual contracts, experiential learning) and the methods
for receiving content (e.g. lectures, audio, video, web-based or written materials, Learnline etc.).
Ensure the different approaches to be used for students studying in internal and external mode are included.

Participation
Provide a brief summary of participation requirements, including private study commitments (e.g. one 4hr workshop per
week plus 6hrs individual study over 12 weeks; access to online forums is required at least three times per week and a
broadband connection is required). Include any compulsory attendance requirements such as intensive or residential
blocks, weekend workshops, laboratory classes etc. It is also helpful to include information that sets your expectations of
student involvement in the unit and what the students could expect from your interactions within the unit. Explain any
differences in participation requirements for students studying in external and internal mode.

Learnline
Indicate how Learnline will be used to facilitate learning and teaching in this unit.
3. Learning activities and
assessment; alignment with
learning outcomes
Indicate the major learning activities that the students will engage in to achieve the unit learning outcomes. The level of
detail provided should inform subsequent development of assessment and teaching to enable the successful delivery of
the unit. Note: Learning activities are not assessment items.
List the assessment items and indicate how each relates to the unit learning outcomes. The number of assessment
items should not exceed five. The assessment items should be appropriate for the unit level and the nature of the
assessment item explained. For example: 2000 word essay.
4. Assessment Items
Answering YES to indicate an assessment task requires central exam timetabling will ensure the unit is included in the list
of units organised in the end of semester examination period. Note: This includes exams for external students.
There is room for any additional comments regarding assessment items. For example, if a unit has an exam worth
100%.
Identify any compulsory assessment item or hurdle assessment from the assessment item list above.
Support/Endorsement/Approval
School Learning and Teaching
Committee
Faculty Learning and Teaching
Committee
Learning and Teaching
Committee
The School Learning and Teaching Committee must support the unit proposal or if the unit has shared teaching
responsibility (see section 3) then both School Learning and Teaching Committees must support the proposal.
The Faculty Learning and Teaching Committee must endorse the unit proposal via the signature of the Chair of the
committee.
The University Learning and Teaching Committee must approve the unit proposal and minute the approval for Academic
Board.