Unit Outline

Do you know how you learn best? Do you know what skills you will need to be successful in your university studies? Academic literacies are the skills that you need to engage successfully with higher education, and this is a foundational unit which assists you to develop these literacies. In this unit you will consider your preferred learning styles and strategies, and make a concrete plan for your studies during semester. You will reflect on the effectiveness of this plan during your learning and adjust as necessary to help you be a successful learner. You will complete quizzes to help you to consolidate your learning, and be supported in an essay writing and portfolio task. During the unit you will learn about academic integrity, referencing and writing conventions, communication and presentation, and the use of technologies. This content is delivered through the lens of the teaching profession, and links to the professional application of these literacies as a pre-service/education support teacher.

Intended Learning Outcomes

As per the Assessment and Results Policy 1.3, your results will reflect your achievement against specified learning outcomes.

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


1	Identify and apply academic literacy strategies, processes and requirements, and reflect on how these support you to achieve academic success.
2	Demonstrate knowledge of and correctly apply policies and practices relating to academic integrity.
3	Apply strategies to find and critically assess credible, accurate and reliable scholarly material.
4	Select and use appropriate writing conventions and technology tools to clearly communicate ideas.

Alterations as a result of student feedback

Content has been optomised for learning.

How will I be Assessed?

For more detailed assessment information please see MyLO.

Assessment schedule


ASSESSMENT TASK #	ASSESSMENT TASK NAME	DATE DUE	WEIGHT	LINKS TO INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Assessment Task 1:	Personal Learning Plan	Week 3	10 %	LO1, LO4
Assessment Task 2:	Academic Argument Plan	Week 6	20 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Assessment Task 3:	Academic Argument	Week 10	40 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Assessment Task 4:	Learning Portfolio	Week 13	30 %	LO1, LO4

Assessment details

Assessment Task 1: Personal Learning Plan

Task Description:

You will create a personal learning plan for your university studies for this semester.

You will craft a personal timetable, considering how you will use it effectively in your circumstances, and audit your current academic literacies in terms of strengths and weaknesses. This plan will identify how you will be a successful learner.

This personal learning plan will be used as the basis for your reflection for AT4, and during the semester you will be prompted to consider the suitability of your plan, and adjust as necessary to improve it. This task is completed and submitted in PebblePad.

An assessment brief for this task is provided in MyLO (Week 1) and the dedicated AT1 MyLO page.

Completion of this Assessment Task relates to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) 2.5, 7.1

Note: If you have submitted AT1 in a previous delivery of this unit, you must contact the Unit Coordinator to discuss your completion of this task. You cannot submit the same assignment again, which is self-plagiarism and can result in a fail grade for this task.

Task Length:

400 words

Due Date:

Week 3 (06/Aug/2025)

Weight:

10 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Evaluation of strengths and weaknesses	LO1
2	Communication of experiences and ideas	LO4
3	Consideration of personal study timetable	LO1

Assessment Task 2: Academic Argument Plan

Task Description:

You will create an essay plan showing the intended structure for your essay for AT3 (an academic argument). The plan consists of: your argument statement (i.e. stance); the logic points to support the statement; scholarly sources to support each logic point (with full APA7 reference list entries); and a paragraph written for one of the logic points. The aim of the plan is to get feedback on your ideas before writing the full essay. You can make changes to your assessed plan for your AT3 submission (e.g. you can change your stance and/or logic point(s), add or remove references, edit the paragraph, etc.).

For your essay topic, you will choose one contemporary issue from a selection provided in the discussion forum in MyLO. Each issue has a collection of relevant resources and a discussion thread. You will need to familiarise yourself with the issue by reading the material and discussing the topic with your peers.

You will then develop an academic argument based on the issue. You will be provided with a PebblePad workbook template that will support you to research and develop your academic argument. AT2 is the essay plan (300 words), informing your work in AT3, which will be a 1,000 word argumentative mini-essay. This task is completed and submitted in PebblePad (the plan must be on Page 3 of the workbook).

An assessment brief for this task is provided in MyLO (Week 4) and the dedicated AT2 MyLO page.

Completion of this Assessment Task relates to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) 2.5, 2.6, 6.2, 7.1

Note: If you have submitted a plan for the academic argument (essay) in a previous delivery of this unit, you must choose a different essay topic. You cannot submit the same assignment again, which is self-plagiarism and can result in a fail grade for this task. Contact the Unit Coordinator if you are unsure or wish to discuss this.

Task Length:

300 words

Due Date:

Week 6 (27/Aug/2025)

Weight:

20 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Argument flow and structure	LO1, LO3, LO4
2	Use of scholarly literature	LO2, LO3
3	Communication of ideas	LO1, LO2, LO3
4	Academic integrity practices including references and citations	LO2

Assessment Task 3: Academic Argument

Task Description:

You will write your full essay (1,000 words) which consists of the introduction, referenced paragraphs, and conclusion, as well as the reference list (excluded from the word count). You will use the feedback given on your AT2 plan to inform the writing of your final essay response. This task is completed and submitted in PebblePad (the full essay must be on page 5 of the workbook template).

An assessment brief for this task is provided in MyLO (Week 4) and the dedicated AT3 MyLO page.

Completion of this Assessment Task relates to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) 2.5, 2.6, 6.2, 7.1

Note: If you have submitted AT3 in a previous delivery of this unit, you must choose a different essay topic. You cannot submit the same assignment again, which is self-plagiarism and can result in a fail grade for this task.

Task Length:

1000 words

Due Date:

Week 10 (01/Oct/2025)

Weight:

40 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Argument flow and structure	LO1, LO3, LO4
2	Use of scholarly literature	LO2, LO3
3	Communication of ideas	LO1, LO3, LO4
4	Academic integrity practices including references and citations	LO2

Assessment Task 4: Learning Portfolio

Task Description:

You will create a 3-5 minute face-to-camera video where you present your reflection on the implementation of your AT1 Personal Learning Plan during semester. You need to include the three AT1 elements of your academic literacy strength and weakness, and your personal timetable.

You will then create a portfolio in PebblePad where you will embed this video. This task is completed and submitted in PebblePad.

An assessment brief for this task is provided in the MyLO content (Week 10) and dedicated AT4 page.

Completion of this Assessment Task relates to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) 2.5, 2.6, 4.5

Note: If you have submitted AT4 in a previous delivery of this unit, you must contact the Unit Coordinator to discuss your completion of this task. You cannot submit the same assignment again, which is self-plagiarism and can result in a fail grade for this task.

Task Length:

Equivalent to 1000 words

Due Date:

Week 13 (24/Oct/2025)

Weight:

30 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Evaluation of learning plan	LO1
2	Reflective communication	LO1
3	Presentation skills	LO4
4	Use of technologies	LO4

How your final result is determined

To pass this unit, you need to demonstrate your attainment of each of the Intended Learning Outcomes, achieve a final unit grade of 50% or greater, and pass any hurdle tasks.

Academic progress review

The results for this unit may be included in a review of your academic progress. For information about progress reviews and what they mean for all students, see Academic Progress Review in the Student Portal.

Submission of assignments

Where practicable, assignments should be submitted to an assignment submission folder in MYLO. You must submit assignments by the due date or receive a penalty (unless an extension of time has been approved by the Unit Coordinator). Students submitting any assignment in hard copy, or because of a practicum finalisation, must attach a student cover sheet and signed declaration for the submission to be accepted for marking.

Academic integrity

Academic integrity is about acting responsibly, honestly, ethically, and collegially when using, producing, and communicating information with other students and staff members.

In written work, you must correctly reference the work of others to maintain academic integrity. To find out the referencing style for this unit, see the assessment information in the MyLO site, or contact your teaching staff. For more detail about Academic Integrity, see Important Guidelines & Support.

Requests for extensions

If you are unable to submit an assessment task by the due date, you should apply for an extension.

A request for an extension should first be discussed with your Unit Coordinator or teaching support team where possible. A request for an extension must be submitted by the assessment due date, except where you can provide evidence it was not possible to do so. Typically, an application for an extension will be supported by documentary evidence: however, where it is not possible for you to provide evidence please contact your Unit Coordinator.

The Unit Coordinator must notify you of the outcome of an extension request within 3 working days of receiving the request.

Late penalties

Assignments submitted after the deadline will receive a late penalty of 5% of the original available mark for each calendar day (or part day) that the assignment is late. Late submissions will not be accepted more than 10 calendar days after the due date, or after assignments have been returned to other students on a scheduled date, whichever occurs first. Further information on Late Penalties can be found on the Assessments and Results Procedure.