UNE myLearn

Community site containing course details, assessment policies, socials, extensions, web links.

Welcome to ERS381 and ERS581. This unit will provide you, probably for the first time, with the exciting challenge of developing, driving and reporting your own work, mentored by staff experienced in your specific area of interest. Grab this challenge with all the embedded learning opportunities that come with it!

The unit is taken by a range of different student cohorts at different levels (e.g. environmental students, rural science students, postgraduate students). As a consequence, assessment tasks and weightings will vary slightly for each cohort. This is explained in detail in the People and Projects book. The majority of enrolled students will complete a 6000-word report as the only formally evaluated assessment task for the unit; you will submit this report at the end of the teaching period of the trimester. ERS581 students will also submit a Future Work Proposal, with the same due date.

Form B is not assessed - it has no effect on your grade in this unit. I encourage you to use Form B and submit it in the third or fourth week of the unit because it is a useful chance to clarify many aspects of your project with your supervisor - communication is always, always useful and Form B serves to facilitate some important discussions.

This trimester is T1 of 2025. Final submission deadline is 23 May 2025.

Prior to the final submission, you will provide sections or early drafts of your report to your supervisor or supervisors for feedback. This back-and-forth process of revision is crucial to good writing; having another person read and constructively criticise your writing for you to edit and improve is essential for crafting strong arguments and clear descriptions. It also helps to keep your supervisor(s) aware of your progress, and they can identify problems at early stages when problems are much easier to solve as well as guidance and encouragement (when somebody says good things about your writing, you will be motivated to write more).

Your report might take the form of a critical literature review. This is where the published scientific literature relevant to your area of interest is examined, evaluated, and assembled into a narrative that demonstrates not just a strong understanding of the scholarly area, but also presents arguments highlighting strengths and weakenesses of particular study designs and identifies important knowledge gaps.

Other possible forms for your report centre on the 'typical' scientific paper, the familiar IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) structure that describes the laboratory, analytical, and/or field work you conducted over the course of the trimester. There are many other possible forms, speak with your supervisor early & often to help you create the structure and format of your report.

Your supervisor will be able to help you every step of the way, but in the end this is your own work.

The unit coordinator is Brian Wilson: Please contact him for any enquiries through this MyLearn site at the general discussion, or by email at brian.wilson@une.edu.au

Please read through the information provided in the Projects & People booklet as your first task to help your project run smoothly. All necessary forms are available on this site.

Welcome!