HLTH442-19S1 (C) Semester One 2019

Special Topic: Research Related to Complementary and Alternative/Integrative Medicine (CAM/IM)

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 18 February 2019
End Date: Sunday, 23 June 2019
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 1 March 2019
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 10 May 2019

Description

This course examines issues related to research in Complementary and Alternative/Integrative Medicine, including specific issues in CAM/IM research, as well as research design, data collection and data analysis, ethical issues and dissemination of results. Participants will receive individual mentoring for a research proposal of their choice.

Learning Outcomes

  • Upon completion of the course, participants will understand:
  • the types of study designs used in clinical research in complementary therapies;
  • the strengths and weaknesses of each type of study design;
  • the appropriate uses of different study designs in particular applied to Complementary and Alternative Medicine/Integrative Medicine (CAM/IM) research;
  • the type of study design needed to answer a research question, in particular applied to Complementary and Alternative Medicine/Integrative Medicine (CAM/IM) research;
  • the ethical aspects of health research;
  • how to conduct a high quality systematic literature review.
    • University Graduate Attributes

      This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:

      Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award

      Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.

Prerequisites

Subject to approval of the Head of School

Timetable Note

The course is scheduled to be taught as three blocks of two days each and students need to attend these sessions:
21–22 February 2019 (9am– 4pm), 21–22 March 2019 (9am–5pm), and 17–18 April 2019 (9am–4pm).
This course may be taken by students who do not live in Christchurch.

Venue:  to be confirmed

Course Coordinator

Raymond Kirk

Lecturers

Ann Richardson , Arindam Basu and Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll

Course Co-ordinator
Professor Ian Coulter
ian.coulter@canterbury.ac.nz

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
On-line discussion 30% Due date: 4 - 24 March 2019
Essay 26 Apr 2019 40% Essay (3,000 words)
Research Protocol 30 May 2019 30% Research Protocol (2,000 words)

Textbooks / Resources

All reading material will be available on the LEARN website on completion of a student’s enrollment.

There are no Required Texts for this course.

Required Reading:
Each session will have assigned readings that will be referenced on LEARN, the University’s online course support website LEARN, or sourced by students from the UC library databases. Students are expected to have read these prior to each session.

Students will be required to access and download PDF files of journal articles from UC Library.

Additional material/information is available from
Library Guide

Course links

Library portal

Notes

Course
The amount of data from research that is available for the public and health professionals on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) compared to biomedicine is extremely modest. This has numerous causes including the amount of funding available for such research, the number of researchers who work in this field, and the difficulties of researching CAM. Those who do work in CAM are frequently not trained in research, and those trained in research are not frequently knowledgeable about CAM. This course is intended to provide an introduction to those who want to advance the research agenda in CAM. It will provide an introduction to the challenges of researching in this field, and the methods that are available to overcome many of those challenges. The objective of the course is to provide an understanding of CAM, knowledge of the research methods best suited to providing data on CAM and to instil an interest in researching CAM.

Additional Course Outline Information

Academic integrity

All forms of cheating and dishonest practice are taken seriously and penalties will result. Students should refer to Regulation J of the General Course and Examination Regulations.

Assessment and grading system

Assessment for HLTH442 will comprise completion of three assignments.

Assignments are graded on the University of Canterbury Grading Scale:  

Grade  Marks
A+        90 - 100
A          85 - 89
A-         80 - 84
B+        75 - 79
B          70 - 74
B-         65 - 69
C+        60 - 64
C          55 - 59
C-         50 - 54
D          40 - 49
E          0 - 39

A pass is 50 marks or over.

Attendance

Attendance at block class sessions is expected throughout the course. Students must attend and participate in the course sufficiently to meet the learning outcomes.

Late submission of work

Work handed in after the due date with no extension granted is considered late. Late work will incur a penalty of 2% mark reduction per day after the specified deadline. Days late include weekend and holidays. Lecturers reserve the right not to mark late work, and no work will be accepted after assignments have been returned.

Other specific requirements

Written assignments must be word processed. Assignments will be submitted electronically. Keep a copy of all assignments.
Requests for extensions
Under exceptional circumstances (e.g. illness, accident, bereavement or critical personal circumstances) individual students may be granted an extension of the due date for an assignment. Requests for extensions should be emailed to the lecturer at least two days prior to the due date for the assignment. Relevant evidence such as a medical certificate or a letter from a counsellor may be required.

Resubmissions

Resubmissions of assignments are not permitted in this course.

Academic Liaison

Professor Ray Kirk is in charge of liaison with students in the postgraduate health sciences courses as the postgraduate programme coordinator in the School of Health Sciences. Your class will appoint a student representative to the liaison committee at the start of the semester. Please feel free to talk to the Academic Liaison or the student rep about any problems or concerns that you might have.

Disability Support

Students with disabilities may access the University’s Disability Resource Service to access support. Further information can be found on their website: Disability Resource Service
Reconsideration of Grade
Students should, in the first instance, speak to the course co-ordinator about their grades. If they cannot reach an agreeable solution, students should then speak to the Head of School, Health Sciences. If you remain unhappy with the result of any of your examination or your final course grade, you may appeal against that result. See: UC Examinations

For up to four weeks after the release of results a candidate may apply to the Examination Arrangements Senior Co-ordinator for a Reconsideration of Grade. The reconsideration will normally consist of a re-marking and re-counting of the final exam script, together with a recount of the marks awarded for any other items of work. If you have extenuating circumstances which affected your performance in your examination, you should view the information on Special Considerations.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for special consideration if their performance in an assessment is affected by extenuating circumstances beyond their control.

Applications for special consideration should be submitted via the Examinations Office website within five days of the assessment.

Where an extension may be granted for an assessment, this will be decided by direct application to the Course Co-ordinator and an application to the Examinations Office may not be required.

Special consideration is not available for items worth less than 10% of the course.

Students prevented by extenuating circumstances from completing the course after the final date for withdrawing, may apply for special consideration for late discontinuation of the course. Applications must be submitted to the Examinations Office within five days of the end of the main examination period for the semester.

Missing Tests

In rare cases a student will not be able to sit a test. In such cases, the student should consult with the course co-ordinator to arrange alternative procedures. This must be done well in advance of the set date for the test.

Where to submit and collect work

Students will be expected to submit their assessment via the online assessment system in the Learn class site by 5.00 pm on or before the due date.  The lecturer may also require student assessments be processed through the software Turnitin, to check for plagiarism.

It is the responsibility of the students to check their Internet access and ability to submit their work via the online system.  Any technical difficulties should be notified well in advance of the due date so that assistance can be provided or alternative arrangements can be negotiated. For ICT help call our free call number 0508 UC IT HELP (0508 824 843) or on 03 369 5000. Monday to  Friday, 8am to 5pm (excluding public and university holidays).

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $2,150.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

Minimum enrolments

This course will not be offered if fewer than 4 people apply to enrol.

For further information see School of Health Sciences .

All HLTH442 Occurrences

  • HLTH442-19S1 (C) Semester One 2019