Single-unit study
You can study individual units for personal or professional development without having to apply for a full QUT course.
If you successfully complete a unit, you may be eligible for credit if you decide to apply for a degree course in the future.
Units anyone can study
These units don’t have any requirements for previous study or background knowledge.
But if your previous studies were not in English, or were completed in a country where English is not the first language, you will need to demonstrate that you meet our English proficiency requirements when you apply.
Creative industries
Communication
CCB103 Digital Games, Culture and Society
This unit introduces approaches to studying digital games as cultural artifacts and for considering the role games play in society. It will place video games in their historical context, relating to other forms of mediated play such as board games, sports and toys, it will trace the history of the video game industry, and will consider how games relate to social and cultural issues and controversies. You will investigate how games relate to other forms of media, particularly social media, digital platforms and AI and how they are located within industrial structures and processes. You will consider how games function as entertainment, spaces for social connection and as a venue for social commentary and advocacy.
CCB207 Communicating with Generative AI
This unit introduces the foundations and practical applications of Generative AI in creative communication processes. It covers the historical development and core technologies of Generative AI and hands-on content creation across different formats. You will learn to critically assess AI outputs and integrate Generative AI into practical communication scenarios. You will also explore the ethical, legal, environmental and regulatory implications of Generative AI adoption through considering controversies related to Generative AI. The unit will equip you with essential digital proficiencies for effective, responsible, creative and adaptable uses of AI for communication.
CYB111 Communication and Collaboration
This unit examines communication between individuals and teams in academic and professional settings. Through a theory/practice nexus, it aids in developing practical skills needed for effective communication such as giving and receiving feedback, collaborating with others, evaluating messages, presenting material in a professional manner and reflecting on communication experiences. With a focus on intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, this unit strengthens current communication practices in live and mediated settings. Presenting meaningful messages in both small and large groups, working on shared professional documents and reflecting on personal communication skills will provide a strong foundation for future studies and the workplace.
CYB112 Communication and Composition
Writing is an essential skill that you will need to succeed in your university program, as researching, composing, analysing, and forming a persuasive argument are fundamental to all assessment tasks. This unit introduces you to the conventions and practices of academic and evidence-based writing and will train you to interpret and analyse information to form a logical and persuasive argument. This unit confronts how digital technology shapes the form and practice of written communication today to build your information/digital literacies and research/evaluation skills. This unit will equip you with the necessary academic and factual writing skills to complete your assessment at a high standard throughout your course of study.
CYB113 Living in a Media World
This unit introduces students to the dynamic and evolving field of Media Studies. It looks at how various traditions of knowledge have sought to better understand the relationship between media and society. It corrects prevailing myths about media power and develops basic skills for engaging with different types of media. For example, how have scholars evaluated, measured, and theorised the impact of mass media forms such as print, television, and the internet on social and political life? Do new media and technologies demand to be understood in new ways, or can we utilise older systems of thought to better understand today’s rapidly changing media world? As future communication professionals, it is crucial that you understand the key concepts and debates that have shaped your discipline.
CYB114 Understanding Media Industries
This unit introduces the core concepts, analytical frameworks, and professional practices necessary to understand how the media industries operate as complex economic and cultural phenomena. This includes a comprehensive overview of media industry structures and functions, production and distribution processes, regulatory and technological conditions, ecological implications, and labour practices. You will also explore the political, economic, and cultural foundations of the media industries in national, regional, and global contexts. You will engage with media industry professionals as guests where appropriate to establish a capacity for the subsequent study of and employability in the media industries.
CYB115 Understanding Audiences
This unit introduces the ways in which the media, entertainment, and news industries have imagined, measured and monetised their audiences. Understanding that audiences are powerful economic and cultural constructions in the media and entertainment industries, the unit examines how researchers and industry professionals build knowledge about how people use media and the role that it plays in their lives. The unit establishes a theoretical foundation in audience studies, as well as explores a range of research methods that are used to study audiences/users, and prepares students to evaluate different types of knowledge claims about audiences.
CYB116 Understanding the Internet and Data
This unit explores the centrality of the internet as a communication tool in both the workplace and everyday life. It explores how internet technologies and digital communication platforms refashion communication practices and social organisation, including the centrality of debates around online behavior and codes of conduct. The unit also introduces students to basic data literacy and digital analytic skills.
KKB190 Yatdjuligin - Cultural Safety in Indigenous Australian Context
Culturally Safe practice is an essential element in a professional's ability to work in a holistic and accountable way with Indigenous Australian peoples and their communities. This requires deconstruction of your own cultures, values, beliefs and attitudes by taking you on a learning journey that allows you to move beyond cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity through to cultural safety.This unit will prompt you to develop your own strategies to be a culturally safe practitioner in both innovative and creative ways.
KKB193 Indigenous Knowledge: Research Ethics and Protocols
This unit critiques research on Indigenous Australian issues and articulates culturally safe research practice that reflects decolonising methodologies as an underpinning framework. The need for culturally safe research is supported by colonially constructed knowledge and the obvious gaps in understanding of the ongoing life-differentials and social determinants that impact on Indigenous Australians. Interrogation of Western research and Indigenous scholarship and international contexts will challenge you to critically analyse received perceptions of research conduct. Indigenous knowledges and pedagogies will facilitate a transformative learning journey in a process where students critique Western research frameworks that continue to represent Indigenous peoples as the 'other'. The unit will engage your learning through Indigenous knowledge frameworks that facilitate the development of a decolonising research proposal which adheres to Indigenous research ethics and protocols.
Creative arts
BAB302 Impact Lab: Community and Industry Engagement
This unit will enable you to consolidate and apply the knowledge and skills you have learned and experienced over your course. Through a community or industry project you will identify and analyse an authentic challenge, offer and defend a creative solution, and reflect on your strengths and career readiness to action the solution. Drawing on interdisciplinary research and insights this unit will enable you to apply examples that consider social and cultural sustainability, technological solutions and impact, and personal perspectives and ethics when responding to real world opportunities and challenges.
KYB110 Art, Text and Context
This is a foundational unit in the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree that introduces you to the critical contexts of creative works and practices, including: how they make meaning, their varying contexts, how they circulate, how these might change over time This is done through an introduction to: some of the key aesthetic, conceptual and technical ideas that underpin a range of creative practice disciplines; critical thinking and the critical analysis of creative works and practices; understanding what it means to be a critical viewer/reader/listener/artist; some different and diverse perspectives on various creative forms, works, and practices, including the contribution that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and thinkers have made across a range of disciplines.
KYB210 Art and Social Change
This unit critically examines the relationship between art, culture and social change. Drawing on art in its broadest multidisciplinary sense, you will learn about: Some key examples of art's relationship to social change since 1945, including visual, audio, and performance practices and movements. The impact of art as both a stimulus to and response to cultural, social and environmental issues The power dynamics underpinning the creation of and representation of diverse identities and communities in art, including First Nations perspectives. The responsibility of artists as creative practitioners and cultural intermediaries and the importance of critical and contextual research in creating work for publics. This unit builds on some of the foundational concepts and approaches introduced in KYB110 Art, Text and Context.
KZB104 Photomedia
Making, reading, and critically analysing complex photomedia images are essential 21st-century creative skills. This unit develops these skills through a combination of aesthetic, conceptual, and technical activities, addressing visual literacy, experimental and critical artistic enquiry, and the protocols related to ethical and inclusive photomedia practice. You are introduced to a diverse range of contemporary artistic photo imaging concepts and methods in the context of photographic history and encouraged to develop your own creative responses by experimenting with a range of approaches to photomedia image making.
KZB110 Approaches to Contemporary Drawing
This unit focuses on experimental and creative approaches to contemporary drawing. Contemporary drawing explores creative modes of engaging with materials, processes and concepts, to communicate ideas, capture experiences and respond to environments. Using a studio-based approach, you will explore, compose, analyse and interpret a range of modern and contemporary works of art. The aim of this unit is to build your technical and conceptual knowledge to increase your appreciation of drawing as a mode of expression and to extend your drawing skills for application in visual art, animation, design and educational settings.
KZB120 Australian Voices
The ability to recognise, analyse and engage with key aspects of one’s national artistic culture is an important part of a creative practitioner’s work life. This unit analyses works of contemporary Australian creative practice, focusing on how artistic culture in Australia is positioned in terms of industry and institutions, artistic forms, changing concepts of practice, and the crucial place of First Nations stories. This unit equips you with both creative and analytical skills in a range of Australian contexts and practice areas, that is, Acting, Drama, and Technical Production; Creative Writing; Dance; Film, Screen and Animation; Music; and, Visual Arts. It offers discussion of the breadth and diversity of contemporary works in Australia, and an understanding of the broader cultural contexts of their production. The unit supports your development as a creative arts practitioner by connecting you to national communities of practice and their audiences in Australia and abroad.
KZB290 Production Management
This unit introduces the skills and essential industry knowledge to equip students from all disciplines to successfully manage creative projects – whether they are large scale creative projects or your own individual creative practice. This unit will look at the management of all forms of creative practice, from live performance, events and exhibitions, music concerts, film projects, touring production, and more. Students will learn how to schedule, budget, assess risks and manage the logistics of creative productions, all while expanding their understanding of the key industry awards that govern Australian creative industries, from broadcast to live performance to print media. This unit is ideal for students wanting to work as production managers in all creative fields, as well as students wishing to self-manage creative projects.
Creative industries, education and social justice
CMB100 Hosted Media Forms and Cultures
Hosted media is a central feature of contemporary media, including YouTube, podcasts, newsletters, livestreams, TikTok, and creator-led brands. Although shaped by platforms, hosted media is defined by distinct formats, styles, rhythms, and modes of address. Communication professionals need to understand how it organises content, creative practice, and audience connection, and how it extends and transforms earlier forms such as broadcasting, publishing, magazines, and documentary. In this unit you will develop skills to critically examine the forms, content, and cultures of hosted media. Weekly topics explore genres, personas, narrative structures, publishing rhythms, and audience relationships across media environments. You will analyse continuities and changes between hosted media and legacy forms, examining what carries over from earlier media and what shifts through creator-led publishing, ongoing audience interaction, and platform-shaped circulation.
CMB204 The Business of Hosted Media
This unit introduces the hosted media sector and its relationship to the traditional licensed media sector. It examines the structures, practices and creative dimensions of media makers that rely on unlicensed, platform-based media distribution. You will explore the development of the hosted media sector, key variations in its operation by subsector, and the dynamics that differentiate it from licensed media operation. The unit investigates varied business models common in the sector, key stress points for media makers in dealing with distributing services, and emerging regulatory responses. You will gain a detailed understanding of how hosted media systems function and how economic, creative and policy factors shape the production and distribution of hosted media.
Creative writing
KWB104 Writing Fiction
This unit investigates the techniques and elements of writing fiction, beginning by looking at the short story and moving on to looking at the novel. The writing of short stories has traditionally been a starting place for writers to begin developing their craft. Initially via the short story, this unit explores the elements of fiction such as character, voice, setting, plot, dialogue, point of view and modulation. The unit then moves to investigating further elements of fiction using the novel as its focus, helping you acquire and practice skills in creative writing. In this unit you will also learn to analyse prose fiction for craft elements in a way that informs and illuminates your own work. In addition to lectures, tutorial based peer-critique workshops are a central part of this unit. Within them, in a guided and structured way, you will get and give feedback on the stories as they are being written.
KWB113 Introduction to Creative Writing
This unit introduces the core practices of creative writing, focusing on craft techniques used to produce engaging fiction and poetry. You'll explore how writers create emotion through character, scene, dialogue, and voice. The unit develops your ability to read like a writer—analysing published texts as examples of craft and using them to inform your own work. Alongside foundational writing skills, the unit introduces key questions shaping contemporary practice. You'll consider how writers research creative work, including practice-led approaches, and reflect on the ethics of writing across cultures, identities, and experiences, including First Nations perspectives. The unit also explores how emerging technologies, including generative AI, are influencing writing today. Through engaging exercises and discussion, you'll begin developing your own writing practice while gaining insight into the habits and responsibilities of writers working today.
KWB116 Writing Creative Non-Fiction
In this unit, you will develop the ability to recognise, analyse and write in key areas of creative non-fiction writing. The unit offers you highly transferable skills that form part of the professional writer's practice and which are especially useful to develop early in a writing career. Creative non-fiction allows you to combine real life stories with the creative and imaginative writing techniques employed in fiction, and applies to a wide range of writing modes and publishing contexts. These include reviewing, writing about books, music and screen, food writing, the personal essay, life writing and travel literature, and the use of humour in writing. This unit encourages you to apply the creative writing techniques of these forms to your own areas of interest and creative practice, and has an industry focus in equipping you with practical and analytical skills in a range of non-fiction creative writing genres.
KWB118 Genre Writing and Storytelling
This unit surveys current trends in genre writing and popular fiction with a focus on essential storytelling techniques. You will look in detail at the biggest genres in publishing, including romance, science fiction, fantasy, and crime writing, gaining insight into the traditions, parameters, and possibilities of each. The unit will develop your understanding of genre theory through an investigation of the social and political underpinnings of key genres, and through the practical application of these ideas and perspectives in your own writing. You'll also learn about the key digital technologies genre writers use, including digital publishing platforms and the ethical use of genAI. You will develop a piece of writing that makes use of the techniques of your chosen genre and that reflects the appropriate concerns and themes. The unit aims to develop your critical understanding of your approach to the writing life.
KWB211 Creative Writing: Style and Technique
This unit provides an intensive workshop environment for developing and refining a substantial piece of creative writing. Over the semester you will draft, share, and revise your work while participating in structured peer workshops that focus on constructive critique and editorial feedback. Through close reading, discussion, and revision, you will develop a deeper understanding of craft, narrative structure, voice, and audience. The workshop model emphasises collaboration and professional writing practices, encouraging you to engage critically with both your own work and the work of others. By the end of the unit you will produce a polished creative piece and gain experience in the processes of drafting, feedback, and revision that shape professional writing practice.
KWB212 Poetry and Poetics
This unit explores how writers create powerful effects using poetic techniques. Through the study of contemporary and classic poems, you will examine how techniques such as imagery, sound, line break, and rhythm shape meaning and emotion. You will read and analyse poems as examples of craft and experiment with short creative forms inspired by them, including lyric poetry, prose poetry, fragments, and other hybrid forms such as social media or flash fiction. The unit provides key creative and critical skills in writing poetry, showing how close attention to language and form can generate new creative possibilities. By the end of the unit you will develop a collection of poems or short-form writing suitable for publication or performance, demonstrating the expressive potential of concise forms.
KWB312 Editing and Publishing
This unit introduces the practices of professional editing and explores the contemporary Australian publishing landscape. You will learn how editors work with writers to shape manuscripts for publication, developing the critical and technical skills required to assess, refine, and present written work. Through practical exercises and case studies, you will practise key editorial tasks such as evaluating manuscripts, writing reader’s reports, and editing prose for clarity, consistency, and style, using industry-standard technologies. The unit also examines how publishing operates in Australia today, including the roles of editors, agents, and publishers, and the challenges and opportunities facing the industry. By the end of the unit, you will have developed the ability to analyse and edit the work of others with care and precision, while gaining a deeper understanding of how editorial decisions influence both literary culture and professional writing practice.
KWB319 Dangerous Ideas: Contemporary Debates in Writing
This unit introduces you to the key debates and ideas animating the field of contemporary creative writing, and allows you to consider your own writing practice in the context of these debates. The unit helps you to develop a nuanced understanding of the issues preoccupying contemporary writers, to gain insight into the historical and cultural factors informing those issues, and to articulate your own perspectives via conversation and debate. You will encounter a spectrum of ideas about what it means to be a writer today as well as the historical and cultural factors informing our ideas of authorship.
Dance
KDB107 Fundamentals of Choreography
This unit introduces the fundamentals of improvisation and choreographic practice. Throughout it you will participate in a series of creative laboratories that seek to enliven an experiential understanding of the body in dance and explore different practices and processes that cultivate tools for dance making. The unit focuses on exploring dance through different approaches to improvisation and task-based processes. This is an opportunity to develop your foundational skills as a choreographer in dance through developing critical skills in experimentation, physical thinking, responsivity, as well as the ability to mobilise your ideas and concepts.
KDB113 Dance Studies
This unit will give you an introduction to the diverse field of dance studies. Through encountering relevant theory, reflecting on recorded dance performances, and participating in physical dance analysis activities, the unit will equip you with critical frameworks through which you can interrogate various aesthetic codes and relevant issues relating to dance in a variety of historical and cultural contexts. This will involve a range of perspectives including dance analysis, writing from practising choreographers and dancers, historical and cultural contextualisation, gender issues, racial diversity, and social dance. These understandings are an integral part of a wide range of pursuits within the dance industry including those of the performer, choreographer, and critic, as well as useful to other Creative Industries' disciplines.
Design
DFB209 Design History and Culture
This unit explores the cultural, political, and ethical dimensions of design across time and place, equipping you to critically engage with the histories, cultures and systems that shape design today. Through a global and interdisciplinary lens, you will examine how design values, technologies, and practices have evolved in response to shifting patterns of power, trade, and culture—from colonial legacies to contemporary movements for justice, equity, and sustainability. The unit introduces historical case studies of design movements and enlightened entrepreneurship in design industries to understand how strategic design can be a tool for change. This unit builds your capacity for research, visual and contextual analysis, and critical reflection, which are essential for responsible design.
DYB101 Impact Lab: Place and Context
While you will develop disciplinary knowledge and skills through the course, many problems facing organisations and societies naturally span disciplines. DYB101 explores the potential of design to bring about change. DYB101 introduces design processes and practices for a future characterised by diverse perspectives, social agendas and environmental concerns. You will learn how 21st-century designers from all disciplines apply empathy and the ability to acknowledge and incorporate diverse viewpoints to address challenging themes.
DYB121 Introducing Design Fabrication
This introductory hands-on unit explores concepts, skills and methods required to prototype and fabricate physical objects from your design ideas. Designers need to consider the capabilities of fabrication, associated processes and equipment, and materials available to produce a physical prototype of their design ideas. From this perspective, design fabrication is problem centric and requires a rationale behind the choice of materials and processes, an understanding of the quality of the fabrication outcome as part of an iterative process or for its temporal qualities for concept evaluation, as well as consideration of the ethics of fabrication. The foundational design fabrication skills acquired in this unit will be further developed in subsequent design units in the program.
DYB122 Design Visualisations
This unit Introduces you to design visualisation practice and how to employ a variety of techniques to visualise design ideas to assist you in design thinking, research, communication and presentation.
DYB123 Emerging Design Technology
This unit expands your capacity to work critically and creatively with technology in design. You will explore how cutting edge and speculative future technologies shape design processes, decisions, and outcomes across multiple domains. You will investigate how emerging technologies generate opportunities and constraints for both designers and users. Through collaborative design challenges and individual research, you will experiment with technological trajectories and create future-oriented scenarios that expose risks, possibilities, and alternative pathways. The unit equips you to question present assumptions, navigate uncertainty, and generate design propositions that engage with the ethical, social, and environmental implications of technological change.
DYB124 Design Consequences
Design Consequences is an introductory unit employing theoretical and applied methods to explore the ways in which design influences and is influenced by cultural traditions and practices, beliefs and biases. Working across frames of past, present and future, you will learn how to critically engage with and draw upon these cultural factors and influences to shape and define your design work and practice.The twenty-first century presents designers with a challenging context characterised by the increasingly dramatic effects of climate change, growing levels of inequality, and destabilised geopolitical conditions. This unit will introduce you to a range of ideas, methods, and approaches necessary to understand design not only as products, environments, services and experiences but also as a social, cultural, political, and economic agent.
KKB181 Creative Industry Foundations and Futures
This unit comprehensively explores the creative industries, providing a foundational understanding of their context, challenges, and opportunities. It delves into the multifaceted world of creative sectors, learning about key trends and dynamics. You will identify and align your personal values and interests within the creative industries, helping to shape your career aspirations. The unit will provide you with opportunities to gain insights into the diverse ways of working within these industries, from freelancing to corporate settings, and position yourself strategically. The unit also introduces desktop graphics content creation and printing/fabrication essentials, empowering you with practical skills using graphics software, providing technical literacy in a crucial aspect of creative industry work. This unit serves as an essential stepping stone for individuals seeking to embark on a successful and fulfilling journey in the creative industries.
KKB185 Creative Enterprise Studio 1
In Studio 1, students develop both enterprise skills and collaborative foundational design thinking skills to better understand the problem space for unique industry or community-based problems. As such, the unit responds to opportunity identification and value creation aligned to industry and/or community-based real world needs. Whilst the value of disciplinary expertise remains constant in this changing world, many problems facing organisations and societies naturally span disciplines. Collaboration and inquiry into these real world problems require a breadth of knowledge and skills in ways that demand and reward curiosity and innovation. Being the first of three Creative Enterprise Studio units, your ability to respond to complex and unique real world problems is strengthened by learning to think and act in diverse ways and draw upon perspectives, methods and insights garnered from the multiplicity of disciplines in your unit cohort.
Digital media
CCB105 Digital Platforms
Digital Platforms have a tremendous impact on how we interact and engage with the world, from social media and payment processors to streaming services. It is critical for communication professionals to understand the cultural, economic, political, social and technical contexts from which contemporary digital platforms have emerged and in which they are continuing to evolve. In this unit you will develop skills to critically examine the politics of digital platforms and contribute to debates about alternative digital futures (including diverse and alternative digital imaginaries). Each week we will focus on both critiques and resistance. You will draw on scholarly research to discuss how colonialism and capitalism shape platform logics and how we navigate, resist and reimagine them.
CCB106 Popular Culture
The products, practices, and pleasures of popular culture are frequently dismissed as being superficial, unserious, or unimportant. This unit, however, celebrates popular culture as a contested and shifting phenomenon that permeates everyday life. Far from mundane, popular culture is charged with a political valence that reflects—and shapes—our lives. This unit further develops conceptual framework(s) and analytic tools to critically evaluate the texts, artefacts, and/or practices of popular culture. In completing this unit, students will understand how the communication industries produce and circulate popular culture, and will be able to critique the politics of pleasure that frame the consumption of mass culture.
CCB201 Australian Media
This unit evaluates the industrial and cultural logics of Australian media. You will develop an understanding of contemporary debates, issues and developments and will learn about how the media in Australia are shaped by a range of factors including digital distribution technologies, ownership structures and cultural policy. The unit engages with questions of national culture and identity, amid the intense internationalising forces impacting Australian media industries. Understanding the technological, economic, and policy contexts within which Australian media operate will help you to form ethical media choices and professional communication practices.
CCB202 Social Media, Self and Society
Social Media has had a tremendous impact on our lives as individuals and members of larger societies. The debates surrounding these new and powerful technologies are often multi-faceted in their complexity. In this unit you will develop skills in critically examining and contributing to debates about social media’s impact on issues such as identity, privacy and the ethics of everyday life. You will draw on scholarly research to evaluate opposing perspectives and become critically informed communication professionals. Please note the online offering of this unit will be available to eligible online BCI students only.
CCB205 Digital Media Analytics
This unit equips you with critical understanding and skills in contemporary research and practice methods as they are applied to digital content, platforms and networks. From computational analyses of ‘big social data’ to close qualitative analysis of digital media platforms and practices, the approaches, methods and tools that are grounded in and suitable for the study of digital media are expanding and evolving rapidly. This unit aims to provide you with critical understanding and practical skills in how to select and implement contemporary digital approaches to the collection, analysis and interpretation of various forms of communication data, such as social media content (both textual and visual).
CCB206 Global Media and Culture
This unit provides students with a critical understanding of the economic, political, and cultural dimensions of global media industries. It introduces key disciplinary theories and debates about the creation, circulation and consumption of media content as it circulates across different locations and cultures. The unit also enables students to develop skills and knowledge necessary for living and working in globally diverse communities and professional contexts. The unit may survey a range of media industries and cultural forms and/or focus on a single site of global activity as it explores the inherently transnational nature of the content we consume.
CCB304 Social Media Strategy
This unit develops a critical understanding of, and applied skills in, best practice social media management within professional communication contexts. You will engage with the principles, tools and techniques of professional social media practice, social media presence and the development, implementation and analysis of digital communication strategies. It also provides opportunities to apply them in the ever-evolving social media landscape. This is an advanced unit that builds on individual and teamwork approaches to learning and teaching developed in introductory and intermediate units.
CCB305 Critical Issues in Media and Communication
This advanced unit engages with critical and contemporary issues concerned with the complex relationships among media, communication, and culture. It builds upon core knowledge and skills, and is designed to increase confidence in your analytical capacity and problem solving ability as a future media and communications professional. Drawing on the latest from our world-leading researchers, this unit will enable you to apply historical, economic, political, technological, and cultural perspectives when responding to real world issues facing the media and communications industries.
CCB306 Media and Communication Capstone
The ability to engage audiences is a persistent challenge in today's media and communications industries, and is therefore a highly sought-after skill. In this capstone unit you will demonstrate your proficiency in the methods, tools, and analytic approaches used to engage audiences through a ‘real world’ media and communications project. This unit builds upon core knowledge and skills gained throughout your degree, particularly your theoretical and applied understanding of audiences. In doing so, it develops your professional capacity for independence, leadership, confidence, and collaboration. This unit equips you with in-demand knowledge and capabilities to prepare you for your career in the dynamic media and communications industries.
Drama
KTB130 Foundations of Drama and Performance
This foundational unit provides you with a comprehensive introduction to the diverse landscape of dramatic arts. It explores a spectrum of theatrical forms including classical, commercial, post-dramatic, musical, and community theatre, with a strong emphasis on the sociocultural and historical contexts that shape these practices, including the role of First Nations works and artists in the Australian context. Industry aligned case study examples encourage you to critically engage with dramatic roles, which may include the director, producer, performer, designer, and teaching artist, examining how each contributes to the creation and communication of meaning in performance. This fosters analytical and collaborative skills through exposure to extant scripts, staged readings, and associated opportunities to develop and practice dramatic performance skills.
KTB131 Technology in Live Performance
This unit immerses you in the evolving intersection of technology and live performance. Blending theoretical inquiry and practical experimentation, you will explore both the conceptual underpinnings and creative practices of incorporating technology into dramatic world-making, through the investigation of established and emerging tools – such as projection mapping, augmented and virtual reality, motion capture, artificial intelligence (AI) and interactive media. The unit considers the historiographical framing of technological integration, encouraging you to contextualise innovations within broader artistic and cultural movements while also considering their own relationships with technology and artistic expression. You will engage in hands-on labs and conceptual design projects where possible, supported by ethical frameworks for AI use where appropriate, preparing you to navigate and contribute to the future of technologically enhanced performance.
KTB132 Drama Facilitation and Creative Community Engagement
This unit equips you with the skills to design and deliver applied theatre experiences that foster social inclusion, wellbeing, education and/or community engagement. Drawing on community-art and arts-health methodologies as well as applied drama practices – such as epic theatre, process drama and/or Boalean theatre systems – and facilitation theory, you will learn to create responsive workshops tailored to diverse populations. The curriculum integrates leadership, directing practices and collaboration, with flexible delivery models negotiable within the frameworks provided through the interrogation and assessment of industry-aligned resource materials. You will engage with real-world briefs from community organisations, developing portfolios that reflect ethical engagement and creative strategy. The unit positions community theatre as a vital, realistic and respected career pathway.
KTB133 Script and Performance Analysis
This unit offers a rigorous exploration of dramatic texts and performance interpretation. You will engage with a range of genres and theatrical forms – which may include but not be limited to Realism, the post-dramatic and/or Theatre of the Absurd – developing skills in dramaturgy, theatre criticism, and scene study. The curriculum encourages reimagining extant texts through contemporary lenses as well as developing skills for writing new works, fostering innovation and critical reflection. Assessments include multimodal submissions and peer critique, promoting diverse modes of communication and analysis. Industry engagement is facilitated through live performance analysis and script development and performance workshops, providing you with practical experience in shaping and evaluating dramatic works.
KTB219 Directing
This intermediate praxis unit investigates notions and functions of direction and creative leadership in the fields of theatre, drama, mediated and live performance. Through engaging with models of directorial best-practice and examining influential practitioners you will unpack the process of leading creativity from both a collaborative and personal perspective, with the aim of achieving a unified creative vision in consideration of emerging ideas in sustainability, diversity and technology and how these things may shape considerations of leadership. Whether within conventional hierarchical structures or collaborative models, delivering creative outcomes requires not only knowledge of the personal, logistical, curatorial, and sustainable artistic processes of creation, but also an understanding of the processes to safely navigate from concept to fullest expression.
KTB220 Directing, Leadership and Performance
This advanced unit focuses on the art and craft of directing within collaborative performance environments. You will develop rehearsal strategies, leadership techniques, and aesthetic vision through practical directing labs and peer-led projects. The unit integrates observation and feedback-giving as core competencies, supported by reflective writing and the option to experiment with AI-assisted visualisation and creative expression tools. Industry engagement includes a focus on prominent and guest directors where possible, and identifying industry opportunities for practice, enabling you to refine their skills in professional contexts. The unit fosters independent thinking and strategic planning, preparing you for leadership roles in the performing arts and across their careers and multitudinous career paths.
KTB221 Theatre and Performance Futures
This unit prepares you to become entrepreneurial leaders in the performing arts. It covers essential skills in producing, budgeting, grant writing, and project management, framed within the ecological and social contexts of theatre-making. You will respond to real industry briefs, developing immersive pitch presentations using digital, online and other technology-enabled to present and share their creative contributions. Ethical AI use is embedded throughout, with alternative pathways for you if you opt out. Guest lectures where possible, for example from funding bodies and successful practitioners, provide insight into sustainable career strategies and innovative production models.
KTB320 Theatre Industries: Identity and Engagement
This unit supports you in articulating their professional identity and engaging with audiences across digital and live platforms. You will tailor their learning experience, electing to explore career pathways in directing, producing, education, arts-health, and/or administration, developing portfolios that may include websites, self-tapes, branding strategies and any other artefacts relevant to their chosen field. The unit emphasises reflective practice and strategic communication, with opportunities for placements or shadowing in-industry encouraged. Deep research of the industry and potential roles and opportunities within it is paired with creative ideation, ensuring you graduate with a clear sense of purpose and readiness for diverse roles in the creative industries.
KTB330 Negotiated Performance Project
This capstone unit empowers you to conceive, develop, and present a major performance project that reflects their artistic identity and professional aspirations. Projects may be solo, collaborative, or community-based, incorporating directing, producing, technology, or applied theatre practices. You will design audience engagement strategies and document their process through public showcases and digital media/documentation. Flexibility is built into the unit to support diverse needs, with options for external partnerships and alternative formats, negotiated with the Unit Coordinator and/or teaching team on a case-by-case basis. Industry attendance and feedback are integral to the final presentation, reinforcing real-world relevance and professional standards.
Fashion
DFB102 Introduction to Fashion Communication
This unit provides an introduction to fashion communication and is intended to provide foundational knowledge and skills to pursue further studies in fashion communication. It aims to develop your understanding of fashion as both an everyday cultural form and a complex global industry. Learning in this unit will be important in order to gain an overview of the global fashion system and fashion cultures. You will develop and practise foundational fashion communication skills alongside learning how to apply key theoretical ideas to understanding fashion. This unit will provide you with the conceptual basis to pursue further studies in fashion communication.
DFB104 Design and Sustainability
This unit introduces the environmental, economic and social dimensions of design through a sustainability lens. Students will critically examine the impact of materials, production systems, consumption behaviours, supply chains, and end-of-life practices across a range of industries. Emphasis is placed on developing a systems-thinking mindset and the ability to identify leverage points for change. The unit equips students with the knowledge and skills to embed sustainability into design processes and strategic decision-making.
DFB208 Fashion Textiles
This unit covers applied textile design in the past, present and future. It will explore the cultural, social and industrial significance of textiles. The unit will provide opportunities to learn about the techniques involved with textile production. You will draw on this to experiment with and design textiles in line with industry trends and challenges, and explore avenues in speculative design into textile futures.
DFB216 Humans and Technology
This unit enhances your capacity to think strategically to develop interactive products, services or experiences that improve the human condition. It focuses on market research and conceptualisation, and the use of rapid prototyping techniques for the purposes of problem articulation, stakeholder communication and user experience. This unit builds upon your existing capabilities from the perspective of your discipline. The purpose of this unit is to learn how strategic design can improve our lives through development of a product or experience.
Film, screen & animation
KNB100 CGI Foundations
In this unit, you will explore the theoretical foundations of 3D computer graphics alongside the development of practical computer-generated image production skills. You will examine the historical development of CGI, from traditional approaches to contemporary 3D practices, and investigate how digital images are constructed. The unit focuses on the core components of 3D asset creation, including polygonal meshes, materials and textures, and how these elements shape visual outcomes. You will develop an understanding of how digital structures influence shading, surface detail and rendered imagery within CGI workflows. Through guided exercises, you will apply modelling, texturing and rendering processes to create simple 3D assets. By the end of the unit, you will understand how computer-generated images are constructed and produced within contemporary CGI pipelines.
KNB105 Animation Principles
This unit introduces the core principles of character animation and how animators bring movement to life. You will explore how animators observe, analyse and translate real-world movement into expressive animated movement. Through the study of key animation principles and influential texts, you will examine how movement is broken down, interpreted and reconstructed between the frames. You will apply these concepts through practical exercises that focus on core animation principles, weight, balance and locomotion. By experimenting with constructed character motion, you will develop the skills needed to create believable animated movement. These foundations will support your development as a character animator and prepare you for more advanced animation practice.
KNB110 Virtual Art Department: 3D Assets and Virtual Worlds
Real-time 3D graphics have transformed how animated films are created. In this unit you will explore the theoretical foundations of real-time computer graphics and examine how advances in rendering technology have reshaped animation production. You will investigate the historical progression from 3D production to real-time workflows used in animation, games and virtual production. Through key concepts in digital space, layout and environmental storytelling, you will examine how virtual environments function as animated spaces that support animated performance and narrative. With a focus on world building in real-time engines, you will explore how assets and environments are assembled to create believable animated spaces while developing practical skills in real-time production through experimentation with environment creation and assembly. By the end of the unit you will understand how animated environments are assembled and how real-time systems are transforming animation.
KNB205 Digital Characters
Animated characters and creatures play a central role in storytelling, shaping how audiences connect with animated worlds. In this unit you will explore how characters are created and prepared for contemporary animation production. Building on your understanding of environments and world building, you will investigate the components that form an animated character, including form, structure and the digital systems that allow characters to move and perform within animated spaces. Through the study of character creation processes and production methods, you will learn how characters are constructed for animation pipelines. Exercises will guide you in creating characters for animation production. You will also examine how character form communicates personality, story and emotion, and consider the importance of cultural awareness in character creation. By the end of the unit you will understand how characters are constructed and prepared for contemporary animation production.
KNB210 Animation Project Development
Through a practice-based study of innovative industry and emerging pipelines, you will gain a critical and practical understanding of the processes and resources needed to design, develop and render a variety of animated outcomes. Extending this knowledge, there will be an opportunity to experiment with emergent transmedia workflows, such as integrating non-linear content using a gaming engine pipeline. Learning will evaluate techniques, methods and practices for production of animated films and other projects, including augmented, virtual and extended reality (VR/XR) workflows. Students will extend their professional practice through evaluation and application of animation studio workflows. As well as providing a deep dive into technical and creative workflows common to the animation industry, this unit will extend knowledge for students wishing to undertake 'above the line roles' in animation workflows such as Producer, Director and Production Manager.
KPB113 Introduction to Screen Studies
Introduction to Screen Studies develops skills to assist you interpret, analyse, and evaluate narrative screen texts. It explores how and why narrative productions tell their stories through the creative construction and arrangement of visuals and sound. You are introduced to film as art and then to film as social practice. Appreciating film language (such as mise-en-scene and editing) considers film as art by examining film form, film style and film genre. Film as social practice focuses on an understanding of screen productions as being created within particular social and cultural contexts since films have social and cultural significance for communities and audiences. Screen Studies is brought into the contemporary era by including ecocinema as a case study — fictional narrative films with ecological and environmental narratives, themes, and audiovisual representations.
KPB116 Introduction to Screenwriting
This unit introduces various principles, elements and processes for script development with a focus on fictional storytelling for the screen. The unit examines and applies screen language to develop stories for the screen, including generating and selecting ideas best suited to the audio-visual medium, script development processes, writing synopses and drafting screenplays. The unit addresses principles of storytelling, industry standards and practical skills involved in developing projects for narrative productions within film, television and other media. The focus is on how to develop ideas, create engaging characters, and construct scenes for visual mediums. Writing scripts for a range of screen media formats is a learned craft and requires discipline, perseverance, and an understanding of industry practice. Possessing this key knowledge provides capabilities to develop concepts through to script stage.
KPB119 Introduction to Screen Production: Single Camera
This unit introduces single camera production techniques and the skills and knowledge required to work in small, independent screen production contexts. Students will develop an understanding of single camera production workflow from pre-production, production and post-production with a focus on creating short form content in independent and collaborative contexts.
Industrial design
DNB110 ID Studio: User Centred Design
This unit introduces you to User Centred Industrial Design. It addresses visual and creative thinking within the context of the industrial design process and provides human-centred knowledge focused on usability, usability methods and evaluation techniques. You will learn how to implement physical, cognitive and emotional factors to human-centred product design, services and systems. Understanding the needs and capabilities of people is essential to the design of usable, desirable and viable products, services and systems. In order to do this you will need a solid understanding of user-centred design methods during the industrial design process and the application of form, structure, function and beauty in design.
DNB111 ID Studio: Aesthetics and Visualisation
This introductory unit advances knowledge and skills with analogue and digital visualisation techniques to explore, elaborate and communicate your design ideas effectively. The most common and complex aspect of industrial design deals with creating aesthetically pleasing products imbued with meaning and value through form and function. Continuing the development of design process knowledge and skills established in DNB110 ID Studio 1: User Centred Design, this unit delves deeper into ideas of aesthetics and meaning in order to advance the quality of everyday products.
Interaction design
DXB111 Introduction to Web Design
This unit introduces concepts and skills underpinning the user-centred design of web sites using the web technologies such as HTML and CSS. It enables you to understand web technologies as a medium to explore design concepts and to build responsive, high-fidelity, mobile-first web sites. This includes translating conceptual designs into responsive websites while taking into account principles of interface and user experience design, layout, style and navigation. The unit enables you to formulate solutions to design problems, to produce high quality technical and aesthetic outcomes, and to understand the basic skills needed by web design professionals.
DXB205 Interactive Narrative Design
This unit serves as an introduction to creating immersive environments and building interactive worlds for player performance and dramatic agency. The role of the narrative designer is central to the success of any significant professional project in interactive media and game design. The unit addresses theoretical issues associated with immersive / non-linear story structures and interactive narrative forms through the analysis of game / play systems, the creation of original game concepts and the application of techniques of narrative design. It extends this understanding into practice through the application of relevant skills, which will scaffold you into the production of a portfolio work (suitable for interaction designers, visual communication designers, game designers, media designers, creative writers and performance studies).
Journalism
CJB101 Foundations of Journalism
This unit provides you with foundational knowledge of what ‘journalism’ means today as both a professional practice and cultural form. You will learn about the changing role of journalism in society, how journalism underpins (and undermines) democracy, and be introduced to journalism ethics and law. You will learn how the business activities of media companies shape news values, and how they employ contemporary practices of story selection and verification. Against this industrial context, you will begin to learn journalistic writing conventions and apply effective reporting techniques. In doing so, this unit equips you with the essential knowledge and tools for you to understand and thrive in a complex and dynamic communication industry.
CJB105 Shortform News Production
Journalists must be able to produce content that engages audiences across a range of formats and platforms. In this unit, you will develop the ability to successfully perform a range of newsgathering activities, including interviewing and live blogging. Drawing on this newsgathering activity, you will produce under ‘real world’ deadlines professional quality audio and video content that is suitable for TV, radio, or digital platforms. You will also apply multimedia skills to produce transmedia content that supports contemporary journalism practices, and create digital communication content that engages and/or persuades audiences. In addition to producing content, you will undertake editorial roles that support successful short form news production, and understand the value of community and collaboration in the multifaceted practice of contemporary journalism.
CJB205 Data-Driven Storytelling and Verification
Communication professionals now operate in a world in which data is plentiful, and often relatively easy to access. This situation also throws up a number of challenges, though, with these practitioners needing to know where to find such data, how to make sense of it and, more importantly, how to present that data to an audience in a meaningful and engaging way. This unit therefore equips students with some of these foundational skills, and provides them with a strong understanding of how statistics and data can be used to enhance news stories, and help to uncover stories which have not been told yet.
CJB303 Political Communication
This unit surveys the theory and professional practices of political and governmental communication, especially through journalism, media and communications industries. It examines contemporary and historical political issues and communications in Australia and internationally from the perspectives of democratic theory, media influence, strategic image, and issue management. The unit comprises an overview of theoretical approaches to political communication, the construction of political discourse, and the mobilisation of audiences/voters; an understanding of the relationship between communication strategies and the management of politics, with cases drawn from Australian and international politics. Students will develop the capacity to critically appraise strategic issues such as political persuasion, electoral strategy, uses/impacts of digital and social media, and public opinion formation and to create messages about issues connected to politics and government.
CJB304 Critical Issues in News and Factual Media
This advanced unit engages with critical and contemporary issues that are upending news media business practices, values, and trends. It builds upon core knowledge and skills, and is designed to increase confidence in your analytical capacity and problem solving ability as a future reporters and factual storytellers in a rapidly changing industry. Drawing on the latest from our world-leading researchers, this unit will enable you will apply historical, economic, political, technological, and cultural perspectives to understand and master the real world issues facing the factual media landscape.
CJB305 Longform News Production
Longform journalism continues to evolve on a range of platforms, with digital media tools providing exciting storytelling possibilities, including podcasts and multimedia features. This unit provides an opportunity for students to apply their advanced journalistic skills in producing longform non-fiction content, primarily using audio or video. You will learn how to generate story ideas and news angles, and select the most appropriate format for telling stories. You will then use research, interviewing and production skills to produce engaging content. This unit also provides opportunities for reflection and constructive critique of your work. The unit aids you in producing credible non-fiction content in a dynamic and appealing style, applying skills that are transferable to areas outside journalism. It also provides awareness of the market for longform non-fiction content.
Music
KMB117 Creative Musicianship
This foundational unit develops core musicianship skills while guiding students to discover and articulate their emerging creative voice across contemporary music practices. Students build practical fluency in melody, harmony, rhythm, form, and musical communication through individual exploration and collaborative music-making that spans diverse genres and creative approaches. The unit emphasises creative identity development through musical creation, arranging, improvisation, and ensemble work, while introducing industry-standard documentation and presentation practices. Students explore career pathways through case study analysis and develop professional skills through simulated industry scenarios including creative briefs, collaborative projects with defined roles, and professional presentation formats.
KMB119 Sound Recording and Audio Production
This unit provides you with the essential technical foundations for contemporary music production, introducing you to professional recording, editing, and mixing practices used across the industry. You will develop critical listening skills and hands-on proficiency with digital audio workstations, microphone techniques, and studio workflows. The unit emphasises practical application through real recording projects, preparing you for roles in music production, audio engineering, and content creation. Sustainability concepts related to music production, including gender inclusivity, cultural awareness, responsible technology use, equipment lifecycle management, and energy-efficient production practices are integrated throughout.
KMB127 Music Studies
This unit develops students' ability to understand and articulate music's role in cultural, social, and industry contexts, building critical thinking skills essential for informed creative practice. Students explore diverse musical traditions including Australian First Peoples' music, examining how globalisation, technology, race, gender, and economics shape music production and consumption. The unit connects scholarly analysis with practical application, helping students position their own creative work within broader cultural conversations and industry trends.
KMB129 Composition and Sound Design in Digital Environments
Building on recording fundamentals, this unit introduces students to digital music creation, sound synthesis, and interactive audio technologies used across contemporary music, gaming, and multimedia industries. Students develop fluency with Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), synthesizers, sampling technologies, and programming environments, creating original compositions that demonstrate understanding of digital music production workflows. The unit prepares students for careers in electronic music production, sound design, and technology-enhanced performance while emphasising creative application of technical knowledge.
Professional communication
CCB307 Promotional Communication Capstone
This capstone unit prepares for work-ready graduates by developing students’ adaptive capabilities to thrive in the dynamic promotional communication landscape. It integrates prior knowledge of promotional communication theories, research, industry trends in advertising and public relations, and professional skills required in a digital-first environment. Through classwork, independent study, and real-world projects, students develop an understanding of the local and international relevance of promotional communication, with opportunities to produce a portfolio of applied communication artefacts and engagement projects that contribute to employability in the promotional industries.
CWB111 Scientific and Technical Writing
This unit introduces you to the principles of writing clearly in a science-based context and to the discursive frameworks that inform scientific and technical writing. It aims to provide you with an understanding of the conventions of writing and publishing scientific and technical information and to develop skills in communicating this information for a general audience. Graduates in the fields of engineering, science and information technology are required to assess high volumes of information and to communicate key scientific and technical ideas to a general audience. As such, there are growing industry and research demands for graduates with professional writing skills that deliver clear and well-structured written information about complex material.
CWB200 Interpersonal and Intercultural Negotiation
This unit introduces the wider context of cultural practices that inform communication at the individual and social levels. The unit explores how communication in the workplace and other professional contexts is influenced by factors such as power dynamics, gender, nationality, cultural norms, and ethnicity. It develops your engagement with the theories of and skills for successful intercultural and interpersonal exchange in business and professional relationships in a global context. Your career will be shaped by global forces, events, and contexts. Therefore, to be a global effective communication practitioner, you will need to see communication in the context of social and cultural norms and assumptions.
CWB203 Strategic Speech
The ability to present a spoken message is a highly desirable skill in education, employment and life. Across a range of fields and professions, graduates will have many opportunities to speak in a variety of contexts, both live and mediated. Taking an audience-centred approach, this unit focuses on creating and analysing spoken messages. It introduces theories of language, rhetoric and persuasion which are interrelated to promote understanding and development of your communication skills. Regular practice sessions in a safe and supportive learning environment will enhance skills needed to become competent and confident communicators. An emphasis on self-reflection supports the importance of ongoing development of these skills.
CWB204 Persuasive Communication
This unit provides rhetorical tools, strategies, techniques, and practices of analysis related to strategic communication in professional and workplace contexts. It teaches methods of persuasive communication which allows practitioners to create and understand influential messages. Examples of rhetoric in action are taken from technical, political, and business communication as well as other fields such as creative industries. As a professional communication practitioner, you should be able to understand the principles of persuasion, use the vocabulary of persuasion and evaluate the efficacy of different persuasive strategies. You will be given opportunities to create sophisticated communication artefacts that inform, persuade and instruct depending on the specifics of audience and context. Please note the online offering of this unit will be available to eligible online BCI students only.
Visual arts
KAB110 Open Studio: Art and Experiment
This unit provides the foundations of the Open Studio, introducing experimental art practice through the creative methods and key concepts of modern and contemporary art. Creative experimentation is positioned within the cultural, historical and theoretical contexts that shape artistic practice today. In the studio, you will explore a range of conceptual and material approaches to process-driven art and develop strategies for generating, testing and refining creative ideas. This studio‑based investigation is integrated with contextual research, reflective thinking and structured discussion to deepen your understanding of how artists engage with ideas, materials and methods. You will produce a folio of experimental artworks and establish a dynamic foundation for your ongoing creative practice.
KAB120 Open Studio: Image and Process
This unit focuses on experimental approaches to 2D art through hands-on explorations of drawing, painting, printmaking, collage and photography. This unit situates image-making within cultural, historical and theoretical visual arts contexts, examining how images convey ideas and reflect diverse artistic practices and cultural perspectives. In the studio, you'll build conceptual and technical skills by testing methods, challenging assumptions and expanding your visual language. These practical processes are supported by critical thinking, contextual research and reflective writing to help you understand how your own image‑making sits within broader artistic frameworks. Through creating a process folio and an independent 2D artwork series, you will strengthen your ability to generate visual ideas, develop creative processes and refine image-making in ways that reflect your creative voice.
KAB130 Open Studio: Object/Space
This unit focuses on experimental approaches to 3D art through hands-on explorations of sculpture, assemblage, environments and installation. You will examine object‑based and spatial art practices, and how contemporary sculpture expands into social, environmental and public art. Practical investigations are grounded in historical, theoretical and cultural contexts, including Indigenous Australians' perspectives. In the studio and fabrication workshop, you will develop conceptual and technical skills. Through exploratory making, critical analysis and contextual research you will produce an independent folio and a major 3D artwork that supports the development of your creative practice.
KAB140 Open Studio: Time
This unit investigates time and experience in forms such as video, sound, installation, digital art and performance in the context of the open studio. These 4D art practices are framed within cultural, historical and theoretical contexts, exploring how artists create embodied, interactive and immersive experiences. In the studio, you’ll experiment with technologies and techniques to investigate duration, movement and sensory engagement, developing a folio of works-in-progress.You will present a major artwork that integrates concepts, technology and temporal experience. Emphasis is placed on iterative experimentation, documentation and critical reflection as you develop an independent approach to creative practice.
Visual communication
DVB101 Visual Communication Design
This unit introduces the principles and conventions associated with the interpretation and production of meaning through visual representation. Visual Communication is based on the creation of meaning through image and text and this plays a critical role in our contemporary world which is visually and media driven. Visual communicators require a deep understanding of conceptual development, design process, typography and image making, and how image-based communication occurs. You will learn how to think and operate as a visual designer through studio-based learning and a series of industry-focused experiences.
DVB305 Co-Design and Future Design Practices
This unit focuses on co-design, participatory design and emerging methodologies as inclusive, ethical, and collaborative approaches to problem-solving. You will explore how design can build strategic partnerships with communities, users, clients, and institutions to address complex social, environmental and systemic challenges. The unit introduces key theories, methods, and practices of co-design, including power dynamics, facilitation, trust-building, and collective authorship. It examines models for improvement and innovation, such as behaviour change frameworks, systems mapping, future prototyping, and transition design. Examples from a range of industry domains will be studied, such as health, social innovation, education, public services, and civic engagement. You will deepen your practical skills through hands-on engagement with participatory methods, and critically reflect on the role of the designer as an enabler of inclusive and transformative design processes.
Units you need background knowledge to study
These units have requirements for previous study or background knowledge. Check the unit’s previous study requirements for details. If you have any questions, contact the unit coordinator for the semester you want to study.
If your previous studies were not in English, or were completed in a country where English is not the first language, you will also need to demonstrate that you meet our English proficiency requirements when you apply.
Creative industries
Communication
BAB301 Capstone Inquiry: Technology, Society and Culture
This capstone unit provides you with an opportunity to apply critical and creative thinking to investigate a problem or opportunity related to the complex relationships between technology, society and culture. It occurs in the culminating phase of several majors within the Bachelor of Arts, allowing you to reach mastery of disciplinary knowledge and approaches introduced throughout your course of study. You are encouraged to investigate a topic relating directly to your experiences in units you undertake in your final year, such as Community Engagement Capstone or Work Integrated Learning, to enable you to contribute to and impact on the world around you. You will extend your research and communication skills, with industry audiences in mind.
CCN109 GenAI for Professional Communication
This unit explores the applications of generative AI (GenAI) in professional communication contexts. It equips participants with the skills to effectively use, integrate, and critically evaluate GenAI tools for various professional communication purposes. The unit first introduces participants to the opportunities and risks of using GenAI for audience analysis and for crafting data-driven, targeted messaging using text, sound, and images. Then, participants explore how to integrate GenAI technologies into communication workflows. The module covers how to audit GenAI outputs, navigate associated ethical and regulatory considerations, and manage unexpected organisational consequences.
CCN111 Social Media Data Analytics
Knowing how to analyse social media data sets to answer questions and make decisions that improve content and engagement is a fundamental skill for contemporary communication professionals. It is also essential that future focused communication professionals have both an understanding of how computational technologies transform the world of communication, and the hands-on skills to collect and analyse data. It is included in the early part of the program to develop your foundational data analytics knowledge and computational thinking.
CCN113 Social Media Strategy Project
This Work Integrated Learning unit synthesises the knowledge and skills developed in earlier foundational units associated with effective social media management. It applies them to a professional media and communication industries context. The unit supports the development of collaborative teamwork skills to respond to a real client brief. This reflects the kinds of work that professional communicators undertake.
CCN201 Digital Transformation of Media Industries and the Future of Work
This unit explores how digital transformation impacts on media and communication industries and the working lives of communication professionals. To develop effective communication strategies and pursue work opportunities, communication professionals need to have an understanding of emerging trends in media industries, and how to thrive in this environment as a digital communication professional. As such, the unit provides an advanced and critical understanding of digital transformation, how it disrupts the communication and media industries, and the specific implications for the future of digital communication professionals.
CCN202 Automating the Digital World
This unit introduces contemporary research on the impacts and ethical implications of automation for communication, media, and society. It explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other forms of automation are transforming communication, the media and communication industry and the wider society. It also addresses the ethical issues surrounding how these technologies are used. It is critically important that digital communication professionals have a future-focused orientation towards emerging technologies that are likely to further disrupt media and communications environments.
CCN204 Audience Analytics
Digital technologies have transformed the way communicators engage with and understand diverse media audiences. This unit will explore the fundamental theoretical frameworks, methods and metrics for identifying and understanding audiences. An applied and critical understanding of audience analytics is crucial for communication professionals. This unit builds upon and deepens the ideas and methods for audience analysis introduced in earlier units in this course.
CCN205 Data-Driven Storytelling
This unit examines visual communication for information and the application of principles for effective information design. Understanding and engaging with the ever-growing quantities of data is a challenge for both organisations and individuals. Increasingly, experts are required to not only evaluate and prepare this data, but also to identify and communicate it within organisations, or to stakeholders, clients, users, community groups, etc. The effective visual communication of those stories in the data is a design process informed by advanced principles of information design and is critical for audience engagement. Data-driven storytelling is an advanced visual information design unit.
CCN206 Communicating with Bots
This unit introduces the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) and bots as effective tools for communication planning and execution. It examines the impact of such technologies on communication planning and practice, and the skills required to develop bots. The unit provides the hands-on experience of applying technology to develop bots that algorithmically communicate via social media platforms. Communication professionals need to understand how to use emerging technologies such as AI to innovatively engage with their users and audiences. Bots, generally defined as “a computer program that performs automatic repetitive tasks”, and other technologies in the field of AI are changing the way communication is planned and executed, and how stories are told and evolve across social media platforms.
CCN213 Social Media Strategy Project
This Work Integrated Learning unit synthesises the knowledge and skills developed in earlier foundational units associated with effective social media management. It applies them to a professional media and communication industries context. The unit supports the development of collaborative teamwork skills to respond to a real client brief. This reflects the kinds of work that professional communicators undertake.
Creative arts
KKB285 Creative Enterprise Studio 2
This unit furthers your theoretical and practical knowledge and skills to develop enterprise focused creative projects. It links with work previously undertaken in KKB185 Creative Enterprise Studio 1 and prepares you for the final semester capstone unit KKB385 Creative Enterprise Studio 3. You will build upon your foundational understanding of project development gained in KKB185 and develop skills in project delivery and management through to prototyping your creative idea. The concept of iterative design is introduced through reflection on the success of the prototype and recommendations for future iterations and creative experimentation. This unit allows you to extend your project development skills including field analysis, creative experimentation, communication, problem solving and project evaluation.
KKB286 Managing Creative Initiatives: Policy, Project Management and Production
This unit covers essential skills for managing successful creative industries initiatives through an immersive, compressed delivery model across 6 weeks. It begins with discipline-grounded research and analysis to develop skills for interpreting policy, funding and identifying relevant creative venture opportunities. Having identified these opportunities, you will then learn how to develop them into a project plan. This draws on the critical creative project management skills and understanding taught in the unit. You will also learn how to advocate for future creative industries policy at multiple levels. Finally, the unit also covers the vital skill of developing compelling text and audiovisual content for future funding proposals.
KKB385 Creative Enterprise Studio 3
During this capstone unit you will demonstrate creative leadership by initiating an industry linked creative project. It brings together the skills and knowledge acquired throughout your course, drawing specifically from KKB185 Creative Enterprise Studio 1 and KKB285 Creative Enterprise Studio 2. The unit provides you with a framework incorporating explicit skill development in critical creative competencies (4Cs: Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Context) to develop a project proposal that addresses an identified opportunity. You will then initiate your project proposal, launching your career as a creative industries professional.
KRB130 Set and Spatial Design
This unit focuses on set and spatial design approaches to shaping worlds for live performances, film and television, installations and creative encounters. Through a mix of practical exploration and analysis of professional practice, the unit delivers skills, techniques and concepts to equip you in designing spaces within your individual creative practice. You will learn how the foundational elements of production design are applied in professional practice and how they can enhance your own creative work. Through the lecture series, you will be exposed to a range of design styles and genres and discover key elements of set and spatial design. The workshops and the assessment items provide the opportunity to apply set and spatial design skills to a creative area of your choice. This unit complements disciplines such as Acting, Drama, Visual Art, Music, Film, Screen & Animation, Dance, Fashion, Interaction Design, Architecture & Interior Design.
KRB131 Lighting Design for Creative Arts
The unit focuses on the creative application of light in creative practice. From live performance, screen, exhibitions, installations, and more, this unit will introduce you to the fundamentals of lighting design practice and approaches. You will explore a range of lighting practices and learn how to apply essential lighting techniques. You will investigate how to use light to convey meaning and create atmosphere, while also learning how to light bodies, materials and spaces. This unit would complement any creative discipline that requires or curates light, such as Acting, Drama, Music, Visual Art, Film, Screen & Animation, Music, Dance, Fashion, Interaction Design, Architecture, and Interior Design.
KRB230 Digital Scenography
Digital scenography is a design approach to building worlds for performance that entangles the digital into the form, function and narrative of a work. This unit investigates how performance technologies - from projection design to screen technologies to extended reality devices - can be used as key design and storytelling tools within the creative arts. This unit will equip you with the conceptual approaches and design tools to integrate the digital into designs for live performance, such as theatre and dance, exhibitions and spatial designs, and more. This unit is ideal for students wanting to design with visual digital technologies as crucial worldbuilding tools. This unit complements disciplines such as Acting, Drama, Music, Visual Art, Film, Screen & Animation, Dance, Interaction Design, Architecture, and Interior Design.
KYB220 Creative Professional Practice
This unit focuses on the varying professional settings and contexts of your creative practice through a delivery model that features an Industry Immersion intensive and ongoing professional skills development. It is a core unit in the Bachelor of Creative Arts that will address: •The development of a professional identity and presenting yourself publicly through authentic industry engagement •Pitching and developing proposals across diverse creative disciplines •Creative and social entrepreneurship and defining sustainable career pathways •Professional agreements and processes, including contracts, copyright, and intellectual property •Critical analysis of contemporary industry challenges and opportunities •Research methodologies for creative practitioners •Building ethical and sustainable careers in creative practice and the creative industries
KZB260 Advanced Script Development
Narrative drama script development occurs across a range of creative contexts and for a variety of media such as film, television, theatre, streaming services, web series, podcasting, radio drama, animation and story-driven, role-playing games. Often success in one medium can lead to IP being adapted for another. Being able to write for the theatre, the screen or the ear can help build a sustainable writing career. This advanced unit builds skills and knowledge in script development processes to enable you to conceive, develop, write and pitch a compelling short script for a medium of your own choosing.
KZB350 Live Outside Broadcasting
This specialist extension unit places you inside a professional live outside broadcast (OB) operation, giving you hands-on experience of the technical systems, crew roles, and real-time decision-making that underpin live sport and live music production. Working with a professional 12-camera OB rig across a 12-week program, you will rotate through the full range of broadcast crew positions before being assessed in a fully realised live production event. Drawing on the production literacy developed across your Film and Screen major, this unit builds specialist industry competency in a fast-paced, crew-based environment. You will develop fluency in talkback communication, live signal management, and the creative and technical demands of directing and operating across two distinct live genres. By the end of the unit you will have the practical experience, pre-production skills, and reflective professional insight to enter the live broadcast industry with confidence.
Creative writing
KWB306 Creative Writing Project 1
This unit provides an opportunity to develop an extended creative writing project in your preferred and strongest genre and form. It will allow you to plan and propose an extended piece of creative work through a series of intensive highly participatory tutorials in collaboration with peer critique groups. Though the major covers a range of writing genres, you choose your strongest genre and write with both breadth and complexity. This unit supports you to demonstrate that you have developed a sophisticated voice or style over the three years of study. The piece of work commenced here will continue to be built on in KWB326 Creative Writing Project 2.
Dance
KDB206 Dance in Contemporary Culture
Through a series of seminars and practical workshops you will explore different trends in the role and place of dance in contemporary culture. You will explore dance's place in society and the development of trends such as Dance in Museums, Hip-hop culture, Dance as a Political Intervention, and Dance for Well-being.
KDB223 Screen Dance
This unit introduces you to the field of screen dance through a critical and practical engagement with the genre. It addresses screen dance practice from a critical perspective, as well as developing your skills in producing and documenting dance across a range of digital platforms. You will develop skills associated with the conceptualisation, composition, filming and editing of movement for the camera. This unit is designed for those with an interest in the merging fields of dance, choreography, film and video production, shared creative practice, collaboration, and the screen based presentation of dance works. The skills learned will be transferable across a range of different platforms and can be applied to the creation of new screen dance works as well as to documentation of performance and creative process.
KDB318 Performance in Context 2
This unit aims to enable you to use, adapt and transform your skills for artistic expression in a specific performing domain including collaborative and interdisciplinary practice. As such, this project-based unit provides the context in which you will develop technique, artistry, communication skills, performance ability and confidence through professionally guided rehearsals, classes, performances and workshops. It is the second of two units which builds on the practice of the Teaching Artist as a facilitator of dance-led creative experiences. You will apply your developed knowledge of technical skill and artistic practice to the creation of a performance situated within a specific context while exploring your role as a Teaching Artist from different perspectives.
KDB320 Independent Dance Project
This unit enables you to adapt and transform your dance skills for artistic expression and is the culmination of your previous two Performance in Context units. This guided experience supports you to develop your skills to work independently and to establish your practice as a teaching artist through the key processual stages including conception, development and realisation of your ideas. You will apply your integrated knowledge of technical skills and artistic practice to effectively initiate and realise an independent dance project. This self-contained, discrete project will enable you to develop your skills, professional identity and aptitude for engagement within a variety of industry contexts.
Design
DYB102 Impact Lab: Society and Systems
This unit addresses methods of social impact design and the ways in which these approaches can contribute to transformational social and community focused change. In it, you experience how design approaches and tools can be applied to complex social and community-based challenges. In a context where design can foster inclusion and act as a disruptor and driver for positive change you as a designer, alongside your design peers, have the collective potential to lead or make a better future. Framed around real world challenges; and in partnership with community, government and/or industry partners; you will engage with transdisciplinary design-led participatory entrepreneurial strategies to address key issues within one or more communities. This will develop skills valuable in designing for social impact. This impact lab focuses on people, to foreground the importance of keeping the human condition at the heart of design practice which enables solutions aimed at social change.
DYB301 Design Portfolio for Professional Practice
This unit is a capstone professional practice experience - providing you with an opportunity to explore and define your design purpose and identity, foster career aspirations and expand your professional network. Through this unit you will develop your knowledge and expectations of professional practice and navigate career opportunities. The unit will assist you as you transition from student to professional, translating what you have learned and experienced over the course of your degree to be able to professionally present your skills, knowledge and capabilities into a meaningful and purposeful portfolio, as well as excel at job interviews.
Drama
KSB110 The Actor's Instrument: Impact and Presence
This introductory unit addresses the fundamentals of dynamic movement and voice production for actors, exploring foundational skills that focus on embodied impact and presence. Highly developed technical proficiency in vocal and physical expressiveness is a fundamental requirement for professional actors. This unit introduces core techniques and concepts associated with safe movement and vocal production for actors working in screen and stage contexts, including foundational ensemble development for collaborative practice informed and strengthened by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural practices. These skills will inform every acting exercise or collaborative project undertaken through the three years of your course and beyond.
KSB120 Text and Accent and Physical Characterisation
This introductory unit focuses on the continuing acquisition of instrumental skills associated with developing impact and presence in physical and vocal characterisation. Highly developed technical proficiency in vocal and physical expressiveness is a fundamental requirement for professional actors. This unit builds on core techniques and concepts introduced in KSB110 associated with theoretical notions of vocal and physical transformation for actors working in screen and stage contexts.
KSB125 Acting: Advancing Skills in Acting Styles
This introductory unit invites you to investigate ways of combining physical and vocal embodiment with genre-appropriate, audience-focused staging conventions. Your enquiry includes exploring how realism and theatricality can be combined to intensify the impact on the audience of dramatic meaning, social commentary and visual storytelling. This enquiry will be informed by engagement with a range of play texts and theoretical perspectives relating to acting issues associated with this form of theatre and its political, social and cultural contexts. The unit challenges you to apply your developing acting, voice, imaginative and embodiment skills and techniques, to the demands associated with performing dynamic roles from complex source material of different genres and cultural contexts.
KSB240 Screen Acting Theories and Practice: Studio and Self Testing
The screen-based industries provide actors with the opportunity to reach wide audiences and to potentially build national and global careers, as well as create sustainable, independent, entrepreneurial practice. This unit introduces analytical, technical and performance practice associated with contemporary acting for camera in both traditional and emerging screen technologies. The focus is on exploring the application of analytical skills to acting materials written for screen, the development of specific acting techniques sensitive to technical elements such as frame, eyeline and continuity; and an understanding of simple studio production technologies and their associated personnel, workflow and purpose.
KSB245 Contemporary Performance for Stage and Screen
This intermediate unit sees the creative application of acting and research skills to respond to contemporary plays that confront complex cultural, political or social issues, with scenes to be staged for live audiences and then adapted to being filmed in screen studio settings. These can include the challenge to act in scenes that require considerable investment in understanding complex ideas, fusing psychological and political/philosophical perspectives, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, unusual given circumstances, or digital/green screen environments. (There may also be scenes requiring the application of explicit consent-based protocols such as those that regulate the portrayal of intimacy or violence.)
KSB310 Character, Identity and Story: Screen Acting for the 21st Century
This advanced unit aims to develop your ability to synthesise highly individual creative choices in relation to scripted source material, scene partner and real or imagined settings (whether domestic, public, natural or fantasy environments) while being aware of and playing to a range of viewer expectations and agendas associated with the genre of the material and its explicit or implied social commentary. The unit challenges you to apply broad and coherent dramaturgical understanding and advanced acting skills to the creative representation of character and identity, drawing on their physical and cultural locations.
KSB320 Industry Approaches to Screen Performance
This advanced unit provides opportunities to apply your knowledge, skills and understanding to the creation of screen-based works for distribution in traditional and/or digital streaming contexts. These screen-based works will offer a platform to demonstrate the technical sophistication, screen presence, originality, and professionalism you will be seeking to promote to agents, casting directors, producers, and others in your networks as you enter the industry.
KTB114 Interpreting Dramatic Text
Through critical engagement with theories of dramatic interpretation, this foundational unit provides introductory learning experiences to help you effectively perform dramatic text. The notion of “text” is understood as potentially covering a broad range of artefacts and creative stimulus, from classical scripts to inter-disciplinary creative artefacts and even inanimate chosen objects. This unit enables you to develop and apply skills of theatrical interpretation and performance through practice-led process methodologies grounded in theories of dramatic interpretation, rehearsal, and performance. You will work with your peers to critically engage with the interpretation of a source text, before being provided the opportunity to develop a performance of the text and implement the core performing skills needed for this.
KTB115 Devising Drama
This unit introduces models of devising to create a new performance work under the guidance of a tutor/director. The work will be devised in groups and performed at the end of semester. Past and present practitioners have proven that key creatives of many kinds can lead the creation of dramatic works through collaborative models of performance making, which often aspire to include a range of voices, innovating in both form and content.
Fashion
DFB110 Introduction to Fashion: Body Fabric Form
This unit provides introductory knowledge and skills for the theory and practice of fashion design, focusing on three dimensional design, which may include draping and simple form. This foundational unit provides knowledge of theoretical and cultural fashion contexts that underpin concept driven fashion design. It addresses fashion design principles and processes, including the development of effective skills to communicate and realise design ideas in an integrated studio environment. The suite of six Fashion Design Studio units form the foundation of learning for understanding fashion design in the Bachelor of Design (Fashion) program. Embedded in this program is a focus on ethical and sustainable practices.
DFB111 Introduction to Fashion: Systems
This foundational unit provides knowledge and skills for the practice of fashion design. It addresses design principles, processes and contexts, including the development of effective skills to communicate and realise design ideas. Embedded in this unit is a focus on ethical, circular and sustainable practices.
DFB204 Fashion Product Development
This unit further develops your knowledge, skills and application for professional fashion communication and product development in the fashion industry. It focuses on commercial fashion design and product styling. Developing consumer products in the fashion industry requires diverse skills and knowledge in trend analysis, range building, sourcing, finishing, specification sheets and marketing to ensure successful and sustainable outcomes. By developing a foundational knowledge in product development you will be prepared to work in commercial fashion or to create your own fashion brand.
DFB206 Fashion: Histories and Cultures
This unit examines fashion as a cultural, social and political practice across time. It situates dress within global histories and cultures, focussing on issues of power, identity, and industrial transformations. Moving from early histories of fashion systems through to contemporary debates, the unit highlights paradigmatic shifts, including sustainability, fast fashion, globalisation and activism.
DFB210 Fashion: Construction and Shape
This unit builds on previous fashion studio knowledge to navigate the structure and requirements for professional fashion contexts. It provides effective skills to communicate and realise design ideas. It provides expanded knowledge and skills for the theory and practice of design and includes practical skills and knowledge of pattern cutting, garment construction and applied technologies for the communication of design ideas. Embedded in this unit is a focus on ethical and sustainable practices. The suite of Fashion Design Studio units form the foundation of learning for understanding fashion design in the Bachelor of Design (Fashion Design) program.
DFB211 Fashion: Trends & Product Development
This unit provides knowledge of fashion design for public consumption. In this unit, you will develop and expand skills to conceptualise, communicate and realise design ideas for mass manufacture in an integrated studio environment. You will build on your previously acquired research, communication, conceptual and fabrication skills, as well as develop and apply sustainable fashion practice knowledge. You will synthesise your understanding of product development and retail readiness and will learn about the logistical and practical considerations of fashion design and production. The suite of Fashion Design Studio units forms the foundation of learning for understanding fashion design in the Bachelor of Design (Fashion) program.
DFB305 Design Policy and Social Justice
This unit develops your ability to engage critically with the social, cultural, and political dimensions of design. You will explore how design intersects with policy, regulation, advocacy, and activism, and how it can be used to challenge injustice and inequity. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from critical design, public policy, ethics, and social innovation, the unit equips you to examine how design can both reinforce and disrupt dominant systems and power structures. You will engage with topics such as climate justice, inclusive and ethical governance, human rights, decolonial design, social licence, and corporate responsibility. Through research, writing, and reflective practice, you will learn to evaluate the role of policy in shaping design outcomes and how design and advocacy can influence policy and systemic change.
DFB310 Fashion: Collaborative Project
This unit develops previous fashion studio knowledge, and together with DFB320 and DFB330, forms the final year of the Bachelor of Design Fashion program. It advances your individual fashion design practice while situating it within the realities of the commercial fashion environment.The unit focuses on the development of advanced skills in research, communication, and design realisation within a supported studio setting, allowing you to continue refining your individual design aesthetic while gaining insight into the collaborative nature of the fashion industry. Your work will be strongly supported by staff as you explore your individual design aesthetic.
DFB311 Fashion Design Studio 6
This 24 credit point unit is one of two capstone Fashion Design Studio experiences and aims to provide you with the opportunity to synthesise your prior learning, within university and the workplace, through the production of a final year project that will be outward looking. Within this unit you will develop your confidence and ability to work with minimal supervision in preparation for graduation exploring your individual design aesthetic. During this unit you will complete an extended final year project and will have the opportunity to present your work to industry. The suite of Fashion Design Studio units form the foundation of learning for the Bachelor of Design (Fashion) program.
DFB320 Fashion: Retail and Marketing
This unit addresses core concepts of fashion retail and fashion marketing. It allows students to begin to consider building a brand, and includes considering brand management strategies, a social media presence and the creation of intellectual property, as well as supply chain management for small craft-led brands or large globally focused retail and wholesale operations. It teaches students how to manage a retail presence from traditional perspectives or in a digital context. This is a final year unit and prepares students for entry into the commercial fashion industry.
DFB330 Fashion: Self Directed Project
This unit is a capstone design experience. It provides you with the opportunity to synthesise your prior learning, within university and the workplace, through the production of a final year project that will be future-facing. In this unit, you will develop the confidence and ability to work with minimal supervision while exploring your individual design aesthetic. You will complete an extended final year project with the opportunity to present your work to peers.
Film, screen & animation
KNB115 Crafting Motion in 3D
Building on your understanding of animation principles and constructed motion, this unit focuses on body mechanics and how movement communicates character. You will explore how animators move beyond functional motion to create expressive performances that reveal personality, intention and emotion. Through the analysis of animated characters from historical and contemporary works, you will investigate how posture, timing, gesture and body language shape how animated characters move and behave. Practical exercises will build your ability to create believable movements and challenge you to experiment with characterised movement, transforming simple actions such as walk cycles into expressive animated performances that express mood, attitude and intention. By the end of the unit, you will develop the skills needed to create believable character-driven animation, where movement is shaped not only by mechanics but by the motivations and emotions of the character.
KNB305 Animation Studio
This unit focuses on the collaborative production of a narrative-driven animated short film within a simulated studio environment. Building on the foundations established throughout the course, you will work as part of a production team to develop and complete a cohesive outcome within contemporary animation workflows. Through studio-based production processes, you will engage with current practices and ideas in animation, applying creative, technical and conceptual approaches to the development of your project. The unit emphasises planning, iteration and problem-solving within a shared production pipeline, reflecting the structure and expectations of professional animation studios. Working collaboratively, you will develop project proposals, test and refine ideas, and contribute to the production of an animated short. The studio environment supports the coordination of roles, workflows and creative decision-making, preparing you for industry approaches to animation production.
KNB315 Advanced Animation Practice
Animation has a long tradition of innovation driven by experimentation and creative exploration. In this unit, you will create an original animated work through independent practice, building on the production experience gained in earlier units. You will apply the skills and knowledge developed throughout the course to refine a focused area of specialisation, shaping your own creative direction and approach to animation. While you may work within a broader project or collaborative context, the emphasis is on your individual contribution, authorship and the development of your own practice. The unit supports experimentation while consolidating professional workflows and production methods. You will produce a substantial body of work that demonstrates both your technical capability and capacity to operate as an independent practitioner while also preparing you for entry into the animation industry.
KPB123 Multi-Camera Studio Production Practice
This unit addresses creative, technical and organisational skills and knowledge required to work in a multi-camera television studio production context. You will develop an understanding of the formats suitable for live production and the practical production skills as a crew member on multiple modes of production which will form the basis of an effective industry-related repertoire. This unit builds on skills developed in previous units to make studio-based multi-camera productions and live broadcast content.
KPB218 Narrative Screen Production
This unit develops an appreciation of contemporary screen narratives by building analytical and collaborative production skills applicable to fictional screen storytelling. It also investigates the application of contemporary narrative screen production approaches via the examination of core areas of specialisation and the production of a short narrative film. The unit will deepen your creative, technical, and organisational abilities in the areas of narrative screen storytelling.
KPB219 Factual Screen Production
This unit introduces the traditions of documentary film and television production, stylistic practices in documentary and documentary scripts, and methodologies for producing ethnographic, indigenous and cross cultural documentaries. Understanding the role documentary performs in our media age provides a crucial literacy to this film forms. You will be exposed to the history and theory behind documentary, enabling you to conceptualise and plan your own documentary productions and critique the place of them alongside factual and fictional forms of filmmaking in the contemporary media landscape. This unit then addresses the knowledge and skills required for non-fiction multi-platform content production while engaging with high-end production and post-production technologies. You will learn screen language and production practices, roles and responsibilities of production teams, production management, design and practice.
KPB324 Advanced Screen Production Contexts
This unit examines the broader context in which screen content is produced in relation to policies and practices that support the screen production sector in Australia. This includes film, television, streaming, and online video production. Students will focus on specific government policies, production initiatives, markets, producers or platforms to identify production and / or distribution opportunities. Students will develop a project proposal targeting specific initiatives or responding to government policies, and create a proof of concept, prototype or other short form screen production.
KPB326 Advanced Screen Production Practices
This unit extends your knowledge and skills relevant to the demands and expectations of contemporary screen production practices through practical production experience and exposure in a professional setting. It will extend on screen production experiences in new and unique environments and further equip you with expertise particular to technology and employability in the workplace. This unit will provide you with the opportunity to further specialise in an area of pre-production, production or post production, as you work collaboratively to produce a festival-quality short film.
Industrial design
DNB211 ID Studio: Manufacturing Technology
This unit introduces the skills and knowledge to transform design ideas into manufacturable products. It provides experience and skills in creating 3D CAD models and using them to communicate design intent. The unit increases your knowledge of the commonly used materials and processes and of how their manufacturing constraints and opportunities affect the design process. The industrial designer needs to possess skills in translating these constraints and opportunities into viable product designs and to be able to communicate their design intent with sufficient detail to allow that product to be manufactured according to industry standards and capabilities. This unit introduces you to the principles of Design For Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) and extends your Computer-Aided Design (CAD) skills. The skills and knowledge covered by this unit are amongst those highly sought after by employers and will be applied in all subsequent ID studio units.
DNB212 ID Studio 5: Applied Technology
This unit provides the skills and knowledge required to design products for manufacture. It advances knowledge on commonly used materials allowing you to gain an understanding of how manufacturing constraints and opportunities affect the design process. Industrial Designers need to be able to design products that are viable for production. They also need to possess skills in translating these constraints and opportunities into viable product designs and to be able to efficiently communicate their design intent to allow that product to be manufactured according to industry standards and capabilities. The unit focuses on 3D parametric Computer Aided Design (CAD) and on how this is incorporated into the design process. Additionally, it provides skills in creating 3D CAD models and using them to communicate design intent. The unit builds on the DNB211 ID Studio 4: Manufacturing Technology unit as well as developing CAD and digital presentation skills.
DNB215 Design and Systems Thinking
This unit introduces the concept of systems thinking and its application in design practice to solve complex societal, cultural and environmental challenges. Building on prior units and foundational knowledge of design concepts, methods and strategies, you will consolidate processes for identifying opportunities, reframing problems, and innovating for ethical, sustainable and inclusive long-term systemic outcomes. To be able to tackle the most critical problems of our time, we must broaden our view to incorporate a more holistic and comprehensive view of design and systems. This requires the understanding and application of novel systems thinking approaches to the design of interconnected products, services and systems that are viable, feasible and desirable for people and the environment.
DNB311 ID Studio 7: Capstone
This is the capstone unit for Industrial Design. It is built upon the earlier Industrial Design units and extends the application of research to the designing products and systems. This is an independent project reinforcing leadership and project management as well as strengthening your expertise. You will focus on research done through design, application of research findings for early and developmental design stages, and will learn to integrate research and design to support novel design ideas. The unit provides you with an opportunity to learn how to manage and lead large authentic projects.
DNB312 Advanced Manufacturing
The aim of this unit is to elevate your knowledge of manufacturing to a level where you can confidently produce products able to be manufactured. It further develops your knowledge of the relationship between manufacturing and design. In this you will gain a greater understanding of manufacturing materials and processes that are commonly used by designers. You will also gain experience applying that knowledge to a design project. For a design to progress from just an idea to becoming a real thing it needs to be able to be manufactured. For this, designers need an in-depth understanding of the ways that products are manufactured and what they can be manufactured from. This forms part of the core technical skills that designers require. This unit builds on previous manufacturing skills and allows for this knowledge to be incorporated into the final capstone unit.
DNB313 Advanced Computer-Aided Design
This unit develops your knowledge and skill in Computer Aided Design (CAD), with the aim to strengthen your knowledge about the implementation of CAD in an industrial design context as well as skills in generating CAD output (digital renderings) in a form that accurately communicates design intent. This unit will focus on building skills using SolidWorks, a 3D parametric modeller and Keyshot, a render engine. Designers need to be able to communicate their 3D design ideas in an accurate way to others to have them manufactured, and CAD is the primary way that this is done. Therefore, good CAD skills are an essential skill, sought after by employers and very useful for design communication in subsequent units, especially the capstone unit.
Interaction design
DXB110 Principles of Interaction and UX Design
This unit introduces Interaction and UX Design theories, methods, tools and applications essential for the design of digital products, services and experiences for human interaction. It enables you to undertake user experience research in response to real world briefs, critique leading industry case studies and practices, iteratively prototype solutions, and evaluate usability of the outcome with regard to user experience. Amidst global proliferation of digital products and services shaped by trends in augmented and virtual reality, automation, smart homes, and the Internet of Things; there is a greater emphasis on designing digital interactions, interfaces and systems that improve the human experience. In order to effectively achieve that, this unit provides foundational skills and knowledge in human-centred design, including aspects of the interaction design lifecycle, methods, tools and techniques needed to solve real world problems.
DXB210 Critical Experience Design
This unit develops your ability to think critically and act speculatively through design. It explores how speculative design, critical design theory, and futuring practices can challenge established conventions and reframe contemporary challenges. You will investigate how design decisions shape not just artefacts, but complex social, political, and environmental systems of governance. By designing provocative and immersive future scenarios—such as future cities, healthcare systems, or climate futures—you will interrogate present-day assumptions and explore the transformative potential of design. The unit equips you with the skills to create impactful, experience-based design responses that catalyse critical reflection and enable more just, inclusive, and sustainable futures.
DXB211 Creative Coding
This is an introductory programming unit for designers. It presents core principles of computer programming and explores how these can be applied to produce creative outcomes. It also surveys the ways that designers, artists and other creative practitioners have engaged with computer programming and reflects on the nature of code as a creative medium. A basic literacy with programming is essential in areas of professional practice such as interaction design, visual design, web design, mobile app design and game design. As such, it is important for you to develop core skills in computer programming, as well as knowledge of the aesthetics of computational processes in design and creative practice.
DXB212 Tangible Interaction Design
This unit provides an in-depth exploration of tangible interaction design through the creation of an advanced prototyping project. It integrates theoretical frameworks with hands-on practice, focusing on the design of computational and interactive prototypes that engage users through tangible and embodied interaction. You will develop proficiency in rapid prototyping techniques, producing both low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes, using a variety of design and fabrication methods.
DXB310 Digital Experience Design
This unit advances on your understandings of augmented interaction. Studio-driven explorations of emerging and future practices and concerns, and engagement in a chosen problem space, will facilitate such process. The unit provides an opportunity for reflective practices to situate your work in the relevant context as well as extend your own understanding of interaction design. You will create an augmented interactive system that responds to a problem or site you identify and research, as well as evaluate people’s experience of it gaining formative feedback. You will use interactive media technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality software tools and sensors, and develop a visual and experiential language for your concept. Understanding social and physical phenomena evolution and how we interact with the world is crucial, even more so today as wireless networks proliferate and that interaction is increasingly mediated.
DXB311 Advanced Interaction Design Project
This capstone unit further develops your interaction design skills through the production of a signature project. It focuses on developing your own specialist Interaction Design work which will serve to assist you in defining your professional portfolio and future career pathways. The outcome will also become your major design work to be presented in the final year exhibition. Design for interaction continues to be a transformative and pivotal field of design for contemporary society, encompassing a range of practice from sustainability, usability, and collaboration to the evocative, playful and expressive. New design opportunities and career options continue to emerge and an understanding of future industry practices and an ability to actively engage in these is essential for career success. This subject provides you with the opportunity to explore emerging areas of interaction design through practice-based research, creative focus and a supportive community of learning.
DXB330 Advanced Digital Product Design
This unit provides the skills and knowledge required to design advanced digital products that integrate strategic thinking, user experience, and advanced prototyping. You will engage with the complete digital product design process - from research, ideation, and concept development through to high-fidelity prototyping, user testing, and evaluation. Emphasis is placed on understanding the role of design within contemporary product ecosystems and on developing design outcomes. You will use industry-standard and emerging tools to create digital experiences, applying iterative methods to align user needs, business goals, and technological possibilities. By the end of the unit, You will have developed the capacity to plan, design, prototype digital products that demonstrate professional design standards.
Journalism
CJB204 Social Justice and Journalism Ethics
Journalism has a significant influence on the way people see the world, and how they think about their place within it. Journalism therefore has the ability to both address, as well as exacerbate, existing power imbalances that exist in our culture. This unit provides students with a better understanding of these dynamics, and how they can shape their future professional practice in ways that might better account for the structural advantages and disadvantages that different groups (based on gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class and physical ability) face. The unit will introduce students to the professional codes of conduct under which journalists often operate, and how they apply in the Australian context. The unit also provides opportunities for students to explore real-world ethical dilemmas in the media industry, and to work through examples of applied ethical decision-making. In doing so, the unit aims to produce more socially-conscious, ethical journalism practitioners.
Music
KMB226 Studio-Based Music Production
This unit situates music in collaborative contexts, preparing students for diverse career pathways and professional partnerships in today's music industry. Students learn different roles in contemporary music practice and across creative disciplines, such as composition and production for film, theatre, animation, and multimedia. Students connect individual practice with collaborative partnerships to produce studio recordings and/or live performances of original works. Students further their knowledge of the music sector and learn to build sustainable portfolio careers typical to the contemporary industry. Key sustainability concepts related to touring and record production are introduced. Students develop understanding of how contemporary music is produced by undertaking practice in professional roles such as studio engineer, songwriter, producer, session musician, top-liner, or media composer, gaining direct insight into industry career pathways.
KMB236 Music Performance, Practice and Persona
This unit develops advanced performance skills for contemporary music contexts, integrating live performance, audio documentation, and multimedia presentation techniques used across the modern entertainment industry. Students master stage presence, audience engagement, and technical proficiency while learning to adapt their musical expression to diverse performance environments including concerts, festivals, streaming platforms, and multimedia events. The unit connects performance practice with sound engineering, introducing students to both artist and technical career pathways in live music.
KMB318 Advanced Music Creation and Innovation
This capstone unit enables you to define and develop your unique artistic identity through intensive creative research and sophisticated music-making across composition, improvisation, performance, and production. You'll undertake self-directed creative projects that push genre boundaries and demonstrate professional-level artistry while mastering advanced collaborative skills and creative leadership. The unit emphasises original creative voice development, innovative approaches to music-making, and the ability to contextualise your work within contemporary cultural and industry conversations. You'll prepare for creative leadership roles through advanced project management, critical reflection, and professional presentation of original artistic work.
KMB328 Professional Music Practice and Career Development
This capstone unit integrates advanced music practice with comprehensive professional development, preparing you for sustainable careers in today's dynamic music industry. You'll refine your creative and technical skills through intensive music-making while simultaneously developing the business acumen, entrepreneurial thinking, and industry knowledge essential for professional success. The unit emphasises real-world application through professional-standard projects, industry case study research, and hands-on experience with contemporary music business practices. You'll graduate with both a sophisticated creative portfolio and the practical skills needed to navigate and thrive in the contemporary music landscape.
Professional communication
CWB201 Corporate Writing and Editing
Professional communication specialists must have a command of an extensive range of corporate writing genres to create and edit corporate documents. This unit allows you to develop the ability to write in at least two corporate writing genres and be proficient in three other genres. It deals with both the fundamentals of language (grammar, punctuation, style) and common corporate writing genres (manuals, reports, speeches, brochures). As a corporate writing specialist, you must also be able to respond authoritatively to technical and stylistic writing questions when such matters arise in the workplace. You will develop your knowledge about how language works and be able to use that knowledge in practical writing applications. As a result, you will become a more confident writer and communicator in corporate and professional situations.
Visual communication
DVB102 Image Design and Production
This unit provides skills and knowledge for image creation and production across different contexts, styles and media. It also deals with issues of originality, creativity and suitability of images used in professional visual design, while increasing your skills and creative approaches to areas of illustration, information design, photography, and photo media design. It advances knowledge on aesthetic and formal qualities of new areas of image design and a growing technical skill set which will be built upon in further Visual Communication Design specialisation subjects. In a world of easily reproduced digital imagery, the ability to create your own original illustrations, photos, textures and patterns can be highly competitive. Along with developing practical skills to generate original imagery for your design work, the unit further develops your capacity to critique and reflect upon practice.
DVB201 Typographic Design
This unit provides knowledge and skills of typographic principles, composition and design strategies. It combines theory and practice, history and experimentation, and designing for print and digital media, all within a vibrant studio environment delivered face-to-face and online. You will engage with dynamic, creative briefs and use type as the main element of visual expression in your work. Typically typography is at the core of any visual communication work, independently of media. ‘Good’ typographic design demands well developed technical skills, constant attention to detail as well as a sharp understanding of the context and content of the message being transmitted. Upon completion of this unit you will be able to understand, apply and manipulate multiple aspects of typography as a powerful visual communication tool and to prepare and publish your work in multiple media contexts, including emerging technologies and environmental spaces.
DVB202 Visual Design for Storytelling
While contemporary visual communication often applies concise and immediate messaging for targeted audiences, it can also require extended, multi-layered narrative-led messaging. This unit provides theoretical, conceptual, technical and research skills to produce narrative-based visual communication works. The unit addresses principles and techniques of visual storytelling across multiple media forms such as print, screen and space, and allows you to develop key portfolio pieces which are complex and creative. Visual Design for Storytelling builds upon the Visual Communication foundations, expanding the scope of projects you are equipped for.
DVB203 Theories and Methods of Visual Communication
This unit builds on your understanding of the principles of visual communication and its role in determining the values of our contemporary cultures and societies. Through exploring theoretical perspectives, discussions and class exercises you will critique and analyse images and visual communication designs occurring in multiple contexts. In doing so, you will develop further expertise in the production of contemporary communication design and the ethical, social and professional responsibilities of a designer. This unit directly builds upon the Visual Communication and Image Production units while providing opportunities to engage with critical analysis of images and experiences and evidence this through written expression and report writing.
DVB301 Kinetic Image and Text
Moving image and typographic design has become a leading form of communication in contemporary society, from online contexts, to film and television, to digital signage. An in-depth understanding of and creative skills in motion-based design are essential for visual designers to work on major campaigns and address all client needs. This unit provides you with knowledge of key theoretical approaches, techniques and methods of kinetic design and allows you to explore these through practice within studio-based assessment projects. In taking this focus, the unit builds directly upon prior foundations of Image Design and Typography in the Visual Communication specialisation and prepares students to work at a further, advanced level within the industry.
DVB302 Data Visualisation and Information Design
Information and data is now an essential aspect of everyday life in our technologically-driven and visually rich society. In the contemporary world, the generation of data is much greater than the ability to digest and visualise this as meaningful information. The unit provides advanced knowledge and skills in visual information design and data visualisation allowing you to apply these within a series of practice-based design works. The unit contextualises the growth of this information design specialisation for visual designers, raises issues relating to data collection and integrity, and provides you with a comprehensive understanding of the variety of design approaches that can be engaged within this area. It offers both a practical understanding of established information design models and also the opportunity to develop an innovative and future-forward approached to data visualisation, including utilising interactivity.