QUT013 QUT You: Human Agency in the Digital World
To view more information for this unit, select Unit Outline from the list below. Please note the teaching period for which the Unit Outline is relevant.
| Unit code: | QUT013 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 6 |
| Timetable | Details in HiQ, if available |
| Availabilities |
|
| CSP student contribution | $596 |
| Domestic tuition unit fee | $2,352 |
| International unit fee | $2,820 |
Unit Outline: Semester 2 - 6 Week C 2026, Gardens Point, Internal
| Unit code: | QUT013 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 6 |
Overview
In a world where so much of our activity is in digital environments, it is vital to understand how digital systems influence our choices, attention and behaviour, and how we can stay in control of them. This unit helps you recognise the psychological processes that shape your digital experiences and how digital tools can both support and undermine your personal and professional goals. You’ll explore social media, games, and online marketing to understand their risks, opportunities and real potential for positive use. Through hands‑on and collaborative activities, you’ll learn to navigate digital environments on your own terms and design habits that support your values, wellbeing and future professional practice.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Analyse how psychological processes and digital system design influence human agency and use this understanding to evaluate and interpret real digital environments.
- Critically reflect on the application of psychological processes and digital system design strategies on your personal life and future professions.
Content
In this unit, we will explore human agency—our capacity to make choices and take purposeful action—in contemporary digital environments. It introduces key psychological concepts to help you understand why digital systems can influence attention, decision‑making and behaviour.
The unit examines these psychological concepts in contexts such as:
- Social and interactive digital environments – including social media, games and gamified apps.
- Digital persuasion and security – including marketing, behavioural design, scams and cybersecurity.
- Artificial intelligence and automation – including their implications for personal agency, work and future careers.
Across these contexts, we will consider:
- How digital technologies can enhance wellbeing, creativity and productivity.
- Challenges that arise when systems compete for attention or shape behaviour against the best interests of the user.
- Evidence‑based strategies for intentional digital engagement.
- Ways to build habits and practices that align with personal values and professional goals.
The unit supports you to develop practical skills for navigating and shaping digital environments with confidence and purpose.
Learning Approaches
In this unit, you will learn through engaging in the following:
- Synchronous tutorials.
- High-quality and accessible content available through the unit’s Canvas site.
- Peer discussion and collaboration.
- Authentic assessment tasks designed to support real-world application of unit content.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
In this unit, formative feedback will be provided by:
- teaching staff in response to individual student queries
- your peers and tutors during tutorial activities
- your completion of automated online activities in the module for each week.
Summative feedback will be provided on your assessment response.
Assessment
Overview
Your assessment in this unit is designed to help you understand how digital environments shape human behaviour and how these ideas connect to your future profession. Your task is create a short video presentation where you will screencast and narrate a digital experience of your choice. In this presentation, you will show how psychological processes and design strategies influence users (ULO1), and you will reflect on the opportunities and risks these technologies create for your personal and professional lives (ULO2).
Throughout the semester, you’ll take part in tutorials and activities that prepare you for this final task. You will practise analysing real digital examples, explore key psychological concepts and try short reflective exercises that help you build your ideas. These formative activities will give you the skills and confidence you need to complete the video presentation and demonstrate your learning in the unit.
Unit Grading Scheme
S (Satisfactory) / U (Unsatisfactory)
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Digital Experience Analysis
You will select a digital experience (e.g., social media feed, game, digital marketing) and produce a narrated screencast (video) of this experience. You will identify and explain the key psychological processes and design strategies and evaluate how these elements affect human agency. You will then critically reflect on the implications of these strategies to your own personal and professional lives, including the risk and opportunities of these strategies to your future profession.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
The ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is authorised in this assessment. See the relevant assessment details in Canvas for specific guidelines.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are few anticipated risks in this unit. You may discuss some sensitive topics such as addiction, but the teaching team will support you to develop the appropriate skills to engage in these conversations in an appropriate and respectful manner to ensure a positive experience for all students.
Unit Outline: Semester 2 - 6 Week C 2026, Kelvin Grove, Internal
| Unit code: | QUT013 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 6 |
Overview
In a world where so much of our activity is in digital environments, it is vital to understand how digital systems influence our choices, attention and behaviour, and how we can stay in control of them. This unit helps you recognise the psychological processes that shape your digital experiences and how digital tools can both support and undermine your personal and professional goals. You’ll explore social media, games, and online marketing to understand their risks, opportunities and real potential for positive use. Through hands‑on and collaborative activities, you’ll learn to navigate digital environments on your own terms and design habits that support your values, wellbeing and future professional practice.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Analyse how psychological processes and digital system design influence human agency and use this understanding to evaluate and interpret real digital environments.
- Critically reflect on the application of psychological processes and digital system design strategies on your personal life and future professions.
Content
In this unit, we will explore human agency—our capacity to make choices and take purposeful action—in contemporary digital environments. It introduces key psychological concepts to help you understand why digital systems can influence attention, decision‑making and behaviour.
The unit examines these psychological concepts in contexts such as:
- Social and interactive digital environments – including social media, games and gamified apps.
- Digital persuasion and security – including marketing, behavioural design, scams and cybersecurity.
- Artificial intelligence and automation – including their implications for personal agency, work and future careers.
Across these contexts, we will consider:
- How digital technologies can enhance wellbeing, creativity and productivity.
- Challenges that arise when systems compete for attention or shape behaviour against the best interests of the user.
- Evidence‑based strategies for intentional digital engagement.
- Ways to build habits and practices that align with personal values and professional goals.
The unit supports you to develop practical skills for navigating and shaping digital environments with confidence and purpose.
Learning Approaches
In this unit, you will learn through engaging in the following:
- Synchronous tutorials.
- High-quality and accessible content available through the unit’s Canvas site.
- Peer discussion and collaboration.
- Authentic assessment tasks designed to support real-world application of unit content.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
In this unit, formative feedback will be provided by:
- teaching staff in response to individual student queries
- your peers and tutors during tutorial activities
- your completion of automated online activities in the module for each week.
Summative feedback will be provided on your assessment response.
Assessment
Overview
Your assessment in this unit is designed to help you understand how digital environments shape human behaviour and how these ideas connect to your future profession. Your task is create a short video presentation where you will screencast and narrate a digital experience of your choice. In this presentation, you will show how psychological processes and design strategies influence users (ULO1), and you will reflect on the opportunities and risks these technologies create for your personal and professional lives (ULO2).
Throughout the semester, you’ll take part in tutorials and activities that prepare you for this final task. You will practise analysing real digital examples, explore key psychological concepts and try short reflective exercises that help you build your ideas. These formative activities will give you the skills and confidence you need to complete the video presentation and demonstrate your learning in the unit.
Unit Grading Scheme
S (Satisfactory) / U (Unsatisfactory)
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Digital Experience Analysis
You will select a digital experience (e.g., social media feed, game, digital marketing) and produce a narrated screencast (video) of this experience. You will identify and explain the key psychological processes and design strategies and evaluate how these elements affect human agency. You will then critically reflect on the implications of these strategies to your own personal and professional lives, including the risk and opportunities of these strategies to your future profession.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
The ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is authorised in this assessment. See the relevant assessment details in Canvas for specific guidelines.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are few anticipated risks in this unit. You may discuss some sensitive topics such as addiction, but the teaching team will support you to develop the appropriate skills to engage in these conversations in an appropriate and respectful manner to ensure a positive experience for all students.
Unit Outline: Semester 2 - 6 Week C 2026, Online
| Unit code: | QUT013 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 6 |
Overview
In a world where so much of our activity is in digital environments, it is vital to understand how digital systems influence our choices, attention and behaviour, and how we can stay in control of them. This unit helps you recognise the psychological processes that shape your digital experiences and how digital tools can both support and undermine your personal and professional goals. You’ll explore social media, games, and online marketing to understand their risks, opportunities and real potential for positive use. Through hands‑on and collaborative activities, you’ll learn to navigate digital environments on your own terms and design habits that support your values, wellbeing and future professional practice.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Analyse how psychological processes and digital system design influence human agency and use this understanding to evaluate and interpret real digital environments.
- Critically reflect on the application of psychological processes and digital system design strategies on your personal life and future professions.
Content
In this unit, we will explore human agency—our capacity to make choices and take purposeful action—in contemporary digital environments. It introduces key psychological concepts to help you understand why digital systems can influence attention, decision‑making and behaviour.
The unit examines these psychological concepts in contexts such as:
- Social and interactive digital environments – including social media, games and gamified apps.
- Digital persuasion and security – including marketing, behavioural design, scams and cybersecurity.
- Artificial intelligence and automation – including their implications for personal agency, work and future careers.
Across these contexts, we will consider:
- How digital technologies can enhance wellbeing, creativity and productivity.
- Challenges that arise when systems compete for attention or shape behaviour against the best interests of the user.
- Evidence‑based strategies for intentional digital engagement.
- Ways to build habits and practices that align with personal values and professional goals.
The unit supports you to develop practical skills for navigating and shaping digital environments with confidence and purpose.
Learning Approaches
In this unit, you will learn through engaging in the following:
- Synchronous tutorials.
- High-quality and accessible content available through the unit’s Canvas site.
- Peer discussion and collaboration.
- Authentic assessment tasks designed to support real-world application of unit content.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
In this unit, formative feedback will be provided by:
- teaching staff in response to individual student queries
- your peers and tutors during tutorial activities
- your completion of automated online activities in the module for each week.
Summative feedback will be provided on your assessment response.
Assessment
Overview
Your assessment in this unit is designed to help you understand how digital environments shape human behaviour and how these ideas connect to your future profession. Your task is create a short video presentation where you will screencast and narrate a digital experience of your choice. In this presentation, you will show how psychological processes and design strategies influence users (ULO1), and you will reflect on the opportunities and risks these technologies create for your personal and professional lives (ULO2).
Throughout the semester, you’ll take part in tutorials and activities that prepare you for this final task. You will practise analysing real digital examples, explore key psychological concepts and try short reflective exercises that help you build your ideas. These formative activities will give you the skills and confidence you need to complete the video presentation and demonstrate your learning in the unit.
Unit Grading Scheme
S (Satisfactory) / U (Unsatisfactory)
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Digital Experience Analysis
You will select a digital experience (e.g., social media feed, game, digital marketing) and produce a narrated screencast (video) of this experience. You will identify and explain the key psychological processes and design strategies and evaluate how these elements affect human agency. You will then critically reflect on the implications of these strategies to your own personal and professional lives, including the risk and opportunities of these strategies to your future profession.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
The ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is authorised in this assessment. See the relevant assessment details in Canvas for specific guidelines.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are few anticipated risks in this unit. You may discuss some sensitive topics such as addiction, but the teaching team will support you to develop the appropriate skills to engage in these conversations in an appropriate and respectful manner to ensure a positive experience for all students.