Assignment Weighting: 50%
Group or individual task: Individual
Length: 10-minute video and 500 word written reflection
Format: PowerPoint presentation (with video & audio) and 500-word reflection
Feedback: Rubric with comments (See Below)
Unit Learning Outcomes:
- Critically evaluate contemporary public health research to inform alcohol and other drugs policy and practice.
- Apply models of best-practice in the management of alcohol and other drug-use problems across the lifespan.
Instructions
For Assessment 1, you need to create and submit:
- a video recording of a PowerPoint Presentation, and
- a 500-word personal reflection.
Step One: Create the PowerPoint Presentation.
You should first create a PowerPoint Presentation with speaker notes. Your presentation should focus on comparing the Australian National Drug Strategy with another country’s drug policy. To do this, first complete Modules 5, 6 and 7. This will help you to interpret the scope and methods of comparative policy analysis.
To do well on the critical thinking component of the rubric, it will be important that your comparative drug policy analysis takes a narrow focus. That is, if you try to broadly compare the two countries’ drug policies, given the limited scope of this assessment, then your assessment will end up being too superficial and descriptive rather than analytic. There are a few different ways that you can narrow your focus. For example, you could select only one drug for your comparison. For example, you might look at any one of alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical drugs, cannabis, opioids, etc. Alternatively, you could narrow your focus to an aspect of drug policy such as regulation, education, or funding (e.g., for pharmaceutical drugs), or the provision of treatment services and so on. There are many possible areas to focus on in your comparison.
Finally, the audience for your presentation is a group of Australian politicians hosting a hypothetical national drug summit. It is expected that you will make some evidence-based drug policy recommendations based on your comparison of the Australian National Drug Strategy with another country’s drug policy. The way in which you present the information to this audience will be integral in determining whether or not the politicians take on board your advice.
The idea with your comparison is to contrast distinctive approaches to dealing with the drug or drug-related issues that you have examined, so be sure not to choose a country that treats your selected drug in essentially the same way as Australia. Adam, Hurka and Knill (2017) examine different modes of behavioural regulation by governments when it comes to drug use. They describe four distinct types of behavioural regulation (i.e., authority, permissive, lenient authority, and punitive permissiveness). You will do better on this assessment if you choose a country that uses different behavioural regulations than Australia.
As an example, your comparison might examine a country that differs on the behavioural regulation of cannabis use compared to Australia and the consequences and effects of these two approaches. For example, Australia might be considered to use the authority or punitive permissive regulation of cannabis, while country B might exercise permissive regulation. In this case, you might look at the various effects (e.g., common penalties) and results (i.e. measures of the ‘effectiveness’) of the different policies in the two countries, including patterns of cannabis use, modes of punishment, costs of implementation, public debates etc.
Once you are reasonably clear about your choice, try to compile relevant research and information. This will mean looking at a variety of sources of information, including government reports, websites, books, journal articles and so on. The ECU library has some useful sources (search the catalogue using the terms comparative drug policy) and you can also try the ECU Library Addiction Studies subject areaLinks to an external site. using the search terms comparative + drug policy in Medline and the PsycINFO. There are some other possible sources listed in the Resources section below.
After conducting your research, and when you feel you are armed with enough information, you can begin planning and then preparing your presentation.
Step Two: Record your PowerPoint Presentation.
Record your presentation in PowerPoint with audio (i.e., sound and video required). If you are unsure how to do this or are unfamiliar with creating PowerPoint Presentations, begin by watching some brief videos in the Resources section below on how to record an audio narration in PowerPoint. Your presentation should be approximately 10 minutes in duration (10% more or less than this is fine). The number of slides you use in your presentation is for you to decide. Be sure to remember the audience to whom you are presenting.
Step Three: Write your reflection.
Finally, write 500 words reflecting on your experience of completing this assessment task. In doing so, you might like to consider the following questions:
- Why did you choose the country that you compared with Australia?
- What process did you go through in choosing the drug issue that you focused on?
- How did you deal with any difficulties you had in gathering research regarding the effectiveness of the two countries’ drug policies?
- How did your own personal values and beliefs influence your approach to comparing drug policies, and what challenges did you face in aligning your perspective with the research or findings?
- What new perspectives on drug policy have you gained through completing this assessment task?