MSI5520 Understanding human behaviour to influence system change
Faculty of Science
MSI5520 Understanding human behaviour to influence system change is a level 5, 6-credit-point, postgraduate unit from the Faculty of Science. It isn't offered in 2026. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2026
- Not offered
- Assessment
- No exam
- 2 tasks
- Workload
- 144 hours
- per semester
This is the 2026 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.
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Overview
Behavioural change approaches are an important, and often very cost effective, part of the mix of solutions to many sustainability and other public policy issues, such as water conservation, energy efficiency and immunisation. Considerable opportunities exist in this space, as comparatively little time and effort is usually invested in understanding the drivers of individual behaviour and designing solutions that target these drivers.
With a mix of theoretical and practical work, this unit will enable you to understand individual behaviour in a way that identifies opportunities for change. It will take you through a process of unpacking public policy challenges and identifying real-life behavioural solutions. This involves prioritising behaviours and target audiences and understanding drivers of behaviour and potential solutions. You will also learn to to design, test and evaluate behaviour change interventions.
Offerings in 2026
The 2026 handbook lists no offerings for MSI5520.
Assessment
- Policy briefWritten40%
- Group behaviour change projectProject60%
Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
Clearly define human behaviour;
- 2
Identify and explore the range of behavioural drivers;
- 3
Understand and apply a methodical, research-based approach to developing behaviour change solutions to sustainability challenges;
- 4
Explore and apply different research methods and thinking tools to move from a challenge to a behaviour change solution;
- 5
Collaboratively design and effectively communicate a behaviour change initiative.
Workload and teaching
- Workshops24 hours
This unit will be delivered over a period of 6 weeks.
This will include independent self-paced work on online materials and assignments across the teaching period. It will also include synchronous (live) classes. These will be four 2-hour online evening workshops, and one 2-day on-campus intensive (16 hours in total). The combination of classes and independent work will total 144 hours.
Learning resources
Required resources
Online requirement: You will be required to engage with learning material delivered in Moodle, to support your learning between workshops. Hence, you may require technology assistance from the University, to facilitate their access to the material (e.g. eSolutions). You will also attend weekly online workshops via Zoom to take part in practical activities.
Contacts
- Unit Coordinators
- Professor Alex Lechner
- Chief Examiners
- Professor Annette Bos
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for MSI5520?
MSI5520 has no prerequisites.
When is MSI5520 offered?
MSI5520 has no offerings listed in the 2026 handbook.
How much work is MSI5520?
The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.
Does MSI5520 have an exam?
No. MSI5520 has 2 assessment tasks and no exam.
More details
- Credit points
- 6
- Level
- 5
- Study level
- Postgraduate
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- Type
- Coursework
- EFTSL
- 0.125
- Student contribution
- SCA Band 4
- Study abroad
- Not available
- Handbook years
- 20262027