Course syllabus

Welcome to CLS941!

So, ditching all the official and formal language, this is a course that strives to facilitate three things. Using writing to enhance learning; increasing awareness of your writing; reminding you of your scholarly approach to teaching and learning. Some of the letters from previous runs of the course describe the course too of course!

The short version for passing the course: Quick-n-dirty: ILOs and assignments

The first objective of the course is to enhance your students' learning and writing in your courses and / or supervision. Here the course focuses on your assignments, your teaching and learning strategies, and your assessment practices. This work is more or less indirect as we will be looking at how you can revise your assignments and eventually assess the changes you adopt. Where possible, we welcome samples of student writing. The main thing is that you have a good 'student writing project' to work with during the course. (Samples from previous runs none from -24 yet)

Secondly, we will work very directly and hands-on with your own writing. We need that in order to model 'working with writing' on the one hand, and to empower you in your writing on the other hand. You might be in the process of submitting a research article, a grant proposal, some book chapter, or perhaps some material for a lay audience. Either way, we try to enable your work on that text and attempt to offer some tools for it. Most of the tools we work with lend themselves for academic audiences. Please do note that the dimension of the course that focuses on your own writing is expected to also enhance the 'student writing' part of the course ;-)

The third leg of the course really combines the two. We need a discourse for talking about and understanding 'educational development work', 'writing' or 'written communication' and ideally we can employ this to enhance student disciplinary learning. This dimension of the course also serves to further your progression towards your literacy in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Course syllabus; Previous course evaluation; Criteria [pdf]; Criteria (word)

The course is a 4.5-credit course corresponding to some 125+ hours of work. The actual session time is some 20+ hours with an additional 20 for preparations; the reading time for forum activities is roughly 15-20 hours; the writing assignments will take you some 25 hours; and the project you will be working on will cost you some 35-40 hours. Needless to say, you will have to prioritise tasks accordingly but it is a good idea to set aside sufficient calendar slots for the course.

Short version again: Quick-n-dirty: ILOs and assignments

Canvas structures

For now, the site is structured around modules for the sections of the course. I've tried to create redundancy in the linking so you ought to be able to find the material and the assignments in more ways than one, but that generates a risk of getting lost! So, the current structure is new and needs testing during the run of the course. We will  need to talk about options for all the background material. Which articles go in sessions and which articles form additional resources as it were?  For each session you will also find (potentially) relevant material from the previous run of the course. There are also some 'resource' folders with material that has proven useful in the past. Most of the material still needs updating and adjusting to the new run of the course but I've left it in here since it might give you a sense of the directions the course will be taking for you. Then there is the video material. That too needs discussing in terms of what sort of structure you prefer (and they need updating but that is secondary for now). 

Session pages (including required video preparation):

Session 1: Introduction and admin (250909, 13.15 -17.00)

Session 2: Learning outcomes (250923, 13.15 - 17.00)  (About 60 mins of video)

Session 3 - Online: Teaching and learning activities I (251021, 13.15 - 17.00) (About 45 mins of video)

Session 4 - Online: Teaching and learning activities II (251104, 13.15-17.00)  (About 60 mins of video)

Session 5: Assessment (251118, 13.15 - 17.00) (About 60 mins of video)

Session 6: On feedback (251202, 13.15 - 17.00) (About 10 mins of video)

Session 7: Closing discussion (251216, 13.15 - 17.00)

And yes, we will talk more about of all this as we go along and things will change as your needs and purposes in the course become more clearly articulated!

Welcome,

Magnus