The following questions are meant to guide you through the process of designing a “course” or unit of study. Take time to reflect on them to help create a cohesive, concrete plan. Having a learning contract will allow you to review the plan as a whole with your advising faculty member and check for consistency.
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Where are you?
What is your background?- What prior knowledge do you have of this material?
- Where does this unit fit with your degree requirements?
- What are your beliefs, attitudes, skills, values, and support structure, both in life and as a student?
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Where do you want to go?
- What would you like to get out of this unit (knowledge and skills)?
- What do you want to be able to do once the unit is over?
- What will you have to know in order to do the items listed above?
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How will you know you got there?
- How can you assess your learning achievements?
- What types of evaluation methods will suit the goals you outlined for question two (e.g., essay, presentation, annotated bibliography, webpage)?
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How are you going to get there?
What general structure of activities do you want to use? You can design your own, or use one of the following activity structures:
- Read-write-talk: Sequence of reading, reflective writing, and discussion with advising faculty member
- Do/look-read-talk: Start with some field or lab work, followed by readings and discussion with advising faculty member – write-ups of experiential work can be included
- Read-talk-do: Do assigned readings, followed by discussion with advising faculty member, and then application based projects
- Know-do-do: Work through a series of stages – build some background knowledge of skills, work on smaller application projects, conclude with larger, more complex project
- Talk-read-write: Start with some intensive meetings with advising faculty member to discuss material, read recommended resources, prepare written work
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What are you going to do?
- What specific activities will you use to attain each of the goals for question two, in keeping with the general strategy chosen?
- Critically evaluate these activities. Is reading/writing/reflecting, etc. enough to attain the desired amount of learning?
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When are you going to do what?
- Develop a week by week schedule for the whole term
- What activities need to come first?
- What activities do you want to conclude with?
- What sequence makes sense for the middle?
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Who/what can help?
- What resources do you need to support each of the goals listed for question two?
- Include people, places, community, articles, media, library, and advising faculty member resources
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How will your work be assessed?
- Who will do the assessing?
- What activities will be assessed? (Not all activities may require assessment)
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Communicate your plans
It is now time to develop your learning contract. A sample learning contract and tips on developing the contract are available from Centre for Teaching Excellence. The contract should include:
- Goals for the unit
- Structure and sequence of activities
- Timeline for completion of activities
- Details about resource materials for each goal
- Assessment procedures
- A section for advising faculty member feedback and evaluation as each goal is completed
- May include a plan for regular meetings with advising faculty member and other unit policies, such as work turned in late
- Once created, contracts should be assessed by the advising faculty member. What could go wrong? Is there too much or too little work? Is the timeline and evaluation reasonable?
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How will you know how the unit is going?
- What kinds of feedback will you need?
- How often should you meet with the advising faculty member?
- What specific questions do you want answered as each goal is achieved?
- Do some self-evaluation as you progress to help you stay focused
Resources
Fink, L.D. (1997). Instructional consulting: A guide for developing professional knowledge. Practically speaking: A sourcebook for instructional consultants in higher education. Brinko, K.T., & Menges, R. J. (eds.). Stillwater, Oklahoma: New Forums Press.
This Creative Commons license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon our work non-commercially, as long as they credit us and indicate if changes were made. Use this citation format: Independent studies: unit planning decision guide. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.
