Student Work Commitment
This course requires between 8 to 12 hours per week in class-related work. This is a serious commitment - but it will be rewarding.
This course is a peer to peer learning experience. You have to share your understandings with your classmates -- or you won't learn anything.
The class will be divided into groups of several students each; you will collaborate with these students throughout the course, sharing your thoughts and assignments, and commenting on each other's work.
There are two primary responsibilities in this course:
(1) Weekly Readings and Discussion Questions. Each week, students should complete the assigned readings, and discuss the relevant discussion questions with the other students in their group and with the course facilitators in Office Hours. You are not required to submit written answers to the discussion questions, but participating in a discussion of these topics will increase your understanding of the materials, and should also be a fun way to interact with your classmates! It will also help memorialize your thinking -- so you can go back and understand your own perceptions or misperceptions.
(2) Bi-Weekly Case Scenarios. Every two weeks, each group will be responsible for submitting a group response to a Case Scenario (for a total of three case scenarios). The assigned readings and other resources will assist you in responding to the Case Scenario questions. The Group answer should demonstrate your understanding of the assigned reading material and should include original thoughts and synthesis. Don't just summarize the readings! Making connections between the week's readings and either previous readings or previous discussions is strongly encouraged.
(a) Submitting group responses. You will submit your group responses to the Case Scenarios in the forum for each Scenario, linked at the bottom of the scenario page. Because this is a peer-to-peer learning experience, all participants will be expected to share your responses to the three Case Scenarios with the whole class on this forum. Your submissions are automatically licensed with a Creative Commons (Attribution ShareAlike) license so that the course organizers can use them for future courses and other educational uses. Of course, you will retain copyright to your answers and can re-use them how you want.
There is also a general p2pu forum for the course, available here: https://p2pu.org/en/courses/147/discussion/, for discussion about the course as a whole, or discussions that don't fit into one of the sessions or assignments.
(b) Grading. Case Scenarios will be graded on a Pass/Fail basis according to (1) the degree to which they completely answer the questions asked, (2) the degree to which they demonstrate understanding of the assigned reading material through proposing practical solutions, and (3) the degree to which original thinking is evident in the writing.
Your facilitator, Laura Quilter, will get grades back to you.
(c) Commenting on other groups' responses. Although it is not strictly required, we strongly encourage you to log on to the Forums and check out the other groups' responses to the Case Scenarios, and use the discussion thread to add any comments you may have on the other groups' work. Be constructive!