Ross A. Laird

Over the past few days, various students in our group have been asking about assignment criteria, grades, standards, outcomes, and so on. This makes sense; most students are used to, and rely on, the specific educational filter of the instructor to define what learning means and how to accomplish it. As you have probably noticed by now (...), our class is a bit different. We are encouraging authentic learning, freedom of inquiry, and a philosophy of personal engagement. In our class, you guide your own learning. Yes, there are outcomes and criteria (see the outline for those); but the main guideline should be your own engagement with whatever learning calls to you. It's your class, right?

So, in thinking about the upcoming assignment and the various ways in which the freedom of that assignment might be challenging (if you are used to firm guidelines and outcomes), I suggest you take a look at this link, which provides a nice overview of some of the considerations for what we are doing.