Some Thick Description Around Course Guides

Karen Trist made some excellent comments about the Part A course guides, but we did not have the opportunity to discuss them in a meeting. As they are finalising editing I tried to address them via a long, awkward email to the working group:

Finalising Part As for (hopefully) academic approval. Remember, these can be changed in future if a) they seem wrong b) aren’t working c) don’t reflect what actually happens or needs to happen for the subject to be successful.

Karen has made some comments, some of which I’m implementing, others I’m leaving as a) I don’t think they need to be in a part A (they should be in Part B), or they introduce distinctions that I think the program is wanting not to hypostatise. So I’ll respond here, so we all know what the thinking is, you can respond if you wish (but I do need these locked off tomorrow afternoon), and it keeps us on similar page. Finally, thanks Karen for picking up grammatical errors, ambiguities etc. All included and much appreciated.

Research Lab One.
It currently says
“The themes will be general enough to provide engagement for your disciplinary area, and focussed enough to provide a pathway and focus for your research.”
Karen’s comment is “How?”

Answer: not certain yet, so do not want to say as Part A’s are writ in stone and we do not want to be locked in. However, this is the role of the research leader for each laboratory, and in the context of the conversations we’ve been having we have some scenarios that model this. A lab might be with an industry partner, in which case the answer might be different to one that is based on a topic (‘sustainability’, ‘China’, ‘social media’ for example). As we’ve discussed, the biggest question *at the start* will probably be in identifying a) what the first two themes should be and b) who is best equipped to be able to teach them.

Research Lab Two.
This talks about how outcomes need to relate to the lab theme, and it will also concentrate on your honours outcomes.
Karen’s comment is wondering about how these two things can be reconciled.
Karen also points out that two learning outcomes are pretty much identical – one is about sustained investigation, the second emphasises writing.
Karen also has question about overlap and relationship to the research strategies course in relation to this lab, and if majority of work in lab two is on project.

Answer: much like for Research Lab One. Varies depending on theme/topic of the lab, but any individual honours project needs to engage with the theme of the lab. The lab leader, and supervisor, need to be involved here, and it requires conversation, scaffolding, etc. To some extent students are losing their traditional ability to nominate anything for honours, in the same way that PhD students have lost that ability (their proposals must align with uni/school research priorities). We are doing the same thing, as well as building capability within the students, staff and school by ensuring outcomes that ‘cluster’ around a common theme.

In relation to learning outcomes, happy to get more comments here. I’m aware that some practices/students are quite capable of a sustained investigation without feeling the need to actually write anything. I was trying to indicate two outcomes where being able to write about your practice is not necessarily the same thing as being able to investigate/research *through* your practice, but both are important learning outcomes. If this is not clear to y’all please yell now. (Well, it obviously isn’t clear enough so will definitely reword this, but at the moment will keep the distinction unless clear that unnecessary.)

The relation of lab 2 to research strategies is that in semester 1 the strategy course explicitly investigates how to do the honours task (thesis/project) in terms of approaches/methods. It should also cover a pile of research practice nuts and bolts – academic style, citation, bibliographic management, finding stuff, etc. It should also introduce some ideas about disciplinary practice (ie what is a disciplinary practice, what does it look/feel like) and knowledge. In lab 2 I would hope that students are largely only doing their research project. We are trying to structure it so that in practice their entire enrolment activity in sem 2 is making.

Research Practice One
Currently says as an outcome:
“developed and implemented a range of applied research activities relevant to your research project, including undertaking independent research” And in learning activities section that “The main activities will be finding references and resources, reading or viewing them, compiling notes, and maintaining an appropriate bibliography.”

Karen points out no explicit mention of practice/doing/producing artefacts. Also that the activities discussion has no mention of making.

Answer: No. Once we say ‘artefact’ it gets interpreted (particularly by those approving) as only about project based research. A thesis Is an artefact, but most don’t think about it in that way. I also regard writing a thesis as (if you like) a practice where writing and thinking theoretically are your material substrate. But if we write guides that make a distinction, either way, both ways, in relation to practice and thesis we are instituting that difference immediately into our documentation and method. We don’t want this difference. All make, in different forms, and all research is applied. The interdisciplinary nature of the honours we are building is that we are all researchers. We use different means, we produce different outcomes, some may intersect, some won’t, but rather than discussing differences I am taking a deliberate pedagogical view of approaching honours as what everyone has in common, and this is the basis for the teaching and learning and its experience. And what we all have in common is a “project” (a thing that expresses knowledge), “applied research” (thought and action towards realising a thing), and “independent research” (that we will learn how and why we should do this in and for ourselves and our experience of this will be different and *this* difference is significant).

This guide is for semester 1, where students are not expected to make anything in this subject – it is just an allocation of time for them to do a lot of reading, looking, finding, listening – [insert your relevant practice], which is also a reason not to nominate forms for outcomes. It will be pass/fail only as it is research only subject.

in relation to learning activities will rewrite, but in semester one all students should be doing this, regardless of discipline/practice. Semester 2 is too late for a canonical/basic bibliography of your key influencers/thinkers and certainly too late to be looking at other work that will influence what you do. This is the case for those making and for those writing a thesis. I will make it clearer, but as example. If I were a creative writing student this is when I would be reading those authors who a) may have written similar stories to what I intend to do b) used a style I am interested in c) ditto for genre. This list is a bibliography. This is where I would also be finding all I could about (for example) the activity of creative writing and critical commentary on same. Replace terms for film makers, etc but semester one is building ‘literacy’ and that means you need a bibliography and notes and filmography, etc.

More (in) Progress

Turns out it is easier to edit changes here, as it is just plain text with a little bit of HTML, and since each is published versioning is easier than trying to do this in Word. So, next iteration after some excellent feedback from Cathy Greenfield, and a very timely reminder come explanation from Fiona Peterson that capabilities are assessable and so need to be described in a manner that allows them to be quantified and so measured. Below is very slightly changed from the earlier version.

Objectives of the Program
This program intends to develop research capable graduates who will be leaders in media and communication for the twenty first century. The emphasis within honours is on research, whether within a specifically academic, or professional context, and the key objective of the program is to develop sophisticated research skills, as well as the ability to understand and articulate the importance of research to media and communication professionally. Within a time of immense change within these fields, both academically and professionally, this program will help to create individuals who are capable of understanding, negotiating and contributing to knowledge in contemporary media and communication systems. This program will help you learn how to do this through its model of ‘process based learning’ within an interdisciplinary research context, because these provide the skills relevant for managing and understanding such change within industry and research. The program has an emphasis on themed, collaborative investigations that are undertaken in interdisciplinary laboratories because the ability to work collaboratively, across different professional and academic groups, is a key objective for future academic and professional work.

Statement of Capabilities
As an honours graduate you will be able to contextualise, problem solve and respond to critical and creative questions relevant to communication, technology and various media. You will engage with and respond to ideas from your disciplinary experience and extend this using your interdisciplinary and collaborative skills. You will have a knowledge of research as a creative and critical practice as it relates to your individual field and discipline. You will have developed as an investigators who demonstrate academic rigour in your understanding of your own and other disciplines. You will bring skills and leadership to complex situations including the development of projects and learning and research activities in individual or group pursuit. You will have a deep knowledge of your field and of research praxis, an enhanced capacity to identify and investigate problems in contemporary media, communication and creative fields and will offer applied as well as theoretical approaches in responding to these.

As a graduate of honours you will:

• be able to creatively and critically develop meaningful problems within media and communication
• apply research skills and practices to complex problems
• work within interdisciplinary teams and be capable of making significant contributions as a collaborator
• have deep knowledge of your field and how it relates to contemporary media and communication
• know how to use research as an integral part of creative and critical practice
• demonstrate leadership skills in your ability to develop projects and through your knowledge of the processes that enable collaboration
• comprehend the strengths and contributions of your own discipline to projects and the value and significance of other disciplines
• be able to undertake sophisticated self directed research
• know why your research matters and how to express this in a variety of discipline relevant ways

Approach to Learning and Assessment
Your learning experiences will contain a mix of learning modes. This will include lectures, seminars, workshops, and individual supervision. They will generally employ a mix of large and small group learning activities, with an emphasis placed upon problem and process based learning in the context of laboratory (studio) based learning. All of your key teaching experiences will involve face to face classes. Your learning activities will be a mix of group experiences, individual supervision, individual research, writing, making artefacts, and a variety of forms of scholarly, reflective documentation practices.

Course assessment in honours is intended to be formative and to help you develop your capabilities as a researcher, whether in a clearly academic or professional/practitioner capacity. Assessment forms and modes will vary across courses, however all assessment is directed to assisting you in achieving the highest possible outcome for your research project. Assessment will consist of class presentations, essays, and a variety of assignment based tasks. Some will require you to demonstrate an ability to work individually, and others will require you to demonstrate your ability to comprehend and analyse the roles and activities within a collaborative task. The major assessment activity in honours is your research project or thesis. This is generally undertaken individually, and is expected to demonstrate a high level of research and ability. It is worked on throughout your honours year. A thesis is usually in the order of 15,000 words and project based research must have a durable outcome, an exegesis, and the project itself. All research outcomes, whether by thesis or project, will be examined according to the University’s honours research examination criteria. While such work is always assessed by independent examiners, and so is summative assessment, a variety of formative assessment and learning activities are undertaken to support the development of your research. These may include a literature review, class presentations, critiques of ongoing work, presentations of work in progress and specific support within your laboratory group.

A significant part of your learning experience will happen within the laboratories. This is a ‘studio’ mode of learning where “learning through action – an investigative and creative process driven by research, exploration and experimentation; making and constructing; and critique and reflection” (Studio Teaching Project, 2010) is the model adopted. As a part of this laboratory model forms of self and peer assessment and critique will be modeled and implemented. In addition, self reflective documentation practices, both for the purposes of project and research development, and to develop a critical, self aware research practice, will be undertaken. The laboratory mode is used because it relates strongly to the sorts of abilities that industry and universities require, and is able to help emphasise for you all the ways in which research is relevant to what you will go on to do in the fields media and communication in general.

In Progress

A long document, which is the program guide, contains a variety of key statements about the honours program. Some parts are boilerplate that have to be copy and pasted from existing university documents, but other parts are all ours. Below I have put the key bits for comment and feedback:

Objectives of the Program
This program intends to develop research capable graduates who will be leaders in media and communications for the twenty first century. The emphasis within honours is on research, whether within a specifically academic, or professional context, and the key objective of the program is to develop sophisticated research skills, as well as the ability to understand and articulate the importance of research to media and communication professionally. Within a time of immense change within these fields, both academically and professionally, this program will help to create individuals who are capable of understanding, negotiating and contributing to knowledge in contemporary media and communication systems. This program will help you learn how to do this through its model of ‘process based learning’ within an interdisciplinary research context, because these provide the skills relevant for managing and understanding such change within industry and research. The program has an emphasis on themed, collaborative investigations that are undertaken in interdisciplinary laboratories because the ability to work collaboratively, across different professional and academic groups, is a key objective for future academic and professional work.

Statement of Capabilities
Honours graduates will be able to contextualise, problem solve and respond to critical and creative questions relevant to communication, technology and various media. They will engage with and respond to ideas from their disciplinary base and extend this using their interdisciplinary and collaborative skills. They will have a deep understanding of research as a creative and critical practice as it relates to their individual field and discipline. They will be investigators who demonstrate academic rigour in their understanding of their own and other disciplines. They will bring skills and leadership to complex situations including the development of projects and learning and research activities in individual or group pursuit. They will have a deep knowledge of their field and of research praxis, an enhanced capacity to identify and investigate problems in contemporary media, communications and creative fields and will offer applied as well as theoretical approaches in responding to these.

As a graduate of honours you will:

• be able to creatively and critically develop meaningful problems within media and communication
• apply research skills and practices to complex problems
• work within interdisciplinary teams and be capable of making significant contributions as a collaborator
• have deep knowledge of your field and how it relates to contemporary media and communications
• know how to use research as an integral part of creative and critical practice
• demonstrate leadership skills in your ability to develop projects and through your understanding of the processes that enable collaboration
• understand the strengths and contributions of your own discipline to projects and the value and significance of other disciplines
• be able to undertake sophisticated self directed research
• know why your research matters and how to express this in a variety of discipline relevant ways

Approach to Learning and Assessment
Your learning experiences will contain a mix of learning modes. This will include lectures, seminars, workshops, and individual supervision. They will generally employ a mix of large and small group learning activities, with an emphasis placed upon problem and process based learning in the context of laboratory (studio) based learning. All of your key teaching experiences will involve face to face classes. Your learning activities will be a mix of group experiences, individual supervision, individual research, writing, making artefacts, and a variety of forms of scholarly, reflective documentation practices.

Course assessment in honours is intended to be formative and to help you develop your capabilities as a researcher, whether in a clearly academic or professional/practitioner capacity. Assessment forms and modes will vary across courses, however all assessment is directed to assisting you in achieving the highest possible outcome for your research project. Assessment will consist of class presentations, essays, and a variety of assignment based tasks. Some will require you to demonstrate an ability to work individually, and others will require you to demonstrate your ability to understand the roles and activities within a collaborative task. The major assessment activity in honours is your research project or thesis. This is generally undertaken individually, and is expected to demonstrate a high level of research and ability. It is worked on throughout your honours year. A thesis is usually in the order of 15,000 words and project based research must have a durable outcome, an exegesis, and the project itself. All research outcomes, whether by thesis or project, will be examined according to the University’s honours research examination criteria. While such work is always assessed by independent examiners, and so is summative assessment, a variety of formative assessment and learning activities are undertaken to support the development of your research. These may include a literature review, class presentations, critiques of ongoing work, presentations of work in progress and specific support within your laboratory group.

A significant part of your learning experience will happen within the laboratories. This is a ‘studio’ mode of learning where “learning through action – an investigative and creative process driven by research, exploration and experimentation; making and constructing; and critique and reflection” (Studio Teaching Project, 2010) is the model adopted. As a part of this laboratory model forms of self and peer assessment and critique will be modeled and implemented. In addition, self reflective documentation practices, both for the purposes of project and research development, and to develop a critical, self aware research practice, will be undertaken. The laboratory mode is used because it relates strongly to the sorts of abilities that industry and universities require, and is able to help emphasise for you all the ways in which research is relevant to what you will go on to do in the fields media and communications in general.

Another Draft A

Cathy Greenfield has had a go at doing the Part A course guide for the media and communication subject. Available as a pdf. (The other first versions are also online.) Also I’ve got all the existing Part A’s together into a single pdf to make lives easier (below).

• Draft Part A for Media and Communication Futures
• All current Part A subject guides

USC Annenberg’s innovation lab

California Dreaming – they are doing what we are doing. Only bigger, shinier. USC Annenberg announces a new innovation lab.

Draft Part A’s

The draft versions of the course overview’s have been knocked together. Attached as zip archive (they’re all pdfs).

Please keep in mind that Part A’s need to be simple as they are not supposed to be changed each year for each delivery, they are more set and forget. Also nothing is writ in stone, these are drafts, and even if these are what get approved if we are unhappy they can be changed (changing them is much easier than getting them on the books in the first instance).

• part A pdfs

Program Capabilities (2)

Cathy Cole offered a compelling rewrite:

Honours graduates will be able to contextualise, problem solve and respond to critical and creative questions relevant to communication, technology and various media. They will engage with and respond to ideas from their disciplinary base and extend this using their interdisciplinary and collaborative skills. They will have a deep understanding of research as a creative and critical practice as it relates to their individual field and discipline. They will be investigators who demonstrate academic rigour in their understanding of their own and other disciplines. They will bring skills and leadership to complex situations including the development of projects and learning and research activities in individual or group pursuit. They will have a deep knowledge of their field and of research praxis, an enhanced capacity to identify and investigate problems in contemporary media, communications and creative fields and will offer applied as well as theoretical approaches in responding to these.

And then Jeremy Y and Adrian M quickly sketched these:

As a graduate of this program you will:

• be able to creatively and critically develop meaningful problems within media and communication
• apply research skills and practices to complex problems
• work within interdisciplinary teams and be capable of making significant contributions as a collaborator
• have deep knowledge of your field and how it relates to contemporary media and communications
• know how to use research as an integral part of creative and critical practice.
• demonstrate leadership skills in your ability to develop projects and through your understanding of the processes that enable collaboration
• understand the strengths and contributions of your own discipline to projects and the value and significance of other disciplines
• be able to undertake sophisticated self directed research
• know why your research matters and how to express this in a variety of discipline relevant ways

And we mapped them as:

Program Capabilities (1)

Program Capabilities mapped

Jeremy Y. and Adrian M. used the things generated out of yesterday’s meeting to arrive at this. We are now moving to the writing.

Meeting Notes, November 8

Adrian Miles, Jeremy Yuille, Rachel Wilson, Karen Trist and John Power (for Jeremy Parker)

There were apologies from Yoko Akama, Francesca Rendle-Short, Cathy Greenfield.

Another one of our engaged, broad, intense, productive and constructive roundtables. All fired from talking about what the program capabilities should be. This generated a large cloud of things, which Jeremy Y. and Adrian M. will analyse and synthesise.

The Academic Package

The business case has gone up the food chain, and while we await news back here in the trenches the academic case now needs to be made. This, in brief, consists of:

• cover sheet
• program guide
• course guides
• HE course forms

The first step is to determine the program capabilities, and these are then courses are aligned to the capabilities. The second step are the course guides (that’s Part A for each course). Then the Program Guide is completed – a word template and then online. Then HE course forms (I don’t know what this is, but involves ASCED codes, and I don’t know what they are either). Finally, the cover sheet.

Today we need to lock off on all the subject names, and have a list of program capabilities. Jeremy Yuille and Adrian Miles are writing this documentation in 9.2.6 from 12 to 4.30 on Tuesday Nov 9 and from 10 to around 1.30pm on Thursday Nov 11.