Course Outline

Alison Belyea-Geddes
ADM 302
belyea@stu.ca

Let me begin by welcoming you to the class.  WELCOME!  I am really looking forward to teaching this particular course and getting to work with all of you.  The outline may not be as detailed about the content as you have come to expect, but with the way I want this course to function, much of the content is determined by how you become engaged in the work.  In other words, the course is also shaped by your work and since I have no idea who you are or what you think about self discovery, I can't know these kind of specifics at this time.

In RSD we are going to begin by exploring our preconceived ideas of what the term "self discovery" means.  We all come to this course with some idea of what we think self-discovery entails.  I think those ideas we have are largely shaped by reading, visual media, and personal experience.  We will begin by fully discussing the notion of self-discovery over the first few classes which I see as providing us with the base from which we will conduct our study.  So, from here we will move to examining beliefs and practices which influence our ideas, practices which are influences in popular culture, and then we will set out on a cycle of inquiry regarding those practices.   

Oprah Winfrey has been on the airwaves since 1983 (See attached from Wikipedia) and, quite frankly, provides a plethura of material for examination in terms of "self-discovery" and "religious questing".   I bring her into this discussion because her influence on popular culture in North America is huge and even if you have never watched Oprah, you will be familiar with many of the "pop spiritual philosophies" she has promoted on the program.  We'll talk more about this in class.

I really want to start with where you are, and not presume too much.  Mostly our inquiry will involve looking at popular culture and popular religious practice, but there will be space in the course for you to consider "self discovery" within established religious traditions as well. 

Although I will provide some of the readings for the course, you will be required to do a fair amount of library work, and there will also be a fair bit of time spent creating and using a class website.

If at any time during the course you feel there is a "perfect" article we could learn from, maybe something from another class, or reading you've done on your own, please feel free to suggest it.  It might even be a piece of music or a video.   Someone has suggested watching  The Colour Purple, has anyone in the class seen this film?  I have not. 

Alright, so how is my work evaluated?

Method
Religion and Self-Discovery, will be collaborative.  Because we will be sharing our learnings, working with and learning from each other — in writing and in oral discussion — the work of this course will become collaborative.  One aim of the course is to encourage each participant to become a class colleague — to teach and learn from one another -- I'm interested in creating a learning community.  Typically, you can expect to spend most of your time during class in the computer labs, reading each other's work, working in the library, or in the classroom in groups of differing sizes. 

In every class I will write a letter which I am used to calling a “prompt”.  These prompts are intended to guide you in your cycle of inquiry, highlighting the work of the previous class, providing direction for the class that day, and giving you direction on what we will do in the next class.  

The prompts will ask you to do academic sorts of things — reading, writing, webbing, thinking.  You will keep a record of these academic endeavors in files and folders on the computer system. 

Evaluation and Learning
The usual university course requires students to write tests, exams, and essays.  This course does not.  Without these requirements, I cannot evaluate your work by usual methods.  Thus, the evaluation of your work will consist of three parts.

Part 1 -- Base grade.  If you attend class consistently and respond to the prompts consistently, you will earn a base grade in the "C" range.  You can miss a combination of 3 prompts or classes before it will start to affect your base grade.  If you miss a combination of 10 classes or prompts you will earn a base grade of "F".  You cannot pass the course if your base grade is a failing grade.  If there are other marks they will not be counted. 

Part 2 -- Quality of your collaborative work.  This mark is incremental.  At the end of the course I will evaluate your written course-work (reading responses, group reports) and this grade to your base grade.

Part 3 -- Final paper/or Learning Reflection/ or Presentation.  This mark is incremental.  The requirements for the final assignment will be detailed separately before the end of January unless we decide on a Learning Reflection, in which case you wouldn't write it until the course ended, and it would be the only piece of writing which will not be public.  If we do decide on a learning reflection, the questions for reflection will all be based on the work you have done and you will be able to use the website we create to help you respond to those questions.  We will try to work it so the class comes up with their own learning reflection question(s) should we opt for this final.

I call these last two marks "incremental" because they are not averaged with the minimum mark -- if they were they could lower it -- but rather they affect the minimum mark by increments and only in an upward direction. Lower marks are ignored; higher marks raise the minimum. For example, a minimum mark of a C- and a "part 2" mark of an A, if averaged would result in a B-. In my reckoning of this example, the A raises the C- by an increment equal to a bit more than a full grade, or a B. Please note that it is certainly possible to earn a mark in the "A" range with this method of evaluation.  Please consult the academic calendar, page 242,  for a description of the letter grades.

If you feel worried about your academic performance in this course, the first thing I strongly suggest is frequently checking the websites of your colleagues in order to gauge and evaluate your own work and learning process.  After you have some sense for how your colleagues are working in this class, feel free to ask me anything you like about your performance.  I just don't want to be understood as the soul audience for your good work.

1. Late assignments and excused absences.  If you miss five classes and five prompts and then are "excused", why should anyone else have done them?  Aside from not being fair to your colleagues who are here, I cannot re-create what you missed and if you don't experience it, you can't learn from it.  There are no excuses in this course.  If you can't be here you just have to accept your personal limitations (which I understand we all come up against).  If you are aware right now that you will miss time, you will want to reconsider taking this course.

2.  Save all of the work of this course in two places.  This is not an option.  If something happens to your electronic work it will be your responsibility to be able to produce it from copy.   This means making copies and keeping copies electronic files.  Ignore this at your peril!

3. No textbook.  I will make your assigned readings available in class or online.  I estimate that you may need as much as $20.00 set aside for photocopies. I will speak more in class about this.

4. Tests and exams.  There are none in the traditional sense.  Please plan on spending the time you would cramming for an exam in this course working consistently throughout the session.  The *test* is every class, every assignment, without exception.  All of what you do in this course counts toward your grade and your learning.  If you find this disturbing, then maybe this class is not for you.

After reflecting on the outline, you may feel you are not comfortable with the style of learning in RS 2213.  Or you may feel you're not ready to take on the kind of commitment to learning that this course requires.  That's cool.

Today is a short information session.  I’ll take the first attendance on Thursday.  If you need to drop the course, feel free.  This class will work best if everyone wants to be here and understands their responsibilities.