Independent Study
Example 2:
Support for an LDRV course refresh + Graduate School Application 

Student Name:

Project Advisor:

Project Type:

Project Name:

Goal: Explanation of what the student will achieve through their Independent Study course - the "Why".

Section 1: Executive Summary:  Description of what they are proposing and when it will take place - the "How & When"

Section 2: Project Background: The student provided information about their career background and explained how their Independent Study facilitates their future goals.

Section 3: Solutions to Approach: The student's project plan is provided below. They developed a detailed outline of their objectives and project deliverables.

Section 4: Conclusion: Student concluded with a persuasive paragraph discussing the benefits of their proposal. 

Solutions to Approach: 

• Organizational Behavior coursework updates:

  • Review the course from a Design Perspective (including completing the Cutting-Edge Tutorial) to guide all choices made 

    • https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/7-innovative-approaches-course-design

    • https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/index.html 

    • https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/index.html

    • This will involve research/running through the course from an adult learning and instructional design perspective and looking at it for achieving our primary aims, and being critical of those as well – what should those be for our students? Are we meeting the most universal needs of our varied students? Which will require data/information on them through recent evaluations + access to the last version of the course and the ‘next’ version, which we will revise together.

• Specific updates needed:

  • Edit/proof all pages (inc. updating to APA 7 and resolving linking issues + improving accessibility)

    • Change feedback to quizzes vs. dropbox assignments

    • Add final reflection? (discussion post?)

      • What’s your biggest takeaway

      • What systems do you now have a better understanding of?

      • If I changed one thing about the class based on your feedback, but only one, what should it be?

  • Lessons 7 & 8 need updates re: leaders (skills vs. traits vs. all the things vs. leaderSHIP as we have way more students taking this course ‘out of context’ now

  • Systems Maps - more scaffolding

    • They need an ‘easy entry’ map that pertains personally to START on perhaps… I couldn’t find any good Youtubes or anything for this, so perhaps we should handle it like we do the interviews in 471 - make them do one of their family system to start? Or their office? Any system they’re personally in as an entry point?

  • Live Sessions: Review for highest impact FACULTY delivery of concepts

    • For example – in Lesson 2, adding slides on the normal distribution, universal truths of OB, basically what are the things that should NEVER BE MISSED by the professor explaining verbally which need to be listed/planned for live review

    • Students had ideas/requests in the previous semester that was good for things that would have been interesting/beneficial for them to do in breakouts (like discussing current hiring climate/practices) which should be reviewed to decide if we want to implement or not (this provides experience with a potential process for continuous improvement as well)

• Evaluate the course on current levels of connectivity and propose ideas (implement if needed) – the goal is a new focus on ‘learning partnership’ as we develop an understanding of environmental/situational design for the OB course

  • Interactive readings?  (Student did a needs assessment and settled on Perusall for making readings interactive as the right tool for this course.)

  • Clarity of the D2L communication to students on the receiving end?

  • Increased humanization?

• Evaluate key elements of high-impact activities and suggest improvements overall as well as to breakouts, framing, guidance as needed

  • For virtual sessions? (Goal is to reduce anxiety in these sessions to increase learning)

  • Grading? (Notes: we WISH we could grade personal growth/creativity/etc. but instead must grade standardized things which should reflect what they learned in class)

  • Add OCBs? (Perhaps lesson update options?)

• Output: Summary and reflection of what was accomplished as part of this process, the outcomes/changes implemented, and ideally, the evidential basis for that decision-making process (brief bulleted memo format).

• Complete Program Application Requirements for a minimum of two online master’s degree programs:

  • Prepare a writing sample for submission that I can use for both programs.

  • Prepare an appropriate CV/Resume for each submission.

• Additional Required Products:

  • Initial Semester Plan 

  • Meeting Minutes (ongoing)

  • Quarterly Time Reporting

  • Reflections (2nd quarter, 3rd quarter, final)

  • End of Semester Evaluation Forms