Approach and Expectations

The course will represent an opportunity to rethink design, learning, and collaboration through an approach that:

• supports learning through design experiences,
• helps learners build on their own interests, and
• fosters the collaborative construction of knowledge

The approach taken for the course will allow students to engage in authentic, self-directed learning activities, and embed design and learning activities in the context of real world activities. Collaboration among students and active participation will be highly valued. Engagement in hands-on experiences will play a central role since it introduces reflection-in-action, and uses diverse background skills of class members in order to help each other learn. Different types of systems being researched at the Center for LifeLong Learning and Design (L3D) will be introduced to attain this hands-on experience.

Through this approach participants can expect to leave this course with the following capabilities:

• an understanding of how to research, work, learn, and collaborate in designing solutions to their concerns in shaping the future,
• an awareness of learning on demand within communities of learners, and
• an experience on how to "master" new, personally meaningful media and technologies.

Grades will be based on:

1. an active and meaningful participation in class á this will be measured primarily by the quality of the contributions, not by the quantity (obviously zero quantity does not indicate any quality), by interesting, unsolicited contributions of relevance to the class, and by answers to small assignments

1. the quality of the process and outcomes of the semester project (a handout about projects will be provided and discussed in an upcoming class meeting)

1. a self-assessment of the students provided to the instructors at the end of the course.

Weight distribution

Contributions of relevance (i.e. as mentioned in (1) above)	40 percent
Semester Project	40 percent
Self-assessment	20 percent