Interactive Discourse

Reports of Learning are brief summaries of what you have learned so far, in which you give me supporting evidence that you have been able to incorporate this into your overall learning. These reports serve as a basis for you and me to determine that I have given you full faith and credit for your learning and your efforts to learn, and that you have lived up to my standards for grades in the course. Reports of learning form the structural basis for negotiating that understanding.

Reports of learning are interactive in that I must understand and clarify how you know that you have learned and how you have incorporated that learning. That means that you can't just make conclusionary statements, like "I know what a variable is." I'm glad you know, but how do you know that you know? How did you measure your knowledge of variables?

So there are two parts to this report:

1. Give supporting facts on which you base your assessment of learning.
2. Indicate your interpretation of those facts so that we can work towards an agreement on a grade.

   Sample Reports: Fall 2000, UWP

   Susan's Criminology Class Reports of Learning
   Susan's Corrections Class Reports of Learning
   Susan's Sociology of Law Class Reports of Learning
   

   Notice that Susan is following a slightly different format. Susan is not requiring supporting facts. That's because we are doing this across several thousand miles. Susan is staying closer to our past format. I'm going to drop that format in favor of the format: learning - supporting facts. That's because I'm not sure that being in class every day effectively measures learning. So, in my class you would have to say : "I'm in class every day because that's the only way I get to say what I think about what I'm reading, and I'm reading a lot. Class discussions help me decide what I want to write comments on and how to answer exam questions. (Now, in real life you'd give a specfic example for supporting fact.) Notice this will make my reports much longer than Susan's. I may come to regret that.

   We are making both formats available to you, so that you can help us assess interactively the most effective way to measure your learning and your learning efforts.

   Sample Reports: Fall 2000, CSUDH

   jeanne's classes, Reports of Learning going up

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