Welcome to the LDL program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign! This learning module will walk you through all elements of our learning management platform, CG Scholar, and teach you proper procedures for each of your assignments. Please watch the below videos in order and come back as needed to better understand each process.

Orientation video total time is approximately 1.5 hours.

You are encouraged to ask questions by adding a comment to the relevant update.  A teaching assistnant or fellow student will aim to answer your question within two days.  We encourage you to review any previously-posted questions to see if your question has already been answered.  Or refer to our FAQ page on our website for the most common questions we receive.

Optional Comment: Post any questions you have as you begin this orientation.  Ask topic-specific questions as a comment on the applicable post.

There are several resources and links that you may want to bookmark.

• LDL Program Website, includes the course syllabus, calendars, FAQs, and other resources
• University of Illinois Library - Social Sciences
• LDL Student and Alumni Community 

LDL Program Website

Other Resources and Communities

• New Learning Web Site: Dr. Bill Cope and Dr. Mary Kalantzis’ site that addresses "transformational designs for pedagogy and assessment.
• New Learning: Dr. Bill Cope and Dr. Mary Kalantzis’ occasional blog.
• The learning module Innovative Ideas, Transformational Practices, contains the content for the LDL examination-dissertation sequence.
• Journal of Learning Design and Leadership: a Graduate Student journal
• Looking Ahead: Join the Online LDL Exam-Dissertation Sequence Community when you are ready to start considering the topic for your dissertation (no need to join this too early)
• Weekly Dissertation Group Advising Sessions: Join these either as an observer or once you arrive at this point, attend as an active participant enrolled in one of the courses. Active participants are required to have completed all essential and research courses before registering. Observers are welcome to join to listen to questions being asked by peers who are further along in the process. 

Disability Resources

To obtain disability-related academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids, students with disabilities must contact the course instructor and the Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES). To contact DRES you may call 217-333-4603 (V/TDD) or e-mail a message to disability@uiuc.edu. To ensure that disability-related concerns are properly addressed from the beginning, students with disabilities who require assistance to participate in this class are asked to see the instructor as soon as possible.

Optional Comment: Ask any questions you might have about resources available to you

We offer weekly office hours for the LDL courses where we can answer questions you might have regardng the course assignments, CGScholar, or the analytics.

View the Live Session Details and Recordings page to see the current Zoom link and times.  Also monitor our Happening Now page for any possible cancellations due to holidays or other reasons.

Optional Comment: You can also post general questions here by adding a comment.

All LDL courses follow a similar format.  Each course is 8 weeks during the Fall or Spring and 6 weeks during the Summer. 

LDL Program Participation Requirements: Part A (Prior to Spring 2023 - note that the participation requirements changed in Spring 2023)

LDL Program Participation Requirements: Part B (Prior to Spring 2023 - note that the participation requirements changed in Spring 2023)

The learning philosophy of the LDL program is “collaborative knowledge production.” Instead of lectures, you review weekly “admin updates”, which include videos and links to key readings, including synopses of Dr. Cope and Dr. Kalantzis' thinking in their recent books. In the spirit of the “flipped classroom,” they can then devote all of their interaction time to dialogue based on work students have undertaken in their own professional practice or research they have done about other educational practices.

Typically, two to three courses are available each term and depending on the enrollment numbers, these classes may meet together or separately for one-hour discussion sessions. Check the LDL Course Resources webpage for more details.

If you are not working full-time, it is feasible to take two courses during a single term (either two LDL courses or electives from other programs). We generally advise not to take more than one course per term/ two courses per semester. 

Note: This format, Learning Module content, Update Requests, and the Peer-Reviewed Works are subject to change as we strive to regularly innovate and consider student feedback.  Be sure to review the Syllabus and LDL Course Resources webpages for the specific course requirements.

1. Course Communities: All course material and learner interactions occur within the specific course community within CGScholar for a particular term and degree group
2. Course Learning Modules: You can view the course materials at any time outside of the specific course communities.  Links to all LDL course Learning Modules
3. Shares and Resources: Links to key information relevant for the LDL courses (LDL Course Resources), such as the syllabus and links to the synchronous sessions or sign up for your oral presentation
4. Admin Updates and Comments: Admin updates are weekly posts within the course community that include instructor videos and links to course material along with a comment request and instructions for your individual update
5. Individual Updates and Comments: You are required to create 5 of your own updates that address the weekly topic within the course community.  Each update should be supported by a scholarly article.  You're expected to comment on at least 15 peers' updates throughout the course spread out across the weekly topics.
6. Peer-Reviewed Work 1 and corresponding peer reviews: A work that involves a theoretical foundation, practical application, and analysis elements that align with and demonstrate one of the theories or theoretical concepts introduced in this course.  Review two to three peers' works and receive one to three reviews of your work, then revise your work for final submission for instructor review.
7. Synchronous Sessions: Attend the weekly synchronous sessions or listen to the recordings.  The focus of these sessions is for students to present a 2 to 4-minute presentation of their work
8. Oral Presentation: Share a 2 to 4-minute presentation of your work at least during the course.  If you are unable to attend the live sessions, you are allowed to record a video of your presentation and attach it to your written update for that particular week.
9. Analytics: The Analytics of the course show you exactly how you are doing in the course at any point in time based on the requirements.  Note that Analytics update once a day. (see below).

Work Publications

Your completed works will be published in one or more of the following ways:

• To your personal community profile page in CGScholar. You have free access to maintain this page forever via the same login. In the settings area, you can set your profile to public at any time, for instance when you are going for a job and would like to show a potential employer your portfolio of published works. You can also make your page private, however we request that you don't make your page any more restricted than “closed” during the course.
• The course page for our community, where your works will only be visible to other community members.
• We would like to be able to publish the best works to a CGScholar community, visible to future course participants and other educators. Please tell us if you do not want us to do this, or if you want an already-published work removed from public visibility. These communities include:

1. Annotated Bibliographies
2. Literature Reviews
3. Case Studies
4. Learning Design and Leadership Modules in Bookstore

Optional Comment: Post any questions you might have regarding our course framework and pedagogy

Analytics: Assessment and Grading

​We rely both on systemic analytics and instructor assessment when determining final grades.  But the systemic analytics are an excellent guide at helping you get a sense of where you stand in the course at any given time.  Refer to the Grading and Assessment page in our syllabus for the full details

We have three major metrics for grading:

1. Demonstrated Knowledge
2. Focus, or the amount of effort you have put into the course; and
3. Help, a collaboration metric based on your contributions in the community and the feedback you have offered to others.

Our goal is to enable all students to be able to meet their learning goals. Grades are thus not based on any predetermined curve of success and failure. Published works can be republished after further revision. If you are unhappy with your grade, you are welcome to revise work in order to have it re-graded. You will be able to track your progress towards course objectives in the Analytics area of CGScholar. As a general rule, if you have completed all requirements of the course on-time and have earned a score of 80 or more, you would receive an A.

The Analytics within CGScholar are meant to provide an ongoing communication of what you have completed relative to the course requirements that have been assigned to you in your CGScholar course community.

Technical Note: The data presented in the Analytics area of CGScholar has been preprocessed (otherwise, there would be a long wait when you request data). You can see the time when your data was last processed under your profile picture. This means that you should be patient as you wait for the next data process to see your score in the metrics updated.

The following are a few additional important notes:

• Throughout the term, focus on each individual petal and not the center metric
• To learn more about each petal, hover over it and select the Help link to understand how it is calculated
• Many of the metrics will re-adjust (downward) once we assign your first and second work
• Near the end of the term, you can begin to consider the center metric, as it will be more accurate as you have completed both of your peer-reviewed projects.
• Some metrics are manually recorded (e.g oral presentation, coded annotations). Please be sure to read the help text if you have questions about a particular metric.

Sample Analytics

Optional ​Comment: Please post any questions that you might have about analytics.  We also encourage you to review our FAQ page.

We use two platforms to deliver courses within the LDL program.  Note that courses from the other units use Moodle.

1. CGScholar: This is where you will access all of the materials and complete the written work for each LDL course.  To learn about the CGScholar learning environment:

CG Scholar Tour

• Visit our introductory learning module and view the “For the Member” side of sections 1-4.
• Visit the CGScholar Info webpage, where you can find tutorial videos

All course material and interactions are accessed via CGScholar, a research-based platform developed by a team of researchers in the College of Education in order to explore and advance the affordances of digital spaces for more effective and engaging online learning.

For technical support:

• Scholar Tutorials 
• Attend Office Hours

Getting Started​ in an LDL Course

Everyone, including people with existing logins, should request to join the course-specific community.  

You have permanent access to and use of your personal CGScholar account at no charge. You can also use it with your students while enrolled in the LDL program. CGScholar is available for wider use through Common Ground Research Networks, a not-for-profit public benefit corporation in which William Cope and Mary Kalantzis are directors.

2. Zoom: Zoom is an online video conferencing platform where we will have our weekly synchronous session. You will find instructions on how to use Zoom here and links to our weekly Live Sessions in the Live Session Details and Recordings. The day after the live session, a link to the video file of the recording of the live session will be added in the above webpage. If you are unable to attend the live sessions, please watch the recordings.

For the Advising Session for the students participating in the Exam-Dissertation Sequence, see the Advising Sessions webpage.

E-Learning Research and Development: Development of CGScholar has been supported by a series of research and development grants from the US Department of Education, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Your feedback is important to our ongoing research and development. At the beginning of all LDL course we will be asking you to consent to take pre and post-course surveys and for us to use your data anonymously for research purposes. This, of course, is entirely optional, though, if you are able, your contribution would be greatly appreciated.

Common Ground Scholar or CGScholar is an innovative online community and learning management system. You will use this throughout your program and beyond.

Here are two important links to help you get a jump start, if you haven't used CGScholar before.

• CGScholar Info - the section of our LDL program website with many information,  video resources and tutorials about CGScholar
• CGScholar Learning Module - this module will provide you with an expansive view into Scholar
• CGScholar Tutorial (scroll down to see the specific sections, which will launch PDF documents)

Here are two videos that demonstrate how Scholar is used within our courses.

Community Updates

Create a Work and Peer Review

Have a question about CGScholar? Ask your peers and graduate assistant first - that way we can help each other learn. Invariably, someone else will have the same question. If we don't already know the answer, we will reach out to CG Scholar Tech support. And fellow students, please help answer one another's questions. Your experience matters.

​Here are the key tasks that you will perform as a part of your courses with very brief instructions.  All of the detailed steps can be found in the CGScholar Info webpage referenced above.

1. Update your Profile: Add a picture and other details to your Scholar profile
2. View "Shares": Your instructors and peers can upload files or share links, which will show up under the Shares section. (note that the Shares section on the right-hand side of the community only lists a few, be sure to select View all Shares to see all of them). 
3. ​Post a comment: Simply type in the Comment field and then select Add Comment (note: You can not edit your comment once posted, but you can delete it)
4. Create a new update: At the top left of the community, select the drop-down menu and choose Updates. This will display all updates, but at the top, you will see a single bar where you can begin typing your title. The main area will appear where you can input your update. Then select Add Update. (note: You can edit your update until someone has commented. Once a comment has been added, you can only delete the update (along with all comments). Be sure that you are inside of the community so that the update appears within the community and not your profile.
5. ​Create a "Work": During a course, you will receive a notification to start your Work, but you can also do it manually when necessary (outside of your course requirements) create one by selecting Creator and then under the Works section, choose New. The About This Work menu allows you to update your title, add an icon, and define a structure with automatic headings.
6. ​Peer Review someone else's "Work": You will review three to six Works, so understanding this feature will help out a lot, including how to add annotations and rate someone's work. Additionally, you'll want to understand how to see the feedback others have given to you.

Optional ​Comment: Please post any questions that you might have

Works are what you would consider your major class assignments.  They are scholarly papers that demonstrate your knowledge of your selected topic, which is aligned with the themes of the course.

What is a Work?

Work 1 Explained

Work 2 Explained

Your first assignment is due relatively early in the term.  We encourage you to begin working on it as soon as you can, as it is generally the harder of the two major assignments.

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Optional ​Comment: Please post any questions that you have about the course assignments

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Here are some general instructions for creating your peer-reviewed works in CGScholar:

• Help: How-to instructions for the Creator area in CGScholar are to be found in the CGScholar Tutorials, section 3.
• Getting Started: You can start each of your works as soon as you receive a notification via email or in the CGScholar notifications. Take the link provided in these notifications to a new, “untitled” work—this work is connected to other works for peer review. (Do not create a new work.)
• Title: Change the title of your work from “untitled” as soon as you can, going to Creator => About this Work => Info => Title. (click on the word "title" to access the Edit icon)
• Subtitle: Add the Work Type (i.e. Literature Review) as your Subtitle
• Work Icon: Insert a work Icon that aligns with your work topic
• Headings: Be sure to use the structure tool (Creator => About this Work => Structure) to create sections, subsections and headings. Use the print icon in the dark blue bar to check how your work is looking.
• Sourcing: When you add media in the text (infographics, videos etc.), be sure to reference their source immediately below it and explain or discuss them in the text of your work. Use APA style for the references in the References element.
• Drafts: Draft works are considered the first complete version of your work. They need to be as complete and thorough as possible, so your peers can give you meaningful feedback.
• Deadlines: Submission and feedback deadlines in CGScholar are advisory—you can still submit even when you are late. However, we strongly recommend that you stay as up-to-date with deadlines as you possibly can, as on-time submissions increase the likelihood that you will receive timely peer review feedback. We ask people to complete reviews on works submitted late as soon as they possibly can.
• Reviews: You may receive 2-4 review requests per Work project. If you have received none or one review for your work, please ask the teaching assistant to find additional reviewers for you. Reviews should be 200 words or more per work. Vary the scores across different works in order to contrast their differences.
• Time Priorities: If you happen to be running late, submit your work as soon as you can and please prioritize review requests for other people’s work by the peer review deadline, which is when it will be released to the author. Peer feedback involves mutual dependencies and obligations—if you miss a review deadline, that’s feedback the other participant misses before their revision submission date.

Annotations

• 5 non-coded annotations: Include at least 5 non-coded annotations. Read your peers’ entire work and annotate it prior to completing the review comments and rating process. In other words, do your detailed analysis before your summary.
• 15 coded annotations: In addition to non-coded annotations (for typos etc.), make at least 15 coded annotations per work that you review using annotation codes. The rubric has three-letter annotation codes for a number of evaluative criteria. Add to the three letters a “+” (if this is a strong point, a good example, etc.) or a “-“ (if this is a weaker point, a missed opportunity, or a point that could be improved). Be sure there is a good balance of annotations, positive “+” and critical“-“. Always include an explanation for the annotation. For example, “NAM-I don’t think you have defined this term as clearly as you could have. My suggested definition is…” Note that certain work types do not require coded annotations.
• Feedback: Be kind to peers in your reviews! Be as helpful as you can, offering them constructive suggestions. Feedback should be unique (not copy/pasted) and be directly relevant to the work under review section. A peer review will typically involve 2-3 hours work.
• Review Submission: Wait until you have completed all pending reviews before submitting. More ideas might come to you while you review another work.
• Viewing Annotations from your peers: Once you receive feedback from your peers, you must view the original version (the version you submitted for peer review) In order to see the annotations from your peers. (About this work => Versions).
• Red Flags: 1) Do not self-plagiarize, or copy work from updates or other courses. This must be new work. 2) Do not copy/paste generic review text or annotations. Comments must be tailored to a specific work. If you notice any problems with a work or the reviews you receive (plagiarism, offensive reviews), please inform the teaching assistant or instructor.
• Review the Reviewer: Go to your Work in Creator => Feedback=> Reviews => Results => Overall Feedback on Feedback. 200 words or more. Please maintain a constructive tone in your feedback-on-feedback.
• Self-Review: Write your self-review before you submit your revised work. Review yourself similar to reviewing your peers. Also, reflect on how you applied your peers' feedback. Which peer feedback did you apply and why? How did your thinking evolve from version to version? Write this review for the version of your work that you are about to submit at Creator => Feedback => Reviews => Review Work.

Getting to know the Library will make a big difference in your coursework and dissertation stages. We are all used to "Googling" things, but the library grants you access to journals and resources that are only available via a subscription or purchase arrangement. And this isn't only for electronic materials, but also for those times when having a hard copy is more conducive.

For starters, here is the main library link, however, you may find the Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library (SSHEL) to be a common destination.

And make sure to take advantage of the "Ask a Librarian" feature if you are ever stuck - either technologically or topically. They are SUPER helpful!

SSHEL Home Page

Optional ​Comment: Please post any questions that you might have

There are many different ways to develop a systematic record of your reading and thinking. We are going to suggest one, involving two primary artifacts, a research diary and a bibliographical database. Of course, there are many ways to be systematic, you just need to establish a way!

Research Diary

• This is an evolving, private knowledge record.
• Create a single Word file or Google Doc.
• Date each day’s work, the latest date at the start of the doc so the entries appear in reverse chronological order.

Research Diary/Journal Example

Include:

• Notes cut/pasted from readings: be careful to include page numbers so you can cite without having to go back to the readings.
• Diagrams, timelines, and possible graphic elements
• An index of other topics with page numbers where you might want to go back to an idea you encountered in your readings.
• Your own thoughts, but, very important (!) be careful to distinguish your own thoughts from notes to avoid accidental plagiarism. For instance, always put your thinking in square brackets, or a different colored text.

Additional Suggestions:

• Copy/paste parts of updates, annotated bibliographies and literature reviews that you think it would be helpful to come back to. Again, be very careful to distinguish text you have written from your notes and selections.
• Use hashtags so you can find ideas you would like to locate again at some point, for instance #differentiatedinstruction. Create an index of hashtags at the beginning of the document. This of course will evolve and grow as your thinking develops.
• Include citations in the text, inserted from your bibliography database.
• Over the 16 courses of the doctoral program, this document may become very large. The advantage of having a single document is that you will able to search quickly for hashtags, authors, and other words. 
• This "document" could be a combination of a spreadsheet/google doc and a Bibliographical Database that has also been tagged and includes searchable notes.

Bibliographical Database

• Keep all the references that you read and to which you may wish to refer in a bibliographical database program (e.g. Endnote, Mendeley, RefWorks, Zotero).
• Make sure you include enough data in each reference to create a well-formed citation
• Include PDFs if you have them, links to source pages, or notes about where you can locate a book or other item if you need it again.
• Copy and paste relevant notes from your research diary into the notes field.
• Put citation makers into your research diary file.

Optional ​Comment: Please post any questions that you might have

While our courses are not intended to teach graduate students how to create scholarly works, we aim to observe improvement with each work you produce.

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Optional ​Comment: Please post any questions that you might have

Be sure to cite all media immediately below each media item and in the references section of your work. Use the caption under each media item to mention (Creator, Year) as per APA requirements for in-text reference to cited works. For videos, just add the in-text reference right below the embed. Be sure that each item is then included in the references list. Then, for the references list, see below for a basic citation format (not all of this information may be available—just include as much as you can, minimally the title or name of the item and the URL):

• Author, A. A. [Screen name]. (year, month day). Title of video[Video file]. Retrieved from http://xxxxxxxxx
• Photographer, A. (Photographer). (Year, Month Date of Publication). Title of photograph [digital image]. Retrieved from http://xxxxxxxxx

Refer to our LDL program web site for a more detailed APA and media citation guide.

Optional ​Comment: Please post any questions that you might have about, and we'll do our best to assist.

Peer reveiws are an integral part of all LDL courses. Encourage students to take them seriously and spend sufficient time in order to provide a meaningful review.

Here is a video that provides some reminders on creating meaningful peer revewis as well as the mechanics of how to complete a peer review in CGScholar.

Peer Review Rubric and Annotation Codes: Note to LDL course participants

You can find the peer review rubrics in the Rubrics for Peer-Reviewed Works webpage.

As you create your work, we strongly encourage you to review and align your work with the rubric and checklist.

As a reviewer, it is very important that you assist your authors by providing specific feedback on which work-specific checklist item(s) need attention. We also encourage you to self-reflect on your own work and how you address the rubric items before submitting your final work. Requirements that aren't addressed will cause the work to be returned by the instructor for additional revisions.

As you review the rubric, consider how a particular domain may apply generally, not necessarily throughout the entire work. The following are domains that students generally have questions about.

• Personal experience; does the student provide an introduction that explains why they are interested in examining this topic? In the annotated bibliography, does the author convey the significance of the article to their own work? It is not necessary to incorporate personal experience throughout the work; you actually should avoid conveying your voice within the main body of the literature review. A literature review is not about what you know, it is about what you have learned from the literature
• Critical Analysis: It is not the student's role to critique the topic, but rather to report on what the literature says (or critiques) about the topic. Additionally, this domain also can correspond to the gaps in the literature section; does the student convey where the literature is lacking and where further research may be warranted?
• Application: Do the studies represented demonstrate the application of the topic?
• Innovation: Is the topic being examined innovative? Is the significance of the topic or are the gaps in the literature innovative?

Optional ​Comment: Please post any questions that you might have about the peer review process or creating peer reviews in CGScholar

CGMap is an innovative tool that enables peer reviewers to engage more deeply in the review process by connecting annotations with review rubric ratings and comments.

Optional ​Comment: Please post any questions that you might have about CGMap

Refer to our website for full details on the Artificial Intelligence reviews

The Illinois Student Code should be considered as a part of this syllabus. Students should pay particular attention to Article 1, Part 4: Academic Integrity. Read the Code at the following URL: http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/policy/code/ Academic dishonesty may result in a failing grade. Every student is expected to review and abide by the Academic Integrity Policy: http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/policy/code/.

All the work you do in this course is very visible. Not only is plagiarism a terrible idea; it will be obvious in ways that is not obvious in traditional course formats because your work will be seen by many eyes. Fortunately, for these reasons, we experience very little plagiarism in our courses. However, just in case, here are some rules, additional to the University’s standard rules.

1. Citing Peers: This is a collaborative knowledge community. We want you to learn from each other’s work, as much as from the resources that we provide and that you identify. When you have learned something from a course participant, please cite the source. This might be an update they have made, or a peer reviewed work. Include author, title, and a weblink as your citation.
2. Self-Plagiarism: Do not self-plagiarize, or copy work from previous updates or works, or other courses. All work must be new. If you want to refer to earlier work, cite it, including author, title, and a weblink as your reference.
3. Generic Evaluations: Do not copy/paste generic review text or annotations (an old teacher’s trick, we know, when faced with the chore of grading). Comments and annotations must be tailored to a specific work.
4. Responsibility to Report: If you notice any problems with a work or the reviews you receive (for instance, plagiarism or reviews which are cut/pasted or offensive), you must inform the teaching assistant or instructor, no matter how uncomfortable you may feel to do this. This is for the sake of the offender as much as anything else—offending in another place may have even more serious consequences.

Visit https://ldlprogram.web.illinois.edu/overview/about/contact-ldl-team-about-us/ to learn about our team

Choosing a Topic: Look ahead into the course learning module to get a sense of upcoming ideas—don’t feel constrained to explore concepts introduced early in the course. Or explore a related theory or concept of your own choosing that is relevant to the course themes. Keep in mind that your Individual Personal Updates were set to help you with your project. 

* See Personal Update prompts here - https://ldlprogram.web.illinois.edu/ldl-courses/syllabus/individual-updates/

We recommend choosing a cutting edge area of innovation (such as differentiated instruction, flipped classroom, Chat GPT, AI in education, learning analytics, gamification, metacognition, self-efficacy/regulation, socio-emotional learning, collaborative learning, formative assessment etc.) or one of education’s “wicked problems” which has presented a longtime challenge (such as a dimension or dimensions of learner diversity and strategies for inclusion and equity).

Choose something that is of genuine interest and concern to you because you will be working with this topic for whole course, not only in the peer reviewed project but across the community updates as well. Feel free to allow your topic to evolve – it might become more specific or more general as you work through your updates and draft the work itself, or it might change completely. We like the idea that learning is a voyage of discovery, so go with the flow! The best outcome is that you see things differently at the end of the course than you did at the beginning.

Project Requirements

The peer-reviewed project will include five major sections, with relevant sub-sections to organize your work using the CGScholar structure tool.

• Introduction/Background
• Theory/Concepts
• Practice/Applications
• Analysis/Discussion
• References

BUT! Please don’t use these boilerplate headings. Make them specific to your chosen topic, for instance: “Introduction: Addressing the Challenge of Learner Differences”; “The Theory of Differentiated Instruction”; “Lessons from the Research: Differentiated Instruction in Practice”; “Analyzing the Future of Differentiated Instruction in the Era of Artificial Intelligence;” “Conclusions: Challenges and Prospects for Differentiated Instruction.”

Include a publishable title, an Abstract, Keywords, and Work Icon (About this Work => Info => Title/Work Icon/Abstract/Keywords).

Overall Project Wordlength – At least 3500 words (Concentration of words should be on theory/concepts and educational practice)

Part 1: Introduction/Background

Introduce your topic. Why is this topic important? What are the main dimensions of the topic? Where in the research literature and other sources do you need to go to address this topic?

Part 2: Educational Theory/Concepts

What is the educational theory that addresses your topic? Who are the main writers or advocates? Who are their critics, and what do they say?

Your work must be in the form of an exegesis of the relevant scholarly literature that addresses and cites at least 6 scholarly sources (peer-reviewed journal articles or scholarly books).

Media: Include at least 7 media elements, such as images, diagrams, infographics, tables, embedded videos, (either uploaded into CGScholar, or embedded from other sites), web links, PDFs, datasets, or other digital media. Be sure these are well integrated into your work. Explain or discuss each media item in the text of your work. If a video is more than a few minutes long, you should refer to specific points with time codes or the particular aspects of the media object that you want your readers to focus on. Caption each item sourced from the web with a link. You don’t need to include media in the references list – this should be mainly for formal publications such as peer reviewed journal articles and scholarly monographs.

Part 3: Educational Practice Exegesis

You will present an educational practice example, or an ensemble of practices, as applied in clearly specified learning contexts. This could be a reflection practice in which you have been involved, one you have read about in the scholarly literature, or a new or unfamiliar practice which you would like to explore. While not as detailed as in the Educational Theory section of your work, this section should be supported by scholarly sources. There is not a minimum number of scholarly sources, 6 more scholarly sources in addition to those for section 2 is a reasonable target.

This section should include the following elements:

Articulate the purpose of the practice. What problem were they trying to solve, if any? What were the implementers or researchers hoping to achieve and/or learn from implementing this practice?

Provide detailed context of the educational practice applications – what, who, when, where, etc.

Describe the findings or outcomes of the implementation. What occurred? What were the impacts? What were the conclusions?

Part 4: Analysis/Discussion

Connect the practice to the theory. How does the practice that you have analyzed in this section of your work connect with the theory that you analyzed on the previous section? Does the practice fulfill the promise of the theory? What are its limitations? What are its unrealized potentials? What is your overall interpretation of your selected topic? What do the critics say about the concept and its theory, and what are the possible rebuttals of their arguments? Are its ideals and purposes hard, easy, too easy, or too hard to realize? What does the research say? What would you recommend as a way forward? What needs more thinking in theory and research of practice?

Part 5: References (as a part of and subset of the main References Section at the end of the full work)

Include citations for all media and other curated content throughout the work (below each image and video)

Include a references section of all sources and media used throughout the work, differentiated between your Learning Module-specific content and your literature review sources.

Include a References “element” or section using APA 7th edition with at least 10 scholarly sources and media sources that you have used and referred to in the text.

Be sure to follow APA guidelines, including lowercase article titles, uppercase journal titles first letter of each word), and italicized journal titles and volumes.

The LDL courses are intended to provide opportunities to practice research and academic writing skills.  Each LDL course follows the same approach for this assignment, but with different course themes.  View our website for the most current project requirements: https://ldlprogram.web.illinois.edu/ldl-courses/syllabus/work-1-educational-theory-literature-review/

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Take one of the theories or theoretical concepts introduced in this course. Look ahead into the course learning module/admin updates to get a sense of upcoming ideas—don’t feel constrained to explore concepts introduced early in the course. Or explore a related theory or concept of your own choosing that is relevant to the course themes.  You must cite at least two of the following sources (also found in Admin Update 1B) that you have not used in a previous course (see the Work 1 webpage for correct APA 7th edition references):

• Towards Education Justice: A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies, Revisited
• Education 2.0: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Test
• ‘Education is the New Philosophy' - to Make a Metadisciplinary Claim for the Learning Sciences
• A Metalanguage for Learning: Rebalancing the Cognitive with the Socio-Material
• The Changing Dynamics of Online Education: Five Theses on the Future of Learning
• Futures for Education Research
• Learner Differences in Theory and Practice
• The Things You Do To Know: An Introduction to the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies
• The Digital Learner: Towards a Reflexive Pedagogy
• Assessment and Pedagogy in the Era of Machine-Mediated Learning

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Theoretical and Empirical

Your work must be in the form of a narrative scholarly essay that aligns with the course themes and references at least 10 scholarly sources.

Work Requirements

Connection with course ideas: A work must explicitly connect with an idea or reference introduced in the course. You should have a clear mention of the course ideas in your work. (See work structure below). The work ust also cite at least two of the works mentioned above.

Rubric: Use the ‘Knowledge Process Rubric’ against which others will review your work, and against which you will do your self-review at the completion of your final draft. You will find this rubric at the Rubrics for Peer-Reviewed Works page, and also in CGScholar: Creator => Feedback => Reviews => Rubric.

Word length: at least 2,000 words for the main body of the work, not including course alignment, experiential alignment, introduction,conclusion, and references sections Note: Your work will be closer to 2,500 to 3,000 words with all sections.

Sources: 

• Cite a total of 10 or more scholarly sources (peer-reviewed journal articles or scholarly books)
• Cite at least two of the sources referenced above that you have not used in a previous course
• Search and read at least 3 new scholarly sources (peer-reviewed journal articles or scholarly books) that you have not previously read or used in this or other courses. (The remaining 3 scholarly sources can be new, from the list above, or used previously)
• Be sure to use the university ibrary (or google scholar) to find scholarly sources.  Also, be sure to use the full APA citation and not only the website where the scholarly source was found.  You can find a tutorial on searching for scholarly sources here https://ldlprogram.web.illinois.edu/dissertation/dissertation-resources/research-library/
• In the references section, you should add an asterisk in front of each new scholarly source.  You don't need to do this for non-scholarly sources.
• Number your Figures and Videos
• Cite all media as a caption to the image (for videos, these will need to be text below the video)
• Use APA to cite your sources, ensuring that appropriate elements are italicized (CGscholar does not retain formatting when you copy and paste).
• There is an extended APA guide on our website: 
• https://ldlprogram.web.illinois.edu/resources/ldl-program-extended-apa-multimedia-citation-guide/.
• The more shcolarly sources - and diversifying them within paragraphs, the better your paper will be.

Media: Include at least 7 media elements, such as images, diagrams, infographics, tables, embedded videos, (either uploaded into CGScholar, or embedded from other sites), web links, PDFs, datasets, or other digital media. Be sure these are well integrated into your work. Explain or discuss each media item in the text of your work. You should refer to specific points of the video with time codes or the particular aspects of the media object that you want your readers to focus on. Caption each item sourced from the web with a link and be sure to cite all media sources in the references list.  Number your figures and videos.

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Work Elements (Structure):

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For further instructions and help with Work 1, please check the General Work Guidelines page.

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Additional suggested references on Academic Writing:

You may also wish to take a moment to reflect on academic writing in general. Much academic writing is (frankly!) poor writing. Here are some readings and source books:

• Strunk, William and E.B. White. 1979. Elements of style. New York NY: Longman. (A classic!)
• Sword, Helen. 2012. Stylish academic writing. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
• The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. 2017. The Chicago manual of style. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Online edition.
• Coursera Academic Writing Course.

In Work 2A, you will analyze an educational practice, or an ensemble of practices, as applied in clearly specified learning contexts. Analyze the scholarly findings about the impact of an innovative learning practice (or the need for research in the case of new or under-investigated practices)—a method, a resource or a technology, for instance. Use theory concepts introduced in this course. We encourage you to use theory concepts defined by members of the group in their published works from this or previous courses with references and links to the published works of the other course participants.

This work could be a reflection practice in which you have been involved, or a new or unfamiliar practice which you would like to explore. If the focus of Work 1 was on concepts and theories, the focus of Work 2A is on empirical cases and rigorously researched evidence of effective practice. If your Work 2A is a follow-on to Work 1, reference and link Work 1. Do not repeat any text—if you want to make the connection for you reviewers or readers, a reference with a link will suffice.

Refer to the Work 2A page on our website for additional details: 

https://ldlprogram.web.illinois.edu/ldl-courses/syllabus/work-2a-2b-or-2c-educational-practice/

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View examples of previous students' work in the following community:

• e-Learning Ecologies Case Studies community

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Work Requirements

Rubric: Use the ‘Knowledge Process Rubric’ against which others will review your work, and against which you will do your self-review at the completion of your final draft. You will find this rubric at the Rubrics for Peer-Reviewed Works page, and also in CGScholar: Creator => Feedback => Reviews => Rubric.

Word length: at least 2,000 words in the main body of the work (excludes experiential alignment, course alignment, introduduction, conclusion, and references)

Scholarly Sources: While this is not meant to be a literature review, you should still support your case study with scholarly literature and not only the source that might be the focus of your case study.  At least two of the following sources must be included in your work, in addition to other scholarly sources.  For Work 2A, it is okay if you have used them previously.  Refer to our website for the correct APA 7th edition references.

• Towards Education Justice: A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies, Revisited
• Education 2.0: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Test
• ‘Education is the New Philosophy' - to Make a Metadisciplinary Claim for the Learning Sciences
• A Metalanguage for Learning: Rebalancing the Cognitive with the Socio-Material
• The Changing Dynamics of Online Education: Five Theses on the Future of Learning
• Futures for Education Research
• Learner Differences in Theory and Practice
• The Things You Do To Know: An Introduction to the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies
• The Digital Learner: Towards a Reflexive Pedagogy
• Assessment and Pedagogy in the Era of Machine-Mediated Learning

Media: Include at least 7 media elements, such as images, diagrams, infographics, tables, embedded videos, (either uploaded into CGScholar, or embedded from other sites), web links, PDFs, datasets, or other digital media. Be sure these are well integrated into your work. Explain or discuss each media item in the text of your work. You should refer to specific points of the video with time codes or the particular aspects of the media object that you want your readers to focus on. Caption each item sourced from the web with a link and be sure to cite all media sources in the references list.

References: Include a References “element” or section with the scholarly articles or books that you have used and referred to in the text, plus any other necessary or relevant references, including websites and media.

Work Elements and Structure

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For further instructions and help with Work 2A, please check the General Work Guidelines and Literature Review Guidelines pages.

Create a learning module in CGScholar which demonstrates how you would translate some of the ideas and principles of this course into practice. A learning module is a hybrid work which crosses the legacy educational practices of lesson plan, syllabus, and textbook. Unlike a lesson plan which is mainly written for a teacher’s design purposes, a learning module has both teacher and learner sides.

On the left side of the screen, you speak to learners in “classroom discourse.” However, in the case of the learning module, you speak to learners in a dialogical mode, rather like social media, always prompting a response or contribution from learners. On the right side of the screen, you speak to other teachers in the professional discourse of the curriculum and pedagogy.

Unlike a syllabus, a learning module contains content as well as an outline of coverage. And unlike a textbook, which typically summarizes and transmits content that learners are to consume and remember, a learning module curates a variety of web content (links, embedded media, etc.) and establishes a dialogue with and between learners which positions them as active seekers and producers of knowledge.

Your work should demonstrate pedagogical coherence and completeness. Optionally, learning module creators could use the Learning by Design pedagogy. See the overview here, icons that can be copied from here and uploaded into your learning module, and underlying rationale here.

Refer to the Work 2B page on our website for additional details:

https://ldlprogram.web.illinois.edu/ldl-courses/syllabus/work-2a-2b-or-2c-educational-practice/

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View examples of previous students' work in the following community:

• Learning Modules from LDL Course Participants
• For model K-12 learning modules, visit the Literacies and Learning by Design collections in the CGScholar Bookstore.
• For model college and higher education learning modules, visit the Higher Education collection.

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Work Requirements

Rubric: Refer to the Elements and Formatting checklist below and the Learning Module rubric for a summary of what your learning module should include. The ‘Learning Module Rubric’ is the one against which others will review your work, and against which you will do your self-review at the completion of your final draft. You can also view this rubric while you draft your work at Creator => Feedback => Reviews => Rubric and at the Rubrics for Peer-Reviewed Works page. The rubric explores four main knowledge processes, the background and rationale for which is described in a number of papers listed here. If you want to use the L-by-D icons to mark activity types explicitly, you can copy and paste web icons located at this link.

CGScholar Tutorials: For instructions on how to create a Learning Module in CGScholar, watch this video, visit section 5 of the CGscholar Tutorials area or the Getting Started in CGScholar Learning Module. 

Include a publishable title, an Abstract, Keywords, and Work Icon (About this Work => Info => Title/Work Icon/Abstract/Keywords).

Sources: While you are not expected to analyze your learning module against scholarly sources, you are expected to cite any sources that you may have used in your work: 

• Include citations for all media and other curated content throughout the work (below each image and video)
• Include a references section of all sources and media used throughout the work.

Learning Module Elements and Formatting

Your learning module should include the following CGScholar structure tool sections: (when adding sections, choose the relevant type in order for the learning module to display and function properly.  While in edit mode, you will see a linear view, but when you preview it (small eye icon), you'll see the left and ride sides appear.)

Create an evaluation plan and evaluate a learning module as an educational intervention. This might be a learning module you have created in an earlier course in the program. For evaluation suggestions, visit section 6 of the Getting Started in Scholar learning module. Revise the learning module in light of the evaluation results, and discuss these revisions. Be sure to link to the revised learning module in your evaluation study. (Request republication of the revised version before linking.)

Rubric: In addition to the requirements outlined below, create and review work according to the ‘Knowledge Process Rubric’. You can view this rubric while you draft your work at Creator => Feedback => Reviews => Rubric and at the Rubrics for Peer-Reviewed Works page.

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Evaluation Plan

This plan should address the following elements:

1. Background and Context, including citing the literature
2. Problem/Needs Statement
3. Evaluation Purpose and Audience
4. Evaluation Goals and Objectives
5. Evaluation Questions
6. Evaluation Criteria
7. Evaluation Design
8. Data Collection Plan and how the data collection will answer the evaluation questions
9. Evaluation Personnel and Roles
10. Timeline
11. Dissemination Plan
12. References

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Evaluation Findings

Share your evaluation findings while addressing the following:

1. Summary of evaluation findings, supported by evidence from the evaluation

2. Copies of data collection instruments used

Parse something in the world, perhaps educational, or perhaps not. Using all, or some, or parts of the five questions about meaning proposed in our transpositional grammar, write up a synthesized analysis of a particular object of inquiry. Or, feel free to develop your own interpretative frame. This application could be related to your disseration research, or some other piece of research that you might plan to undertake.

Word limit: at least 2000 words

Media: Include images, diagrams, infographics, tables, embedded videos, (either uploaded into CGScholar, or embedded from other sites), web links, PDFs, datasets or other digital media. Be sure to caption media sources and connect them explicitly with the text, with an introduction before and discussion afterwards.

References: Include a References “element” or section with at least five scholarly articles or books that you have used and referred to in the text, and all the added media, plus any other necessary or relevant references, including websites.

Rubric: The methodology practice rubric is the same as for Work 1B, against which others will review your work, and against which you will do your self-review at the completion of your final version.

You are about to take a class where you will be working in CGScholar, an e-learning platform developed by Dr. William Cope and a team of researchers at the University of Illinois. We would like to ask you to take part in research into the effectiveness of the CGScholar platform. As a part of the process, we would like your permission to analyze the work you do in CGScholar, and take two short surveys, one at the beginning of the course and one at the end.

This is the Pre-course survey.

You are about to take a class where you will be working in CGScholar, an e-learning platform developed by Dr. William Cope and a team of researchers at the University of Illinois. We would like to ask you to take part in research into the effectiveness of the CGScholar platform. As a part of the process, we would like your permission to analyze the work you do in CGScholar, and take two short surveys, one at the beginning of the course and one at the end.

This is the Post-course survey.

The LDL courses are intended to provide opportunities to practice research and academic writing skills to help prepare students for the dissertation stage.

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Take one of the theories or theoretical concepts introduced in this course. Look ahead into the course learning module to get a sense of upcoming ideas—don’t feel constrained to explore concepts introduced early in the course. Or explore a related theory or concept of your own choosing that is relevant to the course themes.

____________________________________________________

Theoretical and Emperical

Your work must be in the form of a narrative scholarly essay that references at least 10 sources. Search and read at least 5 new scholarly sources (peer-reviewed journal articles or scholarly books) that you have not previously read or used in this or other courses in addition to at least five scholarly or non-scholarly sources. You may reference any previous sources that you may have used in a previous work, as long as you have the 5 new scholarly sources. In the references section, you should add an asterisk in front of each new scholarly source.

Sources

• Search and read at least 5 new scholarly sources (peer-reviewed journal articles or scholarly books) that you have not previously read or used in this or other courses.
• In addition to these five, you will reference previously used sources and other media for a total of 10 sources or more.
• In the references section, you should add an asterisk in front of each new scholarly source.
• Cite all media as a caption to the image
• Use APA to cite your sources.

Convey in your introduction how your topic aligns with the course themes and your experience or interests. Outline the theory or define the concept referring to the theoretical and research literature and illustrate the significance of the theory using examples of this concept at work in pedagogical practice, supported by scholarly sources.

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Work Requirements

Connection with course ideas: A work must explicitly connect with an idea or reference introduced in the course. You should have a clear mention of the course ideas in your work.

Rubric: Use the ‘Knowledge Process Rubric’ against which others will review your work, and against which you will do your self-review at the completion of your final draft. You will find this rubric at the Rubrics for Peer-Reviewed Works page, and also in CGScholar: Creator => Feedback => Reviews => Rubric.

Word length: at least 2,000 words, not including the introduction, experiential alignment, and references sections.

Work Elements:

• Introduction and Alignment to Course Themes
• Experiential Alignment
• Theoretical Concepts
• Critiques and Limitations
• Conclusion
• References

Media: Include at least 7 media elements, such as images, diagrams, infographics, tables, embedded videos, (either uploaded into CGScholar, or embedded from other sites), web links, PDFs, datasets, or other digital media. Be sure these are well integrated into your work. Explain or discuss each media item in the text of your work. You should refer to specific points of the video with time codes or the particular aspects of the media object that you want your readers to focus on. Caption each item sourced from the web with a link and be sure to cite all media sources in the references list.

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For further instructions and help with Work 1, please check the General Work Guidelines page.

____________________________________________________

Additional suggested references on Academic Writing

You may also wish to take a moment to reflect on academic writing in general. Much academic writing is (frankly!) poor writing. Here are some readings and source books:

• Strunk, William and E.B. White. 1979. Elements of Style. New York NY: Longman. (A classic!)
• Sword, Helen. 2012. Stylish Academic Writing. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
• The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. 2017. The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Online edition.
• Coursera Academic Writing Course.

Peer reveiws are an integral part of all LDL courses.  Encourage students to take them seriously and spend sufficient time in order to provide a meaningful review. 

Here is a video outlining the mechanics of how to complete a peer review in CGScholar.

Optional ​Comment: Please post any questions that you might have about the peer review process

We expect students to incorporate scholarly sources into both major works.  Leveraging the University of Illinois online library resources is a great place to start.  

Welcome to the LDL program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign! This learning module will walk you through all elements of our learning management platform, CG Scholar, and teach you proper procedures for each of your assignments. Please watch the below videos in order and come back as needed to better understand each process. *At the end of this set of videos, please read the comment prompt.

Orientation video total time is approximately 1.5 hours.

LDL Website Navigation

LDL Program Participation Requirements: Part A

LDL Program Participation Requirements: Part B

CG Scholar Tour

What is a "Work?"

What is a "Work?" Work 1 Explanation 

What is a "Work?" Work 2 Explanation

LDL Courses Assessment Review: CG Scholar Analytics

Where to find Sources

Your First Assignments

Academic Writing

Creator Tutorial

Peer Reviews - How to & tips

- Old School Peer Reviews

- CG Map Tutorials