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

• LDL Program Website
• University of Illinois Library - Social Sciences
• LDL Alumni Community 

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.
• Join the EdD LDL Student Support community: A peer-run community to ask questions and share upcoming events.
• The learning module Innovative Ideas, Transformational Practices, contains the content for the six examination-dissertation courses.
• Looking Ahead: Join the Online LDL Exam-Dissertation Sequence Community when you are ready to start considering the topic for your dissertation
• Weekly Dissertation Group Advising Sessions (typically Mondays at 7:30 to 8:30 pm CT with occassional US daytime options): 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.

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

NOTE: EPOL 590 is slightly different.  Please refer to the 590 Syllabus for specific requirements.

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 courses are available each term and each class meets separately on Monday evenings 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 the semester (either two LDL courses or electives from other programs). We generally advise not to take more than 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: Create a Literature Review and then review about three peers' works and receive about three reviews of your work, then revise your work for final submission. 
7. Peer-Reviewed Works 2 and corresponding peer reviews: Create a work that addresses educational practice and then review about three peers' works and receive about three reviews of your work, then revise your work for final submission.
8. 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
9. 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.
10. 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

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:

• 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 
• Contact the Teaching Assistant for the relevant course via email

Getting Started

If you do not already have a CGScholar account, create one here. (Be sure that you also validate your account by responding to the post-creation email. If you don’t receive a confirmation request by email, check your spam folder.)

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 EdD students, see the Advising Sessions webpage.

3. Moodle: Courses taught by LDL faculty do not use Moodle.  See separate section for details.

Analytics: Assessment and Grading

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.

 

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.

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.

 

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 media citation guide.

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

____________________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________________

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 (Structure):

• 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.

____________________________________________________

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.

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

____________________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________________

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.

 

Select a theory/theorist that you have encountered or may encounter in the course (look ahead through the table of contents for our transpositional grammar books), or alternatively select a theory or theorist who you thinks adds value in the quest for interpretive methods. Discuss/debate what they have to offer to the task of making sense of the world.

 

 

Take one of the theories or theoretical concepts introduced in this course. Look ahead into the 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. Convey in your introduction how your topic aligns with the course themes. 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.

A theory work should be 2000 words or more in length. Ideally it should include media such as images, diagrams, tables, embedded videos (either uploaded into CGScholar, or embedded from other sites), web links and other digital media. Be sure to source all material that is quoted or otherwise used as captions or directly below the media. Each work must have a References “section, including references to at least ten scholarly articles or books, plus any other necessary or relevant references, including to websites and other media.

If you are new to CGScholar, visit Section 3 in the Getting Started in Scholar learning module to find out how the Creator app works and refer to the CGScholar Help Resources folder.

Linked is the rubric, against which others will review your work, and against which you will do your self-review at the completion of your final version. You can view this rubric while you create your work at Creator => Feedback => Reviews => Rubric.

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. This 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.

In Work 2A, you will analyze an educational practice, or an ensemble of practices, as applied in clearly specified learning contexts. Use theory concepts introduced in this course. We encourage you to use theory concepts defined by members of the group in their published in this or previous courses with references and links to the published works of the other course participants.

____________________________________________________

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

• e-Learning Ecologies Case Studies community

____________________________________________________

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 2000 words

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.

____________________________________________________

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.

Rubric: Refer to the Learning Module 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.

You can find learning modules created by Learning Design and Leadership course participants here. 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.

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.

____________________________________________________

Checklist for the Learning Module

Your learning module should:

1. Have a full width ‘Overview’ section that addresses the following:

• How your learning module translates the ideas and principles of this course into practice.
• Your experience with the content area and whether this material is newly designed by you or material previously taught that is now being transformed in to learning module format, with a summary of what has been done to transform it.
• Scholarly references to justify the approach you are taking.

2. Have a two-sided ‘Intended Learning Outcomes’ section that addresses the following (on the left, articulated for the student, on the right, speaking to other educators):

• Your target learners, including assumptions about prior learning.
• Curriculum standards, if applicable.
• Clear rationale in terms of intended learning outcomes, expressed both to the learner (member side) and teacher (admin side).
• Anticipated duration to complete the module, and material requirements.

3. Include at least 6 updates, each of which on the left side includes curated media (video, infographic, image, attached documents etc.).

4. End every update with a comment request that will prompt rich dialogue among students.

5. Each update should also prompt students to make an update of their own, recruiting them to contribute content and examples to the course.

6. On the right side of each update speak to other instructors as professional peers about the underlying pedagogical rationale for content introduced and the activities that learners are expected to undertake, possible supplementary resources, teaching suggestions, and (if applicable) standards mapping. Do not repeat any material on the right that you have already placed on the left – viewers of this learning module in two-column format will be able to see both sides.

7. Include at least one peer reviewed project, with peer assessment rubric. Preferably, create this in CGScholar, so the Analytics will tie in. Request your course TA to grant you “Publisher” access so you can create the rubric in the CGScholar format. You will need to create an empty “Publisher”, then a peer reviewed project. You only need to draft and save this project without having to start the project (the last step in the project wizard). See the “For the Admin” side of section 3 in the Getting Started in CGScholar learning module. You can also create the rubric to be connected in the project (Publisher => Tools => Rubric). Screenshot the rubric for reviewers. You could also upload a rubric or link to one elsewhere, but you lose the value of the Analytics if you do this. If you create the rubric for your work in an environment other than CGScholar, be sure to provide reviewers and readers with enough information for them to be able to understand the underlying logic of your rubric.

8. Include at least one information or knowledge survey or assessment. Preferably, this should be created in CGScholar for the Analytics connection (Publisher > Tools > Survey > Survey tools), but this is not essential. See Sections 5.3 and 5.4 of the Getting Started in CGScholar learning module. If you create your survey in another place, provide the review with a copy of the survey, and an indication of which software you used to create it.

9. Include an Assessment and Evaluation element, outlining educational measurement strategies, for the student on the left side and the instructor on the right. If you would like to set up CGScholar Analytics (preferred), see Section 4 of the Getting Started in CGScholar learning module. To do this, you will need to create a sample community with connected publisher and with Analytics access (in the settings area of your sample community). If you don’t use CGScholar’s Analytics for planning your assessment activity, provide a description of your assessment plan and strategy. How will you evaluate the success of your intervention?

10. 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.

11. Be well-formatted in terms of the learning module two column format and heading structure. Check the tutorial video for instructions here.

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

13. Include a references section of all sources and media used throughout the work.

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

 

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.

____________________________________________________

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

____________________________________________________

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!

 

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.

We are offering office hours for the LDL courses, so we can answer any questions you might have.

You can find the zoom links and times that office hours are offered in the Live Session Details and Recordings page.