Some useful tips for beginners |
Updated: 13/01/20
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Q: How do I contact you?Email | [email protected]
Work Phone | 0733654927 Office Location Room | 436, Michie Building (#9) School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus. Please post all non-confidential queries to the Blackboard discussion board to receive a fast response. Not only will your concerns be responded to quickly, but other students will also have an opportunity to respond, to clarify issues of concern and to benefit from the response. My list of frequently asked questions (as per these pages) will also provide answers to some of the questions you may have. You are welcome to email me, especially if it is a private matter. For more general concerns I may redirect you to these pages or to the Discussion Board if I have addressed this elsewhere or if feel it would be of benefit to others to be part of the discussion. Q: What do I call you?A: Please call me Lynda - or if you need to stand on formality, Dr Shevellar (which rhymes with the word "novella").
Q: What does the term "doctor" mean?For our international friends - it may be helpful to note that the words "Doctor" and "Professor" are used differently in Australia. In Australia a Doctor is the title used by someone who has a PhD. Professor is a word used to denote high rank - it applies to people who are international leaders in their field - about the top 10% of academics. The ranks in Australian universities (from junior to senior) are as follows: Associate Lecturer, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Professor.)
Q: How do I post on the Discussion Board?This is a useful 3 minute video which tells you what you need to know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkqoAlUq_po
Q: How do I keep up with Discussion Board postings?On Blackboard you can subscribe to a forum, so you receive an email letting you know someone has made a posting. To do so just click on the forum title and then on 'subscribe'.
If you don't subscribe, you'll need to check the postings regularly so you don't miss out on provocative discussions and important information, as well as the chance to contribute. Q: If I miss a class how can I catch up? Because this is a workshop sometimes the lecture recordings are less than helpful and there is not always a set of PowerPoint slides to simply download - as much occurs in small group discussions and class interactions. If you are not at class you will miss material. So here's what I suggest you do to catch up:
Q: Can I access recordings of the lecture?A: I try to avoid lecturing - especially with such wonderfully small classes. Instead I try to limit myself to mini-lectures, facilitating guided discussions and using elicitive techniques for learning. The reasons for this will become clear in the first workshop. I also believe in embodied learning which means we use our bodies as part of the learning experience, I also jump around a lot, break you into groups and conduct lots of activities - none of these make for good recordings.
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Q: Can you please change the timetable?Q: Unfortunately I have a timetable clash for this class and my other course is compulsory. Can you please change the timing of this class?
A: I am very sorry but I have absolutely no influence over timetabling at UQ. UQ courses are timetabled centrally through UQ Teaching Space Management (TSM). TSM advises staff that "There is no guarantee of receiving a preferred day and time as the timetabling system considers multiple constraints and determines the best possible outcome from this." Timetables are developed based on maximising all courses and available spaces across the whole UQ St Lucia campus. As you can imagine this is an extraordinary task as it involves developing timetables for 36,394 students who are here at St Lucia; the main focus is on ensuring core courses don't clash with each other. (I used to teach all my classes on weekends to avoid any clashes but I stopped doing this following clear feedback from students). In the first class we can talk about options for students who may have some partial class overlaps. If there is a complete clash such that you cannot attend ANY classes, you may need to make a harder choice. Q: How is the class structured?Many students would be familiar with the conventional learning mode in universities consisting of a lecture (where information is presented by a lecturer to students) and a tutorial (where a tutor provides space for students to reflect upon the lecture content). This is a course about "practices" and so has been put together a little differently. A workshop is a more mixed approach to learning which includes phases of planning, action, reflection and theory. So rather than a full two hours of lectures, you will have mini-lectures indispersed with activity and discussion. In the first half of the course there is more input from the lecturer, but this decreases as the semester progresses and you gain confidence. There IS a structure, however it is not the conventional lecture-tutorial mode and students are not in a passive learning mode but take on the role of co-learners and facilitators.
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