The information contained on this page is designed to give students a representative example of material covered in the course. Any information related to course assignments, dates, or course materials is illustrative only. For a definitive list of materials, please check the online catalog 3-4 weeks before the course start date.

CI 590 Colloquim

Continuing seminars which consist of a series of individual lectures by faculty, students, or outside speakers.

Overview

C I 590 starts with a focus on the requirements of your M.Ed. program and the material and human resources on which you can call as you progress through your courses and master’s paper. The course orients you to your graduate program as part of the academic landscape of Penn State, the College of Education, and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. It also underscores the responsibilities of a master’s student as a teacher, scholar, and researcher and raises issues of integrity and scholarship. Cases and discussions with others will provoke your thinking and enrich your understanding.

In addition, C I 590 introduces the nature and uses of inquiry, evidence, and assessment in education. Assignments, discussions, and readings help you to further develop the idea of inquiry and the norms of evidence that are used in in your specific area, such as Curriculum and Supervision; Elementary Education; Language and Literacy Education; or STEM Education. Your initial experiences in C I 590 position you for success in your subsequent courses and encourage you to ask questions about your educational interests to help you craft a focus that can evolve into your culminating M.Ed. master’s project and paper.

Course Objectives

• Know the graduate program’s requirements and responsibilities;
• Know and apply what it means to be a practitioner and a scholar and understand the responsibilities of a scholar;
• Apply research ethics in the responsible conduct of research and scholarship;
• Understand the role of inquiry in the university, college, C&I department, and master’s degree program;
• Analyze arguments and resources with respect to inquiry-guiding questions and evidence;
• Create initial questions to guide their own inquiry;
• Evaluate evidence within the context of inquiry-guiding questions and field norms; and
• Understand assessment in terms of inquiry and evidence.

Required Course Materials

C I 590 has no required textbook. You will be expected to complete readings that will available within the course (embedded) or on library reserve. You also will have the responsibility to read and react to what others in the class produce, as well as to share your products with others and then revise them based on constructive feedback from our group.

Library Course Reserves

This course requires that you access Penn State library materials specifically reserved for this course. You can access these materials by selecting Library Resources in your course navigation, or by accessing the Library E-Reserves Search and search for your instructor's last name.

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Technical Requirements

For this course we recommend the minimum World Campus technical requirements listed below:

Technical Requirements

Operating System	Canvas, Penn State's Learning Management System (LMS), supports most recent versions of Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac operating systems.  To determine if your operating system is supported, please review Canvas' computer specifications.
Browser	Canvas supports the last two versions of every major browser release. It is highly recommended that you update to the newest version of whatever browser you are using. Please note that Canvas does not support the use of Internet Explorer. Students and instructors should choose a different browser to use.    To determine if your browser is supported, please review the list of Canvas Supported Browsers. Note: Cookies must be enabled, and pop-up blockers should be configured to permit new windows from Penn State websites.
Additional Canvas Requirements	For a list of software, hardware, and computer settings specifically required by the Canvas LMS, please review Canvas' computer specifications.
Additional Software	All Penn State students have access to Microsoft Office 365, including Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Students will need a PDF reader, such as Adobe Reader.
Hardware	Monitor: Monitor capable of at least 1024 x 768 resolution Audio: Microphone, Speakers Camera (optional, recommended): Standard webcam - many courses may require a webcam for assignments or exam proctoring software.
Mobile Device (optional)	The Canvas mobile app is available for versions of iOS and Android. To determine if your device is capable of using the Canvas Mobile App, please review the Canvas Mobile App Requirements.

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Student Education Experience Questionnaire (SEEQ)

During the semester you will receive information for completing the Student Education Experience Questionnaire (SEEQ). Your participation is an opportunity to provide anonymous feedback on your learning experience. Your feedback is important because it allows us to understand your experience in this course and make changes to improve the learning experiences of future students. Please monitor email and course communications for links and availability dates.

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If you need technical assistance at any point during the course, please contact the Service Desk.

For registration, advising, disability services, help with materials, exams, general problem solving, visit World Campus Student Services!

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Course Requirements and Grading

Method of Instruction

If this is the first online course that you are taking, you likely will find it is very different from courses that you have taken in traditional face-to-face classroom environments. You might feel anxiety at the beginning of the course; this is normal! It will be less stressful once you are comfortable with the technology and the rhythm of the course.

Please note that this is not a self-paced course. The rhythm of the course means that you will need to spend from eight to twelve hours per week in completing the tasks for this course. It is not surprising that a key to successful completion of this online course is organization. This syllabus and schedule outlines my expectations for you and for me, including grading policies, assignments, projects, and a schedule of due dates.

Deadlines exist and you have a short amount of time in which you must complete each task so that you will be ready to progress to the next tasks and, more importantly, so that you can be an active contributor in a community of learners and professionals. As part of that community, you will need to invest some of your weekly C I 590 time in initial posts early in the week and some time in responding to others’ posts later in the week. Working ahead on the discussion assignments will not be possible but you may work ahead on some reading and assignments. Particular tasks on which you can work ahead productively are the online training sessions—CITI Training 1: CRC and CITI Training 2: Human Subjects.

This class also incorporates several group based assignments. Peer feedback will be used to ensure everyone does their share of the work. Depending on the feedback, individual grades may be adjusted to reflect low participation.

The final presentation is a very important project and your team will be presenting in Collaborate. You will have an opportunity earlier in the course to become familiar in this presentation environment during a special orientation session.

See the Course Schedule for a summary of the lessons, reading assignments, discussion assignments, activities and assessments.

Course Structure

We begin the course with an introduction to the master’s program and to people and resources that will be helpful to you on your journey. The nature of graduate study launches our dive into inquiry and then evidence, and how both relate to our multiple roles as master’s students, educational professionals, writers, and citizens. The need to build upon others’ ideas in our inquiry work necessitates completion of Penn State’s Scholarship and Research Integrity requirements. We then connect inquiry and evidence to assessment and end the course with a back and a look ahead to your accomplishments and experiences.

Grades

C I 590 is a pass or fail course.  Below is a description of the required criteria to earn research (R) credit for this course.

CI 590 Grading Criteria

Letter	Criteria
R	A minimum of 80% of the total possible points each week is required. Also required are the following: Full credit for CITI Training 1: RCR, Full credit for CITI Training 2: Human Subjects, and At least 80% of the total points possible across all Case Studies. All of the above criteria must be met for a grade of “R.”
F	Failure to meet any one or more of the criteria for a grade of “R” will result in a grade of “F.”

Projects / Activities

Please note: submissions should be in a Word document format.

Affinity Groups

At the beginning of Lesson 02, your instructor will assign you to an affinity group. In order to create diversity and increase exposure to new ideas, each group will be made up of members who come from different emphases.

Throughout C I 590, you will be exposed to a number of different activities. Some activities you will complete individually (i.e., CITI Training), whereas other activities, you will engage with the entire class (i.e., discussion forums). However, for some activities, your group will collaborate (within the team’s private discussion forum) on a specific task, come to a consensus on the answer or result, and share your findings with the whole class.

You will be notified through the task instructions if the activity requires you to work within your affinity group. Please note, you will be working with the same group throughout the semester. 

CITI Training 1: RCR

This task is an online training session offered through CITI Program Courses at Penn State.  When you finish the training and its embedded quizzes on each unit with at least 80% accuracy, the CITI online training site will produce a “certificate” for you. You must submit an electronic version of the certificate to your instructor in order to receive credit for the course. Details appear in Lessons 3 and 4.

CITI Training 2: Human Subjects

This task is a companion experience to CITI Training 1: RCR. You must also submit your certificate for this training.

Discussion Forum: Weekly Original Posts and Responses

You will have at least one discussion forum each week. Each forum requires at least one original post and at least two responses to others’ posts. For each typical weekly forum posting, a total of 3 points is possible:

• 1 point for on-time complete initial and follow-up postings,
• 1 point for the quality of the initial posting (i.e. application or synthesis of ideas), and
• 1 point for the quality of the follow-up postings (i.e. extends peer thinking).

Professional Résumé or Curriculum Vitae

Near the end of the semester, you will submit an updated professional résumé or curriculum vitae. Examples of such documents appear in Lesson 14. Discussion of possibilities and ethics in reporting experiences are part of that lesson.

Master's Manual Quiz

This quiz is a means for exploring and internalizing requirements for your M.Ed. program. It is a quiz that you repeat until you obtain a perfect score, and earn 10 points.

 

Please refer to the University Grading Policy for Graduate Courses for additional information about University grading policies.

The schedule below outlines the topics we will be covering in this course.

• Course length: 13 weeks

Lesson 1

Lesson 1

Readings:	Curriculum and Instruction (C I) master’s manual (Website)
Assignments:	Task 1.1: Post and reply to Introduction Discussion Forum. Task 1.2: Submit Describing Us Activity.  Task 1.3: Complete Master’s Manual Exploration Quiz. Task 1.4: Post and reply to Advising Case Discussion Forum.

Lesson 2

Lesson 2

Readings:

Anderson, Amy. (2004). An introduction to teacher research. Sample M.Ed. Papers (These papers are found in Task 2.1 and Task 2.3 and can be downloaded from those assignment pages.)

Assignments:

Task 2.1: Post and reply to Lesson 02 Reading Inquiry Work (I) Group Forum. Task 2.2: Post group consensus to Lesson 02 Reading Inquiry Work (I) Class Forum and reply to other group's postings. Task 2.3: Post and reply to Lesson 02 Reading Inquiry Work (II) Group Forum. Task 2.4: Post group consensus to Lesson 02 Reading Inquiry Work (II) Class Forum and reply to other group's postings. Task 2.5: Submit Lesson 02 Activity: Your Questions (I).

Lesson 3

Lesson 3

Readings:	CITI Training – Research with Children - SBR (Website) Bero, L. A. (2005). Tobacco industry manipulation of research. Public Health Reports, 120, 200-208.
Optional Readings:	Short, K. G. (2011). Reading Literature in Elementary Classrooms. In S. A. Wolf, K. Coats, P. Enciso, and C. A. Jenkins (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature (pp. 48-62). New York: Routledge.
Assignments:	Task 3.1: Complete CITI Training: RCR. Task 3.2: Post and reply to Case Study Group Forum. Task 3.3: Post group consensus to Case Study Class Forum and reply to other group's postings.

Lesson 4

Lesson 4

Readings:	CITI Training – Social and Behavioral Human Subjects Research (IRB) Course  (Website) Research at Penn State: Types of Review (Website)
Optional Readings	Code of Federal Regulations: 45CFR46.102(d)
Assignments:	Task 4.1: Complete CITI Training Human Subject Research - IRB. Task 4.2: Post and reply to Lesson 04 Case Study Group Forum.

Lesson 5

Lesson 5

Readings:	Penn State Libraries. (2012). Plagiarism & You.  (Website)
Optional Readings:	Gabriel, T.  (2010, August 1). Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age New York Times (New York Edition), p. A1. Leszcaynski, E., Munakata, M., Evans, J. M., & Pizzigoni, F. (2014). Integrating mathematics and science: Ecology and Venn diagrams. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 20(2), 90–97.
Assignments:	Task 5.1: Post and reply to Lesson 05 Crafting and Critiquing Passages Discussion Forum. Task 5.2: Post and reply to Lesson 05 Case Study Group Forum. Task 5.3: Post group consensus to Case Study Class Forum and reply to other group's postings.

Lesson 6

Lesson 6

Readings:	Fair Use Checklist (Website)
Optional Readings:	Prior to this lesson or concurrent with this lesson, it might be helpful to read the following excerpts from formal government documents and web sites: The Copyright Clause  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)  First Sale Doctrine The following are referenced and might be useful resources if particular issues arise in your own work: The chart of copyright terms and public domain chart from the Cornell Copyright Information Center  U.S. Code, Article 17, Chapter 1, Section 110
Assignments:	Task 6.1: Post and reply to Lesson 06 Group Forum. Task 6.2: Complete the Lesson 06 Quiz: Copyright Clarifications.

Lesson 7

Lesson 7

Readings:	Penn State IRB Guideline X(Website)
Assignments:	Task 7.1: Review case study. Post and reply to Lesson 07 Case Study Group Forum. Task 7.2: Post group consensus to Case Study Class Forum and reply to other group's postings. Task 7.3: Post and reply to Lesson 07 Case Study Group Forum. Task 7.4: Submit Case Study Written Activity.

Lesson 8

Lesson 8

Readings:	Videos from C I scholars addressing What is the focus of inquiry in your emphasis? (Website) Videos from C I scholars addressing What is the nature of evidence in your emphasis? (Website) Excerpt from Laura Girill's master's paper (pages 11-16) that discusses Cinderella.
Assignments:	None. However students are expected to complete Checkpoints 8.1 - 8.5.

Lesson 9

Lesson 9

Readings:	Return to data file from Lesson 01 Return to sample M.Ed. papers from Lesson 02
Assignments:	Task 9.1: Submit Analysis of M.Ed. Paper.

Lesson 10

Lesson 10

Readings:

Allensworth, E., Correa, M., & Ponisciak, S. (2009).  From high school to the future: ACT Preparation—Too much, too late. Why ACT scores are low in Chicago and what it means for schools. Unpublished manuscript. Chicago, IL:  Consortium on Chicago School Research. Last downloaded on from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED501457.pdf [ERIC] Butler, R. (1988) Enhancing and undermining intrinsic motivation: The effects of task-involving and ego-involving evaluation on interest and performance,” British Journal of Educational Psychology, 58, 1-14.

Assignments:

Task 10.1: Post and reply to Lesson 10 Group Forum.

Lesson 11

Lesson 11

Readings:	Foster, D., & Poppers, A. (2009, November). Using formative assessment to drive learning.  Unpublished paper. [Downloaded last on 26 December from http://www.svmimac.org/images/Using_Formative_Assessment_to_Drive_Learning_Reduced.pdf] [Note: Focus on their discussion of assessment through the bottom of page 2, The SVMI formative assessment cycle section beginning on page 4, and the Informing Instruction and Re-engagement Lessons sections beginning on page 11. You need not dwell on the sample mathematics assessments they provide.] Hasbrouck, J., & Tindal, G. A. (2006), Oral reading fluency norms: A valuable assessment tool for reading teachers. The Reading Teacher, 59(7), 636-44.  [Note: The details regarding reading fluency are not as important as how the authors suggest that teachers use percentiles.]
Optional Readings:	List of Standardized Tests in the United States Wiliam, D. (2006, September).  Assessment for learning: why, what and how. Keynote address Cambridge Assessment Network.  Cambridge, England: Cambridge University. [Downloaded last on 26 December 2014 from http://www.dylanwiliam.org/Dylan_Wiliams_website/Papers.html]
Assignments:	Task 11.1: Submit Formative Assessment paper.

Lesson 12

Lesson 12

Readings:	Stiggins, R. Assessment through the student’s eyes. Educational Leadership, 64(8), 22–26.
Optional Readings:	Feldman, J. (2014). Grading standards can elevate teaching. Education Week, November 12, 2014 (Vol. 34, #12, p. 22), www.edweek.org Foster, D., & Poppers, A. (2009, November). Using formative assessment to drive learning.  Unpublished paper. [Downloaded last on 26 December from http://www.svmimac.org/images/Using_Formative_Assessment_to_Drive_Learning_Reduced.pdf] Wiliam, D. (2006, September).  Assessment for learning: why, what and how. Keynote address Cambridge Assessment Network.  Cambridge, England: Cambridge University. [Downloaded last on 26 December 2014 from http://www.dylanwiliam.org/Dylan_Wiliams_website/Papers.html]
Assignments:	Task 12.1: Submit Alternative Assessment Strategy.

Lesson 13

Lesson 13

Readings:	None
Assignments:	Task 13.1: Post and reply to Lesson 12: Feedback on Your Questions Group Forum. Task 13.2: Post and reply to Lesson 12: Questions and Rationale Group Forum.

Note: If you are planning to graduate this semester, please communicate your intent to graduate to your instructor. This will alert your instructor to the need to submit your final grade in time to meet the published graduation deadlines. For more information about graduation policies and deadlines, please go to the Graduation Information on the My Penn State Online Student Portal.

Formal instruction will end on the last day of class. Provided that you have an active Penn State Access Account user ID and password, you will continue to be able to access the course materials for one year, starting from the end date of the academic semester in which the course was offered (with the exception of library reserves and other external resources that may have a shorter archival period). After one year, you might be able to access the course based on the policies of the program or department offering the course material, up to a maximum of three years from the end date of the academic semester in which the course was offered. For more information, please review the University Course Archival Policy.

Academic Integrity

According to Penn State policy G-9: Academic Integrity , an academic integrity violation is “an intentional, unintentional, or attempted violation of course or assessment policies to gain an academic advantage or to advantage or disadvantage another student academically.” Unless your instructor tells you otherwise, you must complete all course work entirely on your own, using only sources that have been permitted by your instructor, and you may not assist other students with papers, quizzes, exams, or other assessments. If your instructor allows you to use ideas, images, or word phrases created by another person (e.g., from Course Hero or Chegg) or by generative technology, such as ChatGPT, you must identify their source. You may not submit false or fabricated information, use the same academic work for credit in multiple courses, or share instructional content. Students with questions about academic integrity should ask their instructor before submitting work.

Students facing allegations of academic misconduct may not drop/withdraw from the affected course unless they are cleared of wrongdoing (see G-9: Academic Integrity ). Attempted drops will be prevented or reversed, and students will be expected to complete course work and meet course deadlines. Students who are found responsible for academic integrity violations face academic outcomes, which can be severe, and put themselves at jeopardy for other outcomes which may include ineligibility for Dean’s List, pass/fail elections, and grade forgiveness. Students may also face consequences from their home/major program and/or The Schreyer Honors College.

How Academic Integrity Violations Are Handled
World Campus students are expected to act with civility and personal integrity; respect other students' dignity, rights, and property; and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their own efforts. An environment of academic integrity is requisite to respect for oneself and others, as well as a civil community.

In cases where academic integrity is questioned, the Policy on Academic Integrity indicates that procedure requires an instructor to inform the student of the allegation. Procedures allow a student to accept or contest a charge. If a student chooses to contest a charge, the case will then be managed by the respective college or campus Academic Integrity Committee. If that committee recommends an administrative sanction (Formal Warning, Conduct Probation, Suspension, Expulsion), the claim will be referred to the Office of Student Accountability and Conflict Response.

All Penn State colleges abide by this Penn State policy, but review procedures may vary by college when academic dishonesty is suspected. Information about Penn State's academic integrity policy and college review procedures is included in the information that students receive upon enrolling in a course. To obtain that information in advance of enrolling in a course, please contact us by going to the Contacts & Help page .

Accommodating Disabilities

Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. Every Penn State campus has resources for students with disabilities. The Student Disability Resources (SDR) website provides contacts for disability services at every Penn State campus. For further information, please visit the SDR website.

In order to apply for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability resources office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation based on the documentation guidelines. If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus's disability resources office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.

Additional Policies

For information about additional policies regarding Penn State Access Accounts; credit by examination; course tuition, fees, and refund schedules; and drops and withdrawals, please see the World Campus Student Center website.