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Session 1 -- Write Self Learning Goals

Although this course is required you might as well take advantage of the time and learn some new skills that will be helpful in your future careers. Writing some self-learning goals will help you access where you are right now and where you want to go. To do this for this class you need to write 3 to 6 goals, objectives (and I use this term interchangeably with outcomes), and assessments or measurements and post them on your electronic portfolio [your website] during the second session.

Bring your goals on a 3.5 floppy diskette to the second session in the computer lab. Email a copy of your goals to your instructor as an attachment, also. The rest of this page will tell you how to write those goals.

Thinking of goals is easy. Those are those lofty things we want to do which may require more than one semester or certainly one course. They are more general--for example, you might write:

Goal: to become a better researcher.

You won't learn all that in one course, so you set your objectives a little lower in a manner that you might be able to measure over the course of the term. For example:

Goal: to learn to use the Interlibrary Loan request On-line.

Now this goal is measurable.

An appropriate assessment for this goal might be:

      1. Search the WebLUIS for all schools in the state system for the subject Landscape Design and other course topics. [Because that will get you a lot of books, you might want to refine your search using the key words landscape design and Florida.] If our library doesn't have the books, I will order them through Inter-Library Loan (ILL). [The school will obtain them and send you an email notice when the books or articles are in.]

      2. Order five journal articles or books through interlibrary loan at the beginning of the semester, which I will include in a bibliography due for the third session of the course.

        Print out and         the copy of your request so you know you have completed the assessment.

Now if you never heard of WebLUIS and never Inter-Library loaned a book before, this gaol and assessment might not be appropriate for you. Instead you may have to write a leaning gaol like this:

Goal: be familair with resources in FGCU libary

Goal: be able to search and find resource materials when needed

Assessment: You find a list of resource books and journal articles needed for the course through FGCU library.

 

Now, it's your turn. Try some on your own. Just make the goals pertain to something you will be doing in class. Don't use a goal like: "Be a better son or daughter." You can't measure that in this class. Put that one in a journal and do that at home.

Think of what you want to accomplish in taking this course and write them down as your leanring goals. Use this week to write them so that you will be ready to post them on your electronic portfolio next week.

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