Self-designing your own course to future successes

Kelvin Teo

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since I last left my undergraduate institution. As a wide-eyed undergraduate, one of the things that constantly caught my attention was pedagogy behind teaching or course delivery at the undergraduate level. In simpler terms, I was basically interested in innovative ways of teaching and conducting courses at the undergraduate level.

One of the coursework delivery innovations which caught my eye was the concept of an “independent studies module”. It comes in different guises, and conducted in varying fashions at institutions worldwide. However, one defining characteristic of such modules is that the students have an autonomy over defining the learning objectives of such modules, deciding the type of materials or coursework to cover and determining in a limited (or fully autonomous) fashion (which varies from institutions to institutions) how they want to be assessed. Hence, this explains the label “independent studies”.

What are the benefits of such “independent studies modules”? One obvious benefit is opportunities for scholarly pursuit and research into a specific subject area of interest. Such modules do not strictly have to be based on wholly coursework per se. Half the curriculum time may be spent on research and the other half may be spent on coursework, or the proportion devoted to research work or coursework may be decided by the student. Hence, a student may find himself spending 100% of his time on research if he feels coursework does not benefit him much. Pursuit of an independent studies module may not be restricted to only research and regular coursework. The student may arrange for an internship if he finds an internship experience beneficial. The other use of such modules is self-explanatory – for the student to tailor his learning in such a way that it will be of benefit to his future career plans. In a way, self-tailored learning through an independent studies module allows students to acquire unique knowledge and possibly gain work experience in areas which they are otherwise will not be exposed to if they had read regular courses from their respective faculties. Such unique work experience and knowledge can be an asset to future employers.

For example, if a student is interested in this particular area, intellectual property in biotechnology, he may elect to read biotechnology courses from his science faculty and intellectual property law from the law faculty, as a simple example of an independent studies module. Alternatively, if the student wants to opt for something more exciting and indepth, he not only can choose to read intellectual property law and biotechnology courses, but can also pursue an internship opportunity in a patent office or a law firm that specialises in intellectual property. Or he can choose to intern in a biotechnology firm that seeks to patent certain new technologies, and be involved in the forefront of the process leading up to garnering of the patent. After his internship, he may submit a report of his experiences. Thus, the possibilities in the way a student wishes to conduct his independent studies module if given full autonomy is endless.

After my graduation which is the time when I would browse through job advertisements not unlike any other fresh graduates, I came across an advertisement which asked for knowledge on the engineering of a higher-than-normal bio-safety level laboratory where the internal environment has to engineered in a way that reduces the likelihood of spread of infections from harmful organisms and risks of contamination. The other criteria that the prospective employee must possess is a biomedical sciences degree. I actually fulfilled both criteria since I was trained in biomedical sciences and I interned at an engineering firm that specialises in Cleanroom designs which replicates features of a high-than-normal biosafety level laboratory. I did not do an independent studies modules on this as I interned during holidays. Unfortunately, the employer was looking for a management-level candidate and fresh graduates are ruled out. However, I was told I definitely possessed the pre-requisite knowledge for the job. If, however, the position is open to fresh graduates, an independent studies module where the student explores both experimentation with harmful organisms and lab safety engineering either as coursework, research or internship or a combination of them, he will be at a clear advantage as compared with the rest of his peers. Needless to say, when I checked the job advertisements months later, it was still out there and the employer was still looking for its desired candidate.

My former teachers used to complain to me about how they had to do a lot of spoonfeeding for their students, even at the undergraduate level. The “independent studies module” is a good opportunity that gives students leeway with deciding on how they want to learn (internship, research, regular coursework), what they want to learn and how they want to be assessed. This will allow students to pursue pre-requisite knowledge and skills that will be conducive for their future careers or graduate school life if they so desire to upgrade their qualifications. In a way, this is in essence self-designing your own course to future successes.

Photo courtesy of Birmingham City University, Flickr Commons