Before your first class, please doublecheck the MQ Timetable website: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au. This website will display up-to-date information on your classes and classroom locations.

At the time of writing, classes were at the following times:

Lecture:                       Friday 3-4, X5B T1

The first lecture will be in Week 1.  The first tutorial will be in Week 2.

 We take the feedback students give us about their experience of this unit – both the formal feedback from anonymous questionnaires and the less formal feedback we get from chatting to students – very seriously.  Every year the unit is reviewed and changes are made in the light of students’ suggestions (though of course, often some people enjoy and benefit from the very thing that others find frustrating or difficult!).

 Some of the changes we have made in this unit for this year include:

-       *Experimenting with using interactive software in lectures to encourage engagement

-       *Incorporating a new academic integrity module into preparation for the unit

-       *Changing some readings to ensure students’ fuller understanding of key concepts

-       *Refining the lectures on science communication in the light of feedback

-       *Added more extensive reading lists on standpoint epistemology and science communication

-       *Incorporating more information and guidance on resources around media and creative industries career paths into the lead-up to the student conference

 The aim of this unit is to introduce you to the theory and practice of university study, especially as it is relevant to the related (interdisciplinary) disciplines of Media Studies and Critical and Cultural Studies. We will spend a lot of time thinking and talking about various types of writing as practice, and will also be considering Writing (as a discipline of study) as an important part of Media and Cultural Studies.  The unit will combine work on the concepts, values and ethics behind academic work in those disciplines with a practical introduction to research methods, writing and presentation, group work, planning and organisation, creative thinking and intercultural competency. 

 Among other things, by giving you a chance to reflect on academic cultures, the unit aims to help you to develop a sense of what, in media and cultural studies, “counts as a relevant contribution, what counts as answering a question, what counts as having a good argument for that answer or a good criticism of it” (Rorty, cited in Becher, 1989, 26).

 Through the course of the semester, you will have a chance both to practice and refine the skills you need to successfully complete academic units in media and cultural studies and also to think about key questions that underpin these disciplines.  In the course of the unit we will be researching and debating questions like:

 • What is university study for?  What kinds of meaning do university degrees have in the wider social world?  Why do governments fund (or decide to cut funding to) universities?

 • How has the experience of studying at Australian universities changed over the past fifty years? What is the effect of student fees and the globalization of higher education on the value and meaning of university study?  Does being a student make you more powerful, disempower you, or both?

 • What’s the point of media and cultural studies?  What kinds of work do media and cultural studies degrees prepare you for?  What is the relationship between these disciplines and the creative and cultural industries?  How else might media and cultural studies change the world and the way people think about it?

 • What are the cultures of communication within media and cultural studies?  What makes an argument believable and persuasive within the discipline?  What styles of writing and referencing convince people in the discipline that you know what you are talking about?  How can you avoid accusations of cheating when you are writing and talking about media and culture?

 The unit is driven by your creative responses to ‘real world’ problems that you’ll be tackling in small groups.  You will have the chance to write in a range of academic and non-academic genres – articles as well as academic abstracts and annotated bibliographies – and practice your verbal skills not only in the classroom, but also in a student conference setting. 

 What this unit is NOT about

 While you will be given many opportunities to think about and develop the most important skills you need to successful undertake academic work in media and cultural studies and affiliated disciplines, MMCS115 is NOT a course in English for Academic Purposes or a remedial essay writing course.  A high level of written and spoken English is a prerequisite for undertaking the module.  If you would like more support with academic literacy, you might want to consider taking ACSH100 Academic Communication in the Social Sciences and Humanities.  This unit (which is a people unit) makes a great complement to this course, especially if you find at the end of MMCS115 that you still need to work further on your academic writing.

 Macquarie also has a Study Skills Support Unit that can give you help with developing a generic English language, study skills and essay writing skills.  For more information check out: http://www.mq.edu.au/support/learning_skills/

 Jean Brick’s book Academic Culture (see below), a resource we’ll be using in this unit, provides an excellent easy-to-read introduction to some of the practical matters you need to consider when writing and reading for academic assessments.  We will be devoting particular attention to one section of the book in class.  If you would like to read further around academic writing and study skills to inform your work for this module, a reading list is provided at the end of this guide.

Like all units at Macquarie, in MMCS115 you will be expected to spend a significant time in private study, research and writing, in addition to attending lectures and tutorials.  The University suggests that you spend around 9 hours in total per week studying for each 3 credit unit you take.  A full time load of 3-4 units should keep you busy with 27-36 hours of study a week.

However, the way in which this unit will be run may be a little different to some of the other units you are taking at Macquarie. It borrows from a type of learning strategy known as problem-based (PBL) learning. 

What is problem-based learning (PBL)?

 The central idea of PBL is that people usually learn best when confronted with a complex, interdisciplinary problems that they have to work out how to tackle by going out and researching themselves, as well as sharing ideas and information with colleagues.

 Learning outside a university context is usually problem based learning.  For example, the task of finding your way to campus when you first started studying at Macquarie was a problem that required to you to draw on a number of different skills (map reading, for example, or driving), gather information from a range of sources (bus timetables, the university prospectus, street directories) and perhaps develop even new skills and understandings (using a GPS, for example).  You had to go out and gather this information yourself or with the help of friends, family or staff at the university, and certainly wouldn’t have had a lecture on ‘Transport strategies in the Hills Region’ presented to you over your cornflakes ahead of your first trip to Macquarie.

 Because it resembles the way we learn in the world outside university, PBL is widely used in professional and vocational education.   For example, it’s quite likely your doctor will have been educated in a medical school which uses PBL as a learning method.  PBL was adopted partly because medical schools, for example, felt they needed to produce effective practitioners rather than people who were good at memorising textbooks, but floundered when confronted with a patient presenting an unfamiliar set of symptoms. PBL helps people to see how ideas, information and skills can be used in practice.  It is often used in fields that require people to pull together understandings from a range of different academic disciplines – for example, engineering, architecture or nursing.  This makes problem based learning really useful in for people wanting to study the constantly changing interdisciplinary areas of media and culture.  In fact, those of you who plan to go on to do practice-based units in the BA-Media essentially be undertaking problem based learning.

 More info about PBL can be found here:

http://www.pbl.uci.edu/whatispbl.html

http://ldt.stanford.edu/~jeepark/jeepark+portfolio/PBL/whatis.htm

Developing capacities and good learning habits

One of the key aims of PBL is not only for you to learn about particular subjects, but also to learn about effective strategies for learning.  I would argue that a big part of learning is having a go, maybe struggling, getting some feedback or reflecting on what you find difficult, having another go, wrestling with more obstacles, thinking about it, having yet another go and so on (to find out more about this process, often called the ‘Kolb cycle’, you might look at Kolb, 1984, Experiential learning).  Part of what you should be doing this semester is reflecting on what you find difficult about learning, working in teams, researching, presenting, writing and so on, and using that insight as a starting point for your next effort. 

 Rather than first hearing a lecture and then being asked to apply the ideas in tutorials or essays, in MMCS115, you will often start off your learning by being presented with a problem that you will be working on in a group with other students in your class.  You will need to work out a strategy for addressing those problems, share the outcomes of your research, and use each other as a resource for writing up and presenting your work.  Our role as tutors will not so much be about telling you what to say or do, as to facilitate your group’s decision making process, to refer you to other resources and to provide feedback on how we think you might improve your learning in future.

 This unit has been made compulsory for a number of programmes within the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies because we know that effective research, referencing and writing is rewarded over and over again during your degree.  Your great ideas, zest for learning and creativity will get you a lot further if you have a good understanding of the way writing, reading and researching are done at university and in your discipline (often they are done very differently in high school!).  The capacities, habits and skills we hope you will continue to develop through this unit will be assessed over and over again during your degree – learning effective strategies for drafting, revising, referencing and shaping an argument early on can make a tremendous difference to your grades across your degree.

What will happen in lecture times?

So, during the lecture slot in this course we will do a number of different things.  Sometimes the session will be used for a meeting, for example, when we discuss the student conference you will be running towards the end of the semester.  Sometimes we’ll do workshop-type activities, like the talks from the library liaison staff in Week 3.  There will also be some more conventional lectures.  Some of these lectures will give you an overview of important topics in media and cultural studies, providing a kind of map of the field, and a starting point for further research. Others will give examples of how media and cultural studies can be used out there beyond the university, giving you ideas about what kinds of things you can talk about in your conference paper, and the way you might present your ideas. 

Lectures for this unit don’t always directly link to the subsequent tutorial.  Your main task in the tutorials is to work on your problem.  Lectures and readings each will feed into these problems.  Tutorials are a chance to talk about the previous week’s lecture and essential reading and help understand it. Your tutor will also help you to make these links.  But don’t expect a simple pattern where we talk about a topic in the lecture, then discuss that topic and only that topic in the related tutorial.  

Attendance and participation

Because many of the assessments for this unit are undertaken in a group, absence from tutorials has a major effect on everyone’s ability to learn.  Attendance records will be kept in all tutorials, and students will be expected to attend 100% of tutorials unless they have compelling medical or personal emergencies.  If you cannot attend a tutorial because for health reasons, please let your tutor know via email and make sure you bring evidence of your health difficulty next time you come to class.

You will be expected to attend lectures.  iLecture recordings will be made in this unit, but because of the interactive style of lecture, often these will not give a good account of what happened in class.  Because this year we will be experimenting with interactive software as a way of increasing student engagement in lectures, student participation will be noted and rewarded. You will be able to shape the content of the following week’s lecture through feedback on the classes you attend.

·       Research in higher education has demonstrated a very close correlation between levels of attendance and students’ grades.

·       You are paying for your degree!  Every lecture you miss costs you money – don’t waste it.

·       Tutorials will build on the lecture but tutors will not give you a repeat performance of what happened in the lecture.  There is too much already going on in our 90 minute tutorials.

Some advice from students taking the unit in previous years

*  Be organised.  Do the ongoing work as you go, otherwise it piles up and you are forced to cram

*  Research careers early

*Always remember to have fun at uni and avoid stress – it’s not as hard as you probably think

*  Allow yourself to realise it will become more clear

The library

*  Know how to use the library.  If unsure how to find info, ask the people at the front desk and they will gladly assist you

*  Find additional sources for assignments

*  Keep an extra $100 in the bank for library fines

Lectures

*  Go to lectures!  They actually help.  Note taking makes essay writing much easier

Workshops and tutorials

*  Be confident, participate in discussions – you get more out of it

*  Come to your classes, it’s easy to fall behind

*  Don’t be afraid to ask questions

*  Email tutors and lecturers if you have any questions

*  Do this subject with a friend… or three… or four…

Reading

*  Do all of your reading.  Look for overlapping ideas in readings in all of your courses – often ideas are relevant and useful across the board

*  Always do readings – it will help you more than you think

Assignments

*  Ask if you don’t understand assignments

*  Start assignments with plenty of time so you can stress and freak out but then have the time to get over it and get your assignment done on time

*  Extensive research is necessary for course and assignments

*  Don’t stress out about the logistics of assignments

*  Everything will make sense in the end

Media and cultural studies

*  If you think this subject will be an easy pass, think again!

*  Media and cultural studies – not just a subject, but a way of life