Participation for internal students will be assessed on the basis of attendance and contributions to weekly seminar discussions. Your mark will reflect both attendance and the quality of your contributions.

Participation for external students will be assessed on the basis of weekly contributions to iLearn discussion forums. Your mark will reflect both the quality of your contributions and their timeliness (they should be posted within a week of the relevant seminar).

The reflective portfolio blog is designed to encourage you to reflect each week on 1. the knowledge acquired through the study of philosophy, 2. skills developed through the program of study and how they apply in real world situations such as those experienced in the PACE activity, 3. philosophical values, and 4. different philosophical approaches and methodologies. You are expected to make at least one entry in your reflective portfolio blog for each week of content and to do so within a week of the relevant seminar. Late entries (more than a week after the relevant seminar) will not count. Your entries should include, but are not limited to, creative and critical personal reflections on the unit content of that week, as well as broader reflections on philosophy and philosophical methodologies. Each weekly post should be around 100-200 words (although some weeks may be longer than others). All blog entries up to the due date (30/10/16) will together constitute the reflective portfolio and will receive an overall grade out of 20. Your blog posts can only be seen by you, the unit convenor and lecturers.

Submission: blog through iLearn.

For information on how to blog in iLearn see click here (http://mq.edu.au/iLearn/student_info/activities.htm#blog).

Text analyses are short (500 word) written exercises. There are 2 text analyses due (11/9/16 and 16/10/16). Each text analysis covers one of the first 2 sections of the unit and is worth 10 marks each. Your text analysis should focus on one reading only and should do 3 main things: 1. Start with a brief introduction that provides a context for your analysis, e.g. by providing an overview of the aims or central claims of the article under discussion. 2. Explain and analyse the main arguments for these claims. 3. Briefly identify some possible objections to, or problems for, these arguments or claims. 2 & 3 need not be done sequentially. For example, you identify possible problems in the context of outlining a specific argument.

Submission: on-line via a Turnitin link in iLearn.

The poster presentation is a report reflecting on your PACE activity. Posters may examine a specific aspect of the activity, or the whole activity. Posters will be submitted and presented in electronic format, using PowerPoint poster templates or Prezi. Presentation of posters will occur in the final seminars in Weeks 9 and 10. All students must submit their completed posters by 9/10 via iLearn, and the order of presentations will be determined randomly.

At the poster presentation sessions, you will review and comment on each other’s posters. It is anticipated that this public presentation of your work will provide you with an experience of ‘peer’ review and an opportunity to consider the learning of other students. The following suggestions may be helpful in setting up the structure of your poster and presentation: In clear, jargon-free terms, your poster must explain (1) the activity or issue you are focusing on (what is the presentation about?), (2) its significance (why should we care?), (3) how you approached the activity (what was your strategy?), (4) what your activity involved (what did you actually do?), (5) the connection between theory and practice (what did you find?), (6) the conclusions (what do you think it all means?), and, optionally, (7) caveats (and reservations) and/or (8) future prospects (where to from here?). Be brief, and always stay on point. (Adapted from Block, S.M. (1996). Do's and Don'ts of Poster Presentation. Biophysical Journal, 71, pp. 3527-3529.)

Submission: on-line via iLearn.

The essay (1500 words) is designed to extend your understanding of a specific topic or issue and to test your ability to engage with that topic. Essay writing involves synthesising material from a range of readings and expressing, analysing and structuring key ideas and arguments clearly, logically and systematically. It also tests your ability to develop your own view, and to argue for that view in a cogent and sustained way. You will be expected to undertake research beyond the required readings and to incorporate that further research into your essay.

Submission: on-line via a Turnitin link in iLearn.