Forwarded with a technical glitch.  --gw
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2014 19:56:20 -0500
From: Scott Barker <[log in to unmask]>
To: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: RE: most demanding courses in LIS

I think this is an insulting question to be honest, and one of the reasons 
why many, if not most faculty at top Information Schools today don't 
bother reading JESSE.  This constant questioning of the quality of the 
field, when many iSchools are growing in centrality and importance is just 
tiresome.

In our case, I don't know if it is our most demanding course, but I do 
think the final capstone experience that all of our graduates (undergrads 
in Informatics, MLIS, and our Master of Science in Information Management 
students) must complete, is awesome.

Here is a 3 minute video that shows just a tiny sample of the great work 
our students do.  You can't tell me these projects aren't challenging, 
creative, and so on.

https://ischool.uw.edu/videos/capstone-2013

Scott Barker
Information School, University of Washington



On Feb 23, 2014, at 7:12 PM, Gretchen Whitney wrote:

> Greetings,
>  Readers have been asking for more discussion in this community, so here's a set of questions to work with.
>  I have been cruising around LIS programs recently, and noticed that in many syllabi that I can find, many courses ask (in terms of workload) a few exercises, two-page essays, and a multiple-choice final exam.
>  Here are my three questions:
>  1) Is this workload requirement graduate education? If so, why (as opposed, for example, to the composition of a twenty-page term paper).  If not, why not?
>  2) Are university graduate students supposed to feel "comfortable" in their educational experience (as reported in the local newspaper), and not feel challenged to "exceed their grasp"?
>  3) What are the five most challenging classes offered to LIS students across the LIS discipline (school doesn't matter), and why?  Answers could include challenging thinking, workload, tasks, original research, information technology skills, work within the community and support of community efforts.
>  This could be a really tough question.  If there are any responses I'll put together a committee of respected individuals and there will be a collective decision. But the question is really intended to stimulate conversation.
>   --gw
>
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> <><>
> Gretchen Whitney, PhD, Retired
> School of Information Sciences
> University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996 USA           [log in to unmask]
> http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/
> jESSE:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/jesse.html
> SIGMETRICS:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html
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