Several components of the eossei project are being addressed simultaneously. Click title links for more details.

Transforming Courses: The core of the project involves working with individual courses and the faculty members who are involved in that course, as well as pre- and post-requisites. See also the current long-term EOS-SEI course work plan via the menu (left).

• Each course is addressed with a working group, consisting of one STLF who leads the team, the instructor(s) who currently teach the course, instructors teaching pre- and post-requisits, and other interested people.
• Each effort will involve at least two cycles of preparation, implementation, and evaluation, all being carried out as the course is being taught.
• A standard agreement between principle instructors, STLFs and the Department is used as a framework for project deliverables.

Curriculum Reform: Two aspects of curriculum review and development the Department are (a) service courses, and (b) 17 different degree program streams. All will be evaluated with recommendations delivered. A plan for addressing each component before the end of the project has been agreed upon at the April 29, 2008 Department retreat

Teaching Assistants (TAs): We want graduate student teaching assistants to take on a more important role in the education that happens at EOS. This will benefit undergrads by having interested, energetic people who are nearly "peers" involved in their courses. The TAs themselves will gain valuable experience in teaching and learning aspects of academe, thus benefiting themselves and organizations they work for in the future. A new course about teaching and learning for graduate students (piloted in Fall 2007), will become a regular part of graduate programs in EOS.

Attitudes: We are interested in how learning about science in our Department affects students' attitudes about science and the Earth / Oceans / Atmosphere. This involves developing a carefully validated survey instrument to examin student attitudes before and after taking a range of different courses.

Community: Part of "sustainability" is developing a community with expertise in teaching / learning best practices. Developing community involves making teaching learning issues front and centre in all Departmental thinking, and making strong connections with teaching & learning specialists in other departments across the faculty. This is a primary outcome of centralized initiative represented by the CWSEI. See the events page for initiatives specifically aimed at raising the awareness and expertise across the department.

Sustainability: While not exactly a "project component", this is a long term project goal with specific implications about how we do the work. The five components described above are all part of ensuring sustainability of reforms. Other aspects aimed at supporting best practices and improving teaching efficiency include:

• Compiling extensive feedback obtained from students, including production of a generaly applicable End Of Term surveying strategy;
• A Questions Database is being developed for service (and other) courses;
• A faculty-wide course-archiving facility is being developed by the CWSEI, and EOS is involved in the design and testing of this facility.
  

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