Part One: Course Pamphlet

What Is A Directed Reading Course in Human Services?

The Directed Readings I: Topics in the Human Services course is similar to most independent study courses. It involves student-initiated units of study that are based on a contracted study arrangement worked out between an individual student (or group of students), an approved project supervisor, and Athabasca University. It is an advanced course, intended for students who have completed the foundation courses.

Directed Readings I: Topics in the Human Services will help you to

• Improve your skills in initiating, planning, carrying out, and reporting on an aspect of the Human Services sector and related fields, and
• Improve your analytical and critical observations.

• Choosing problems or tasks that you are capable of completing within the contract period,
• Using a variety of available resources to obtain relevant information.
• Planning methods to test hypotheses, where appropriate, and
• Finding and organising facts that negate particular claims.

By planning a project and carrying it out, you will also experience some of the problems faced by human services scholars, practitioners and educators. As well, you will have the opportunity to study a topic in some depth with a view to providing a critical analysis of available sources on the topic. These resources may include some combination of books, articles, government documents, tapes, computer databases, the internet, archives, local sources, interviews, and surveys from secondary sources.

The project may involve any combination of library or field research, as agreed to by the student and the directed readings supervisor in a "learning contract" between the student and Athabasca University. The learning contract states what is to be done in the project, how and when it will be done, how it will be evaluated, and how many credits will be awarded (each independent study course is a three credit course). Although the University may provide some help, especially through the reference services of the Athabasca University library such as accessing full-text electronic databases, students are expected to obtain and, where necessary, pay for all the materials used in their project.