Part One: Course Pamphlet

What Is A Project Course in Human Services?

The Project Design I 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.

Project Design I will help you to

• Develop your skills in initiating, planning, carrying out, and reporting on an aspect of the Human Services sector and related fields,

• Improve your analytical and critical observation skills, and,

• Gain experience in developing and answering research questions.

• Selecting problems that would benefit from research inquiry,

• Problem definition that lends itself to short-term study such that the project can be completed to a fixed deadline (the end of the contract period),

• Using appropriate research protocols in carrying out the planned research.

• Planning and reporting on the planning of a piece of research that is thorough, and easily understood by non-specialists, and,

• Presenting the plan clearly and effectively.

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 project 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.