This report explores the benefits of a Kent Denver sponsored Independent Study Program and finds that a flexible and informal program is pragmatic, easy to implement and enhances the excellence of the Kent Denver academic experience for willing students. Part II outlines the first draft of the plan and includes explicit procedures for the continuation of the research program, which will run for the most part, independent of interference from the Kent Administration and Faculty. Consequently student research will be autonomous and teacher involvement in research will be minimal. Part III addresses the current obstacles and arguments against such a program, such as the Global Online Academy, teacher workload, and consistent student …show more content…
The process will reflect that of a research paper for a regular class where a student is given a timeline to research, read, write and submit a final paper that reflects their area of study. This research is done on the student's own time and does not have a teacher assigned to guide them. In the program outlined here, there will exist a few pre-existing topics to research for the purposes of gauging the interest of students. The materials provided will include a topic, a set of core questions pertaining to the study, background material and access to a database such as SIRS. However, as the program matures, exemptions will be made for students to draft their ideas for submittable work. This stresses the independence of the project and emphasizes that there should be no teachers who are obligated to support students in this course work, in the interest of appeasing teachers with already gargantuan duties to fulfill. Furthermore, the ensure that students are upholding their promise to complete a project, there will be a signed contract, much like the one for AP courses that will absolutely need to be filled out and turned into the respective class Deans. This enables the Deans a veto power to use at their discretion and also discourages students from taking on more work than they can handle at any given time. …show more content…
First, the Independent Study Program has some key differences that distinguish it from the G.O.A., the G.O.A. operates on a semester format and is very similar to an actual class that is simply taken outside of Kent classes. In this sense, the two initiatives may appear similar but the timeframe of a G.O.A. course coupled with its grading policy makes G.O.A. a considerably more traditional class as compared to the more casual Independent Study Program. Thus, G.O.A. is more akin to a regular course in terms of intensity. Furthermore, the purpose of this proposal is sufficiently different from G.O.A. in that the G.O.A. does not to my knowledge offer students complete autonomy in their studies like the Independent Study initiative would. This is not meant to be interpreted as a smear campaign against G.O.A. but there may be validity in the assumption that students might prefer something that is not as structured as the G.O.A.. Still, there is a debate to be had over the similarity of content. Admittedly, while some of the courses offered by G.O.A. are somewhat similar to projects that might hypothetically exist under the Independent Study Program, these really only exist as a minute selection of social sciences classes. Furthermore, these courses are limited in their scope when compared to what a student might create for themselves. Thus, there are several academic realms where the Independent Study program could fill the gaps left by G.O.A.. This minor overlap, however,