[MUSIC] Hi, I'm Jess, and I'll be taking you through the screencast for this course on communication skills. As we heard in lesson 2.1b, courses are comprised of sets of rhetorical situations, such as, lectures and tutorials, combined with texts, such as, essays and reports. One key document that outlines these rhetorical situations and texts, and the expectations upon you as a student, is a course outline, or unit of study outline. The name might be different between different universities, but the purpose is the same, to outline important course information. Such as key learning objectives, the date and time of lectures and tutorials, the nature of assessments, and marking criteria, and more. In this lesson, we'll look at an example of a course outline, and examine it to find out about the kinds of rhetorical situations and text contained within a course. We'll be using an example course outline from the University of Sydney's first year Mathematics course on Integral Calculus. The information in this course outline should be in any course outline. Unit of study outline, syllabus document, or whatever this vital text is called in your context. We'll be looking through the document, and firstly, identifying the main rhetorical situations. Followed by the key texts you as a student would need to produce. And then finally, the key expectations of you as a student of this course. In the previous lesson, we looked at two common rhetorical situations at university, lectures and tutorials. And we can see by looking at the course outline, that students in Math 1003 have both of these. We can see on the first page that students will be expected to attend two lectures per week. And below that we can see that there will also be one tutorial per week. It also tells us that attendance will be taken at tutorials. By looking at the course outline we can see a number of other rhetorical situations in the course. Consultation hours, which we see here, are another rhetorical situation. These times are for students to discuss issues one on one with teaching staff. In the US, these are often called office hours, and they're quite different from lectures and tutorials in a few ways. One way they differ is that communication in consultations is usually one to one. Also, content on communication is driven by the student rather than the teacher, and generally in response to concerns or questions about the course. Another type of rhetorical situation outline in the course outline is exams and quizzes. Exams and quizzes are a kind of rhetorical situation you've no doubt encountered before. These are highly structured situations that are used throughout educational institutions as a means of measuring student progress. Some details and dates are given for these on page two, along with the means by which students will be marked using the better mark principle at the bottom of page one. There are also numerous types of text listed in the course outline. All these texts have different purposes and students are required to do different things with them. The course notes and textbooks are listed on page one, and are obviously key text, which need to be read and understood in conjunction with the course. The website, shown here, plays an even more important role as a text. We know this because it's the first thing stated in the outline. It's also referred to throughout the course outline. In the section on consultation times, tutorial and exercise sheets, and in the any questions section. Assignments are another key text with some very specific constraints, for example, students can't submit them sideways or upside down. Quizzes and exam are other texts with very specific forms of use listed here. We can also get a sense of the expectations of students on the course by looking at the course outline. Page three is given over to course objectives and outcomes for the student, this gives a very clear idea of what you will learn on the course such as this. And also, what you might expect to be covered in the assignments and assessments. As a student, you will expected to engage with each of the objectives in turn, so that by the end of the course, you can do all of the things listed on the outcomes. The order in which students should acquire these learning points is listed in page four, and this gives you a clearer idea of what you will be learning each week. Should you struggle to understand any of these concepts after the week in which they were introduced, it's a good idea to arrange a consultation, with a lecturer or tutor, or seek out some of the other sources of help on page three. The explanation of marking criteria at the top of page two also explains the expectations of students and maps the marks given in assessments with the level of mastery of the course content. There are a number of other sections, listing expectations connected to assignments, on page two as well. The expectations the students who are unable to attend exams, or submit exams, will have trouble doing so, is listed in a section on special consideration, and special arrangement, at the bottom of page two. I hope this lesson has shown you just how valuable these documents are in understanding your course. Key rhetorical situations in text are indicated, and a good sense of the expectations that students can be derived from them. Any good university course should have an outline available. If for whatever reason you don't have one for your course, ask your lecturer, or try to find one online. [MUSIC]
