Welcome to Communications, Cluster 4

General Education, Cluster 4 is designed to help students become competent communicators. Those wanting to be involved in the teaching of these courses, or those already involved can find the following sections of information here:

• A description of Cluster 4 courses and goals
• How do I volunteer to teach a Cluster 4 course?
• The generic "syllabi" of the Cluster 4, foundation-level courses
• How do I propose a Cluster 4 course?
• A list of all three levels of the Cluster 4 courses
• Cluster 4 Coordinator's Contact Information

A description of Cluster 4 courses and goals

Cluster 4 courses focus on the development of an undergraduate level of proficiency in written and oral communication across a range of media.  They further facilitate the development of a capacity for critical reflection upon various communication media and their uses.  This cluster of courses also provides the opportunity for study in languages other than English.  The goals of study within this cluster are:

1. The assurance of undergraduate level English composition writing skills;

2. The capacity to comprehend, interpret, and critically engage a broad range of texts (understood broadly to include fiction and non-fiction presented through various media);

3. An understanding of, and facility in, the conventional uses and applications of principal forms of rhetoric (incuding listening, speaking, writing, and visual communication);

4. The opportunity to gain a facility in the written and spoken use of languages other than English;

5. An understanding of the wider cultural and social significances of various forms of media and the impact of technologies upon them.

The first-year foundation courses focus exclusively on the student's ability to read and write, and are, therefore, much less interdisciplinary. However, courses in the second and third-year foundation courses expand on the range of communicative opportunities and interdisciplinary opportunity that this cluster affords. The list of Cluster 4 courses reflects this approach.

How do volunteer to teach a Cluster 4 course?

To teach in General Education, one is required to have a practical expertise in the field. If you're interested in teaching in any cluster, you should contact the person who coordinates the particular cluster. For Cluster 4, contact Bill Bunn.

For the first two semesters, courses will be assigned on a first-come-first-served basis. If there are conflicts where two or more people want to teach the same course, preference will be given to those who are full-time, and to those with more seniority.

The generic "syllabi" of the Cluster 4, foundation-level courses

Each General Education course goes through an approval process, and documents which frame the general operating parameters of each course are approved. These documents, in a sense, are generic syllabi that umbrella all sections of a course that may be offered.

So, if you're interested in teaching a specific course, you may want to review these course frameworks to see if your approach suits the course. These documents will be posted as they become available.

These documents are originally presented as Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to the General Education Standing Committee. The dialogue between the Committee and originator of the course results in the final documents available here. Currently, the two approved first-year courses are available:

GNED 1401: Critical Reading and Writing

GNED 1402: Writing for the Professions

How would I propose a new course involving Cluster 4?

If you have an idea you would like to propose for a Cluster 4 course, there is an approval process that your course must go through before it can be taught.  First,  you propose the  course  in a document  called an "Expression of Interest" or  EOI for short. The EOI is a form available from the General Education Standing Committee (GESC). This form, once completed, is submitted to GESC which begins a dialogue which leads, in most cases, to the approval of the course. The results of these expressions of interest are the course documents which are available in the previous section titled The generic syllabi for Cluster 4 foundation-level courses.

A course involves Cluster 4 when it either  proposes that it be taught soley under the umbrella of this cluster, or when one of the course involves Cluster 4 goals or expertise.

Before proposing a new course, it's best to discuss your idea with the appropriate coordinator.

A list of Cluster 4 courses

Please follow this link to all courses available in Cluster 4:

www.mtroyal.ca/teachingandlearning/gened/courses.shtml

Contact Information

Bill Bunn, Cluster Coordinator

Phone  440-5945

Email    wbunn@mtroyal.ca