Omnibus Individual Assignment 2010

Producing a Web Site and a Personal Development Strategy

Assigned September 13th

Initial and Final Drafts of Components Due as Indicated Below

Goals

The goals of this Individual Assignment are to assist you in becoming a good sustainability planning practitioner by

• establishing the habit of reflecting on your planning experiences so as to learn from them;
• stimulating your ideas about the ethics, expertise and engagement that is important to you as a sustainability planning practitioner;
• creating a personal learning and development strategy for becoming a good sustainability planning practitioner;
• encouraging you to seek comment and advice from others on your personal development strategy; and
• learning how to create and use web pages.

Components

There will be four components to the Individual Assignment that will be delivered through each student 's personal web pages linked as appropriate:

1. Summarize your previous education and experience in a CV that you can use in advancing your planning education (e.g. applying for a scholarship, research assistantship, internship). Initial draft September 20th; final October 4th. (Proportion of final grade for Individual Assignment, 20%)
2. Provide an assessment of your previous education and experience in terms of how you can build upon it while at SCARP in light of your emerging ideas for a career as a sustainability planning practitioner. Initial draft September 27th; final October 4th. ( 25%)
3. Draft a statement of the personal principles and associated strategies that will guide your work as a sustainability planning practitioner. Initial draft 18th October; final November 1st (30%)
4. Draft a personal development strategy that includes your evolving thoughts on courses, an internship, project or thesis research topic and, beyond SCARP, further studies and skills development. Initial draft November 1st. This draft together with your products for 1, 2 and 3, all posted on your web site, will be used to initiate a discussion between you and your Program Advisor reviewing your experiences to date in the SCARP program and your preliminary thoughts on the rest of your program. You are encouraged to also consult with any other faculty member or person whom you feel might be particularly appropriate given your evolving interests. You are expected to have met at least once with your Advisor before the submission of your final version of component 4 on November 29th. It is recommended that you make an early appointment to meet with your Advisor as they have very full schedules and that you provide them with your postings with adequate lead-time for them to read it in advance. (25%)

Here is an example I have created of the kind of pages that can be produced for this assignment.

Grading

Grading will follow SCARP's general ranges and the following criteria will be used in assessing the final drafts:

• understanding, incorporation and application of relevant ideas explored during the course;
• exhibition of reflection and learning;
• articulation of personal principles;
• active solicitation of advice and comment from others and responses to feedback;
• coherence and inter-connection of the four components of the Individual Assignment as a set of web pages;
• good writing and absence of typos; and
• creativity in developing web pages.

Guidance

The General Feedback on the Individual Assignments produced in 2008 provides detailed guidance on how to approach this assignment. Keep in mind the subsequent changes to the assignment discussed in the general introduction to the Assignments.