In this course I have tried to shift the locus of learning to the students, by creating situations in which people read each other's writing, and write in the awareness that others are reading that writing. Has this helped, or changed, your learning?

• I have had a very hard time with this component of the course. I don't feel comfortable with other student's reading my work, and I worry about my own credibility when it comes to responding to other's work. I would prefer to have the professor give me feedback, at least in addition to what the students have to say. Thus far, I don't feel that this has helped my learning. [I've thought for some years about this, and my experience has been that the only time my "feedback" helps is when people are writing in situations where they actually have an audience and a purpose other than to become "better writers." There are lots of reasons I have been convinced of this, but two are particularly strong. One is that my comments actually don't make any difference: I can tell people endlessly that "alot" isn't one word, for instance, and nothing happens. If I could have a conversation about each such error with each person who commits it, I might make a difference, but of course that's not even close to possible. The second reason I believe this is that when I used to make comments on term papers at the ends of courses, people usually didn't read them. -- didn't even pick the papers up. I was answering questions no one had asked. I think you learn by using writing for real purposes. If you don't see that it's possible for you to inform or illuminate or persuade someone else, you'll be writing empty sentences, and my corrections won't have any effect. If you care about whether your writing affects someone else, you are more likely to learn. And here's my final reason: everybody else comments on papers. If you learn from that, fine. But why should all your classes do the same thing? If some people learn in other ways, why shouldn't they have a chance to learn that way too? ]
• This has helped me with my learning, because I am doing the research and picking what to read. I am remembering more because it is interesting to me versus someone giving me what I need to learn and read.
• Yes, it has helped me learn. I'm much more aware of how different contexts of learning require different styles of context, and various levels of formality-- and writing for other students takes a lot of the pressure writing for just one prof, often has. Also, there's a sense that we are equals, rather than just blind followers of the Liberal Arts education voice of God...
• I am paying for a formal education and I find this class to be very informal and pourly structured. I really just wish we could read a book and discuss it in class without having to read everyones research. I don't hold any value to any of the facts I read while reading research done by others because I don't trust that they haven't just made it up. [Since what happens in 90% of the English classes I'm aware of is that people "read a book and discuss it in class," it seems to me people have lots of chances to learn whatever it is that they learn by doing that. I think there are other things to learn about literature -- and they involve understanding how literature is studied, written about, and becomes a discipline, and how people who don't approach a text as a problem to be decoded in a class do that. I'd also suggest that I find it troubling to think that the only way someone can trust what someone else reports is to go see for herself. Sure, sometimes people are wrong, but that's not a problem that's peculiar to students; we evaluate what we see, and hold open the possibility that we, or the other person, might be wrong.]
• This part has helped and changed my learning, at the begining I was very nervous because I am not a strong writter. Now I am very comfortable with my other classmates and know who's work to read during certian circumstances. I enjoy not having to focus on proper formating and language due to the fact that I am completely drawn to valuable information instead of grammer issues. [I'd like to reiterate that there is a time to focus on grammar and spelling, etc. -- but it's the last thing a writer should do, not the first.]
• Yes it has. I feel that I engage more in the topic when I write about it myself, knowing that other students are going to read it and when reading other's work.

• I have never been a fan of getting together in a group of random people and discussing because I find it usually doesn't last as long as the teacher expects. I don't mind the rounds but I am not too sure about the small groups, my group ended up doing well in the last assignment I find but many others didnt. If there were to be more group assignments I think it should be an option to pick your own members. [There are arguments on both sides of this. The arguments for it are much stronger when the groups last longer, but I have to say I'm skeptical even then. I'm always a bit worried about citing "the real world," but most working groups aren't formed because people like each other.]
• I do enjoy the rounds just because it encourages everyone to participate, but I find also that many students feel uncomfortable when they are put on the spot, and I have noticed in general that there is no more or less conversation than in other classes.
• The discussions were helpful, but it gets repetitive because we have all already discussed everything via moodle. Going to class seems trivial because we know we aren't going to do anything we can't find on moodle. [Does this suggest anything about how we might structure discussions to avoid repetition?]
• I find there is so much more discussion in this class and I find this has kept me on top of my work more. I am so engaged in this class while in my other classes I struggle to go because I don't have any work to keep on top of every week for class.
• I find that the rounds are not helpful to my learning but small groups are. Small groups we are able to read each other's work and talk about our learning.
• Yes there has been significantly more communication. My other classes are lecture-based, and the only channel of communication students have are in direct questions with the prof-- and hardly ever any substantial group work, which tends to increase my learning. [I find the variance here -- much more discussion, not much more -- fascinating. I suppose one explanation is that people are writing out of different contexts.]

• No. It just makes me frustrated while trying to make a choice. [I wish you could have been clearer about what the frustration is. Is it, I wonder, about making "the right" choices?]
• We have had the opportunity to make informed choices about what to read, and it has kept me more engaged than having to read mandatory text books, or chapters chosen by the profs in my other classes. It has in various aspects helped me learn about the kinds of things people wrote in the 18th century, and I have gained more context-- I'm still in the process of understanding what those texts mean in our modern context, though.
• I like getting to choose what I am going to read. Having the opportunity to choose where I want to do my research for the week is helpful. The reason, is because sometimes I go home for the weekend and cannot access the library and other times I would like to be in the library. I think this has helped with my learning about the writing of the 18th century and its contexts because I remember practically everything I have learnt so far in this class still. In other classes it merely goes in one ear and out the other.
• When it comes to picking out our own source of information at the library it has seemed to work out well for me so far. It is sort of a stressful thought to not know your upcoming assignments and readings due to clashes of other courses and due date but when it comes to learning, yes this has helped my knowledge on the 18th century.
• I appreciate having my own choice, but I can never be sure if I am making the right choices about whom or what to read.
• It would be more helpful if there was a list given to us of non- fiction writers from the period, rather than having us randomly picking ones we think may be important to research and study. [I could do this, but part of what I'm hoping people will learn about literary study is that those lists are made up by folks with agendas, not laid down like the list of elements in a table. Understanding how a field of study is constituted seems to me one of the important things I can help people learn.]

• I think it is a bit heavier. It is enjoyable, but I have work for this class every week on top of my learning journal. Then there is the midterm and exams (which are learning reflections). I do not mind the work load at all, however. It is a good amount to keep the learning flowing. I guess it is like the work load of other classes, but we teach ourselves instead of the professor teaching us. I love the learning journal by the way, because it keeps me on top of everything I have learnt, reflecting back on the weeks work is something I like. [I'm happy to hear this; it doesn't work this way for everybody, so it's nice to know it does for some.]
• I think the workload is a bit heavier in the sense that there is more work to do than the typical "write two term papers," but it does make the process of learning much more immediate, because every little task builds onto the next, and you can't just coast through the course on autopilot and then cramm in the last two weeks. I'm appreciative of the structure of this class, because it keeps me focused, and learning-oriented.
• I have a hard time completing the assignments, I find that there are too many of them, and I especially dislike the fact that the bulk of the workload falls on the weekend. Many students work all weekend, or use it to have some time to take care of their house work, etc, and I find that there is too much work for this class that all has to be done on Sundays. [I'll think about this. If the work needs to be done for the next class, it seems to me to make an assignment on Wednesday, leaving five days, is better than on Monday, leaving two -- even accepting that weekends are part of it.]
• It's heavier. The fact that we have 3-4 weekly assignments for one class that have no other value than the fact that we do them is stressful. Discussions are engaging but moodle is not. ["No other value than the fact that we do them" troubles me. What value should they have? Would a grade on them be "a value"?]
• I am a fan of weekly assignments due to having a course similar with Dr.Mckim, I find it helps me stay engaged and on top of things in the class. This course's workload is much greater and less time periods to do them, we have a new assignment every Monday and Wednesday and a journal for Sunday night. I find that sometimes you should focus on giving us a break maybe a couple weekends and only assigning something on mondays due the following monday especially with final projects coming up!
• The workload for this class is heavier than all my other courses. Yes the structure of the regular assignments helps me stay engaged, but sometimes it's too much mostly on the weekends. The workload seems to take up much of my weekend, giving me little time to do work for other classes. [I try to structure assignments by suggesting how much time you should devote to them (most assignments, it seems to me, are open-ended, and could take weeks). Obviously this isn't working for many people. I'll keep thinking about this.]

• Yes, I have learned a lot because I am learning at my own pace and putting much thought and learning into the reports.
• Yes, I find this has helped a lot. I get nervous posting for students in my class because they recognize me and talk to me in the group discussions. If it was just work being handed in to the professor, I would just keep myself believing that the professor does not recognize me because normally I don't talk to the professors anyway. It has helped my learning in general because I have to really think about what I am writing and make sure it makes sense, and is easy to read for every student. [I'm interested to read this response, because I've not thought about the impact of anonymity in quite this way before.]
• Yes this has all worked, it can be a pain to some people and there may be complaining during the process but over all I have learned a great deal since the first of this course.
• I don't think so, I don't really like the structure. It might work for other people but not for me. [I'm sorry. I'm not sure there's much I can do. It strikes me, though, that it really shouldn't be a question of whether it "works for you," but whether you can help it to work. Lectures and class discussions of poems don't work for some people (they didn't work very well for me), but they can usually find a way of learning from them.]
• Not overly, but I do understand what you are trying to do.
• Taking the focus off of grades, and putting it towards producing quality work, and work that has meaning, and the potential to help the learning of others-- instead of just producing work for a prof. It has been effective, and continues to be my preferred way of learning and sharing.

• It has affected the way I think about these matters, in the aspect that I did not know about the authors until now. It is interesting reading new things.
• No. [I'm disappointed. I'd have thought that at least in some way it would have affected this.]
• I enjoy this entire process and in fact is why I think I enjoy Literature so much. I have always been a fan of going to the library to get information and feeling like you know how to gain knowledge in a place many people would feel lost in! I learned how to properly research a couple years ago but this course has done nothing but help me get better at it and in fact teach me general areas I have now memorized to go to for certian topics. I can now find an entire section on eigthteenth century authors and walk down the isle recognizing every name that I see!
• I have enjoyed doing the research for this class, because I have taken other English courses where we just fly by important literary periods in history. This class slows down that process and I am learning a lot more about writers and the history of the eighteenth century. [This is one of the alternatives I try to offer, and I'm happy to hear that it's helping at least some people. There's lots to be said for the more usual way of approaching literature, but I think it's narrow if that's all you encounter.]
• Yes it has affected how I think about these things, because although some texts are considered as very black and white in their arguments, the widely different takes and opinions scholars have some of them keep reminding me that history, and in turn literature-- are not nearly as simple to interpret as they first appear to be. Especially not when I began thinking about history as a creatively organized set of potentially partially fictitious (well, and sometimes constructed) rendition of the past. [I like this way of putting it.]
• Not really, sorry. [I am, too.]

• I don't think there is anything? I enjoy this class the way it is already. I'm very happy with it.
• Moodle is not working, perhaps if the assignments had more value, and less moodling.  [I think it's odd to categorize it as "Moodle." I suspect what's not working for you isn't that particular software package, but the basic structure of what I'm doing with it. In fact, I'm not very crazy about Moodle -- but I suspect if I used other programs you wouldn't be much happier with them.]
• I think that providing us with some of your input would be great, and lightening the load on Sundays.  [I think there's a place for my input, and I try to put it there. I'll think about the workload issue. I wonder if it would help to reiterate what I usually say: if you find yourself putting more than eight hours a week into this class regularly, stop doing it. And tell me about it.]
• I'm not sure I have anything of much help to offer, here. If I think of something once I've pressed the "submit" button, I'll e-mail you.
• I enjoying being recorded on the assignments and effort I put in this class because it is my strongest area that is never put in perspective in courses. I find myself devoted to all my classes but sometimes just not smart enough so this class gives you a chance to shine in both areas.