Convening in the Bailey Scholars Program

Graduate Fellows and Faculty members are presented with the opportunity to serve as a Course Convener in the Bailey Scholars Program.  These individuals are the instructors of record for all of our courses.  Instead of referring to these individuals as faculty or instructors, we dub them conveners because they do less formalized teaching, but instead convene the classroom to provide space for learning to happen.  Due to the structure of our Bailey Scholars courses, ANR 210,  ANR 310, and ANR 410, faculty members create dialogue so that the entire class (students and faculty alike) may decide the course content and grading/evaluation process.  Together with the students, they will determine what they will learn, how they will learn it, when the will learn it, how they will assess their learning, and how they will determine the criteria for grading associated with this assessment.  Typically, there are two Course Conveners and 5 - 15 students in the course.  Conveners find this work very rewarding, and it provides an opportunity for them to engage in different ways of knowing regarding how teaching and learning happens.   It provides and opportunity to think beyond convention, and into the possiblities and potential associated with learning.  Topics are wide and varied, and courses are expected to think big, not be limited by restrictions.

If you are interested in becoming a course convener please contact our Senior Director, Glenn Sterner at sternerg@msu.edu. 

For resources associated with Convening, please visit the Convener Resources Page.

For Sample Course Syllabi, please visit our Blank Syllabi Page.

We also have previous course syllabi and previous course assessment practices to help understand the potential and possibility of the wide array of topics associated with our courses.