URSC 330 Land Development I
College of Architecture / Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning
Expiration Date: 9/1/13
C Course
Jesse Saginor
5-6372
jsaginor@tamu.edu
REPORT ON PROPOSED W COURSE: URSC 330
We recommend that URSC 330 Land Development I be certified as a Communications (C) course for the next four academic years (1/09 to 1/13). We have reviewed a representative syllabus and have determined that the course meets or exceeds the following criteria:
1. Percentage of final grade based on writing quality: 50%
2. Course content appropriate to the major
3. Total number of words: 3000
4. Total minutes of oral presentation: 10
5. Instructor to student ratio for one section: 1:30
The committee noted that the instructor to student ratio is fairly high and cautions that the course should be monitored by the department to ensure the ratio does not adversely affect the amount or quality of instruction or feedback proposed.
URSC 330 asks students to write two short case studies and a paper of 2000 words; in addition, they will present a 10-minute oral presentation at the end of the semester. The instructor will provide both oral and written feedback on drafts of oral presentations and on written work. For the oral presentation, students turn in their PowerPoint slides with notes. On the written products, the assignments feed into the final paper so that comments on the first assignment assist in the composition of the second writing assignment. For the second assignment, students turn in both the first and second assignment, then the instructor returns both of those with comments geared to the final assignment. Communications instruction will include lectures on business writing and on the use of oral presentation slides.
