Sections offered SPRING 2023:

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

This course explores the phenomenon of failure and how it has influenced modern thought and discovery  We will explore both historical and contemporary cases of failure, from a variety of disciplinary perspectives: psychology, education, science, business, athletics, and engineering and design. In addition, we will draw from our own experiences as well as narratives offered by authors and guest speakers in examining the personal dimensions of experiencing failure, the ways it can teach or deceive us. We’ll consider how different cultural and ethical traditions interpret failure, what might constitute “meaningful” failure, and how failure can play a crucial role in learning, growth, and progress.

Sections offered SPRING 2023:

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

Coffee is widely referred to as the world’s second most valuable legal commodity (behind oil) and is probably the world’s most consumed legal drug. Beyond its status as such a massively traded product, coffee is central to the lives of most Americans. We drink coffee with both breakfast and dessert. We consume coffee both to facilitate our work and enhance our leisure. We can buy coffee everywhere—from the grimiest gas station to the most high-end restaurant—and what we are willing to pay for it runs the gamut. Within American communities, coffee has come to epitomize both what is quintessentially “local” (the neighborhood coffee shop) and “corporate” (Starbucks, Dunkin’). For many Americans, coffee shops are now default settings for relaxing with friends, conducting business, studying, creating art, and for even being alone. Yet, where does our coffee come from? Behind this everyday commodity is an intricate, expansive, and frequently exploitative network that connects billions of people across continents, nationalities, ethnicities, languages, currencies, religions, geographies, and economic backgrounds. In this discussion-driven course, we will approach coffee from a variety of economic, social, political, food studies, and human rights angles in order to consider the extraordinarily complex role that the beverage plays in connecting lives within global culture.

Sections offered SPRING 2023:

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

Free speech and privacy are two areas of law that have been in the news and in the courts lately. Legal controversies involving free speech or privacy (or both) are not going away any time soon. They also involve principles and policies that provide common ground because freedom of expression and privacy protections are valuable to everyone, regardless of different views on other issues.

The majority of this course provides an introduction to free speech and privacy law in the United States. The main reading assignments are key First Amendment cases decided by the United States Supreme Court. These cases are supplemented with other materials, including recent lower court cases, news articles on current events, and law review articles.

Before diving into the free speech and privacy materials, the course begins with addressing what it means to “think like a lawyer.” In other words, the course begins by introducing legal reasoning, a skill that applies to the following free speech and privacy materials and far beyond.

The course grade will be predominantly based on a midterm exam and final exam. There will be a few in-semester assignments as well.

Please note: By its very nature, this course involves controversial and sensitive subject matter, such as race, sexual orientation, profanity, and more. Students are not expected to agree with the outcome of every (or any) case. But students are expected to be able to discuss these kinds of materials in a professional and educational manner. Separating one’s personal beliefs from disciplined study of free speech law and policy is a necessary skill and mindset for approaching this course (and rigorous critical thinking generally).

Sections offered SPRING 2023:

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

What we measure often becomes what matters. This is particularly true in education where large-scale assessments are administered to students around the world and the results are then used to rank order countries. Further, results from these assessments are used by international organizations around the world such as the World Bank and various United Nations agencies to influence educational and development funding decisions.

In this course, we unpack how educational systems are measured and how those measurements are used to inform policy decisions. Specifically, the course will consist of two phases. During the first phase we will explore how educational systems are measured and who decides what is collected. During this phase participants will gain a general understanding of indicators, evaluation and assessment, and how power relations determine what is deemed important. During phase II we will turn our attention towards international case studies of how assessment data has been used to provoke policy changes. Here, we will explore different educational systems from around the world, cover how their educational systems differ, and examine specific policy reforms that resulted from participation in international educational assessments.

The course is developed for students with little or no previous experience with education or educational policy but who are interested in the topic either because they are considering it as a future career or because they would like to better understand educational systems around the world and how assessment influences educational processes.