Here are a few questions for you to ask yourself before considering doing a directed study (the following pertains to directed readings, research, and studies).

Big questions

• What is the topic you are interested in and why does this interest you?
• Can you demonstrate that you have poked around a little bit with the topic?
• What larger set of questions does this topic relate to?
• How does this relate to your larger goals?

Expectations

What do you expect from the instructor? This ranges from the basic - help in identifying readings and meeting regularly to discuss key reading or research details to more extensive interaction including discussing written work and critiquing a final project (usually a paper). On the other hand, this may be to just provide structure in which you work independently and we just meet once in a while to keep you on track

What do you expect to to get out of the directed study? Typical choices include a research paper or a literature review and/or an annotated bibliography that will help you with your graduate work. This is also a chance to explore new material and the opportunity to read standard works. This is also a way to facilitate discussions about some key issues.

Finally, ask yourself what kinds of outcomes will make this feel as if the directed study was successful or unsuccessful?

Workload

A directed study requires as much effort as a normal course offering, and in some ways more because you are responsible for much of the motivation and direction in the course. For each credit earned, you are expected to propose enough work to account for 3 hours/credit/week (a 3-credit directed study will take 9 hours per week, a 2-credit directed study 6 hours per week, and so on). A 2-credit directed reading, for example, would likely involve you reading the equivalent of 60 articles and creating a literature review or annotated bibliography.

Technical Issues

There are some details to keep in mind:

• In order to do a directed study, you must have exhausted the course offerings in the proposed area, or demonstrate a pressing need to complete the study now instead of taking a regular course offering.
• You must submit a brief one-page proposal (including suggested bibliography) to the instructor.
• You must submit a list of courses taken and currently being taken that are relevant to the proposed area of study.
• Keep in mind that the proposal for the following semester should be submitted prior to the registration period for that semester (plan ahead!). In unusual circumstances, you may submit the proposal as late as the end of the first week of the semester in which you intend to take the course. Do not put it off, however, as chances grow less likely with time that the instructor will be able to accommodate your proposal.

There are several way of registering for a directed study

For undergraduates, if the instructor accepts the proposed course, you and he/she will complete a contract form and he/she will give you a permission number for one of the following courses:

• GEOG 3992 Directed Reading
• GEOG 3993 Directed Studies
• GEOG 3994 Directed Research

For graduate students, if the instructor accepts the proposed course he/she will direct you to speak with the graduate secretary so he/she can give you a permission number for online registration.

• GEOG 8970 Directed Readings
• GEOG 8990 Research Problems
• GIS 8970 Directed Readings
• GIS 8990 Research Problems