POL250Y5Y Environmental Politcs (SSc) with Andrea Olive
Prerequisite: HIS 282H or POL 218Y or permission of instructor
For the 2015-2016 academic year POL250Y (which is cross-listed with ENV250Y) will be taught exclusively online. What does this mean? It means less traffic on our suburban campus because you can take this course from the comfort of your home or the nearest coffee shop. Professor Olive will deliver dynamic lectures in mp3 format so that students can watch them on their own computers. The lectures will take on various formats – similar to podcasts but with visual material like PowerPoint, videos clips and newspaper content. Students will download and listen to the short lectures twice a week and then log-on to Black Board to participate in discussion and online learning activities. Similar to other tutorials at UTM, discussion will be led and moderated by teaching assistants who will also log-on throughout the week to participate in the course. Papers and assignments will be submitted through Portal (but the midterm and the final exam will happen in-person as scheduled by the registrar in December and April). Should you sign-up for this course? Only if you are passionate about the environment and want an interesting class in which you can discuss current events with your peers on a weekly basis!
The major topics covered in this course remain the same as always – energy policy and climate change, biodiversity loss and endangered species conservation, water policy, Aboriginal and Northern environmental politics and current environmental issues discussed in Parliament. Remember that you will need access to the Internet to download lectures, submit assignments and participate in discussion. And it will also help if you have your own computer, as it will be your entire workspace for this course.
