Preamble to CCT 602 & 630 students
CRCRTH 602 Creative Thinking
CRCRTH 630 Criticism and Creativity in Literature and Arts

In Fall 2013, we are undertaking an experiment to creatively address two problems--1) there are not enough students for our face-to-face required class, CRCRTH 602, Creative Thinking; and 2) the faculty member who was to teach CCT630, Criticism and creativity in literature and arts, is not ready to teach it as a hybrid course, combining face-to-face and online students. (The first problem derives both from almost all of our new students doing the CCT program online and from having fewer new students last year.)

The experiment has 4 components:
1) Neither course will be cancelled but instead the two courses will be combined, albeit with some customized instructions for each group, include face-to-face and online students, and be co-taught by Jeremy Szteiter and Peter Taylor in a hybrid format (with sessions at 4:00-6.30pm on Tuesdays, starting Sept. 3).
2) The format will center on 4-week "collaborative explorations" (CEs), a variant of project-based learning (PBL) that begin from a scenario or case in which the issues are real but the problems are not well defined, which leads participants to shape their own directions of inquiry and develop their skills as investigators and teachers (in the broadest sense of the word). The basic mode of a CE centers on interactions in small groups (online or face-to-face) over a delimited period of time in ways that create an experience of re-engagement with oneself as an avid learner and inquirer--as this quote from a student in a PBL course evokes:

• This course is a gift – the chance to be open – open-ended in design, open to process, open to other perspectives, open to changing your ideas, and open to sharing. Of course this means it’s risky too – you won’t always know when you’re coming from or where you are going – you might think you aren’t sufficiently grounded by the course. But you have the freedom to change that – and being on the other side of it now, I see it works out beautifully. The attention to process provides you the tools to grow and by the end you’re riding the wave of your earlier work...

3) The CE component of each class session will be 60-90 minutes. The rest of each course session will involve activities or discussion of a shared reading (with details about sessions and about expectations to be supplied by the start of the courses).
4) The Critical and Creative Thinking Graduate Program will host simultaneous CEs (online) where the wider public can participate (http://CollabEx.wikispaces.com). Students in the 602 and 630 courses do not have to join these CEs, but they will be able to draw on what is publicly shared by the participants; the public CEs will use the same themes as those used in the course and involve a 60-90 minute online conference call once per week, at a time other than Tuesdays from 4:00-6:30pm.

The combined course will
a) include intensive reading in the area of creative thinking, which students in CRCRTH 602 would expect;
b) allow a focus on literature/arts and on story-telling for students in CRCRTH 630; and
c) allow everyone to shape a path and final products for each CE that link closely with their personal interests.
Students in 630 should choose inquiries and readings related literature and arts whenever there is a choice.

Any prospective CRCRTH 602 student is welcome to switch to CCT 630 for the literature/arts emphasis and take 602 in a regular online offering in the spring instead.

Technical note: The live sessions will use Google+ Hangout, so sign up for a http://plus.google.com account, get the audio & video plugins installed, and let instructors know your gmail address. Exchange within the course will use a private Google+ community to which you'll be invited once you let us know your gmail address.

Texts to purchase or borrow are listed near the start of syllabus. You will need to be able to use interlibrary loan (either at UMB or at your local library) to get materials that interest you when needed.
If you have time for reading during August, choose a reading that especially interests you from the CE descriptions.