CENTRE FOR LIFELONG LEARNING - FLEXIBLE ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr D Paterson

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

This course will be available in the first half session of 2011/12 as KL1098.

Overview

This course analyses the so-called "Viking Age". It invites students to critically consider whether the concept of the "Viking" can be usefully applied in order to to understand the history of Europe and beyond in the period c. 800-1200.


This was a period of warfare and pillage, political turmoil and social transformation, but also economic expansion and cultural innovation. In 795 raiders attacked the Christian monastic community on Iona in the Scottish western isles. Their activities extended from Denmark, Norway and Sweden out to Continental Europe, North America, Russia, and the Mediterranean Basin. Over time they accepted Christian beliefs and gradually integrated into European society. In Iceland they created a republic which has remained Scandinavian in culture; elsewhere, for instance Britain, Ireland, and Russia, they adopted and modified the host culture. By the twelfth century, Christian national kingdoms had been created in Scandinavia. "Viking" cultures became fully integrated into the wider project of European Christianization, including active involvement in the Crusades. The Viking Age had come to an end.

The interdisciplinary course team will introduce students to a broad range of methods and approaches to primary sources, from archaeologicval remains and rune-stones to ships and bridges, and from legal texts and chronicles to praise-poetry and sagas. Scandinavian expansionism will be presented in the wider political context of Dark-Age Europe, rooted in the late-antique breakdown of Roman rule and the accompanying ‘barbarian’ incursions. Alongside the political developments students will be introduced to key aspects of so-called "Viking-Age" culture and society, which in turn helped shape the politics of the period. These include religions old and new, the relationship between law and blood-feud, the transition from oral to textual modes of commemoration and learning, the development of new maritime technologies, and the roles of women in society.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures (Mon, Tue, Thur at 12) and 1 one-hour tutorial (to be arranged) per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (60%); continuous assessment (40%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr T Birrell

Pre-requisites

None

Overview

The course presents students with a general introduction to understanding the unique manner in which sociologists seek to understand contemporary societies from an objective and scientific standpoint. Students are presented with current and classical approaches to understanding the social process that underlie self construction, group formation and social interaction within an urbanising and globalising social milieu.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture per week (with additional guest lectures and alternative exercises) and 1 one-hour tutorial.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (60%); continuous assessment (one 1500 word essay; 40%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mrs E Curtis

Pre-requisites

Overview

At the heart of this course are considerations of the ways in which ideas of gender, power relations, belief and family structures contribute to how we understand what it is to be human and the impact of such understandings on the ways in which people develop as human beings and how they are treated in society.

Structure

2x 1 hour lecture per week Mon, Thurs at 10, 1x 90 minute tutorial per week, Lectures and tutorials will be supplemented by tutor directed learning and discussion using WebCT. Tutorials will be student led using a Philosophy for Learning approach.

Assessment

1st Attempt: This involves a 2000 word essay which has the following specific requirements:

• Demonstrates understanding of issues of What Makes us Human?
• Demonstrates the contribution of different influences in the development of ideas by a range of relevant references to the course reader and other academic texts.
• Makes reference to lectures and tutorial discussions.
• Offers reasoned conclusions about the experiences of being human.

Resit: Resubmission of failed criteria within 2000 word essay.

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr T Birrell

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Overview

This course offers an introduction to the language and practice of formal film analysis. Each week we will explore a different element of film form and analyze the ways in which it shapes the moving image. Rather than offering a survey of film history or a small collection of classics, this course invites students to think about formal elements within and across a wide range of genres, styles, historical moments, and national contexts. By the end of this course, the successful FS1505 student will have acquired the necessary tools to continue coursework in film studies. Students will be able to recognize and communicate the ways in which meaning is made in cinema.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures (made available on-line), 1 one-hour tutorial per week, and 1 three-hour screening

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 Essay 1,500-2,000 words (40%); 1 two-hour Final Cumulative Exam (40%); Tutorial Assessment (20%).
Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Feedback

Short writing assignments (including responses papers, shot-by-analyses, and screening reports) will be submitted and discussed in tutorial groups.

Written and/or oral feedback will be offered on short tutorial assignments (see above) and essays.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr T Birrell

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

This course will run in the First Half Session 2011/2012

Overview

This course provides students with a basic introduction to the business world with respect to business planning, teams, marketing, products, ownership structures, finance, accounting, performance measurement and an introduction to business and corporate ethics.

The course explores the following concepts and skills:
• The nature of business
• The essentials of creating a business plan
• The issues of business ethics and corporate social responsibility
• The value of the different types that compose a team
• The recording and interpretation of basic financial statements
• The meaning of accounting and finance terms and concepts
• The basics of cash-flow budgeting and forecasting
• The relationship between costs, volume and profit
• The business potential though market research
• The difference between sales and marketing.
• Preparing a basic business plan
• Identifying different personality types and considering the differences in how they like to act
• Identify the appropriate way to prepare and present the financial performance and position of a business
• Assess the impact of different management decisions on financial performance
• Prepare simple cash-flow forecasts and cash budget
• Analyse the market in order to understand accessibility, profitability and sustainability to a business
• Identify trends and events that will change and create sustainable demand for new products or provide opportunity for new product positioning

Structure

2 one-hour lectures every week from weeks 1-11 and 8 one-hour tutorials during the course.

Assessment

Assessment: The course is assessed by a closed-book two-hour written examination (60%) and a continuous assessment (40%) consisting of an individual report

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr T Birrell

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Overview

The course covers a broad range of historical events ranging from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present. It introduces students to the development of International Relations as a discipline, but also to key concepts and analytical skills required to study the subject at a higher level.

Subjects studied include:
19th Century and Balance of Power
Imperialism and Colonialism
Early 20th Century
World Wars and Cold War
East-West Confrontation
Détente and Contemporary Theories of IR
Nuclear Proliferation
IR as a Discipline

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

Assessment: One online quiz (5%), one bibliography test (10%), one 1500 word essay (25%) and 1 two hour written examination (60%).

Feedback

Feedback will be provided

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr M Pryor

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

Students intending to follow the History of Art programme at Honours level must take two of the three Level 1 courses offered.

Overview

This course is organised around a pre-selected sequence of times and countries (eg. Italy 1400, France 1900) in which key developments in art history took place. These are presented each week in chronological fashion and extend from pre-history to the present day. Tutorials are closely related to the lectures, providing students with the opportunity to explore specfic works in detail.

Structure

2 lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%); continuous assessment (50%: 1 essay of 1,000 words at 30% and computer assignment at 20%).

Resit: 1 two-hour examination (100%). NB All coursework must have been submitted.

Formative Assessment

Open door policy of all staff involved in course.

Essay marking and return; responses in class; online quizzes; responses in class discussions.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr T Birrell

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

This course is available in the second half session of 2011/12 as KL1597

Overview

Scotland is one of the oldest political units in Europe, emerging as a discernible entity by the later 10th century. The objective of this course is to chart the underlying continuities and radical changes that mark the nation’s historical development from the 12th century up to the present day. The course will explore underlying processes such as ‘industrialisation’ and ‘Clearance’ as well as clearly defined events such as the Wars of Independence or the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707. In doing so the class assesses the value of, and the problems inherent in, studying societies through the prism of national history.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and in-course assessment (50%).
In course assessment
• assessed essay (3,000 words) at 40% of the final assessment;
• meaningful tutorial participation (‘meaningful participation’ requires the delivery of a presentation AND the production of one brief source report) at 10% of the final assessment.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr S Alcobia-Murphy

Pre-requisites

Overview

Literature can provoke, offend and disturb as well as entertain. This course considers some of the most powerful and controversial works of modern literature. It examines the circumstances of publication, the nature of the controversy, and the cultural and critical impact of each work. The course shows how poems, plays and novels can raise searching questions about national, racial and personal identity, and looks at the methods used by writers to challenge their readers, as well the responses of readers to such challenges. Included are texts such as: Vladimir Nabokov’s (i)Lolita, Art Spiegelman's Maus and Seamus Heaney's North.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures (Tue and Thur at 12) and 1 one-hour tutorial (to be arranged) per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment (50%): 1000 word essay (15%); 1500 word essay (25%); Tutorial Assessment Mark (10%). 1 two-hour written examination (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr M Durham and Dr R McColl Millar

Pre-requisites

Overview

An understanding of the way language is structured is an invaluable tool to discuss and analyse English and other languages. This course provides students with an introduction to the main aspects of English linguistics. Students will learn how to identify and analyse the major "building blocks" of language through an introduction to phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, as well as sociolinguistics. Examples for illustration and discussion will be drawn from varieties of English spoken in the British Isles and world-wide. Lectures and tutorials will be geared to providing students with an active vocabulary with which to discuss language and essential analytical tools with which to analyse its structure and function.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures, and 1 one-hour tutorial.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 3 on-line assessments (20% each); one 1,500-2000 word paper (30%); Tutorial Assessment Mark (10%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr T Birrell

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Overview

It is likely that most students in university today will experience several career changes in their working lives, including a period of either self employment or venture creation. This course explores the twin elements of commercial understanding and understanding of self and human factors that underpin entrepreneurial competence.

Course aims
This course aims to develop the student’s conceptual and practical knowledge of entrepreneurship, analytical skills and the understanding of enterprise and entrepreneurship. It works on building excellence individually and in teams.

The course explores the following concepts and skills:
• Understand the commercial side to running a business creating ventures and developing ideas.
• Recognise the powerful impact of learning from failure, double loop learning and the value of trust.
• Understand the relevance of success in entrepreneurial mindset and behaviour by identifying key signature strengths, shaping opportunities and recognising excellence in themselves and others.
• Develop knowledge and skills set to enable personal development throughout individual and team work.
• Design, develop and present effective presentations.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week plus on line film screenings

Assessment

Assessment: Continuous assessment: Individual reflection 10%, Group presentation 10%, Project 20%. Exam 60%

Feedback

Feedback will be provided

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr T Birrell

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Overview

This course will identify the core issues and debates at the heart of political discourse and further train students in the basic tools for analyzing political questions and communicating their answers to a variety of audiences. To that aim, a mixture of substantive political science topics and training in analytical and presentational skills will be provided. The course will tackle a number of specific questions: What is politics? What is political science? How shall political decisions be made? By whom? And at what level (local, national or international)? How is public policy made by governments, and how do lobbyists and political parties influence the process?

Structure

1 one-hour lecture and associated tutorial teaching.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (60%); continuous assessment (40%). Breakdown of continuous assessment: online quiz (10%), essay (30%).
Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (60%); continuous assessment (40%, to be carried over from 1st attempt).

Feedback

Feedback will be provided

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr T C Baker

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 2 or above who have passed 30 credit points in Level 1 English courses.

Overview

How do we know what we know? Are our lives shaped by our own efforts and learning, or are we subject to forces we cannot control? Does the acquisition of knowledge carry tragic consequences? Such questions have reverberated throughout literary history. Looking at a wide range of texts from ancient to modern, and including poems, plays, and novels, this course will introduce students to some of the central ethical and intellectual concerns found in literature, as well as providing a solid cross-period foundation for further study. Besides literary expressions of the Fall such as Milton's Paradise Lost, the course features reworkings of the Faust and Prometheus legends, including texts by authors such as Aeschylus, Marlowe, Mary Shelley and Angela Carter.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st attempt: 1 two-hour examination (50%); in course assessment: first essay (1,500 words) 15%, second essay (1,800 words) (20%), one reflective exercise (5%); tutorial assessment mark (10%).

Resit:1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Formative Assessment

Students will keep a weekly course journal which will not be given a CAS mark, but will be taken into consideration as part of tutorial assessment.

Feedback

Summative assessments will be given CAS marks, and written or verbal feedback will be provided. Additional informal feedback on performance and tutorial participation is also given in tutorials.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr R M Millar

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

This is a 15 credit, six-week course.

Overview

A chronological examination of the linguistic history of the British Isles, including discussion of the emergence, social and cultural development, and (in some cases) extinction of all languages known to have been used in the archipelago from earliest times. The presently living languages (English, Scots, Gaelic, Irish and Welsh) will be discussed in relation to their individual historical developments, their mutual relationships, and their relationships with extinct languages which influenced them in earlier periods. The main focus of the course will not be on internal linguistic history but on the socio-political aspects of language history. Examination of the external history of the languages will illuminate many issues in socio-historical linguistics: mutual influencing of languages, standardisation, diversification, style and register, status of dialects and sociolects.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures per week, one on-line workshop and one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,000 word essay (50%); homework exercise (30%); tutorial assessment (20%).

Resit: Two-hour examination (100%).

Formative Assessment

Students will receive formative commentary from tutors in tutorials.

Feedback

Students will receive feedback from tutors on written work and on tutorial performance