Current students should regularly consult the Trent Blackboard system for updated policy and guiding documentation
By the end of their course work, IDSR students should have their Supervisory Committees filed with the Program Office and their Learning Plans approved. Typically, this would be in of Year 2 for full-time students and Year 3 for part-time students, after completing IDSR 6060H. See also Workflow Timeline.
The Learning Plan is an approximately 3000-word document that communicates to the doctoral committee what a student intends to do for their Qualifying Examination Dossier (QED). The QED demonstrates the student’s readiness to begin their doctoral research. The Learning Plan should:
- Provide a clear and focused outline of a student’s proposed doctoral research;
- Describe the academic and non-academic outputs a student intends to produce for their Dossier;
- Include an extensive bibliography.
The Learning Plan is used by students and their Supervisory Committee as a guiding document for the QED. It is normal for the Learning Plan to change as a student’s work progresses with no requirement to resubmit the plan for approval; changes should be discussed with supervisor(s).
What is the purpose of a Learning Plan?
The Learning Plan communicates how a student intends to develop their QED. It serves to synthesize the students’ thinking to-date and sketch out how they intend to deepen and focus this thinking throughout their qualifying (or candidacy) process in preparation for their dissertation research. The Learning Plan thus serves as an important communicative tool for the Supervisory Committee. It should outline the proposed purpose, structure and foci of the artifacts the student intends to produce and defend during the Qualifying Examination process. It should also include an extensive working bibliography, which the Supervisory Committee should help the student to develop.
You can access the Learning Plan Approval Form on Blackboard. Please submit completed forms to the IDSR program.
Remember that the Learning Plan (like a Candidacy Plan in other graduate programs) simply sets the direction of the qualifying (or candidacy) process. It does not have to be perfect, and plans can always – and often do – change.