Welcome

This is the course book for LDRS 220: Leading with Numbers. This book is divided into 6 units of study to help you engage with the materials. The course resources and learning activities are designed not only to help prepare you for the course assessments, but also to give you opportinities to practice various skills.

Take a moment to watch the video below - it will introduce the instructor and some of the themes you will be learning about:

Below you will find information about how to navigate this book. Please also refer the schedule in Moodle, as well as the Asseessment section in Moodle for instructions on required readings and assignments.

Course Notes

You should be reading this information in the context of a Trinity Western University course offered via Moodle. If this is not the case, then this may be an unauthorized reproduction of the course. Please contact elearning@twu.ca if you have concerns.

These notes will be your guide through the learning activities and assessment strategies necessary for you to succeed in the course, so it is important for you to engage to the best of your ability and take advantage of the resources available to you through Trinity Western University.

Assessment tasks are managed in other sections of the Moodle course, so be sure to familiarize yourself with those requirements and resources.

How this Course is Built

This course is primarily designed to be completed asynchronously, meaning that there are no scheduled times or places that you are required to meet, even online. You can work according to your own schedule within the six weeks you have to complete the course. That said, this is a full university level course and there are timelines that we strongly recommend that you meet to ensure that you are succeeding in building your knowledge through the course.

It would be to your significant disadvantage to submit everything at the end of the course.

Asynchronous courses require learners to be well-organized and self-motivated, and we have included supports for you to help you develop strong learning habits that will ensure your success.

For example, there are several self-check quizzes throughout the course. These quizzes are not graded, but they can be powerful tools for you to ensure you understand key ideas and concepts. We suggest you take each quiz without the aid of your notes and textbook and multiple times until you have mastered the content. This strategy taps into three powerful learning structures that have been shown to be highly effective.

Effortful recall. By intentionally trying to recall information without external aids, you are strengthening the neural pathways in your brain that lead to building new connections between ideas. One way to make recall easier is to connect key ideas to other things that you know or have experienced. For example, you might be studying World War II, and you connect the date that Canadians participated in the D-Day operation with something else meaningful to you that happened on June 6, like maybe the date you bought your first car.
Spaced repetition. By spreading out your attempts on the quiz (leaving a few days between attempts) you can maximize the effects of the first strategy (effortful recall) and ensure that your second or third attempts truly reflect what you know about the topic. We suggest leaving 1-3 days between attempt 1 and 2, then 4-5 days between attempt 2 and 3. You can use a tool like Trello, Notion, or Asana (free versions), or even a task list on your phone to set up a spaced repetition schedule.
Interleaving. This is the practice of studying a particular topic for a relatively short period of time (maybe 30-40 mins), then switching to a different topic for the same period, before going back to the original topic. We will help build this into your learning by including items from unit 1 in your unit 2-6 quizzes. You can also practice this by taking regular breaks in your work, or even by retaking a unit 1 quiz while you are working in unit 2.

These three strategies are very effective at helping people remember key facts about a particular topic, an important first step in learning at the university level. However, you will be asked to do much more than just remember facts. Your ultimate goal is to develop evaluative judgement, or the ability for you to judge for yourself the quality of your (or your peers’) responses to prompts.

The discussion forums are a key way for you to do this. We have set up the forums in such a way that you will need to present a response to any given prompt before you see other learners’ responses. We strongly encourage you to use this structure to formulate your own ideas before you present them in the forum, and then to use the responses of your peers to help you evaluate your own response.

Using these self-check activities in this way is designed to help you to succeed on the course assignments, upon which your final grade will be determined. These assignments will require you to use the facts of the course to generate unique responses to the prompts, based on your past experiences, knowledge, and ability to evaluate the quality of your own work.

How To Navigate This Book

To move quickly to different portions of the book, click on the appropriate chapter or section in the table of contents on the left. The buttons at the top of the page allow you to show/hide the table of contents, search the book, change font settings, download a pdf or ebook copy of this book, or get hints on various sections of the book.

Figure 0.1: Top menu bar

The faint left and right arrows at the sides of each page (or bottom of the page if it’s narrow enough) allow you to step to the next/previous section. Here’s what they look like:

Figure 0.2: Left and right navigation arrows

You can also download an offline copy of this book in various formats, such as pdf or an ebook. If you are having any accessibility or navigation issues with this book, please reach out to your instructor or our online team at elearning@twu.ca.

Course Units

This course is organized into 6 units. Each unit of the course will provide you with the following information:

A general overview of the key concepts that will be addressed during the unit.
Specific learning outcomes and topics for the unit.
Learning activities to help you engage with the concepts. These often include key readings, videos, and reflective prompts.
The Assessment section provides details on assignments you will need to complete throughout the course to demonstrate your understanding of the course learning outcomes.

Note that assessments, including assignments and discussion posts will be submitted in Moodle. See the Assessment tab in Moodle for the assignment dropboxes.

Course Activities

Below is some key information on features you will see throughout the course.

Learning Activity

This box will prompt you to engage in course concepts, often by viewing resources and reflecting on your experience and/or learning. Most learning activities are ungraded and are designed to help prepare you for the assessment in this course.

Assessment

This box will signify an assignment or discussion post you will submit in Moodle. Note that these demonstrate your understanding of the course learning outcomes. Be sure to review the grading rubrics for each assignment.

Checking Your Learning

This box is for checking your understanding, to make sure you are ready for what follows. Ways to check your learning might include self-check quizzes or questions for discussion. These activities are not graded but are critical for you to be able to begin to develop evaluative judgement in this domain of knowledge.

Note

This box signifies key notes. It may also warn you of possible problems or pitfalls you may encounter!