Broader Mind Course Track A

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2024-2025/W_ABM_CTA

Course Objective

The Broader Mind Course is an entirely new form of education that combines fun, active engagement, and personal development. It is an extracurricular, interdisciplinary course which focuses on personal development in relation to challenging societal issues. The course load can be easily combined with your regular study program as the work loads consists of about 2 hours of work per week on average while it runs in periods 4 and 5 (except during exam and assessment weeks). This course provides you with the unique and valuable experience of meetups in small groups with a mix of BA-students from different disciplines and VU-faculties. In these groups you will be supervised by a well-trained guide. Together you will explore and discuss issues that you may already be encountering in your life now (or might encounter in your future career), In order to accommodate your personal interests, there are two ‘editions’ of the Broader Mind Course, called ‘tracks’, of which you can choose one (and the other one you can do another year if you wish) Track A discusses the following themes: Success & Failure, Poverty, Human Body, Rebellion Track B focuses on Health & Happiness, Digital World, Viewpoints & Worldview and Sustainability. (it is even possible to take both tracks simultaneously) While working on these issues, the course also provides you with the unique opportunity for practicing a host of important social and academic skills that would be considered highly valuable in any future workplace today. Among the skills that you will practice are: ● Communication (public speaking, presenting your own opinion, active listening, debating) ● Cooperation (working in interdisciplinary groups) ● Problem solving and innovation (conflict resolution, challenging existing ideas, creating original solutions) ● Ability to deal with complexity and ambiguity (self-introspection, empathy, perspective taking, mediation) The course is a blended course (which provides you with the flexibility to complete elements of the course at a time that is suitable for you): background information on the various themes is provided online, and in offline (group) meetups (5 meetings of 1,5h in period 4, 5 meetings in period 5) you will discuss the themes and work together toward possible new perspectives and solutions. Through this non-traditional academic way of learning – more an experience than a traditional course
- you will grow, not only as a person, but also both as a citizen and as an academic. Additionally, at the end of the course you will receive a certificate for your CV as well as having the course listed on your diploma! Have a look at https://vu.nl/en/student/extra-challenge/broader-mind-course

Course Content

This course is designed by students for students, with input from professors, researchers and other enthusiastic members of staff at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The topics are chosen by students based on their own experiences and on the challenges that our society faces right now. The course is divided into two tracks and you can choose one (with the opportunity to follow the other track in a different year if you would like to). Track A: Success & Failure, Poverty, Human Body, Rebellion Track B: Health & Happiness, Digital World, Viewpoints & Worldview, Sustainability. The meetups take place at the end of the afternoon either Tuesday or Wednesday. The background information for the various themes as well as small online assignments are provided online in Canvas. For each theme there is one relatively short ‘getting acquainted with the theme’-meetup and in the other week a longer ‘meetup’ where you will engage in various real-life activities, simulations, educational games, etc.; in short: learning by experience (as well as a great opportunity to meet new people). Your personal group-guide will facilitate your discussions and meetups, provide feedback on your assignments and provide you with guidance throughout the course. Contents: 4 (on-campus) (short) meetups on Tuesdays or Wednesdays (17:30-18:30). 6 (on-campus) ‘meetups’ on Tuesdays or Wednesdays (17:30-19:30). In addition, you will do online assignments at home. – Beginning of February: Kick-off Event – Mid-June: Closing Ceremony Event You will receive a digital certificate for successfully completing the course and it will be mentioned in your diploma as well.

Teaching Methods

Target audience: VU Amsterdam Bachelor’s students (1st – 3rd year). Time period(s): Period 4 and 5 (03 Feb – 30 May 2025) except during exam weeks. Language of instruction: English. Study load: 40 hours (± 2
- 2.5 hours per week). Online activities can be completed in your own time. Teaching method: Blended learning in an interdisciplinary setting (mix of students from all faculties)

Method of Assessment

Attending and participating in the offline activities (of which you may miss no more than 3 meetups); completing at least 55% of all milestones; and completing three creative assignments.

Literature

Study material will be made available on Canvas.

Target Audience

Bachelor’s students from all faculties of the VU.

Custom Course Registration

1. Select the track you would like to follow and sign up: Track A (W_ABM_CTA): Success & Failure, Poverty, Human Body and Rebellion. Track B (W_ABM_CTB): Health & Happiness, Digital World, Viewpoints & Worldview and Sustainability. 2. Choose whether you would like to be part of a group on one of two different weekdays: Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

Additional Information

The Broader Mind Course is an extra course that can be taken by all VU-students. However, an increasing number of programmes are considering (or have already implemented) to make the course part of their regular study programme, for these students the course then has or will become mandatory.

Recommended background knowledge

The course is designed at a BA-level and therefore BA-students (from all faculties and programmes) are welcome to enroll. However, if MA-students want to follow the course, they are welcome too.