Leadership theory and skill development for outdoor recreation professionals. Topics include: judgment & decision making, management, professional ethics, and theory. 

Kosseff, Alex (2010). AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership: Trip Planning, Group Dynamics, Decision Making, Leading Youth, Risk Management (2nd ed.). Guilford, Connecticut: The Globe Pequot Press.

Lansing, Alfred (1959). The Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. New York, NY: Carrol & Graf.

Students will…

• Gain an understanding of and appreciation for the diverse skill sets utilized by effective outdoor leaders.
• Be exposed to several different leadership theories/techniques and begin to utilize them in real leadership situations. 
• Apply their growing knowledge of outdoor leadership to lead class experiences for peers and classmates.
• Develop an understanding of how constructive feedback helps individuals to develop into stronger leaders and how leaders can use it to strengthen those they lead.
• Be exposed to a broad array of historical leaders in diverse situations via personal research and fellow classmate presentations.
• Begin to understand their own personal leadership traits and characteristics.

This class is intended to promote and foster higher-level cognitive thinking. As such, I've decided to do away with points or grades within the course. There is little evidence to suggest that grades or points help motivate or promote higher level learning, in fact--research supports just the opposite.  My hope in removing those barriers to learning is that you'll be more intrinsically motivated to work through assignments with the attitude of learning from them than to just get some points. This ungraded classroom will allow you to learn without the stress of whether or not "you're making the grade".  I hope that removing detailed rubrics that specify every point allocation for an assignment will promote creativity and professionalism in completing tasks and that they'll be more meaningful to you. Because we do reside within a larger system that ultimately requires a final grade for this course, I' will leave it up to each student to propose and justify their own grade at the end of the semester. Unless there are glaring holes in a student's justification for a particular grade, I'll honor their recommendation and submit that to the registrars. 

Learning Tasks (aka assignments):

This is a list of the tasks you’ll have the opportunity to complete this semester for this class. All written assignments will be due via Canvas unless specifically noted otherwise. Presentations will be in the classroom and in the field (outside). The list below represents a Cliff Notes version of each assignment, more details for each task will be on Canvas, under the ‘Assignments’ tab. 

Personal Leadership Profile 

This is a personal reflection assignment aimed at helping you determine where your current strengths and weaknesses are as a leader. It should be between 2-10 pages and written like a college paper, not a personal journal entry.

Shackleton’s Endurance—A Personal Reflection 

This is a paper based on the book Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. This assignment is NOT a book report wherein you tell me about the book--I've read it. The purpose of this assignment is for you to critically assess a leader for what they did or did not do well, from your perspective. To do this assignment well I encourage you to keep a reading journal handy that you can make notes in as you read. Things I might write in a reading journal while reading this book for a leadership class might include: tough decisions, handling morale issues, task management, decisions I agree/disagree with, alternative solutions that may have been better, good choices, etc... As you write your perspective be sure to defend it with examples and reason.

Leadership Philosophy

A chance for you to formalize what you believe about leadership and yourself. This will be written. 

External Leadership Experience 

Plan and lead an outdoor experience for which you are appropriately qualified, I recommend you work with someone else in this class to complete this assignment, though no more than 3 students from ORPT 3040 may lead a single experience and have it count for this assignment.

Leader of Your Choice Declaration & In-Class Presentation 

A 10 minute class presentation with a classmate highlighting interesting and useful information regarding leadership and your leader of choice. This is an opportunity to co-teach your fellow classmates about leadership by highlighting and detailing how your chosen leader successfully led—this is not a biographical report on a person, rather a gleaning of the traits, tactics, tools, approaches, etc…your leader used to lead well.

In-Class Leadership Proposal 

For this assignment you will decide on a few options for topics or experiences you’d like to lead the class in this semester. The topics should be as closely related to outdoor recreation as possible.

In-Class Leadership Experience 

Each student will be expected to lead the class in an experience...More details can be found on Canvas.

In-Class Leadership Experience Personal Reflection

This assignment requires you to reflect and report back on how you thought your in-class leadership experience went. It’s due via Canvas and should be submitted within the week that you lead the class.

Peer Evaluations (x2)

For this assignment you’ll evaluate two of your classmates on their in-class leadership experiences. There will be a template provided to use as a base for your assessment and to help provide consistent feedback. You’ll submit these to your classmates directly via a Canvas message that you include me on.

Participate in a Facilitated Outdoor Experience 

For this assignment you are required to participate in an outdoor experience facilitated by an entity beyond the ORPT 3040 class. You could sign up for a trip through SUU Outdoors, a peer led program held by the Outdoor Engagement Center, hire a guide to take you through a canyon, or some other experience related to the outdoor recreation field. From the experience write a one page review of the experience with an emphasis on outdoor leadership, I include a template to use on Canvas linked with this assignment.

Online Discussions

You will be provided an item to engage with (e.g. podcast to listen to, article to read, film to watch, etc...) then provided some thought points to respond to on a class discussion page. 

Grade Declaration and Reflection

This is your chance to reflect on this course and your performance in it then declare and justify to me what final grade you believe you deserve. 

Grading Scale: A = >94%,  A- = 90-93%,  B+ = 87-89%,  B = 84-86%,  B- = 80-83%,  C+ = 77-79%, C = 74-76%, C- = 70-73%,  D = 60-69% F = <60% (final grades round up one percentage point —i.e. 93.1% gets rounded to 94%)

I invite you to be active in your learning and think, question, problem-solve, and critically assess information presented as part of this class. I will do my best to create an environment in which expressions of uncertainty, conjecture, and alternative or competing views can be freely shared, I hope the same of you.   Remember, there is a big difference between debating an argument and attacking an individual. The latter will not be tolerated and I reserve the right to excuse any student from class who compromises this preferred climate.

 We will likely be spending a considerable amount of time outside, in outdoor settings. Please be aware that it is your responsibility to dress and prepare for the weather appropriately.

Students are expected to model good Expedition Behavior (NOLS, 1996) in all class activities:

• Serve the mission and goals of the group
• Be as concerned for others as you are for yourself
• Treat everyone with dignity and respect
• Support leadership and growth in everyone
• Respect the cultures you contact
• Be kind and open-hearted
• Do your share and stay organized
• Help others, but don’t routinely do their work
• Model integrity by being honest and accountable
• Admit and correct your mistakes

Source: http://www.nols.edu/alumni/leader/06summer/expedition_behavior.shtml)

Late Work:

Each assignment will be given a due date and time (i.e. March 25 @ 3pm). Please make time in your schedule to thoughtfully complete assignments by their due dates. 

• Up to 2 absences are allowed without penalty.
  
  
• Each additional unexcused absence (beyond 2) will result in a 5% reduction of the final course grade.
  
  
• Five (5) or more unexcused absences—equivalent to missing nearly 40% of the course—will result in an automatic failing grade (F or UW), regardless of performance on other coursework.