Preparation and discussion

This procedure applies from the BEIR discussion on 30 September 2026. All times are Korea Standard Time (KST).

Before class

Read the anchor paper and the relevant sections of one supporting paper. Your session page shows your assigned group and preparation role. The role guides what you investigate. It does not require you to defend a view you reject. You may change your position during discussion.

Choose your supporting paper yourself. Explain which claim it accepts, challenges, qualifies or extends. A predecessor can explain what the anchor changed. Use evidence from the paper; do not infer its position from its title. See the supporting-paper rules and reading list.

Submit these fields on your session page by Tuesday 18:00.

• Role: shown from your assignment.
• Supporting paper name and link.
• Main argument: one sentence.
• Reasoning and evidence: 2-3 paragraphs, with references or factual observations.
• Remaining question & question for peers: one paragraph. State the question and explain why the reading has not already answered it.
• AI use: write “None”, or provide your prompts, the model and its outputs, what was wrong or missing, and how your writing differs. There is no academic length limit on this declaration. If you found no error, say what you checked.

The remaining question should invite a reasoned answer that could affect your conclusion. A definition already stated in the paper does not do this. Bring that question into your group’s discussion where it helps answer the live case.

You may attach diagrams, mind maps and other supporting material to your preparation note or closing paragraph. Use up to five PNG, JPEG, WebP or PDF files per piece of work, each no larger than 3 MB. Explain each attachment briefly and give its source or reference. For your own drawing, write “Own work” and cite any paper it draws on. The English and AI rules apply to attachments too. Keep the required written answers until the marking criteria confirm how diagrams can replace prose. Files are optional and carry no separate mark.

For BEIR, use the session 8 page. Preparation is due 29 September 2026 at 18:00. The session is 30 September, 09:00-10:00. There are no lectures on 21 or 23 September. The question and roles are announced in the 16 September lecture, with a reminder on 28 September.

During class

Use English throughout. Do not use AI during the discussion session, including when you write the individual closing paragraph. AI is optional during preparation and must be declared. The website and Slack course AI tutor are unavailable to students during the discussion session.

These times guide the hour. The lecturer starts the session and explicitly advances each stage. Quiet reading, group discussion, writing and the questionnaire have elapsed timers; no timer advances or closes a stage. The lecturer may leave the questionnaire open after class and end it when ready. Ending the session submits the latest saved work from any open writing or questionnaire stage.

The group outcome is oral. There is no group report, timed sequence of individual speeches or assigned observer.

Your closing paragraph answers: What do you conclude for the live scenario, which fact most affects your decision, and how did another student’s argument affect your reasoning? Keeping or changing your position earns no marks in itself.

What is graded

The preparation note and individual closing paragraph are graded. For preparation, the assessed material is your argument, reasoning and evidence, and remaining question. Both tutors mark each written piece independently, and the mark is the average of their marks. Detailed criteria and weights for these written pieces will be confirmed separately.

Selected follow-up responses during 09:32-09:47 count towards Contribution to discussion, 10%. The lecturer draws one or two students per group, at random among those with fewer previous calls. The planned slot is ten minutes, with up to five additional minutes if needed. See the contribution policy for the 0-2 rubric and how marks are combined. Both tutors score each response and the mark is their average; the website does not grade responses. Your mark uses the mean of your recorded answer scores. Being called more often does not itself earn more marks.

The oral group outcome, AI declaration and conduct questionnaire are required without separate marks. A peer report does not automatically change a mark.

Private questionnaire

Answer about each other member of your group.

• English: throughout / sometimes another language / could not assess.
• AI: no use observed / use directly observed / could not assess.
• If you report a concern, briefly describe what you saw or heard.

Report direct observations. “No use observed” does not claim that no use occurred. Your answers are visible to you, the lecturer and tutors. Other students cannot read them. The lecturer reviews concerns; a peer report does not automatically change a mark.

Saving and submission

Autosave keeps a draft. Ending the closing-paragraph or questionnaire stage submits your latest saved text or responses, including partial questionnaire answers. Ending the whole session also submits saved work from either open stage.

You may press Submit early. For these two forms, this commits a version and locks the form. Choose Continue editing while the lecturer keeps the stage open to unlock it. Your earlier submitted version stays available; later saved edits become the version submitted when the lecturer ends the stage. A submitted form remains locked across refreshes and in other tabs. Once the stage ends, only the lecturer can reopen it; you then choose Continue editing yourself.

Check that saving has finished; offline or unsaved browser text cannot be submitted by the lecturer. Preparation still requires Submit. Check your submission receipt on this page. Each submission creates a new version; earlier submitted versions remain available. The teaching team reads submitted versions. Drafts are private to their author. An upload is a draft until you submit, or Stop submits your closing paragraph. Submitted files remain available with that version even if you remove them from a later draft. Files can be downloaded by their author and, once submitted, by the teaching team.

Late preparation is accepted until the session starts and is labelled late. The website applies no automatic penalty. The closing paragraph opens when the lecturer presses Start and stays open until the lecturer presses Stop. The timer shows elapsed time and does not impose a deadline. Reopened writing uses the same manual Stop control. Preparation reopens for 15 minutes. Reopened writing and questionnaires remain open until the lecturer ends them. Earlier submitted versions remain available. Saved attachments are included when Stop submits a paragraph, even if their explanation or source is incomplete.

Amended 30 September 2026 after the first discussion. This replaces the strict five-minute deadline and synthesis with lecturer-controlled writing and a brief closing speech.

Feedback on the discussion format

The final questionnaire includes an optional, ungraded question: What should we keep or change about the discussion format, and why? A short comment is enough. This answer is not anonymous. It is visible to you, the lecturer and tutors, alongside your conduct answers. Other students cannot read it.

After the first two discussions, a short anonymous survey opens on your dashboard. It asks about preparation workload, time for group discussion and follow-up questions, and what to keep or change. It is optional, has no mark and is separate from the peer conduct questionnaire.

Sign-in permits one response per student. Participation is stored separately from answers, with no link between them. Answers contain no name, email, group or submission time. Avoid names and identifying details in free-text answers. The teaching team reads the responses. You cannot edit an answer after submission because it is not linked to your account.

Amendments

• 1 October 2026, further revision. Every stage advances through lecturer controls. Ending writing or the questionnaire submits saved work. Early Submit locks the form; Continue editing unlocks it while its stage remains open. This replaces the earlier rule that questionnaire responses always required a manual Submit.

• 1 October 2026. Adds quiet scenario reading and questions that require a specific choice and trade-off. Targets eight minutes of writing and keeps the questionnaire open after class. This supersedes the earlier timing schedules below.

• 30 September 2026. Replaces the strict writing deadline with an elapsed timer, lecturer-controlled Stop and automatic submission of saved closing paragraphs. A closing speech of about one minute replaces synthesis.

• 30 September 2026. Adds optional feedback on the discussion format to each final questionnaire. The separate anonymous survey remains available after the first two discussions.

• 29 September 2026. The lecturer starts a strict five-minute writing window and opens the three-minute questionnaire after that deadline. Oral questions may extend to 09:45.

• 16 September 2026. Replaces the four-field, half-page review, mandatory model check, ranked group report and three exit questions. The selected speaking responses remain assessed within 09:30-09:40 under the contribution policy.

• 16 September 2026. Adds optional image/PDF attachments and an anonymous survey after the first two discussions. Written-work criteria and weights remain pending.