Graduate students are expected to read and absorb key books and essays in a field of study and become familiar with its range of topics and debates. In the MAIS, students are also encouraged to explore knowledge and research occurring between or across disciplines, and assess how communication takes place among fragmented fields of study. MAIS students are expected to undertake studies and produce work that is more extensive in depth and breadth, and requires more analytical control, than undergraduate studies. Graduate students should be able to discover and select their own resources. A learning contract is a letter of agreement between a professor and a student.
Students work with faculty to identify the key books, articles, and other materials to be read.
Approaches to documenting and writing extensive pieces of research will be discussed with the professor. In order to participate in the Program, each student must own or have ready access to the Internet and is expected to have met the minimum computer hardware and software requirements . Students are responsible for their own communication costs such as long-distance telephone charges and subscriptions to an Internet node, or any other communications service requirements. Only limited assistance for other hardware and software platforms is offered.