Current Students

Graduate Reading Courses

Reading courses serve as a way to meet the needs of individual students who wish to explore topics not covered by courses currently offered at the Faculty of Information. They are categorized as elective courses, and are subject to the same regulations as other elective courses.

Graduate students may take up to two 0.5-credit reading courses as electives for their degree program. They can be taken either with a faculty member at the Faculty of Information or at another UofT graduate department.

How to enrol in a reading course

Reading courses aren’t eligible for enrolment on ACORN. Instead, Student Services will enrol you in the course once your request is approved.

Procedure to request a reading course

Complete the SGS Request for Reading Course Form (PDF) with your reading course supervisor.

  • Be sure to complete Section 3: breakdown of work required (i.e., assignments), weight of each assignment, and their respective due dates.
  • You must list at least two deliverables; no single assignment can exceed 70% of the total grade.

Provide the following as separate documentation:

  • Short paragraph outlining a description of the topic to be explored, the needs for the course, and how it fits in your overall program of study and goals.
  • List of course learning outcomes, and brief paragraph connecting them to program learning outcomes (see the Faculty’s policy on Defining Student Learning Outcomes in Course Syllabi (PDF)).
  • Reading list (to be agreed by both student and faculty member).
  • Whether ethics approval is needed. Reading courses which include research using human subjects will require ethics approval. This process can take time, so you should discuss this with the proposed course supervisor and the Associate Dean, Research, well in advance of the proposed course start date.

Master’s students: Submit everything to Student Services at inquire.ischool@utoronto.ca for approval.

  • Please put in the subject line: Reading Course Approval Request.

PhD students: Reading courses must be approved by your research advisor (even if the reading course is being supervised by another faculty member who is not your research advisor), and the PhD Director. Submit the documents above to the PhD program administrator and copy your research advisor on the email. The PhD program administrator will seek approval from the PhD Director on your behalf.

Deadline to request a reading course

Reading course requests and supporting documents must be submitted on the 15th of the month before the start of the term in which you wish to do your reading course:

Fall Term: August 15

Winter Term: December 15

Summer Term: April 15

Note:

  • Reading courses in all programs must follow the University Assessment and Grading Practices Policy (PDF), which includes a maximum of 20% for participation grades in graduate courses (see Part B. sec. 1.4.2).
  • Reading courses require that student and instructor meet regularly and frequently; therefore, both must be available for meetings on campus.
  • The written work of a reading course must be comparable to that of other elective courses.