Doing Well in this Course
Structure Of The Course:
Pay close attention to the deadlines. Before you begin, I encourage you to go through the module so you understand how much work is due for the week and can plan accordingly. Since the exams, quizzes, discussions, and assignments are rooted in the textbooks (and you must reference the texts in your discussion posts), you should carefully read (and re-read) the relevant chapter(s) after viewing the questions/prompts.
Carefully Read All Pages, Prompts, And Directions:
In any online course, you will be bombarded with a lot of text. It's inevitable. You have to rely on yourself to make sure that you don't miss any deadlines or misread any directions or prompts. The Weekly Overview and Wrap-Up pages are good ways to put the reading and work into context. The overview pages also contain reminders of what is due each week, along with the course objectives you will achieve each week.
Guidelines For Unit Quizzes:
Module quizzes ranging in value from 5-10 points will be given each module there is not a Unit Exam. Quizzes test material that can be found in the Supplementary Materials (Crash Course Videos) and of most certainly in chapter readings. Quizzes are given to keep you connected and engaged in course material. Assignments are due by Sunday nights by 11:59PM. In our last week of class, assignments are due by Sunday, May 23, by 11:59PM. Quizzes can be taken up to two times and the highest score kept.
Guidelines For Unit Exams:
The exams are untimed and do not have to be completed in one sitting. Your exams are "Open Book." You must click “Submit Quiz” by the 11:59pm on the respective due dates. If you start a quiz before the deadline but submit it after the deadline, you are subject to the late penalty (you will only receive half the points you earn). Note that you will be able to view the answers after the late deadline passes (3 days after the deadline).
There are 6 exams, and your lowest exam score will be dropped.
Exams are due Sunday nights by 11:59PM.
Why Discussions?
I am of the belief that "each one, teach one". Our ability to engage the materials and have engaging conversation about it with our classmates, can help us to have a deeper engagement and understanding of the material. We each capture different details, and will use different examples, that will aid in deeper classmate connections and overall learning.
Guidelines For Discussions:
Every week, there will be at least one discussion topic. In many weeks, there are two separate discussion topics (for example, a discussion and a In the News Review). In some discussions, you will have an option to choose either Prompt A or Prompt B. To receive credit for your initial posts, you must address all parts of the prompt. To receive credit for your follow-up posts, you will need to post thoughtful, thorough, well-written responses to at least two of your peers (you must respond to two different students). *Short, vague, 1-2 sentence and brush-off responses, such as "Great job," "I agree," etc. are not adequate and will not receive any credit. Neither are follow-ups that simply critique what the student wrote, such as "You forgot your references." and/or "Make sure to proofread--I can't understand some of your sentences." Also inadequate are posts (despite the length) that simply summarize what someone has already said. Good questions to ask yourself as you are responding to your peers: Why do I agree or disagree with what this student said? What evidence/examples can I use to back my argument? What personal experiences can I use to add to this conversation? Discussions are an integral part of this class. Thus, if you do not post thoughtful responses or just complete the initial post, you will not receive a good grade on weekly discussions, which in turn, hurt your final average and might cause you to fail the course. See also Tips for Discussions & Sample Posts.
Discussions are worth 20 points. One well written paragraph with references is worth 10 points of which are based on your response, and 10 points are based on your 2 engaging responses to classmates are valued at 5 points each.
Students must post their initial response to the prompt before they are able to see other students’ posts. You will be able to post initial posts late (with a point deduction), up until the Friday deadline, when the discussion board closes for both initial posts and follow-ups.
Avoid submitting blank discussion entries before submitting your initial response. If you do this, you gain access to other students’ posts before you post your answer to the prompt and thus it is difficult to maintain academic integrity and honesty. Thus, students who do this will receive a “0” for your initial response, so, in essence, you only have one shot to submit a post since you will not be able to edit or delete your posts. I do this for the same reason I do not give credit if you submit a blank discussion entry and then submit your actual initial response. Since I want to minimize blatant copying of others' hard work, it makes no sense to allow students to edit or delete. It may only encourage free-loading students to submit a blank or poor initial response, read YOUR posts, and go back and edit their blank/poor entry.
If you press "Submit" by accident, you will not receive credit for your initial post since there is no way for me to know what is accidental and what is intentional so be careful to not submit until you are ready.
I strongly urge you to type up a response, proofread it a few times, and then copy and paste it into the text-entry box so you are confident that you will not need to edit it. I will not count follow-ups to your initial post. So if you do not fully answer the prompt the first time, I will not count other posts that attempt to correct the first post or add to it. In addition, you should always double check that your post was successfully submitted. If your post is not properly submitted to the discussion board, you will not receive credit.
I encourage working together, however, make sure to use your own words in assignments/discussions. With regard to discussions, if posts are identical with little to no variation in wording, all students with similar posts will receive a ‘0’ for the relevant discussion.
Discussions are Due: 1st post Due By Friday 11:59 pm and 2 Reply posts Due by Sunday nights at 11:59pm.
**You must post your first reply before you can view your classmates work. **
Guidelines for Civic Engagement Assignment:
Students will work on and engage with Politics/Government via a Civic Engagement assignment, where you will reflect about your experiences with 2 different actions of civic engagement, one comprehension and the other action. This means that you must actually engage with politics in one form post to the class about your personal experience. A variety of Civic Engagement options to choose in to participate in will be provided. Using the grade rubric, you need to complete the political engagement activities, develop a thesis statement about your experience of engagement, and write a 4-6 page paper about your experience of engaging in politics. This includes conducting research, documenting evidence of your participation (photo, audio, brochure documenting event, etc.), and writing about your experience with political engagement. There is zero expectation that students must go out in the world in order to complete the Civic Engagement.
Part of your final for the project is to, in addition to your final paper, you upload a brief video about what you did and what you got out of the experience to your discussion groups. Then, you will need to respond to the video engagements of 5 of your classmates.
Final Paper & Video Submission Deadline:
May 9
Response to classmates due the following week.