This is the most important part of the course, worth 150 out of 500 possible points. Really 200 if you include the ‘share’ forum. This is where you show me you’re reading, engaging the material (readings, discussion, and online lecture material), and learning. Students need to participate in the discussion every week to gain points for that week. Here’s what I’ll be looking for:

• You need to do the discussion while everyone else is (i.e., no going back three weeks later, the discussion has moved on); students are entitled to two make-ups (instructions for which are on pg 12 of the syllabus).
• You need to post every week—One major posting for each thread I create in the discussion board for the week, and at least one reply to someone else’s post. This means you could easily have up to six or eight per week (usually I’ll have two questions to frame the week’s discussion).
• Your posts need to be thoughtful. Maybe the post is short, but condensed and full of meaning and significance. I’ll be looking to see that it reflects some preparation and intellectual effort on your part. If I can’t tell for sure from your posts that you’ve done any of the readings, don’t expect high marks. Bringing in relevant outside sources you’ve looked up is evidence of intellectual effort. So it’s not just length, although it’s very hard to show evidence you’ve been reading and thinking about a topic in a couple of sentences.
• Citing sources—if you do bring in other sources (a great idea, it shows that you’re making connections between course material and the real world), hyperlink or cite them at the end of your post (if the latter, cite them completely, using APA or some other common format). It’s just practice, and it will make this a more automatic process for you and improve your paper-writing efficiency.

There are several kinds of postings that can gain you credit:

• You can pose a question for the group, and then try to answer it or explain why you asked it.
• You can bring in other research or web resources you’ve found that shed light on a topic we’re discussing.
• You can summarize a long discussion thread and try to distill it down to one or a few issues.
• You can reply to others’ postings—either agreeing or disagreeing, the main thing is that you provide evidence and some logical argument to back up what you’re saying.

Points will be based on the following criteria:

• • Your ability to reflect on the questions or the readings/lecture material. To receive full credit, you need to show you’ve not only been through the readings, but understood them and used them as evidence to support your views. If all readers can see is opinion seemingly uninformed by course material, your points will reflect that. You don’t have to agree with the material in class, but you do need to demonstrate you read it and made a good faith effort to understand it.
  • Your grasp of the topic. You don’t necessarily need to show mastery of each reading or topic, but you do need to ask questions where you’re unclear to clarify your understanding and show me you’re putting effort into understanding the material. Again, if you try to do this without referring to the readings or lecture material, I won’t even know if you’ve read it. So ‘I don’t get it’ won’t garner you many points—it shows no effort on your part to try to ‘get it.’
  • Your ability to communicate your ideas. I would like to see good, organized writing. Complete sentences, spell-checked, and all that. If you’re citing something, do it correctly, give us a web page. ‘I agree’ is okay, as long as it’s followed by a well-reasoned explanation of why you agree with a previous post (again, citing evidence).
  • Bringing in outside materials. I encourage this, but I also want you to have evaluated these materials. If it’s the first .com site you found on Google, it may be popular but not necessarily credible.

We will practice standard ‘netiquette’. This is where we discuss, debate and exchange ideas. Civility will prevail. I will deal with personal attacks privately, but firmly, so show self-restraint, civility, and tact—we’re here to encourage everyone to participate and learn. Avoid posts that discourage others from doing so.

1. 1. You need to post during the week the discussion is taking place This is the beauty of online classes—everybody contributes, it’s hard to hide in the back of the class, everyone has a chance to shine. Generally we’ll begin a new topic on Tuesdays, and run through the next Monday evening. You can make up two weeks (see ‘Making up’ on page 12). But you can’t just go back and post in a completed week.
   2. Follow basic online ‘netiquette.’ No personal attacks—we’re discussing ideas in this course, and mutual respect is expected. We don’t have to agree—but learn to disagree in a civil way, and use persuasion, logic and evidence to support our own ideas. Discussing social problems is incomplete without discussion of politics, because different groups in society have access to different resources to get their points across, and therefore the way we understand a problem may have to do with who controls the media, who can afford a public relations media campaign, etc. Who benefits when discussions generate more heat than light? Actors who would prefer not to operate in the light.
   3. If you’re writing a long post, use paragraphs to break up points and, to be safe, you might write it in a word document (and save as you go), and then paste it into Canvas—this will help you avoid the frustration of losing a posting you’ve spent considerable time on.

A note on absences: if you’re going to be out of town or away from the Internet for any length of time, let me know. If you’re not posting and haven’t contacted me, I’ll just assume you’re not participating in the discussion forum for that week (and that’s 15 points per week, 20 with the ‘share’. But … stuff happens. See ‘Making up a week’s discussion’ (page 12).

A reminder on AI: Don’t use it to generate your writing. Refer to the ‘Policies‘ page.

Again, 150 points on this part of the course—12 pts per week (plus 3 possible pts per week for writing)

Writing in discussion forums

I expect college-level writing (refer to ‘a note on AI’ at bottom of pg 9). There will be three points possible each week for writing in the discussion forums, meaning you need to proofread your posts, check for spelling errors, capitalize, all that basic grammar-related stuff, use paragraphs for readability, make sure they make sense. A ‘3’ means your posts are in order, make sense, thoughts are well-organized, and you’ve probably done some proofreading before hitting the ‘submit’ button. A ‘2’ means you’ve probably done some proofreading, but there are still some pretty glaring errors. ‘1’ means it’s not really clear you’ve proofread the posts for the week. I’m doing this because writing is critical to finding work, communicating with prospective employers, and we all need to show some self-awareness about our writing. Note: This will show up as a separate grade for each week of the course. It shows as an assignment, but there’s nothing to submit—it’s simply due the same day the discussion forums for the week are due. You cannot receive full credit if you don’t participate in all threads for the week.

3 points possible per week, 30 points total for the term (points assigned when threads are graded)

Making up a week’s discussion (you’re entitled to two of these)

Write-ups should be no less than 3 pages, double-spaced (11 or 12 pt font) in length. This is how I would like you to structure the reflection papers:

1. What for you were the most important points that you took from the readings, discussion and lecture material for the week? This is an exercise in abstract thinking—what is the ‘big picture?’ You should touch on each reading assignment, discuss any common threads between them, or differences. I want to see what you got out of the readings and the week’s topic, and gauge your depth of understanding. I’m not looking for book reports here—do some summary, but your paper should be no more than 1/3 summary (and no less than 2/3 analysis). Obviously you’ll need to show you did the readings and got something of value out of them.
2. Demonstrate you read the discussion threads for the week. I don’t need a play-by-play blow of people’s postings, I just want you to demonstrate you went through the postings, and got something out of the process. How did people respond to the material for the week? What was your take? Just keep in mind—take a stand, but don’t make points if you’re not going to support them with evidence or logic.
3. Standards. This is making up for your having missed the discussion forum, so I expect the same amount of intellectual effort to go into the make-up. Good writing, use of complete sentences, paragraphs to change ideas, citing of authors’ works at the end. Demonstrate you’ve been through all of the readings and lecture material. You can submit it to Canvas—there are links to submit two of these (two maximum). Two generic pages with ungrounded opinions won’t get you many points.