This is a key part of the course, worth almost 1/3 of 500 possible points. This is where you show me you’re reading, engaging in the material (readings, discussion, and online lecture material), and putting effort into learning. Students need to participate in the discussion every week to gain points for that week. This course is structured as a week-to-week affair. Stay current and put in the effort, and you should be fine. Here’s what I expect for this part of the course:

1. At least one substantial posting on each discussion thread I begin (there will be  one or two threads per week covering source material for the week (in the ‘readings‘ section, which is mirrored on Canvas in the weekly modules).
2. At least two meaningful responses in each discussion thread to a post from someone else in class. Demonstrate that you’ve been following the thread and have something thoughtful to add. Posts should show you have completed the readings and the online lecture material. This is worth up to 12 points/week. Keep in mind it is a discussion forum, not a posting board. Treat it as such and you will earn more points, and learn more.
3. Thoughtful postings. I’m looking for evidence of thought on your part. That is, intellectual effort. The material is not easy, and I understand that. But I can also tell the difference between making the effort to try to understand it, and going through the motions. Include opinion, as long as you demonstrate how it is informed by the assigned material. If I can’t tell whether you’ve even read the material, don’t expect many points. Gratuitous posts (‘ditto!’) keep us going, I like to see people support each other, but they’re more an act of kindness, courtesy and solidarity than a source of points.

Some basic guidelines:

1. Post during the week the discussion is taking place, and before the due date, which is usually Monday night of the following week. Once I’ve graded threads for the week, I don’t go back—you’ll have to follow instructions for making up a discussion forum (below).
2. Courtesy and respect. We don’t have to agree—but we can disagree in a civil way. Use logic and evidence to support your responses to prompts. We may not always agree, that’s normal and expected, but for your own professional growth—learn to disagree with tact and grace. We’re here to support everyone’s participation, but yours shouldn’t discourage others from doing so.
3. If you’re writing a long post, use paragraphs to break up points and (warning!), to be safe, you might compose in a word document (and save as you go), and then paste it into Canvas—this will help you avoid the trauma of losing a post you’ve spent considerable time on.
4. The discussion forums represent one of the key ways I can evaluate your learning. This is a 400-level class, and a few sentences per week, well, that doesn’t give me much to go on.

So, you can:

• pose a question for the group, then try to answer it or explain why you asked it.
• provide other research or web resources you’ve found that shed light on a subject we’re discussing. For instance, maybe you ran across something in the news, or can relate something that you observed or that happened to you, that seems to reflect some theoretical insight you picked up in the readings.
• summarize a long discussion thread and try to distill it down to one or a few issues.
• 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 (and this is a required part of the forums).
• show us more than ungrounded opinion—simply expressing what you think without reference to the reading material isn’t learning, or at least not the kind that will merit notice and a decent grade.

Discussion points will be based on the following criteria:

• Thoughtful reflection on readings. Use them as evidence to support your ideas. Some degree of chatter about a topic is fine, but not at the expense of demonstrating real learning.
• Your grasp of the topic. You don’t have to show mastery of each reading or topic. After all, you’re here to learn. But you do need to show effort, and this includes asking questions where you’re unclear to clarify your understanding and show me your effort in acquiring the material. ‘I don’t get it’ shows no effort (you can expand and discuss what you do get, though).
• Clear communication of your ideas. I expect clear, organized writing. Complete sentences, spell-checked, etc. If you’re citing something, do it correctly, link to a web page, for instance. Read over your post before submitting.
• Bringing in outside materials. Always appreciated, but you should evaluate a source’s credibility, and show some discernment.

A note on absence from class: If you’re going to be away from the Web and Canvas for any substantial period of time, please let me know. If you’re not posting and haven’t notified me, I’ll just assume you’re not participating in the discussion threads for that week (and that’s 12 points per week plus three possible for writing), so if, for example, you missed three weeks entirely, your chances of pulling an ‘A’ in the course would be very slim—that’s 45 pts out of a possible 500 for the term). You can make up two weeks of discussions.

Making up discussion. Limited to two—otherwise there’s no discussion, just dropping in posts for points. But you can make up two if need be with reflection papers, following the basic guidelines below, demonstrating you have completed readings, lecture material, and read the discussion threads. Don’t just drop posts in after I’ve graded—I won’t read them (but you can incorporate them into your make-ups). Guidelines below.

Again, 150 points on this part of the course—15 pts per week.

Writing in discussion forums (points attached)

Nothing to turn in here! I assign these points–three per week–as I grade your threads. It’s easier to create the Canvas ‘syllabus’ if I put a due date on them, but there’s nothing to turn in. This is a UWR course, it’s 400-level, and obviously you’re expected to do college-level writing throughout. You need to proofread your posts, check for spelling errors, capitalize, all that basic grammar-related stuff, and make sure that they make sense, to get the full three points each week (there will be a separate weekly column in Canvas for these).

• A ‘3’ means your posts are in order, make sense, thoughts are well-organized, and you’ve 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, or your posts have so many errors in them that they’re hard to follow, and in any case readers may not take them as seriously.

I do this because writing is critical to finding good work, communicating with prospective employers, and we all need to show some self-awareness about our writing. Also, if there are two threads, and you don’t participate in both of them, the maximum you can get for writing is 1 or 2 out of 3 points for the week. And the points add up.

30 points total for the term (10 wks x 3 pts)

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

Papers should be 2-3 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 are the key ‘takeaways’? You should touch on each reading assignment, discuss any common threads between them, or differences. I want to see what you learned from the readings and the week’s topic, and gauge your depth of understanding. I’m not looking for book reports—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 thread(s). Not a play-by-play blow of others’ postings, but show you went through the posts and replies, and have insights to show for it. 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 arguments you’re not going to support with evidence or logic.
3. Standards. This is making up for your having missed the discussion boards, so I expect the same amount of intellectual effort to go into the make-up. Good writing, use of complete sentences, paragraphs when changing topics, 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 a maximum of two of these. Two generic pages with ungrounded opinions is worth a few points, but won’t reach even ‘B’ level. The points will show up in Canvas for the week you’re making up, so make sure you specify which week it is. Also, you can simply paste your makeup into the field in Canvas. If a week’s threads have been graded, I don’t go back (meaning you’ll have to do a makeup if you posted late).
4. Final date to submit make-ups is by midnight Friday of finals week (June 13) in Canvas.