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Introduction to Philosophy PHIL 101 Section OLA SUMMER 2024 CRN 80745 |
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The college has an academic integrity policy and program. You may be severely penalized for violations of academic integrity. Learn about it and observe the principles. Among other things you must avoid plagiarism.
In this course, the penalty for
violations
of academic integrity is as follows:
There are Internet research papers required for this course. One of the
requirements for these papers is that you locate websites and incorporate
information from these websites in your paper. You must not only properly
cite all information you use, but you are also expected to put the
information into your own words. Each paper has a required minimum length,
and direct quotes from other sources are not counted in determining the
"word-count" length of your paper. If you use any form of AI to assist you you must identify that and which AI you used.
AVOIDING
PLAGIARISM
So...how
will you be evaluated?
Good
question! Here is the answer
and in a good bit of detail. First
though, you should know that although all of this looks very imposing and
somewhat daunting, the course is no harder than its counterpart that
occurs in the regular classroom. This
course should actually turn out to be quite a bit of fun, if you are
interested in thinking about things in new ways.
In this online medium all the information is being given to you at
the beginning and it may seem to be a bit too much, but once you get a
chance to look it over and reflect, you should see that it really is not
that dissimilar to the standard classroom.
1.
Attendance by Class Participation in Discussion: 33%
2.
Written Assignments : 34%
3.
The Quality of Your Discussion Threads: 33%
Below
you will learn how the grades will be determined and how you can earn the
highest possible grade or number of points for each assignment and
activity in the course.
Grading
Scale for the Final Grade: Here are the cutoffs for course grades:
You can check on your grades under Grades on the website.
Hints
on how to achieve a high grade: 1. Log on at least 3-7 times a week for about 2 hours each time. Post on a MINIMUM of 3 different days each week. This fosters INTERACTION with classmates. 2. Post a response to each lead discussion item
3.
Post your discussion questions for all modules within the first 2 days of
the Virtual Seminar
4.
Post a Student Led Discussion item. Do a good job of maintaining quality in the discussions you lead.
5.
Make high quality contributions to the Discussions.
6.
Make sure your written assignments reveal your knowledge of the textbook,
participation in the discussions, and understanding of the issues. Everything you need to know about how to succeed in this course! -this is in part based on the work of William Pelz, SUNY-Herkimer CC 1. Expect to spend about 9-12 hours per week on this course! 18-24 hours each week in the summer!!!! 2. I expect you to log-on a minimum of three times per week on different days, and contribute to the discussions each time you log-on. Each time you logon you should participate in the discussions for that week and in any thread you are leading and at least 3 additional discussion threads. If you do not post at least one document, no log-on is recorded, and no credit is given for attendance. For attendance purposes, make sure you post every time you log on to the course. 3. Make sure your written assignments meet the all of the requirements. 4. Very important - post your discussion questions in the Student-led discussion area as soon as possible once the module is open. 5. Do a good job of maintaining quality in the discussions you lead. Lead by example and by command! In other words, use good grammar, not 'Internet Slang'. If other students are not participating in your discussion threads, find out why and do something about it. 6. Make frequent high quality contributions to the Student-led discussions. It is probable that if you are an active participant in the discussions lead by other students, they will actively participate in yours. Note: Submissions to a Student-led discussion after the module end date are welcome, but they are not included in the evaluation of your course activities. Details: 1. The questions you ask in the Student-led discussions should be thoughtfully developed and carefully worded. These questions should address issues and/or concepts from the reading that you find particularly important. I will use the following 5 criteria to evaluate your questions: a. Relevance - your question must be relevant to the material in the unit of study. b. Importance - your question must address a significant issue in the chapter. c. Thought-provoking - your question must require high-level thought, not a simple "look-up" in the textbook. d. Originality - you must not ask a question that is essentially the same as a question posed by another student. e. Timely - Your question must be posted early in the Module so that the other students have an opportunity to respond and you have time to facilitate a good discussion thread. 2. Your responses to questions posed by me and by the other students will be evaluated, and quality points awarded, based in part on the following 6 criteria: a. Is your answer correct? b. Is your answer thorough? c. Is your answer focused - to the point? d. Is your answer well-organized? e. Is your answer well-written? f. Is your answer original? Note: Only responses that demonstrate Social Presence, Cognitive Presence, and/or Teaching Presence will be awarded quality points. See below for more information. In this course, each student is responsible for leading at least one discussion thread within in each module-not within each discussion topc. The quality of your discussion thread can be influenced by the feedback you give to the students who post to it. Three things determine the quality of a discussion thread: 1. The quality of the initial discussion question you ask. I have given some specific guidelines above. I will quality points to your question. The better your question is, the more points it will receive. Note: If you do not submit your question on time (that is, within the first 2 days that the module is active) no points will be awarded. 2. The quality of the response posts. Some students will make thoughtful and informative posts to your discussion, and some will give minimal responses. I grade the quality of the posts, and that grade influences your grade in the course. However, you should provide feedback to students too. If a student posts a high-quality response, you should tell them. And, if a student posts a low quality response, you should tell them. 3. The depth of the discussion thread. Discussion "depth" is determined by how many indents there are. If you ask a question, and a student answers, that is a "level 1" discussion. If you reply to the student - now it's a "level 2" discussion. If the student gets back to you - now it's "level 3". If another student joins in and responds to the students last post - now it's "level 4". The more indents - the "deeper" the discussion thread. Of course, if the posts are low quality, depth is meaningless. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON STUDENT LED DISCUSSIONS What is a low quality post? A low quality does not teach us anything, or contribute anything positive or substantial to the discussion. Examples of low quality responses: any response which is biased, prejudicial, off topic, or is unsubstantiated / any response which is carelessly typed, poorly thought-out, grammatically incorrect or confusing / any response which is disrespectful of another student or any other person, etc.What is a high quality post? A high quality response teaches us something, or adds something positive and/or substantial to the discussion. It contains information from the textbook or another valid source, or applies a concept from the text or a legitimate website in a meaningful way, or facilitates understanding of the course material. The best posts not only introduce new ideas or knowledge, but help us relate it to what we are studying in the module.In each of the chapter discussion, I will evaluate the quality of your responses (see the grading criteria below). You will be able to see your scores. Your grade in each module for the discussions will be determined by the total performance in all the discussion forums for that module. Discussions are the heart and soul of this course. There are areas in each module where you are supposed to lead and/or participate in discussions. For example, in the Student Led Discussions, every student is required to ask one question in at least one discussion forum in the module and then to lead the discussion on that question. The question you ask should require thoughtful responses, and should address important and/or controversial issues introduced in the text. No two questions should be the same issue - so read the other questions before posting your own. The sooner you post your question the better - but you must post within the first two days that the section is open or you will not be awarded any quality points for your question. Additionally, when another student responds to your question, you should respond back to them. Your job is to facilitate the discussion in your discussion thread, so you should probe for additional information and ask additional questions in order to fully explore the topic you have asked about. See the suggestions under "Teaching Presence" below for suggestions on how to facilitate a discussion. After you post your question, you are required to respond to no fewer than three other student questions. You may respond to as many questions as you want to - but three is the minimum. You are expected to be an active participant in all discussion forums and to lead only one thread within one forum in each module. The Student Led Discussions are the major learning activities in this course. I will evaluate your participation carefully. You must demonstrate knowledge of the material - not just your opinions. Each contribution you make to any of the discussion threads should add something of value to the discussion. There are three response categories that I consider valuable (discussed below), and when your response fits into one or more of these categories, I will award points to your submission. At the conclusion of each module, I will grade your discussion performance based on the number of points you have earned. There are no fixed cut-offs for each grade. I will decide the grade requirements for each discussion separately, based on the overall quality of the questions and responses posted by all of the participants. Your best strategy is to submit your question early, and post as many high quality responses as you can in each discussion. Then, if you are not earning discussion grades that are as high as you would like, you will know that you must work harder in future modules. Please note, the number of quality points I award for your discussion questions and responses is not negotiable.
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