Assignments for i2i
A Note for Students with Special Needs
If you think you need an accommodation for a disability, please let us know at your earliest convenience. Some aspects of this course, the assignments, the in-class activities, and the way I teach may be modified to facilitate your participation and progress. As soon as you make me aware of your needs, we can work with the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) to help us determine appropriate accommodations. SSD (734-763-3000; or on the Web) typically, recommends accommodations through a Verified Individualized Services and Accommodations (VISA) form. I will treat any information you provide as private and confidential. Believe me, I've had many special needs students who have been star performers!
A Note for Students with Special Needs
If you think you need an accommodation for a disability, please let us know at your earliest convenience. Some aspects of this course, the assignments, the in-class activities, and the way I teach may be modified to facilitate your participation and progress. As soon as you make me aware of your needs, we can work with the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) to help us determine appropriate accommodations. SSD (734-763-3000; or on the Web) typically, recommends accommodations through a Verified Individualized Services and Accommodations (VISA) form. I will treat any information you provide as private and confidential. Believe me, I've had many special needs students who have been star performers!
Student Assessment Methods, aka
"Grading"
As there are few "objective," numerically-scorable assignments in this course, we admit up-front that grading in this course is an exercise in professional judgement. So be it, but between Prof. Frost and the assistant(s), we have had sufficient experience to make those judgments with confidence. We view grades not as rewards or punishment, but as a system to indicate to you how you might improve your performance. That is why we tend to comment excessively on your papers. In any case, here's the weighting system:
As there are few "objective," numerically-scorable assignments in this course, we admit up-front that grading in this course is an exercise in professional judgement. So be it, but between Prof. Frost and the assistant(s), we have had sufficient experience to make those judgments with confidence. We view grades not as rewards or punishment, but as a system to indicate to you how you might improve your performance. That is why we tend to comment excessively on your papers. In any case, here's the weighting system:
- 40% - Two short (5-7 page) papers as defined below and in the specific assignments (obviously 20% each)
- 20% - Midterm exam
- 20% - Class participation, particularly in discussion sections
- 20% - Final exam
Readings for the Course
All readings for the course are on-line, and they are extensive, so you should bookmark the syllabus page. Nearly all of them are readable through your browser and by using Adobe Acrobat™ .pdf format; if you don't link to it automatically, get Acrobat, proprietary as it is. Due to intellectual property issues (about which you will learn quite a bit in this course!), we encourage you to honor the copyright claims of authors' and creators' work posted on this site.
All readings for the course are on-line, and they are extensive, so you should bookmark the syllabus page. Nearly all of them are readable through your browser and by using Adobe Acrobat™ .pdf format; if you don't link to it automatically, get Acrobat, proprietary as it is. Due to intellectual property issues (about which you will learn quite a bit in this course!), we encourage you to honor the copyright claims of authors' and creators' work posted on this site.
Class Participation
Though this is considered a "lecture" course, it's far more exciting and educational is we have a lot of "back-and-forth" in the plenary meetings ("lectures") as well as in the discussion sections. This is all the more important with this content, as you, the students, are often more attuned to some of these issues than the professor is. We should all be learning together here.
As for you showing up in lecture, we are aware that providing video podcasts allows you the liberty to time- and space-shift the lecture content, and it's your adult choice whether to attend each lecture. That said, a part of your grade is based on contributions you make to the class, both the lecture and the discussion sections—if you are not there, it is difficult to earn a good grade on your participation. We will check attendance for each discussion section; you can miss two of those, but after that, each absence in a roll call will cost you 1/3 of your final letter grade. We are quite well aware that differences in age, sex, class, and cultural background bear heavily on rates of participation (and confidence) in class discussions and we take that fact into account when evaluating student performance. At the same time, this class should be a learning experience for us all, and we can achieve that best by being active learners—all of us. That means also that fruitful participation helps create an atmosphere in which innovative thinking and peer support/respect are vital.
Though this is considered a "lecture" course, it's far more exciting and educational is we have a lot of "back-and-forth" in the plenary meetings ("lectures") as well as in the discussion sections. This is all the more important with this content, as you, the students, are often more attuned to some of these issues than the professor is. We should all be learning together here.
As for you showing up in lecture, we are aware that providing video podcasts allows you the liberty to time- and space-shift the lecture content, and it's your adult choice whether to attend each lecture. That said, a part of your grade is based on contributions you make to the class, both the lecture and the discussion sections—if you are not there, it is difficult to earn a good grade on your participation. We will check attendance for each discussion section; you can miss two of those, but after that, each absence in a roll call will cost you 1/3 of your final letter grade. We are quite well aware that differences in age, sex, class, and cultural background bear heavily on rates of participation (and confidence) in class discussions and we take that fact into account when evaluating student performance. At the same time, this class should be a learning experience for us all, and we can achieve that best by being active learners—all of us. That means also that fruitful participation helps create an atmosphere in which innovative thinking and peer support/respect are vital.
Short Papers
Twice during the semester, you will write short (5-7 page) papers on assigned topics (By 5-7 pages, we mean that roughly; we don't count words). They should be double spaced, and they must provide proper citations of outside sources. We require that papers be submitted as email attachments to your discussion section leader in Microsoft Word™ format. If you use different software, let us know and we can perhaps accommodate. We are not fans of Microsoft and our use of the format is not in any way an endorsement of its business or political agenda. (Free, open-source "clones" of MS Office™ are also available; for the Mac, there's NeoOffice, used heavily by Prof. Frost, and for Windows™, you can use OpenOffice. If you're a Linux user, you know better than us what works. If you're worried that "free" means "cheap" or "flaky," here's a review of OpenOffice. In addition Google™ offers an online document processor, sort of a free, Web version of Word, called Docs. If you elect to use this, let us know and sign us on as collaborators. We'd like to know about your experiences, as you can be a de facto beta-tester.
The papers should not be a simple summarization of the readings or a "report;" rather, we want you to make an argument, to take a position and defend it. Your grade on the papers does not come from the opinion you have or position you take. Instead, you will be graded on your ability to support that stance, providing logical and persuasive rationales and using solid evidence. Spouting an opinion without due attention to logic and evidence—the Rush Limbaugh practice—simply will not do. We will offer you not only topics for each assignment, but a few examples as to how you might address them.
We try to come up with new paper topics each term so that your thinking will always be fresh and relevant. Please feel free to suggest paper topics at any time. On the syllabus page, there are links early on in the course for topics we assigned in the previous term.
A key rationale for assigning papers is to facilitate both the firming up of ideas on your side—nothing helps gel ideas better than putting them on paper—and to fuel discussions in the, er, discussion sections. This approach flows from our belief in active learning, that is, that by grappling with issues you in a sense gain "ownership" of them, thereby going beyond the passivity of merely letting words float before your eyes. (This follows from my teaching philosophy, shared by the Moodle project). For some guidance on completing this assignment, see "How to Argue" on Professor Frost's web site.
The due dates for the papers posted on the "i2i Syllabus & News Page" are of a "drop dead" character (we urge you to turn them in earlier if you wish), and for each day a paper is inexcusably late, you will lose 1/2 of a grade letter on the paper.
Twice during the semester, you will write short (5-7 page) papers on assigned topics (By 5-7 pages, we mean that roughly; we don't count words). They should be double spaced, and they must provide proper citations of outside sources. We require that papers be submitted as email attachments to your discussion section leader in Microsoft Word™ format. If you use different software, let us know and we can perhaps accommodate. We are not fans of Microsoft and our use of the format is not in any way an endorsement of its business or political agenda. (Free, open-source "clones" of MS Office™ are also available; for the Mac, there's NeoOffice, used heavily by Prof. Frost, and for Windows™, you can use OpenOffice. If you're a Linux user, you know better than us what works. If you're worried that "free" means "cheap" or "flaky," here's a review of OpenOffice. In addition Google™ offers an online document processor, sort of a free, Web version of Word, called Docs. If you elect to use this, let us know and sign us on as collaborators. We'd like to know about your experiences, as you can be a de facto beta-tester.
The papers should not be a simple summarization of the readings or a "report;" rather, we want you to make an argument, to take a position and defend it. Your grade on the papers does not come from the opinion you have or position you take. Instead, you will be graded on your ability to support that stance, providing logical and persuasive rationales and using solid evidence. Spouting an opinion without due attention to logic and evidence—the Rush Limbaugh practice—simply will not do. We will offer you not only topics for each assignment, but a few examples as to how you might address them.
We try to come up with new paper topics each term so that your thinking will always be fresh and relevant. Please feel free to suggest paper topics at any time. On the syllabus page, there are links early on in the course for topics we assigned in the previous term.
A key rationale for assigning papers is to facilitate both the firming up of ideas on your side—nothing helps gel ideas better than putting them on paper—and to fuel discussions in the, er, discussion sections. This approach flows from our belief in active learning, that is, that by grappling with issues you in a sense gain "ownership" of them, thereby going beyond the passivity of merely letting words float before your eyes. (This follows from my teaching philosophy, shared by the Moodle project). For some guidance on completing this assignment, see "How to Argue" on Professor Frost's web site.
The due dates for the papers posted on the "i2i Syllabus & News Page" are of a "drop dead" character (we urge you to turn them in earlier if you wish), and for each day a paper is inexcusably late, you will lose 1/2 of a grade letter on the paper.
Midterm and Final Exams
Each exam is worth 20% of the final grade, and each will be one hour long. The midterm exam will cover material from the first half of the course and the final will cover second-half material (only). Both will occur in the usual classroom; the final will happen in our last lecture-class meeting and, the midterm exam will be set by your vote early in the term, though we have our own preference, which we'll make known..
Here's how both exams will work. A bit more than a week before the exam, we'll develop a set of eight potential questions for the exam. You'll view them on the Web and very shortly after, you'll vote by email to eliminate two of them. Of the remaining six, you'll see four on the exam, of which you'll answer three, plus one you've not seen before—a "mystery question." We pull no tricks: the mystery question will, hopefully, come as no surprise to those who've been keeping abreast of the course. On the syllabus page, there are links early on in the course for exam questions we used in the previous term; once the questions for the current term are ready, we'll replace the older ones with the new ones.
Each exam is worth 20% of the final grade, and each will be one hour long. The midterm exam will cover material from the first half of the course and the final will cover second-half material (only). Both will occur in the usual classroom; the final will happen in our last lecture-class meeting and, the midterm exam will be set by your vote early in the term, though we have our own preference, which we'll make known..
Here's how both exams will work. A bit more than a week before the exam, we'll develop a set of eight potential questions for the exam. You'll view them on the Web and very shortly after, you'll vote by email to eliminate two of them. Of the remaining six, you'll see four on the exam, of which you'll answer three, plus one you've not seen before—a "mystery question." We pull no tricks: the mystery question will, hopefully, come as no surprise to those who've been keeping abreast of the course. On the syllabus page, there are links early on in the course for exam questions we used in the previous term; once the questions for the current term are ready, we'll replace the older ones with the new ones.