Syllabus Review Questions
1. The two primary methods of instruction in this class are the Discussion Board and short essay quizzes. The Discussion Board is a well-structured forum guided by a strict grammatical and format rubric that is an essential component of the online classroom. All assignments will operate the same each time they are assigned. A Discussion Board for the week of Monday would be assigned on the evening of the Sunday before. A specific reading will be provided as a link under the assignment where after reading, the student will provide a synopsis and overview of the article. This would be required to be posted on the Thursday evening of that same week. Afterwards, at least three additional replies discussing the content of the articles are to be posted by Sunday evening of the same week. This means that the reading, writing, and discussion components of the Discussion Board will be completed over a one week period. Now the short essay quizzes are another important part of this course. Specific questions will be posted in a particular file for each student to access. They will use specifically assigned articles provided and the internet as well to research and answer the questions. The answers will be in the “short essay” format which includes well-structured paragraphs and complete sentences. Each paragraph must be developed with enough detail to demonstrate an understanding of the concepts.
2. For “A” work, the grading rubric requires students to post assignments on time and according to instructions. They must always use professional vocabulary and writing style. Their sentence structure must be well-developed and must have an advanced word choice. Their information must relate to the topic and add new concepts or ideas. It must also develop new ideas for the discussion and provide significant thoughts on the topic. They need to consistently provide resources and active hyperlinks to credible websites as documentation of information. And they must always exceed the required number of postings and the postings must be substantive and well-developed.
3. According to the grading rubric, readability refers to work entered in a very readable manner. Different ideas are divided by headings which are separated and highlighted and paragraphs are separated into logical compartments. Also, the font size is 12-14 and it is in the standard format.
4. Three of the most common mistakes that students tend to make include naming instead of describing, not following directions, and ignoring the professor and colleagues. Whenever the directions ask a student to describe or analyze something, instead of just naming it they need to develop a detailed commentary on it. Students also tend to not read instructions carefully or pay attention to detail. When something isn’t clear to them, they don’t seem to ask any questions when they should be doing so. If a student ends up not doing an assignment and says they didn’t understand it, it will be their own fault for not asking questions like they should have. And finally, if a colleague or professor posts commentary regarding what a student has written, they shouldn’t ignore the post but instead they should engage in a discussion with them about it.
5. Civility and politeness are important objectives in this course. They are achieved by students treating each other with the respect they deserve regardless of their own opinions. Students must have the intellectual maturity to be able to do this. Not showing respect to colleagues will result in point reduction and possible disciplinary action.
6. Students are expected to complete all assignments and exams on time. Late work won’t be graded and it will all receive a zero for a grade. But if there happens to be an emergency, an extension might be considered only if the student emails or calls the professor prior to the due date of the assignment. There will be no make-up exams and if one is missed, it will result in a zero for