History 2211 Online Syllabus

Discussion Posts:
Discussion occurs on a weekly basis from Tuesday at NOON to the following Tuesday at NOON. You should aim to be a regular weekly participant in discussion since you're not able to go back and make up missed posts.

In order to earn a passing grade (C) in discussion please meet all of the following requirements:

1. Read all posts made by your classmates -- yes, this will be a lot of reading, but that is factored into the overall course reading load. *Note you will need to make sure your settings in D2L are configured correctly to reflect this. Look for an announcement on D2L about it.
2. Post at least four times per week
3. Make at least two of those posts before Saturday evening

If you wish to earn a grade greater than C in discussion, you must meet and exceed those requirements. I don't have an exact equivalent of the number of posts you must make for each grade. Evaluating discussion grades includes comparing each student to his/her peers. It also includes evaluating the strength of a student's work each week. You should aim to make several longer and more substantive posts per week, closer to a paragraph in length, and including specific examples or quotations from the reading. A rough estimate would be that 6-7 posts per week would fall in the B range, and 8+ posts per week would be in the A range -- but those have to be legitimate posts that are a few sentences long. Making numerous one-line posts that say something like "I agree with Sarah" will not advance your discussion grade. Click here for a chart that describes which components contribute towards a strong discussion grade.

How will you receive a grade and feedback? I will not be providing weekly feedback or scores on discussion but am more than happy to provide some individual feedback more frequently. Just use your "Contact Linda" forum to request it. I will provide a midterm score after the first eight weeks of the semester. You will receive a final score for discussion at the end of the semester, and your discussion grade will be an average of the two halves of the semester.

Given that life is easily disrupted these days, I wanted to build in some opportunities for you to "take a break" from discussion. You have two free tickets that can be used to skip a week in Discussion or if you have a week where your work in discussion isn't as strong as you'd like. Unlike the tickets for quizzes, these tickets will be automatically applied by Linda. One "ticket" will be used in the first half (Weeks 1-8) and one ticket in the second half (Weeks 9-16/Finals week). Put another way, when I calculate your midterm discussion grade, I will automatically cancel out the lowest score. You don't need to ask or inform me that you're using a Discussion Free Ticket. It's automatic. Late work in Discussion is not counted, so make sure to get your posts in before the Tuesday noon deadline.

One more suggestion: even though you are not required to include the textbook/background readings in your discussion posts, "brownie points" will be given to those who make reference to the textbook in their posts. Sometimes clarifying or expanding the discussion with some context or facts from the textbook enhances the discussion and helps your fellow students to make connections. Again, this is not required in order to earn a "C" for this section of your grade, but making reference to the textbook is encouraged and is one way to help improve your discussion grade.

How you make and distribute your posts is up to you. You can reply to one or more of my questions, reply to a classmate, or make up your own new post. << Important! All posts are counted, no matter how you make them. Students usually have a different mixture of replies and new posts each week.

As much as possible, I hope to generate discussions that are student-centered and student-led. I will comment occasionally, especially to clarify questions of fact, but my hope is that your voices are the most prominent throughout the semester, not mine. Also, since I evaluate your discussion posts more thoroughly after the discussion has ended, I may miss something during the time that the discussion is actually occurring. Please alert me about any concerns or questions that arise during each week of discussion.

EXTRA CREDIT FOR YOUR DISCUSSION SCORE: There is an ungraded Discussion Forum in D2L called "Class Cafe." I would like to encourage you to stop by the Cafe and "chat" with your classmates. In order to encourage folks to post in the Cafe, you can earn up to TEN extra credit points to be added to your discussion score at the end of the semester, five available in the first half and five in the second. How can you earn the extra credit points? It's pretty easy! I will award points for the posts you make, and will strongly encourage you to have at least one post be a question for others to answer. The rest of your posts can be replies to your classmates. If you make 10 posts and are involved in the overall conversation, you will earn 10 points. If you make 10 posts but don't "stick around" to participate in the conversation, your extra credit points will be reduced.

	There are many assigned readings available for free on the internet. If you’re confused about which internet link to read for class, ALWAYS start at the class schedule webpage. Everything you need is there. I highly suggest you print out these readings if you can. Printing out readings helps you become an “active reader,” which means you can take notes, highlight, etc. as you read. Plus this will help you to locate page number when taking the quizzes. You have free printing on campus!
	Discovering the American Past: A Look at the Evidence, Volume I: to 1877. 8th Edition, by William Wheeler and Lorri Glover. This book is our “course reader,” which means each chapter contains primary source documents about a particular topic in U.S. History. We will not read the entire book, but selected chapters will be assigned. In class we will discuss some strategies for being an “active reader” of an electronic book (printing selections, using their note-taking interface, etc.) Your course fee has already paid for this book! It can be located in D2L > Materials > Content under “VitalSource ebooks.” If you would prefer to purchase a hard copy instead, you may opt out of purchasing this book, but you must act fast! See Prof. Janke if you wish to opt out because you’ll need to make sure you’re buying the correct edition.
	A People and a Nation: A History of the United States, Volume I: to 1877; 10th Edition, by Mary Beth Norton et. al. This is a traditional “history textbook” and probably what you think of when you imagine a history assignment. This book is what you will use to take the multiple-choice "Textbook quizzes" each week. We will not read every chapter; see the course schedule for the assigned chapters. Your course fee has already paid for this book! It can be located in D2L > Materials > Content under “VitalSource ebooks.” If you would prefer to purchase a hard copy instead, you may opt out of purchasing this book, but you must act fast! See Prof. Janke if you wish to opt out because you’ll need to make sure you’re buying the correct edition.
	Classic Slave Narratives, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Optional purchase. We will be reading two narratives written by enslaved people. This book is a mass-market paperbook and it is very inexpensive. You might be able to find a cheaper copy via on-line retailers and/or find a copy at your local public library. Any edition is fine. Please note: these narratives are available freely on-line (see links from the class schedule page) so you might decide to acquire the book that way. I personally recommend having a hard copy of the book you can flag and highlight, but it is totally up to you.