Class Structure and Participation

You are expected to be an active part of the learning process. In the first part of each class session, we’ll discuss the readings. This will be followed by an in-class activity.

Preparation for class

Carefully read the assigned material prior to each class. You may find it helpful to take notes on the major points of each reading, noting how the readings for that session relate to each other.

Most Mondays there will be a short pre-class quiz, taken online (check the course schedule). The quiz will cover all readings to be discussed that week. The link to the upcoming quiz will be posted on this site a week before it’s due. You can access those links via the “Assignments, Quizzes & Questions” tab on this Community Site.

You must complete the quiz by yourself before the start of class. It is “open book” – you can use the readings to take the quiz. Your first submission will be the graded submission. You may miss one quiz for the semester without affecting your grade.

Participation during class

We will typically start each session with “opening” questions about the assigned readings. Students called on to answer should be able to summarize the key issues, opportunities, and challenges in the reading. All students should be prepared to be answer these questions. While you’re not expected to say something in every single class meeting, simply showing up for class does not qualify as participation.

Participation between classes

To keep you engaged and thinking about the material between classes, you will respond to a weekly discussion question posted to this Community Site, also accessible via the “Assignments, Quizzes & Questions” tab. These will be due most Wednesdays. Leave an answer to the question as a comment. There will be two types of weekly discussion questions:

• Questions where you reflect on the material and give your opinion or relate it to your own experiences. You can also respond to other students’ comments, as long as you also add your own insight to the discussion.
• Questions where you share an interesting article with the rest of the class that ties into the course material with an explanation of why you found it interesting.

You are expected to contribute something to each week’s discussion. Your participation grade will be based, in part, on these weekly contributions. You may miss one weekly question for the semester without affecting your grade.