Participation
This course will rely heavily on your active participation and preparation online. You are expected to read the assigned reading engage with your fellow students in a meaningful conversation on-line. This will be done by formal blogging and informal comments and dialog using site posts/
You are encouraged to use your knowledge and experiences to build, test, and modify your own concepts through dialogues with the instructor and fellow students. Much of your learning will occur as you prepare for and participation in discussions about the course material. The course material has been carefully chosen to bring the real world into class discussion while also illustrating fundamental concepts.
Preparation for an on-line class
Please read as much of the material as possible prior to each class. Please take notes using the following mindset:
- What are or two key points you took away from each assigned reading?
- What are one or two key points you learned from the set of readings for a particular session?
- If you were facilitating today’s discussion, what question would you ask your fellow classmates?
On-line instruction bridges temporal boundaries in that we can participate in class interaction any time of the night or day. But… and this is a big “but”. Topics and ideas can grow stale and you must move along with the conversation and the class dialog.
Participation during class
We will meet formally using Webex as well as blogs and posts. We will typically start each session with “opening” questions about the assigned readings and case study. Students called up to answer should be able to summarize the key issues, opportunities, and challenges in the case study. All students should be prepared to be answer these questions.
If for some reason you feel unprepared to respond to a question, you may say “pass” and I will call on another student. To earn full participation credit, keep the total number of “passes” to a minimum over the course of the semester. Another important aspect of class participation is completion of in-class assignments and contribution to break-out group activities.
Participation around classes
To facilitate on-going learning of course material, we will also discuss course material on the class site. You should plan on commenting on the posts on the main class site.
The site is public and the above activities provide you with a forum to demonstrate your insights and ideas to the rest of the world and to learn from others.
Suggestions for commenting
The comments should focus on professional topics (only). Typical comments are about a few sentences to a small paragraph. The focus should be on quality and not on quantity.
Ideas for comments include:
- Examples of technologies or issues that demonstrate a concept we discussed in class
- Reacting to a post and providing a reasoned disagreement
- Providing insights on how to solve class related problems
- Providing new ways of thinking about the strategic role of technology
- Adding additional insights to an existing post/comment
Comments that are NOT acceptable include:
- Agreeing (or disagreeing) without providing a reason
- Simply listing a topic without providing an explanation
- Posting copyrighted material (it is acceptable to paraphrase the material and link to the original source)
- Using unprofessional or disrespectful language
- Material that does not fit the course goal