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Assignments
Assignments
This course is organized around five weekly milestones worth five points each. The milestones help you stay organized and disciplined in absentia of a more structured, face to face course.
Each milestone is comprised of required readings, videos, discussions, writing assignments, and activities designed to help you complete 1) an annotated bibliography, 2) a research project, and 3) online discussions.
And you need to complete everything in each milestone. It's all worth your time.
Grading Scale
23 - 25 points = A
20 - 22 points = B
15 - 19 points = C
less than 15 points = D or F*
*An F is usually issued if little to no work has been completed or evidence of academic dishonesty is serious and severe.
Failure to complete the Testing Center assignments results in automatic failure on the course.
To Earn the Grade You Want...
To Earn the Grade You Want...
Focus on your learning, rather than obsessing about points
Develop and stick to a research and reading schedule
Reward yourself for sticking to the schedule
Replace hours of time wasted on social media, YouTube, messaging, etc., with reading
Build your reading stamina by setting goals the first day of the course (read for 5 minutes straight, then try 10 minutes, 15, 20, etc. until you can reach an hour)
Read and research with a classmate or two even if you have different topics; this helps if you need someone to keep you on task
Use the "Ask" feature to chat with a librarian or make an appointment for more guidance
Review the descriptions of ABCDF students below to help you establish your grade goal
The College also requires faculty to submit "quarterly" and "midterm" grades. These are not visible on your final transcript - only in Blackboard - and act as goalposts to track your progress.
"A" Students:
"A" Students:
Do the following:
Complete the Testing Center assignments
Create original work honestly and ethically
Read all assignments and materials ethically, carefully, and thoroughly (they don't outsource reading to AI)
Complete everything and complete most assignments on time
Rarely fall behind or procrastinate
Spend the recommended amount of time on the materials assigned if needed
Use AI only when instructed to do so
Seek help when they need it, and use the feedback to improve their learning
Exhibit these behaviors:
Apply a growth mindset to the research process (when they get frustrated, they take a short break and go right back to it)
Want to learn, want to grow, and want a challenge (successful students tend to be curious and enjoy learning, even when it is difficult)
Have meaningful and mutually beneficial interactions with their classmates and professor
Always draw deep connections between what they were learning and their current lives and their future career
End up with:
Work that demonstrates exceptional achievement of the course learning objectives
Unique, thought-provoking, and nuanced viewpoints and highly effective arguments based on mastering the research process
23 - 25 points in the course
"B" Students:
"B" Students:
Do the following:
Complete the Testing Center assignments
Create original work honestly and ethically
Read all assignments and materials ethically, carefully, and thoroughly (they don't outsource reading to AI)
Complete everything and complete most assignments on time
Rarely fall behind or procrastinate
Spend the recommended amount of time on the materials assigned if needed
Use AI only when instructed to do so
Seek help when they need it, and use the feedback to improve their learning
Exhibit these behaviors:
Usually apply a growth mindset to the research process (when they get frustrated, they are usually able to push through obstacles)
Want to learn, want to grow, and usually want a challenge
Usually have meaningful and mutually beneficial interactions with their classmates and professor
Frequently draw deep connections between what they were learning and their current lives and their future career
End up with:
Work that demonstrates above average achievement of the course learning objectives
A couple of interesting viewpoints and somewhat effective arguments based on applying the research process thoroughly
20 - 22 points in the course
"C" Students:
"C" Students:
Do the following:
Complete the Testing Center assignments
Create original work honestly and ethically
Read all assignments and materials ethically, carefully, and thoroughly (they don't outsource reading to AI)
Complete everything and complete most assignments on time
Rarely fall behind or procrastinate
Usually spend the recommended amount of time on the materials assigned if needed
Use AI only when instructed to do so
Seek help when they need it, and use the feedback to improve their learning
Exhibit these behaviors:
Attempt to apply a growth mindset to the research process (when they get frustrated, they usually give up or take shortcuts)
Don't always want to learn, want to grow, and rarely want a challenge (they do the work just to get it over with or just to get a grade)
Have minimal meaningful and mutually beneficial interactions with their classmates and professor (they don't appreciate the benefits of learning from others)
Rarely draw deep connections between what they were learning and their current lives and their future career (they don't make the course material relevant to their life)
End up with:
Work that demonstrates sufficient achievement of the course learning objectives
Some new knowledge and use that to develop safe, non-controversial, trite, cliched, or boring viewpoints and minimally effective arguments based on applying the research process somewhat consistently (there's no real passion behind their argument)
15 - 19 points in the course
"D" or "F" Students:
"D" or "F" Students:
Do one or more of the following:
Didn't complete the Testing Center assignments
Don't complete anything by the end of the first week of the course
Complete work unethically (cheat or plagiarize) and/or with minimal effort
Fall significantly behind in the course due to poor time management
Resort to desperate measures to get work completed (cheat or plagiarize) or they give up and stop completing work
Do very little work or do not spend enough time on the materials to demonstrate that they learned anything
Don't like to read or don't want to read, or struggle to comprehend the readings
Do not seek help if there were instructed to do so
Earn less than 15 points in the course or don't complete everything assigned
Submit work that does not demonstrate achievement of the course learning objectives
Why do you keep mentioning the importance of reading in this syllabus?
It might shock you to learn that more than 50% of Americans read below a sixth grade level. Reading is still the best way to obtain information and learn critical thinking skills, but technology has weakened our attention spans and ability to focus, so more Americans are only able to watch short form content on their phones or read very short articles. Because Americans are reading fewer books and reading for less periods of time, college students are also less likely to complete lengthy or complex readings and outsource that labor to AI. As a result, companies will be hiring (and then firing) college graduates who can only partially perform tasks; notably, they can fail to interpret, analyze, and evaluate information. When we are too dependent on AI, we lose the mental muscle needed to build questions, and lose out on creativity and imagination.
However, school-age children and college students in other countries, China for example, don't have this problem, and so their knowledge and skills continue to grow and will help China surpass us in global power. While college is seen as a path toward individual economic success, comfort, and job satisfaction, we need to also remember that college-educated citizens help nations prosper as a whole. The United States simply won't remain a global superpower if American college students take tech shortcuts to earn a degree.
It is also interesting that all the big tech executives who work for Google, Facebook, Snapchat, OpenAI, Anthropic, etc., send their kids to elite private schools that only use actual textbooks and very little tech in the classroom. Why? Because they know the dangers of the technology they created and they know the neurological benefits of reading on paper. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has "consistently shown that enjoyment of reading—not simply hours spent—predicts better outcomes." A study from Gallup/Walton study shows those who like to read are more likely to perform strong academically and that "the enjoyment translates into stronger habits of interpretation, synthesis, and resilience." And as PISA and Gallup data suggest, strong thinkers are far more likely to thrive in society.
This course will require a lot of "deep reading" because that's how we best interpret research. While we will watch videos to obtain and reinforce knowledge, if that's all we did, we'd barely scratch the surface of an issue and we'd risk having non-experts bending and shaping this information for us. If we didn't read deeply in this course, we'd fail to engage our brains in beneficial ways that keep us strong, healthy, independent, and agile and make us desirable to employers.
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