Online Course Syllabus

Transcription

1 Online Course Syllabus ENGL L INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE Spring 2016 Instructor: Professor Gary Schneider Office: ARHU 209 (do not call my office to contact me, as I will be working often from home) Contact: Through on Blackboard. Face-to-face meetings are by appointment only. me to set up an appointment. Back-Up If Blackboard is down or not functioning properly, exams to gary.schneider@utrgv.edu. Contact me through Blackboard using the Tool first; use the back-up second. Course Overview: This is a totally online class. I will assume that you are familiar and comfortable with Blackboard. If you feel you need more instruction in Blackboard you may explore the Blackboard Support link located on the main content page. You may also contact the Blackboard Help Desk in the Education Complex, EDCC at (956) or them at coltthelp@utrgv.edu. Do not expect that because this is an online class that it will be somehow easier in terms of course content or assignments. There will be just as many lectures, readings, and assignments as in a face-to-face class although of course you will not have to travel to campus to attend. You will need to be a self-starter and be able to manage your time effectively without the structure of a classroom setting in order to succeed in this course. The overall organization of the class will consist of five parts or modules. In each module we will cover a specific work: In Module 1 we will cover William Shakespeare s Taming of the Shrew In Module 2 we will cover Henrik Ibsen s A Doll s House In Module 3 we will cover Oscar Wilde s The Importance of Being Earnest In Module 4 we will cover James Joyce s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

2 In Module 5 we will cover Arthur Miller s The Death of a Salesman o You are expected to do the assigned readings and listen to the associated lectures. The readings and lectures are given in full in each module, so you can work at your own pace within each individual module o Quizzes are given at the end of each module to help you stay on track o Log onto this course on Blackboard every weekday to check for announcements, s, or other developments Course Description: ENG 2341 is an introduction to literary genres, with special emphasis on the short story, novel or novella, drama, and poetry. The prerequisite is a minimum grade of C in six hours of required freshman English. In this particular section of ENG 2341 we will be examining works from across the range of literature, from the Renaissance period to the 20 th century. I will be utilizing Tegrity to deliver audio lectures based on the readings outlined in each module (see Class Schedule and Course Readings, below). Student Learning Outcomes and Instructional Goals for Sophomore English: Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Core Objectives: ENGL 2341 is part of the Language, Philosophy, and Culture Component Area of the Texas Core Curriculum. Courses in this area focus on how ideas, values, beliefs, and other aspects of culture express and affect human experience. This course also involves the exploration of ideas that foster aesthetic and intellectual creation in order to understand the human condition across cultures. All of the assessments and learning activities in this course are directly and indirectly intended to help each student develop mastery of the following Core Objectives from this Component Area. CRITICAL THINKING (CT) is a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion (adapted from AACU1). This definition meets the THECB s direction that critical thinking includes creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation and synthesis of information.

3 COMMUNICATION SKILLS (COM) include the development, expression, and revision of ideas through the effective use of language (writing, reading, speaking, and listening) across a variety of forums. Communication involves learning to work in many genres and styles while using different technologies, can result in mixing texts, data, and/or images, and develops through diverse experiences across the curriculum (adapted from AACU). This definition meets the THECB s direction that communication skills include effective written, oral, and visual communication. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (SR) is a habit of mind characterized by an ethical relationship between a person and a larger society that involves intercultural competency, civic knowledge, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities. Such engagement includes individual participation in activities of personal and public concern that are both individually life enriching and socially beneficial to related communities. (adapted from AACU) PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY (PR) is a habit of mind characterized by an individual s understanding and investment in learning as a lifelong process that involves solving problems, making decisions, and considering the consequences of alternative actions in a variety of complex social contexts. This definition meets the THECB s direction that personal responsibility includes the ability to connect choices, actions, and consequences to ethical decision-making. UTRGV Student Learning Outcomes The following four student learning outcomes will be met in this course in order to meet the Objectives of this Area. Critical Thinking (CT): Students will demonstrate comprehension of a variety of written texts and other information sources by analyzing and evaluating the logic, validity, and relevance of the information in them to solve challenging problems, to arrive at wellreasoned conclusions, and to develop and explore new questions. Communication Skills (COM): Students will demonstrate the ability to adapt their communications to a particular context, audience, and purpose using language, genre conventions, and sources appropriate to a specific discipline and/or communication task. Social Responsibility (SR): Students will recognize and describe cultural diversity, the role of civic engagement in society, and the link between ethics and behavior. Personal Responsibility (PR): Students will demonstrate an awareness of the range of human values and beliefs that they draw upon to connect choices, actions, and consequences to ethical decision-making. Department Objectives for ENGL 2341 In this course, 1. Students will extend their communication and critical thinking skills by developing well-reasoned, logical, and ethical arguments and by enlarging their ability to analyze texts, to synthesize ideas, and to think abstractly. (CT, COM, PR) 2. Students will be able to recognize literary texts as vehicles of value from an assortment of cultures: national, regional, ethnic, gendered, privileged, and oppressed. (CT, SR, PR)

4 3. Students will study a mixture of literary works from a variety of cultural backgrounds in order to advance their intercultural literacy. (SR, PR) 4. Students will gain an aesthetic understanding of the creative treatment of social and cultural debates as well as a growing awareness of their own relation to the social/cultural stakes inherent in these issues. (CT, SR, PR) 5. Students will develop thoughtful personal responses to the social issues covered in the course and will further develop an ethical sensibility to inform their own choices as ethical actors. (CT, COM, SR, PR) 6. Students will develop, evaluate, and deploy a variety of critical methodologies for understanding the human condition, including but not limited to historical, psychological, biographical, social, and feminist approaches. (CT, COM, PR, SR) 7. Students will demonstrate their ability to ethically cite from other texts in order to create a persuasive argument. (CT, COM, PR) Technical Requirements: Computer Requirements: Blackboard is a web-based application that is run through a web browser. If your computer can successfully run any of the popular web browsers like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox then you will be able to use Blackboard. Keep in mind that your browser must be configured to work properly with Blackboard. This means having Java installed, pop-up blockers disabled and cookies enabled. Java Runtime Environment: For Blackboard to function properly, you will need to have Java installed on your machine. This is important when using certain features in Blackboard. To ensure that you have the latest version of Java you can download it at For the following issues, you should contact the Blackboard Help Desk directly: Server issues (site not available, server is slow) Course access (login problems, course not available) Technical problems (a function not working properly) Contact Information: Education Complex, EDCC (956) coltthelp@utrgv.edu Assignment Requirements:

5 Quizzes 1. Five Quizzes (5% each = 25% of the total grade) 2. Five Exams (15% each = 75% of the total grade) I will quiz you on each of the five works. These quizzes are content quizzes that is, the quizzes will ask you about the basic facts of the works. In other words, the quizzes will not ask you to analyze or interpret that will be the purpose of the exams. The quizzes are based both on your careful reading of the text and on my audio lectures on the text. The quizzes are available through the Table of Contents in each module the links to each quiz in each module will become visible the first day the quiz is available to take. You have a three-day window in which to take each quiz. Each quiz will consist of 10 questions and you will have 30 minutes to complete each quiz. The quizzes will be multiple choice, where there is one correct answer out of four choices. Each question is worth 1 point. All quizzes will be delivered one question at a time and you will not be able to backtrack or revisit a question once it has been answered. Sample Question: In the play Macbeth, what lie does Malcolm tell Macduff in order to test him? a. that he would make a terrible king due to his many vices b. that he is secretly allied with Macbeth c. that Donalbain would make a better king than him d. both a. and b. All grades will be posted in the My Grades area for students the day after the deadline to take a quiz has passed Exams There will be an exam on each of the five books after we have covered it. I have posted an exam outline in the Begin Here: Course Introduction module. All five exams will have the same structure. The exam questions themselves will be posted on specific dates; your answers are to be returned on specific dates. See the Class Schedule and Course Readings (below) for the specific dates. You have a space of four days to write and submit a given exam. Submit each exam as a single Word document attachment. Do not use other formats such as pdf or Notepad. DO NOT cut and paste your exam in the submission box. Submit the entire exam as single document. When you submit your exams, the file name

6 you will give them will be your first name last, last name first (for instance, Gomez, Jorge portrait exam or Ramirez, Mari shrew exam ). If Blackboard is down or not functioning properly, the exam to before the deadline. Do not do outside research to answer the exam questions. Everything you need to know to answer an exam question effectively is located in the audio lectures. Therefore, know the audio lectures well. This means taking careful notes on the audio lectures in advance of the exams, and then using these notes to answer the exam questions. Using outside research to answer an exam question may result in a failing grade on the exam. If you encounter technical problems with Blackboard contact the Blackboard Help Desk in the Education Complex, EDCC at (956) or them at coltthelp@utrgv.edu Late exams will not be accepted. If you encounter a technical problem in submitting an exam on Blackboard, use the back-up address, gary.schneider@utrgv.edu. Submitting the wrong file or an incomplete exam due to negligence are not acceptable excuses, and I will not allow a resubmission of an exam due to these errors. The exams will be returned to you and the grades posted in the My Grades area on Blackboard within roughly 4-5 days. Grade Values A+ = B+ = C+ = D+ = A = B = C = D = A- = B- = C- = D- = F = below 59 Required Texts: 1. William Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew (ISBN: ) 2. Henrik Ibsen, A Doll s House (ISBN: ) 3. Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (ISBN: James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (ISBN: ) 5. Arthur Miller, The Death of a Salesman (ISBN: ) Be sure to get these specific editions of the books. I have included the ISBN of each, so if you order a book yourself you can use this number to order the exact edition I will be using. If you use a different edition, the pagination may be different. Therefore, a page number reference I give may differ in a different edition and it will be harder to follow along with my audio lectures with a different edition.

7 I have ordered the texts from the campus bookstore Course Policies: 1. Policy on Plagiarism Plagiarism means that one writer is using another writer s words or ideas without crediting the first writer. Likewise, paraphrasing, summarizing, and citing passages from another writer without acknowledging it, is plagiarism. Contact me if you are unsure about what constitutes plagiarism. Any student plagiarizing will be reported to the Dean of Students and a failing grade will be recommended. 2. Policy on Online Availability I will do my best to be online regularly every weekday. If you contact me by before 2:00 pm, I will get back to you that day. If you contact me after 2:00 pm I may get back to you the same day or will return your the next day, or on Monday if it is after 2:00 pm on a Friday. 3. Extra-Credit Policy I give extra-credit opportunities only under exceptional circumstances. Earning a high grade in this course means dedicating yourself to doing well on all the semester s assignments. However, in some cases, students may indeed fall short on an assignment throughout the semester. It is at this point that you should contact me for assistance. I will advise you on how to improve your work. If you take my advice and I see improvement after this, I believe this is worthy of reward and may give extra-credit opportunity to make up for the assignment(s) on which you did not do as well. However, if you have not contacted me to discuss your progress and if you have not shown a genuine effort to improve, do not expect an extra-credit opportunity at the end of the semester. I do not reward procrastination. 4. Course Evaluation Students are required to complete an ONLINE evaluation of this course, accessed through your UTRGV account ( you will be contacted through with further instructions. Students who complete their evaluations will have priority access to their grades. Note: If you have a documented disability (physical, psychological, learning, or other disability which affects your academic performance) and would like to receive academic accommodations, please inform your instructor and contact Student Accessibility Services to schedule an appointment to initiate services. It is recommended that you schedule an appointment with Student Accessibility Services before classes start. However, accommodations can be provided at any time. Brownsville Campus: Student Accessibility Services is located in Cortez Hall Room 129 and can be contacted by phone at (956) (Voice) or via at accessibility@utrgv.edu. Edinburg Campus: Student Accessibility Services is located in 108 University Center and can be contacted by phone at (956) (Voice), (956) (Fax), or via at accessibility@utrgv.edu. Class Schedule and Course Readings:

8 What follows here is a precise schedule of what we will be doing, elaborated on in full in each of the modules located on Blackboard. Follow this precise schedule to stay on track: Begin Here: Course Introduction module (complete this module on 1/19) Read the syllabus carefully Understand my expectations and the structure of the course Module 1 William Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew (complete this module between 1/19 and 2/7) Read Taming of the Shrew Listen to Lectures 1-4 on Taming of the Shrew Take the Taming of the Shrew Quiz between 2/3 and 2/5 by 11:59 pm Take the Taming of the Shrew Exam: the exam questions are available on 2/4; your responses are due on 2/7 by 11:59 pm Module 2 Henrik Ibsen, A Doll s House (complete this module between 2/8 and 2/27) Read Doll s House Listen to Lectures 1-4 on Doll s House Take the Doll s House Quiz between 2/23 and 2/25 by 11:59 pm Take the Doll s House Exam: the exam are questions available on 2/24; your responses are due on 2/27 by 11:59 pm Module 3 Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (complete this module between 2/28 and 3/25) Read The Importance of Being Earnest Listen to Lectures 1-5 on The Importance of Being Earnest Take the Importance of Being Earnest Quiz between 3/21 and 3/23 by 11:59 pm Take the Importance of Being Earnest Exam: the exam questions are available on 3/22; your responses are due on 3/25 by 11:59 pm Module 4 James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (complete this module between 3/26 and 4/14)

9 Read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Listen to Lectures 1-5 on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Take the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Quiz between 4/10 and 4/12 by 11:59 pm Take the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Exam: the exam questions are available on 4/11; your responses are due on 4/14 by 11:59 pm Module 5 Arthur Miller, The Death of a Salesman (complete this module between 4/15 and 5/4) Read The Death of a Salesman Listen to Lectures 1-4 on The Death of a Salesman Take the Death of a Salesman Quiz between 4/30 and 5/2 by 11:59 pm Take the Death of a Salesman Exam: the exam questions are available on 5/1; your responses are due on 5/4 by 11:59 pm UTRGV Policy Statements: 1. Scholastic Integrity As members of a community dedicated to Honesty, Integrity and Respect, students are reminded that those who engage in scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and expulsion from the University. Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, plagiarism, and collusion; submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person; taking an examination for another person; any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student; or the attempt to commit such acts. Since scholastic dishonesty harms the individual, all students and the integrity of the University, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced (Board of Regents Rules and Regulations and UTRGV Academic Integrity Guidelines). All scholastic dishonesty incidents will be reported to the Dean of Students. 2. Sexual Harassment, Discrimination, and Violence In accordance with UT System regulations, your instructor is a responsible employee for reporting purposes under Title IX regulations and so must report any instance, occurring during a student s time in college, of sexual assault, stalking, dating violence, domestic violence, or sexual harassment about which she/he becomes aware during this course through writing, discussion, or personal disclosure. More information can be found at including confidential resources available on campus. The faculty and staff of UTRGV actively strive to provide a learning, working, and living environment that promotes personal integrity, civility, and mutual respect in an environment free from sexual misconduct and discrimination. 3. Drop Policy According to UTRGV policy, students may drop any class without penalty earning a grade of DR until the official drop date. Following that date, students must be assigned a letter grade and can no longer drop the class. Students considering dropping the class should be aware of the 3-peat rule and the 6-drop rule so they can recognize how dropped classes may

10 affect their academic success. The 6-drop rule refers to Texas law that dictates that undergraduate students may not drop more than six courses during their undergraduate career. Courses dropped at other Texas public higher education institutions will count toward the sixcourse drop limit. The 3-peat rule refers to additional fees charged to students who take the same class for the third time. Drop Date: April 13 is last day for students to drop the course and receive a DR grade. After this date, students will be assigned a letter grade for the course that will count on the GPA. Final Note: If there are any typos in the dates or other minor errors in the syllabus, I will adjust them accordingly and let you know about any changes.