College of the Canyons Introduction to American Government and Politics Political Science 150 Winter 2016 (Section 20974) Instructor: Phil Gussin Classroom: BONH 306 Meeting Day and Time: Online Office: PCOH-222 Office Hours: Via email or Skype Class Web Page: http://bb9.canyons.edu Email: Phil.Gussin@canyons.edu Phone: 1-661-362-3708 COURSE DESCRIPTION AND GOALS Important Note: If you don t have the discipline needed to read this syllabus carefully, you are going to struggle in my class. In fact, if you don t have the discipline to read it carefully, I recommend that you drop the class. Why? Students who lack discipline do poorly in my classes, especially if they are taking them during the winter intersession. On the other hand, if you are disciplined, follow the study tips that I provide below, and complete the assignments and exams on time, you will learn a lot about American politics, enjoy yourself in the process, and earn a good grade. If you try to cut corners or do the minimal amount of work you think is necessary to earn a passing grade, it won t go well for you. Please give that some thought. The class will be become available on Blackboard no later than January 4, 2016. Your first task will be to complete a quiz on the Syllabus and get 100% -- before January 6, 2016. Don t panic, though. You can take the Syllabus Quiz as many times as necessary to get 100%. Students who fail to complete the Syllabus Quiz and get 100% by January 6, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. will be automatically dropped from the class. No exceptions. Here s your first tip: The Syllabus quiz will focus exclusively on the organization of the class. You do not have to memorize the Student Learning Outcomes or Course Objectives. This class will introduce you to the fundamentals of American and California government and politics. In a very general sense, the goal of the class is to provide you with the tools you need to think critically about the political institutions, actors, processes and events that shape your lives. On a more personal level, my hope is that, by end of the class, you ll understand that (a) politics is important and (b) your participation in the political process improves the functioning of our political system. Student Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify and explain the basic institutions of the government of the United States and the State of California 2. Compare and contrast democratic theories of American government. 3. Exhibit a heightened sense of personal political efficacy and civic responsibility. Course Objectives: Upon completing this course, you should be able to: 1. Summarize federalism and the relationships between national, state, and local government within that political structure. 1
2. Describe and evaluate the basic theories behind the U.S. Constitution and their role in contemporary American political life. 3. Compare the functions of the three branches of government. 4. Explain the differences in the major contemporary political ideologies and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. 5. Compare the influence of political parties, interest groups, the media and public opinion in public policy decisions. 6. Identify and explain the major theories and challenges in domestic and foreign political affairs. 7. Explain the role of state and local governments with a particular emphasis on the distinguishing characteristics of California government. Any of the information below may be included in the Syllabus Quiz. The quiz will not focus on minute details. The goal is to force you to read the Syllabus carefully and think about its contents. Virtual Classroom Rules: It is your responsibility to keep up with the quizzes and exams. It is also very important that you post comments on the Discussions Boards (which I describe in more detail below) as directed. While I do not have a zero tolerance policy for submitting late work, my tolerance is pretty close to zero. Additionally, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have the knowledge, software, and hardware to participate fully in the class. If you have any technological problems, contact Blackboard support via email at bbsupport@canyons.edu or via phone at (661) 362-3344. Disabled Student Programs and Services: Federal law (Section 508) requires that all online classes be accessible to students with disabilities. College of the Canyons takes this responsibility very seriously. If you have a disability that makes it difficult for you to access any part of this class, please contact me immediately. Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSP&S) offers educational support services for students with disabilities who are enrolled in college classes. The program provides services to students with a variety of disabilities. The DSP&S staff can be helpful in providing a variety of services including academic counseling, general studies classes/tutorial lab, test-taking accommodations, and note takers. Students with verifiable disabilities may contact DSP&S by calling (661) 362-3341. DSP&S staff and I are committed to assisting to students with disabilities. Email: I will be communicating with you via email throughout the winter intersession. My emails are automatically sent to the email account provided by College of Canyons. Therefore, you MUST set up and check your MyCanyons email account on a regular basis. For information on how to have your MyCanyons email forwarded to the account you check more regularly, click here. If you have not received an email from me by the second day of class, email me immediately. Grading Policy: There are three components to your grade which I describe in detail below: 12 best quizzes @ 10 points each = 120 points possible 2 exams @ 200 points each = 400 points possible Participation = 200 points possible TOTAL = 720 points possible 2
Grading Scale: A = 648-720 B = 576-647 C = 504-575 D = 432-503 F = 431 or less In the sections below, I describe all three components of your grade and provide tips to help you prepare for each. You should read this section extremely carefully. The information will be easier to understand once you have access to the class webpage. For now, try to understand the structure of the class, get an idea of the work that will be involved, pay attention to the tips I provide, and determine whether this is the right class for you. Once the winter intersession begins, you should refer back to the syllabus. This is particularly true when you begin preparing for Exam 1 and 2. Reading Questions and Quizzes: The chapters of the textbook that you will be reading are identified in the Course Schedule below. For each chapter, I provide 25 Reading Questions. The Reading Questions are based solely on the readings, not on the lectures. You will be taking a quiz after you complete each chapter. Blackboard will randomly select 10 of the 25 Reading Questions. You will find the Reading Questions and Quizzes on the class webpage. As you read the chapters, it is a good idea to have a copy of the Reading Questions with you. Some students like to print out the Reading Questions. Others prefer to have an electronic copy available on their laptop, computer, or phone. You should use whichever method matches your learning style. I have tried to set up the Reading Questions so that you can answer them as you read the chapter. If you are unsure about an answer to one of the Reading Questions, you can post a question about it on the Reading Questions Discussion Board. [The rules for posting on the Reading Questions Discussion Board are described below in the section on Participation. Be sure to read them carefully.] Once you re confident in your answers, you are ready to take the quiz. You have twenty minutes to complete each quiz. Once you activate a quiz by clicking on it the countdown begins and cannot be stopped. Therefore, make sure you have your Reading Questions readily available. You are allowed to take each quiz twice. However, since the questions are selected at random, the questions you get the second time may not be the same as the questions you got on the first quiz. Blackboard will only record your highest score. For example, if you get 10 correct answers on the first attempt and only 9 on the second attempt, your score in Blackboard will be 10. Over the course of the semester, you will take fifteen quizzes (excluding the Syllabus Quiz). For the purposes of calculating your final grade, I only count the twelve highest quiz scores. As you will see on the Course Schedule, the Readings Quizzes are due at 11:59 p.m. on the day before the exam, at which point, the links will no longer be visible on the webpage. However, in the Course Schedule, you will see that I provide Recommended Due Dates to encourage students not to wait until the last minute to complete their quizzes or Discussion Board posts. The Recommended Due Dates have an asterisk after them. There is also a note below the Course Schedule explaining the meaning of the asterisks. If you email me because you re not sure when the Quizzes and Discussion Board posts are due, I ll know you did not read the syllabus carefully. Exams: There will be two exams, the dates of which are listed on the Course Schedule. The exams can be found by clicking on the Exams tab on the class webpage. The exams include 20 multiple point questions (worth a total of 40 points) and five essay questions (worth a total of 160 points). Once an exam is activated by clicking on it the countdown begins and cannot be stopped. You will have 1 ½ hours to complete each 3
exam. The exams will be available for 24 hours. As noted above, while I do not have a zero tolerance policy for submitting late work, my tolerance is pretty close to zero. Part I: Multiple Choice Questions (20%) Each exam will include 20 multiple-choice questions. The multiple-choice questions will be randomly selected from the Reading Questions for that exam. As I noted above, your answers to the multiple choice questions should be based entirely on the textbook, not my lectures. As with the quizzes, you should have your Reading Questions readily available when you take the exam. It is worth noting that students in my face-to-face classes do not have access to their Reading Questions when they take their exams. In order to do well on the exams, they have to memorize the answers to the Reading Questions. This gives you an advantage over students in my face-to-face classes. Part II: Essay Questions (80%) Each exam will also include five essay questions. There will be two 50-point questions and three 20-point questions on each exam. The questions on your exam are randomly selected from a larger pool of questions. Whenever I introduce a concept, I begin by providing a definition. Next, I elaborate on the definition, explaining each of its terms. Lastly, I provide an example to explain the concept. To do well on the exams, you should follow the same structure. First, you MUST write in full and complete sentences. You should not write in bullet points or in outline form. Second, complete answers will begin with a succinct and accurate definition of the concept(s) in the question followed by a more detailed description of the concept(s) and, whenever appropriate, an example. This is particularly true of the 50-point questions. Students who simply copy and paste the information from the lecture notes without any elaboration or examples should expect to get a D. Additionally, your answers to the essay questions must be based entirely on the information presented in the lecture videos. If your answers are based on the information in the textbook or any source other than my lectures, I will assume you did not watch or understand the lecture videos and grade you accordingly. On a number of occasions, students have used Internet sources to answer the essay questions. If you attempt to do so and I find out, you will receive an F on the exam. If you re thinking you ll be able to do so without me catching you, you re mistaken. It gives me no pleasure to inform you that over the last three semesters, I have caught five students relying on information other than my lecture videos. Each of them received an F on their exams and had to retake the class. Additionally, I have caught three students plagiarizing material from other sources. In each case, they not only received an F on their exams but I reported them to the Dean of Student Services. In one case, the student was expelled from College of the Canyons. In another case, the student was suspended for a semester. The third case is still pending but I suspect it will end in a suspension. Don t cheat! To help you prepare for the exams, I provide a comprehensive study guide. The essay questions on the exam are similar and, in some cases, identical to the questions on the study guide. In order to improve your performance on the exams, it is a good idea to write full and complete answers to all of the questions in the study guide. I think the best approach is to write your answers immediately after you watch the videos. You can and should use the lecture notes that I provide to make sure you re addressing all of the main points in the question. If you take the time to complete the study guide BEFORE the exam, in many instances, you ll be able to copy and paste your answer from the study guide into the exam. And, remember, it s not plagiarizing if you re copying and pasting your own words. However, you cannot simply copy and paste my lecture notes into the exam. You have to demonstrate that you understand the concepts in the question. Use my lecture notes as an outline. Your task is to fill in the details by elaborating on the definitions and providing examples. 4
Participation: There are a variety of ways for students to participate. Emailing me directly or attending virtual office hours (via Skype) all count as participation. The main way to participate is by posting on one of three Discussion Boards. As you will see on the Course Schedule, the Discussion Board posts are due at 11:59 p.m. on the day before the exams. After the due date, the links to the Discussion Boards will no longer be visible. As with the quizzes, I provide Recommended Due Dates for your Discussion Board posts. It probably won t surprise you to learn that most students ignore my Recommended Due Dates. It might surprise you to learn that when I get emails from students asking me to extend the actual due dates, I reply by copying and pasting this portion of the syllabus. The three Discussion Boards are as follows: a. Lecture Discussion Board: After you have watched all of the lecture videos on a specific topic (e.g., Assessing Democracy, Constitution, Federalism, etc.), you MUST post something on the appropriate Lecture Discussion Board that includes three components: 1. You should identify at least one new and/or interesting thing you learned from the lecture. 2. You should identify at least one thing you believed before that you no longer believe or have come to doubt. 3. You should ask for clarification on information I presented in the lecture videos. If I do not respond to your question, email me at phil.gussin@canyons.edu and let me know you ve posted a question. I designed the Lecture Discussion Board assignment based on studies of the learning process. Research indicates that people learn best when they connect new information to old information. That is exactly what the first two parts of the Lecture Discussion Board assignments are designed to do: help you connect the new information presented in my lecture videos to the information you already have stored in memory. If you put some thought into your posts, you will develop a greater understanding of the concepts presented in the lecture videos and it will be reflected in your exams. If you put a minimal effort into your posts, you will still get credit for completing the assignment, but you won t learn the concepts as well. And that lack of understanding will be evident on your exams. b. Current Events Discussion Board: With the presidential nominating process in full swing, terrorist organizations threatening the United States at home and abroad, student loan debt piling up, war spreading throughout the Middle East, growing concerns about the Earth s climate, mass shootings and a host of other problems, you may have questions and/or comments about current political events. You can earn participation points by posting your questions and/or comments on the Current Events Discussion Board. If you ask questions about matters related to politics, I will do my best to answer your questions. All comments must be respectful. I don t mind students disagreeing with one another. I will not tolerate them being disrespectful to one another. If you cannot find a respectful way to express yourself, don t post anything. Examples of being disrespectful include but are not limited to comments that question the motives, intelligence, patriotism, or morals of another student. c. Reading Questions Discussion Board: If you are unsure of the answer to one of the Reading Questions, you can earn participation points by posting a question about it on the Reading Questions Discussion Board. However, you may not simply ask your virtual classmates for the correct answer. You must identify the answer(s) you believe is correct and explain your reasoning. 5
You can also earn participation points by responding to questions. However, responses cannot simply identify the correct answer. They must explain why a particular answer is correct. Comments that fail to meet these guidelines will be deleted from the discussion board and will NOT count towards your participation grade. Failing to participate can have a dramatic impact on your final grade. For example, if you earn 100% of the points possible on the exams and quizzes but do not participate at all, the highest grade you can earn in the class is a B. If you earn 95% of the points possible on the exams and quizzes but do not participate, the highest grade you can earn is a C. Do not forget to participate! Academic Dishonesty While I encourage collaboration, students are expected to do their own work as assigned. Students must complete their assignments and exams independently of one another. If the wording of your answers closely approximates the wording of other students who are taking or have taken the class, you will receive 50% of the possible points on the assignment or exam. If the problem persists, it will be treated as an instance of academic dishonesty. At College of the Canyons, we believe that academic integrity and honesty are some of the most important qualities college students need to develop and maintain. To facilitate a culture of academic integrity, College of the Canyons has defined plagiarism and academic dishonesty. Due process procedures have been established when plagiarism or academic dishonesty is suspected. At COC, we define plagiarism as follows: Plagiarism is the submission of someone else s work or ideas as one s own, without adequate attribution. In this class, you will not need to worry about attributions. The only source you should be using to answer the questions in the study guide and one the exams are my lecture notes. When a student submits work for a class assignment or exam that includes the words, ideas or data of others, without acknowledging the source of the information through complete, accurate, and specific references, plagiarism is involved. If the student is attempt to pass of the work as his/her own, plagiarism is involved. This may include dual submissions of a similar work for credit for more than one class, without the current instructor s knowledge and approval. Students do not have to cite information presented in the lecture videos. To be specific, below are some of the situations that will be considered plagiarism at COC. Use information from any source, online or in print, in one s own writing without acknowledging the source in the content and in the reference page of the assignment; Simply list the sources in the reference page, without parenthetical citations in the body of the essay; Take more than one printed line of words consecutively from the source without putting quotation marks around them, even though the student has put the author s name in the parentheses or in the reference page; Turn in work done for other classes, regardless how big or small the assignment may be, without the current instructor s approval this is considered self-plagiarism, which is a form of academic dishonesty; or, Turn in work by another student, even by accident. Cases of alleged academic dishonesty, such as plagiarism or cheating, will be referred to the Dean of Student Services for investigation. 6
READING MATERIAL Custom Bundle includes two textbooks in one (available at COC bookstore): We The People by Ginsberg, et. al. & Governing California by Anagnoson, et. al. ISBN: 9780393600278. Course Schedule Day Topic Due Dates M 1/4 Assessing Democracy.01 -.07 Chapter 1 Quiz* T 1/5 Assessing Democracy.08 -.12 Assessing Democracy Discussion Board* W 1/6 Constitution.01 -.04 Chapter 2 Quiz* TH 1/7 Constitution.05 -.09 Constitutional Discussion Board* F 1/8 Federalism.01 -.05 Chapter 3 Quiz, Federalism Discussion Board* S 1/9 Civil Liberties.01 -.06 Chapter 4 Quiz* SN 1/10 Civil Liberties Discussion Board* M 1/11 Public Opinion.01 -.06 Chapter 6 Quiz* T 1/12 Public Opinion.07 -.11 Public Opinion Discussion Board* W 1/13 News Media.01 -.04 Chapter 7 Quiz* TH 1/14 News Media.05 -.08 Chapter 8 Quiz* F 1/15 Elections.01 -.03 News Media Discussion Board* S 1/16 Elections.04 -.07 Chapter 10 Quiz* SN 1/17 Elections Discussion Board* M 1/18 All Exam 1 Quizzes and Discussion Board Post Due T 1/19 Exam 1 W 1/20 Political Parties.01 -.03 Chapter 9 Quiz* TH 1/21 Interest Groups.01 -.06 Political Parties Discussion Board* F 1/22 Congress.01 -.04 Chapter 11 Quiz* S 1/23 Congress.05 -.08 Interest Groups Discussion Board* SN 1/24 Chapter 12 Quiz* M 1/25 Congress.09 -.11 Congress Discussion Board* T 1/26 HABBAL.01 -.05 HABBAL Discussion Board* W 1/27 Presidency.01 -.04 Chapter 13 Quiz* TH 1/28 Presidency.05 -.08 Presidency Discussion Board* F 1/29 Bureaucracy.01 -.06 Chapter 14 Quiz* S 1/30 Bureaucracy Discussion Board* SN 1/31 Judiciary.01 -.05 Chapter 15 Quiz* M 2/1 Judiciary.06 -.09 Judiciary Discussion Board* T 2/2 Civil Rights.01 -.05 Chapter 5 Quiz* W 2/3 Civil Rights Discussion Board* TH 2/4 California.01 -.04 7
F 2/5 All Exam 2 Quizzes and Discussion Board Post Due S 2/6 Exam 2 *Recommended Due Dates. All chapters and Discussion Board Posts are due on the day of the exam. Note: This syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor in order to adapt to instructional needs. 8