Judgment about the progress of your work is based on the quality and depth of critical and constructive thinking exhibited on tests and posts on readings. Your writing and comments on tests and the Philosophy Forum should not consist merely of a statement of your opinions, your religious beliefs or your feelings about the issues. Instead, your comments should express reasons, grounds, or evidence for your agreement or disagreement with the philosophies you are studying. Tests are available on the homepage of this course at least one week before the due date.
Your course grade is determined by averaging the points you achieve from the following scores:
On the Philosophy Discussion Board a minimum of two critical comments per week are posted on the readings, where specific ``weeks'' are specified in the online class schedule. The grade for reading posts is established by the average of three grades assigned from the three periods of the course corresponding to the three online tests. That is, a grade is given for messages posted before Test 1, another for messages posted after Test 1 but before Test 2, and a third grade for messages posted after Test 2 but before Test 3. These three grades then are averaged and count for 25% of your course grade.
Your final course grade is assigned according to your final average.
Your semester average is determined by adding the three take-home tests and the average grade of the weekly posts and dividing by four. Your grade for the course is based upon this average in accordance with the corresponding letter grade in the table given in 3.5 Assignment of Grades in this Syllabus.
All grades during the semester will be posted on the Philosophy Server. Mid-term grades will be posted on Blackboard. Students should realize that the mid-term grade is only used to indicate their approximate progress at the point in time that the grade is issued and the mid-term grade is not a factor in computation of the student's final grade. Information about logging in to Blackboard is available here:
http://www.lander.edu/its/services/webct/FAQs_for_CE_6.html
Judgment about the progress of your work is based on the above four scores. The course is essentially performance based and consists of a progressive series of concepts to be learned and mastered. For this reason, few students can do well in this course by ``cramming'' just before exams. I cannot emphasize this point too much. Study daily.
Normally, the course is not difficult if you study regularly, keep up with the reading and homework daily, and do not attempt to learn a large amount of information at one time. Understanding philosophy cannot be hurried; only by spending some time and patience does philosophy finally prove accessible. Please check with former students about the importance of regular study.
As illustration of the rather obvious differences among various essay questions composed by students with previous reading and thought as opposed to questions composed by students who have not previously studied the readings before writing the test, see the online pages explaining example evaluations of test essay questions:
http://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/essay_answer.shtml
http://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/essay_answer2.shtml
Please keep in mind the following points:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html
If you are unsure how to cite sources, try the citation engine here for MLA, APA, Turabian, or Chicago styles here:
http://www.languagetool.org/languages/
You can define additional grammar rules to check for with this program, but it is not nearly as useful at Microsoft's
grammar checker in MS WordTM.
http://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/faq.shtml
The tests are neither based on memorized facts nor based on objective information derived from memorized arguments. Instead, the emphasis given in tests is on the operation and active transformation or manipulation of the concepts learned. ``Operation and active transformation or manipulation of the concepts learned'' implies writing in your own words.
On paragraph and essay questions, be sure to answer with complete sentences; answers provided as lists of phrases or the names of concepts, alone, do not reflect an understanding of the subject and will be given little, if any, credit. Example tests with answers and lecture notes for previous non-Blackboard classes are online at http://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/. Test Review Worksheets are provided in the A Appendix to this syllabus and form a good basis for studying for tests as you study for the weekly readings.
Even though tests are written with open books and open notes, because of the nature of philosophical inquiry, consistent study and understanding is essential to write with insight and understanding.
Rather than just naming the subject as very general category such as the name of a chapter or the name of a philosopher, please take a moment to state the subject more specifically as shown in the examples above. (I realize precise subjects are difficult to compose because of the text-length limitation of the Philosophy Forum Program).
Comments should be critical and show a serious attempt to understand the philosophy presented for the week. Statements of agreement or disagreement with the readings must be accompanied by reasons, grounds, or evidence for your view. Try to avoid personal stories unless they give insight into the philosophical points made in the readings or online notes. It is always relevant to state difficulty in understanding after an attempt to explicate a philosophical point of view in your own words. Asking for confirmation of your interpretation of the author is a standard way of posting.
You are free to read ahead so long as discussion comments and tests are completed in accordance with the course assignment schedule. The readings listed in the assignment schedule are the minimum number of readings for this course; consequently, it's a good idea to post more than the minimum just in case one or more of your posts are not critical. Also, you are encouraged to consult as many of the recommended links and sources listed in the course notes and tutorials as is necessary for clear understanding as well as providing information for helpful comments on the Forum.
Posting twice a week is not a guarantee that you will receive full credit for posting. Note that your post must have critical content of some kind--even if your post is to ask for help in understanding a philosopher or reading. See the Section ``Philosophy Forum'' in 3.11 for information on how to post messages.
Your final course grade is assigned according to your final average as described above in Section 3.1. The number of hours advised to study given below is usually an accurate guide to how well you will do in this class. If you study only before tests or try to complete tests without prior reading, your doing well in the course is unlikely. Many students assume they can do well in philosophy without careful reading because they have been able to do so in other high school or college classes. Since these students have become habituated to passing courses without much study, they are often alarmed to discover our philosophy course is substantially different from what they have expected. As stated above, our Web course puts a substantial burden on you to take charge of your own learning.
You may access your grades online at any time on the Philosophy Server (not Lander Blackboard) with a username and password (not your Blackboard username and password) as described here.
Username: Your username for the course is the first letter of your first name followed by your complete last name in lowercase letters and without spaces. For example ``Lauren Bouchett Satterfield'' would have the login username of ``lsatterfield'' with no limitation of number of letters (as in some email programs).
Password: Your password is your Lander L-number (without hyphen). Type a capital L followed by eight digits: e.g., Lxxxxxxxx.
Where to Log In: From the Philosophy Homepage click on the yellow ``Introduction to Philosophy" link under the gray heading entitled ``Class Grades" as in Figure 1.
With Microsoft
WordTM 2007 the default docx extension must be changed to a doc format. So if you are using Microsoft WordTM2007, you need to convert the document into a doc file rather than using Microsoft's default docx file, which cannot be read by non-Microsoft Word 2007 text editors. To accomplish this file conversion, click the Office Button at the left-hand top of the page, and at the bottom of the drop down box click on the ``Word Options'' button. In the pop-up Word Options window, click ``Save.'' Under the ``Save Documents'' section, next click on the drop-down ``Save files in the format.'' Click on ``Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).'' Finally, click on the ``OK'' button.
The screenshot in Figure 3 illustrates the process in Microsoft WordTM2007. Additional information on file conversion is available here:
http://www.lander.edu/its/services/webct/FAQs_for_CE_6.html#FAQ
If you word process with StarOffice
, OpenOffice
, (Sun Microsystems, LGPL), WordPerfect©, or a word processing program other than Microsoft
WordTM 2003, save your document with a doc (or rtf or txt) file extension.
To make this change, when your document is finished and ready to save, on the menu bar near the top of the page in your work processing program, click on ``File.'' When the drop-down menu appears, click on ``Save As.'' Next click on the down-triangle next to ``File Type,'' and click on any one of the following:
The doc file extension is preferred. The screenshot in Figure 4 illustrates the process in OpenOffice
.
Online quizzes are provided as study aids only and may be used for self-testing. They are entirely optional and form no part of your grade in this course. Practicing with the online quizzes is especially important to test your understanding of the important concepts before writing essays for the take-home tests. Practice online quizzes are available here:
http://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/quizzes.html
As a Lander student, you will need an email account, and you are encouraged to use your Lander email account assigned to you at registration. Information on your Lander email account is available at
http://www.lander.edu/its/students/student_email.html
Your email account information is listed under the ``My Profile'' section in Bearcat Web. Your default password should be your birth date in as yyyymmdd, (i.e., June 10, 1987 = 19870610).
The Office of Computing Services has set up a server whereby you can check your email on the following Web page:
Instructions for configuring your mail client such as Microsoft
Outlook
or Outlook Express
are described at
http://www.lander.edu/its/students/student_email.html
If you are on campus and you need further help with Lander email, you may obtain help from Lander's ITS (Lander's Information Technology Services) or from the Computer Labs in Jackson Library or Laura Lander Hall.
When you use email, please observe the following guidelines:
and is well worth study-especially for graduating seniors first entering the marketplace.
The Blackboard Discussion Board is not used in this class. Instead, we will be using the Philosophy Forum on the Philosophy Server at
http://philosophy.lander.edu/cgi-bin/mwf/forum.pl
for which you will need to register as described below in 3.11 Philosophy Forum.
The Philosophy Forum is used in our online class for the posting of questions of any kind, reading comments, and replies to comments. The minimum number of comments posted is two comments per week, although more comments are evidence of student involvement in the course. Only comments analyzing some part of the reading selections count toward your ``Reading Posts'' grade as discussed above in Section 3.5 Evaluation and Section 3.4 Reading Posts and Comments above.
The Philosophy Forum is an important part of obtaining help in real time from your classmates and from your instructor. You are encouraged to post questions, problems, or answers on any topic relating to the course policies, procedures, or homework of our philosophy class. Your post is placed directly on the Philosophy Web and can be immediately accessed by anyone in the world. The Philosophy Forum is a good place to obtain a pre-evaluation of your philosophy reading questions or to seek answers to questions at the beginnings of the readings.
The purpose of the Philosophy Forum is to discuss the daily class activities of our philosophy course: reading posts, comments, homework questions, homework answers, housekeeping matters, class procedures, assignments, test dates, and class policies.
Signing up for the Philosophy Forum is a completely separate procedure from Blackboard and is explained here.
(notice that there is no ``www'' in this URI or Web address), click on the ``Philosophy Forum'' link.
Lost Password: If you lose or forget your password to the Philosophy Forum, click on the Login link on the upper-right of the Homepage. At the bottom of the Login page in a box labeled ``Request Password.'' Fill in your username in the username bar, and click the ``Request'' button. Your password will be sent to your email address.
Forgotten Username: If you have forgotten your username to the Philosophy Forum, click on the Login link on the upper-right of the Homepage. At the bottom of the Login page in a box labeled ``Request Password,'' fill in your account's email address in the username bar, and click the ``Request'' button. Your username will be sent to you via your account's email.
Forgotten Email Address: If you have forgotten your email address and you have posted to the Philosophy Forum at least once in the past, then find your message on the Philosophy Forum and click on your username. Your ``Profile Page' will load, and your email address will be displayed, if you chose not to hide it when you first registered for the Philosophy Forum.
When you login to the Philosophy Forum for the first time, you must enter personal information on your Profile page. To accomplish this, log in to the Philosophy Forum and click on the ``Option'' link at the top of the page.
When the Profile page loads, you can change your password to a more easily remembered password if you wish to do so. Choose a simple easily remembered password, and record the password in your philosophy notebook or in the space provided below:
Username:
Password:
Also, on this Profile page, be sure to enter your real name so that your posts can be credited. Unless your real name is recorded here on the Profile Page, credit cannot be assigned to your posts since the recording program does not have your name to collate with your posts. If you wish to hide your email address when you post, check the appropriate box on this page. I recommend, but do not require, that you do not hide your email address so that your instructor and other students can email you privately. If you do hide your email address, be sure to check your official Lander email account for class-related communications daily even if you do not normally use that email account, for this will be the only way I have to contact you, if you hide your email address. When finished entering the information you want, scroll way, way down to the bottom of the page and click on the ``Change'' button so your information will be saved.
Finding out how many times you have posted: After you post to the Philosophy Forum, if you click on your blue hyperlinked username or you click on ``Options'' at the top of the page in the Philosophy Forum program, you can find out how many times you have posted as well as find out about your other personal data. To do so, click ``Info'' on the line just below your username on the Profile page. Next, click on the ``Posts'' link for a list of all your messages.
(again, note there is no "www in this URL,) click on the ``Philosophy Forum'' link toward the middle of the left-hand column.
When the ``Online Discussion/Post (SEMESTER)'' page loads, click on the ``Add Topic" link. See Figures 9 and 10.
Other than some occasionally offered intriguing problems on tests, no other opportunities for extra credit are offered in this class. Subjects and problems for this course have been chosen on the basis that they are the best and most important introduction to beginning study of philosophy. ``Extra Credit'' problems are in addition to class requirements--not a substitute for, or a make-up of, missed class assignments.
Our course is not difficult if you study daily and keep up with the assigned work.
A good place to see how to study in our course is the ``Notes on How to Study'' on the Web at
http://philosophy.lander.edu/study-topics.html.
If I do my job correctly, our philosophy course will be one of the most valuable in your university career.
The following policies are explicitly stated here because these policies help protect fairness of the course evaluation for the class as a whole. Some of these policies are generally assumed in most classes at Lander University.
Important This class policy includes the instructor's notes and tutorials on the Web. If you plagiarize from any work including the online notes, you will receive a ``0'' for your answer. Almost every semester since this online course has been taught, some students do not pass this course because they copy work from the online notes, from other students, or from the Internet without proper citation and/or because of collaboration with other students on True-False questions.
All papers are run through Turnitin (detects plagiarism from many sources, including the Web), WCopyFind (detects copying from previously submitted tests by other students), and Integrity's Castle Rock Research (detects collusion on objective, T-F, and multiple choice; see the FAQ for how this is done). More information is available on these sites:
http://http://turnitin.com/static/index.html
http://plagiarism.phys.virginia.edu/Wsoftware.html
http://integrity.castlerockresearch.com/
Phone: +1 864 388 8885
E-mail: studentwellness@lander.edu
The Academic Success Center offers testing accommodation for students with disability who need extra time as well as a quiet room for testing during the year. Please notify Gay Coleman, Learning Center 340, telephone +1 864 388 8317 and your instructor prior to the test date.
Much of the online material for this course is available elsewhere, mirrored at this online Website:
http://www.PhilosophyNotebook.com/intro/
When the Lander server is down, the mirror site should be available.
Also, these Websites will provide information in case of cancellations, delay of classes, or the closing of the university:
Lander University: http://www.lander.edu
State Office of Human Resources: http://ohr.sc.gov/OHR/OHR-index.phtm
Appendices
Lee Archie 2010-01-06