Grades added to D2L

Hello Folks,

A couple of days ago I updated your grades on D2L. Please look them over and let me know if you have any questions.

As a reminder, starting tomorrow, I will have limited access to the internet. However, I will check my email on and off over the next week. I will resume full-time internet access on August 6th.

Next week is a pretty light week, and I anticipate very few issues. If any arise, please let me know.

Have a great weekend everyone!
:)
Carol

Email from July 28th

Hello Class,

As a reminder, your final project in the class is due by tomorrow night by 11:59pm. It is a good idea to have all components of the paper completed tonight, so that a final revision can take place either tonight or tomorrow.

It is also a good idea to get the final revision done by tomorrow evening so each member can look over the final paper (to address editing issues, etc...) before the final submission. Also, try to get together with your group members one more time, either by phone or over the internet (live chat room or the like) to have one last discussion about your final draft. It is also a good idea that every member reads over the final draft in case one person misses something. Many minds are better than one, right?

The paper you will turn in tomorrow night should be the best writing possible, the best analysis, etc... In short, this should be your group's very best work.

I look forward to hearing from each group by tomorrow night.

Have a fabulous day!
:)
Carol

Individual Paper - Social Organizations

Hi Folks!

I have been getting repetitive emails regarding the assignment due this week. There is NO individual paper due for this assignment, only the group portion. However, I really appreciate your willingness to write individual papers. ;)

Thanks for checking in with me, those of you who did.

:)
Carol

Week of July 25th - July 31th

Listed below is a summary of what's listed on the Participation and Schedule Pages on D2L for this week:

***Read Chapter 13 - Numbers?
***Review Chapter 15, as it is included in this weeks test.

***There is a Test this week on Chapters 8-10, 12, 13 & 15. Please go to D2L to take the quiz.

***As a reminder, the Critical Thinking in Social Organizations group essay should be turned in by Thursday, July 29th by 11:59pm. Go ahead and submit you papers early if you'd like.

Discussion: Answer one in each of your three posts, at least 12 hours apart:

1). Discuss one concept from Chapter 13 that you found useful. Please explain the concept and give a personal example or personal story. In other words, please apply the concept to everyday life and everyday argumentation.

2). Discuss the usefulness of the first or second major course assignment. Please use specific examples in your discussion.

3). Pick one concept from Chapter 13 that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

***Remember to post 3 comments to your colleagues blogs this week. As a reminder, the comments must be about the discussion this week. Posting on a past discussion will NOT count for credit.


***REMINDER*** I will be out of town starting on Friday, July 30th and will return on August 6th. However, I will be checking my email on and off throughout my travels, given that I will be in an area where there is spotty internet access at best, meaning I may not have reliable internet access everyday. I will try to check my email as often as possible, but I my response time may be delayed a bit this week. I will resume having consistent internet access as of August 6th in the evening.

Reasoning by Analogy

Chapter 12 covers the topic of reasoning by analogy. While I have taught this course before, the texts that I have chosen have covered many forms of reasoning, not just one or two. I used to use a book called "Everyday Argumentation", but have since switched over to the Epstein text for a number of reasons.

Other forms of reasoning I cover in my other classes are:

1). Reasoning by Analogy
2). Sign Reasoning
3). Causal Reasoning
4). Reasoning by Criteria
5). Reasoning by Example
6). Inductive
7). Deductive

You can click on the links above to take you to another webpage that explains different types of reasoning. While I do not encourage students to use wikipedia as a source on formal papers (at least until more regulation is in place for wikipedia), it is a great place to start research. The bottom of most wikipedia pages will have a list of resources. That list is a students best friend, not the wikipedia page itself.

You are more than welcome to apply any of these types of reasoning to your final projects in this course. Since you must apply a number of course concepts, feel free to use this list of reasoning when writing your final papers.

Grades posted for the week of 7/11-7/17

Hello Folks! I hope tonight finds you well.

Just a quick note to let you know that I have posted the grades for the discussion week of 7/11-7/17 to D2L. Please log onto D2L and take a look at your grade. If you have any questions about it, please email me immediately.

As a reminder, you should be checking your grades consistently. Please do not wait until the end of the semester to ask about a particular grade or discussion week. It is much easier to keep track as the semester progresses.

Have a great night!
:)
Carol

News and Politics

I have posted your grades for the News and Politics assignment to D2L. I have yet to fill out one category titled "News&PolParticipation". This category consists of how your colleagues have graded your group effort. I will send you an email today with your grade, and I will post it to D2L by the end of today.

Until later.........

Week of July 18th - July 24th

Listed below is a summary of what's listed on the Participation and Schedule Pages on D2L for this week:

***Read Chapter 10 - Too Much Emotion
***Read Chapter 12 - Reasoning by Analogy

***Continue to work on Assignment #2 (Critical Evaluation of a Social Organization). Assignment #2 is due on Thursday, July 29 by 11:59pm.

Discussion: Answer one in each of your three posts, at least 12 hours apart:

1). Discuss the idea of Appeal to Emotion. There are different aspects of Appeal to Emotion; which type of Appeal to Emotion strikes you, and why?

2). Pertaining to page 195, complete objective 1, 2, 3, 6, OR 7. (Chose only one to complete).

3). Pick one concept from Chapter 12 that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

***Remember to post 3 comments to your colleagues blogs this week. As a reminder, the comments must be about the discussion this week. Posting on a past discussion will NOT count for credit.

Individual Papers

Quick Note: You should receive an email with the grade for your individual paper late tomorrow night (Saturday).

Midterm Grades Changed

Hello Class!

I hope today finds you well. Next time you log on to D2L you will notice that your midterm grade has changed. Unfortunately when the information from Blackboard (our old learning system) was transferred to D2L (our new learning system), the points value for each question on the midterm was changed from 2 points to 1 point. The questions were in fact worth 2 points, so I changed the points value and your grades appropriately.

As a reminder, please get in contact with your new groups ASAP and schedule a "real time" meeting. Meeting over email is not sufficient. Groups that score the best on their papers have great, and consistent communication, so please communicate with each other often, starting with a "real time" meeting.

I should have the group portion of your papers returned by late tonight. The individual essays will take me another day or two.

Email me if you have any questions, I'm always here to help!
:)
Carol

New Groups Assigned

Hello Class!

I just emailed everyone letting you know who is in your new group for the coming assignment. You will have approximately 2 weeks to complete this group assignment, so get started right away.

You should contact your group NO LATER than Friday. By Saturday night (hopefully earlier), you should have 1 person email me with the date/time/location of your 'real time' meeting. This means that you should NOT be meeting over email, rather you should meet in-person, over the phone or in a live chat room. You MUST have at least 1 'real time' meeting for this assignment.

Email me immediately if you have questions pertaining to the coming assignment!

Have a wonderful evening!
:)
Carol

Week of July 11th - July 17th

Listed below is a summary of what's listed on the Participation and Schedule Pages on D2L for this week:

***Read Chapter 8 - General Claims
***Read Appendices - Truth Tables pg. 359-372 and Aristotelian Logic pg. 373-383
***Argument Mapping Tutorial: http://austhink.com/reason/tutorials/index.htm

***Start working on Assignment #2 (Critical Evaluation of a Social Organization)

Discussion: Answer one in each of your three posts, at least 12 hours apart:

1). Discuss one concept from Chapter 8 that you found useful. Please explain the concept and give a personal example or personal story. In other words, please apply the concept to everyday life and everyday argumentation.

2). Discuss one concept from the Truth Tables or Aristotelian Logic that you found useful. Please explain the concept and give a personal example or personal story. In other words, please apply the concept to everyday life and everyday argumentation.

3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

***Remember to post 3 comments to your colleagues blogs this week. As a reminder, the comments must be about the discussion this week. Posting on a past discussion will NOT count for credit.

Grades Posted

I will post grades from the discussion week of June 27th - July 3rd later this afternoon. Check D2L this afternoon for your grade, and as always, please email me if you have any questions about your grade.

My goal in this class is total transparency with grading, so make sure to email me if there are ever any questions.

Good luck on your midterm!

Reminders

Hello Folks!

The evaluations of your classmates are due by Saturday at 11:59pm. Once the deadline passes, I will respond to each individual submission, most likely on Sunday or Monday.

REMINDER: Please have the midterm completed by Saturday at 11:59pm.

Let me know if you have any questions about either of these.

Have a fabulous evening!
:)
Carol

Groupmate Evaluation Forms

I hope each of you had a great (and safe) 4th of July. Around where I live (3 hours from campus) there were numerous fires due to illegal fireworks. It was quite the evening!


This post is actually about the evaluation forms that are part of the Critical Thinking in News and Politics assignment. I will send out the evaluation forms tomorrow, and they will not be due until the end of the week (on Saturday). The evaluation forms are fairly easy to complete, and should only take you a matter of minutes to fill them out and return them to me by email.

The evaluations that you will complete are anonymous. This means that only I will see the evaluation forms that you fill out. I will then compile the grades that you have earned from your classmates, average the grades and assign a point value.

If there are any questions about this, please do not hesitate to ask!

Have a wonderful evening!!! :)

Week of July 4th - July 10th

Hello Folks!

This week there is no discussion. Listed below is from the Schedule Page on D2L:

*MIDTERM on Chapters 1-7, 9&11 on D2L. Log on to D2L anytime between now and Saturday to complete the midterm. Log on early as the midterm needs to be submitted by 11:59pm. (See the quizzes page for policies, time frames for quizzes/tests, etc.....)

Critical Thinking in News and Politics - Due TONIGHT

Reminder: The first paper, Critical Thinking in News and Politics is due tonight, no later than 11:59pm.

Evaluation of your group memebers

I will send out information about evaluating your group members participation over the weekend. At that time I will let you know of the due date.

I look forward to receiving your papers tomorrow. Remember, send the papers early to avoid late penalty.


ALSO: Please attach the individual papers to the end of the group portion of the paper with the writers name attached to the top of the individual paper. Let me know if there are questions about this.

Grading

Hello Again!

Since I have started to post your grades to D2L, I thought I would give you some additional information about grading in this class so there is no question about how I grade blogs every week.

A bit about grading: If you ever feel any ambiguity in the evaluation process in this course, please email me. My goal for this course is total transparency for each student. However, since this is an online course, transparency begins with you as the student. I can only address issues if I know they exist. If this were a face to face class I would be able to easily explain how grading works, chat with you before/after class about your grades, etc... Online classes face many challenges and some of you are aware of these challenges due taking repetitive online courses. Others may have expectations that are not being met. I have mentioned a few times so far that I'm always available to chat through email, Yahoo Messenger and over the phone in case there are every any questions.

How I evaluate your blog posts and comments: As stated on the Participation Page, I look for a few things:
*Have you complied with the guidelines listed on the Participation Page?
*Does the content of your post/comment relate to our reading this week?
*Have you address the question in its entirety on your post?
*Have your given thought to the post you have commented on?
*Have you included the minimum number of words required in each post/comment?
*Is your post/comment within our discussion week?

If all of these questions have a 'yes' answer, there should be no reason why you earn anything less than full credit.

I hope this helps to clear up any ambiguity as it relates to the evaluation of your posts.

Have a wonderfully fabulous (and communication filled) day!!!

Grades Posted and Blog Reminders

Hello Class! I just updated grades to D2L for the first discussion week and some other things. Please look over your grade and let me know if you have any questions.

Here are some reminders about blogging and commenting (just to reinforce the parameters):

1). There are 3 questions per discussion week. Please answer those questions in 1 post each on your blog. Make sure your posts are at least 12 hours apart. Pay attention to your date and time stamp. Each post should be 150 words minimum - there is no maximum.

2). Comments should be on 3 different blogs. Each comment should be a minimum of 100 words each. There is no time restriction for comments, and can all be done at the same time. Make sure you are logged into your blogger account when leaving comments so your alias/display name appears.

3). I check the word count for all blog posts and comments. It is your responsibility to make sure your posts and comments meet the minimum requirement.

4). Your posts and comments need to be within a given discussion week. This means that if our week runs from 6/13 to 6/19, and you comment on a post that is not within that date range, you will not receive credit for that comment. I only check the posts and comments for that week. I do not go back and re-check past posts to see if someone has mistakenly commented on a past post.

5). It is recommended that you keep track of all dates/times/locations/word counts of your posts and comments. If you would like to email me about a grade, please include the following information in your email:
*Time and date of your posts including word counts
*Time and date of your comments including word counts

The information I have included here is located on the Participation Page on D2L. It is your responsibility to know everything that is on D2L and what is posted to my blog.

As a reminder, check my blog frequently for updates.

As always, I am available for questions through email, over Yahoo Messenger and of course to schedule a phone conversation at any time.