COURSE INFO. DOCUMENT by: Bob Hassenger Subject: Learning Activities
Learning Activities
There are four types of learning activities in Social Change: Individual and Society, each with its own purpose:
1. Readings
There are three books, of increasing difficulty, that we shall read in during this course. The "in" is important: not every word of every book will be read. (As if they ever were.) We shall read all of Ehrenhalt; most of Bellah et al. (some parts more carefully than others), and more selectively in Barber. You will also be expented to follow up on most of the Web links provided, and to read carefully in some.
2. Discussions
The discussions are intended to help you further explore and think critically about the information you are reading and viewing. I shall pose questions to get the discussions going, at least during the first half of the term. I intend to be an active--two or three times a week--participant in the discussions, and expect each of you to be so, as well. The Instructor Discussion Question in each module asks you to apply specific concepts to a focussed question. As the course proceeds, I shall also be urging you to try to get at the assumptions behind differing views of the individual and community in recent and contemporary American life, and how these have been and are changing. I also expect to play a less directive role in the discussions as the course proceeds. At the beginning, I'll pose some possible questions, that seem interesting to me. As we get deeper into the course, I will expect each of you to take over more of this responsibiity. Some of my colleagues have small groups, but this is my first tour of duty as a Web course instructor/coordinator, and have no plans (as I write this, in Spring of 2003) to do that, this first time.
Your essay discussions are intended to test your understanding of important concepts and discover how to sharpen your intellectual skills of analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and application. Essays are intended to provide opportunities to more fully describe, explain, and analyze the books and other sources. When you submit essays, you may want to submit them as file attachments, as these usually retain your formatting. You will be required to document sources using the APA Format.
Locate information about library and research information for topics covered in this course using the links at the Empire State College Online Library and Learning Resources Center at http://www.esc.edu/library where you can find the supplemental information that you require for your assignments.
Use of these resources will encourage you to:
1. Develop "library" or "research" skills that can be used throughout your college studies
2. Become comfortable and competent locating academic resources, such as scholarly journals, online book collections, etc.
3. Go to the Empire State College Library as a logical starting point for finding high-quality academic research-related web sites.
You can find scholarly or academic sources to support your discussion at the Empire State College Library web site linking under Research Guides, called Historical Studies If you are not familiar with the ESC library, click on this link for helpful hints, You can also get help from the online cybrarian link on the library website.
Please read the Suny Empire State College statement on Academic Integrity before submitting any work for this course (including discussion postings). In addition, please document your sources carefully and use proper citation for all submissions to the course, including discussion postings.
Many documents you will be reading have an "Ask a Question" area at the bottom of the page. You click on this graphic when you have a question about the document you are reading at the time. When you use this link, it creates a discussion thread that the instructor and the other students can participate in. It is the equivalent of "raising your hand" in the classroom and it is an opportunity for you to ask a question that may be of significance to the whole class.
