This online course also relies on each student's ongoing participation in the online discussions and giving comments; in this way we hope to facilitate scaffolding among the instructors and students, as well as among the students. Your participation will be graded based upon the rubric that we will review at the initial class, which looks to quality, timeliness, responsiveness, and moving the reviews/comments forward. Online discussions and comments will run from Monday until Friday midnight (Yakutsk time), after which online postings will not count. Generally online participation runs from Sunday-Friday but we appreciate that many of you need the time on the weekends. There are different discussions formats and comments that you are required to respond to, however only team discussions and comments in the project will be officially graded. Later in the semester we may drop discussions and comments if all is going well, or look to one for extra credit, etc. The postings to be graded will be chosen randomly and you will be informed after the close of each module which postings were graded for that module; this is to ensure that students are held to the highest standard in their discussing/commenting responses.
You will work in teams. Generally, each team will be required to respond to the main discussing problem and then also make comments on the responses of other teams in the course. Please note that the quantity of responses is not as important as the quality of the responses.
One Free Pass: Each student is entitled to one free pass, which means that the team can exempt from a particular online participation and the related discussion response at any time throughout the semester. The only requirement is that the student informs us in advance, no later than the Friday prior to the new week's discussion (which begins on Monday). Also, if the student takes its free pass on one of the "designated" graded discussion questions, the student’s grade will not be effected (your points will be based on total available points).
During the CMC discussions, each team may be assigned a special role. All teams will have multiple opportunities to play a special role at some time. There will be three special roles:
Starter - If you are designated a starter, your job is to post a preliminary posting to get the review/comments started about a particular reading. Post your starter writing assignment on the first day of the review/comments period.
Wrapper - If you are designated a wrapper, your job is to summarize the points that were made during the review/comments with regard to a particular reading. Post your wrap-up comment during the last day of the review/comments period or before class on the day immediately following the review/discussion period.
Gadfly - If you are designated a gadfly, your job is to challenge points made by other members of the class. Do not try to challenge every comment, but pick out a couple of posting from classmates and make counter-arguments. Your job is to keep the review/comments balanced by bringing up other points of view. The role of gadfly will be kept secret until after the week; gadflies will be assigned their roles via private e-mail.
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