Course Syllabus
U212, Rethinking Citizenship: Identity, Collaboration and Action
2nd 8-week Course, 2 credit hours, Fall 2014
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Instructor. Anne Weiss, MA, PhD Student, IU School of Education, Educational Leadership & Policy, Higher Education Student Affairs Administrations (HESA).
Communication. Your main way of communicating with me is through messaging in our Canvas course site. If a class-based emergency does occur please call or text me at 317-517-7479.
Course Purpose. The purpose of this interactive, digital course in citizenship is to teach the knowledge and skills of civic engagement in the 21st Century and to promote thoughtful student activism for the benefit of campus, local, state, and national communities
Course Conception of Civic Engagement. This course will take a broad and inclusive view of what it means to be civically engaged. At the most basic level, civic engagement refers to “individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern” (APA). Traditionally, such actions include campaigning, volunteering, voting, deliberating public problems, contacting public officials, and engaging in civil disobedience, boycotts, strikes, or even rebellions. Today, it is wise to expand our definition of civic engagement to include 21st Century cause-oriented activities such as crowdsourcing, blogging, online networking, and consumer boycotting (aka, boycotting).
Course Goals. By participating in this course, you will be challenged to:
- Understand and critically evaluate the democratic society in which you live,
- Redefine the concepts of citizenship and civic engagement, considering the collective impact of globalization and technology,
- Be a champion for the common good,
- Realize the power of individual and group action,
- Tackle real problems by looking for creative solutions, using available resources, collaborating with others, and taking risks, and
- Reflect upon and evaluate methods for civic activism.
General Education Student Learning Outcomes. In addition to the above-listed goals, your participation in this course will allow you to meet important general education outcomes. Specifically, you will:
- Know key terms, principles, and terminology of American public life,
- Identify, describe, and explain social institutions, structures, and processes within American public life,
- Assess and analyze ethical perspectives in individual and societal decisions, and
- Communicate knowledge, thoughts and reasoning clearly and effectively in forms appropriate to effective engagement in American public life.
Course Principles. Lastly, this course is designed around principles related to an inclusive, 21st Century conception of civic engagement as well as innovative pedagogy and positive game play. Specifically, the course will:
- Thrive on social interaction
- Promote peer learning
- Value individual student identity
- Build upon student strengths and interests
- Allow for student choice
- Provide opportunities for reflection
- Inspire urgent optimism and thoughtful activism
Readings and Resources. This course has no required textbook. Instead, you will need regular access to the internet in order to complete the Reqs, Challenges, and Discussions (see definitions below). These experiences will guide you through a series of open-access, digital, multimedia resources (e.g., primary and secondary readings, Web resources, videos, images, infographics). You will need to use these resources in order to successfully complete course activities.
Expectations
- Civic Action Plan. The capstone learning experience for this course is the completion of a Civic Action Plan. All students will be required to work on their Civic Action Plan throughout the course of the 8-weeks and submit it at the semester's conclusion.
- Reqs. Reqs are the handful of learning tasks that you must complete (therefore they are required, hence the abbreviation “Reqs”). They include introductory tasks and closing tasks, as well as tasks related to the issues that you choose to address.
- Challenges. This course has no required reading or viewing. Instead, it has Challenges. The trick is—you cannot successfully complete the Challenges without reading and/or viewing certain media contained in the Civic Library via Canvas. For each Challenge module, you will be presented with a menu of Level 1 and Level 2 Challenges. You must complete one Level 1 Challenge and one Level 2 Challenge during each Week of class.
- Discussions/Peer Review. Many studies have demonstrated the power of peer review as an effective learning activity. In other words, by participating in discussions or completing peer reviews of assignments, students gain a deeper understanding of course content. Accordingly, there are different Reqs for which you will be expected to review one of your classmates’ submissions in order for your submission to considered complete.
- Engagement. You are expected to have an online presence and regularly participate in network discussion as well as on the Great Civil Debate Wall. Each week you are expected to interact with “The Wall” three different times. Besides engagement with “The Wall” your engagement points will be earned through your ongoing presence and interaction through the above expectations.
Course Policies & Resources
Instructor Feedback Policy. Students can expect to receive responses from their instructor within 48 hours. For submitted work, students can expect to receive grades and/or feedback within 7 to 10 days from its due date.
Expected Time Commitment. Generally, successful college-level work requires at least three hours of reading, writing, video viewing, note taking, and research for every credit hour. Our students report that online courses take as much time, if not more, than a traditional classroom course. Plan and manage your time accordingly! If you find that you are not satisfied with your progress in the course, first ask yourself, "How much time am I devoting to it each week?" If it's less than six hours, there's your culprit.
Late Work Policy. Late work is not accepted. You are competent college students and I will treat you as such. Therefore, just as in work and other life circumstances you are expected to adhere to our deadlines. If you are not be able to meet a deadline (expected or not) this must be communicated to the instructor WELL IN ADVANCE of the deadline. Across the course schedule you will see that you have seven days to complete the weekly expectations/work. This means you must know more than a week in advance if you will not be able to complete an assignment AND communicate that with me. Other extenuating circumstances for missing an assignment will be addressed as they occur; documentation of extenuating circumstances (written excuses from coaches, doctors, etc.) may be expected.
Grading Policy. Over my years of teaching, I have come to realize that the fairest approach to grading is a hybrid criterion- and norm-referenced system. Criterion-referenced grading means that grades are assigned based on how students do relative to pre-determined criteria. For this course, rubrics serve as the pre-determined criteria. Norm-referenced grading means that grades are assigned based on how students do relative to one-another. For example, if one of your classmate's submissions meets all basic criteria outlined in the rubric, but your submission is more thoughtful, creative, and thorough, than you would receive a higher grade than your classmate who “only” met the basic criteria.
Online “Classroom” Climate Expectations
Because this class is expected to be a participatory community and students are expected to fulfill their potential for learning, people who disrupt the community by their words or actions disrupt our learning and participation. Because the very nature of producing online discourse is delicate, students are encourage to refrain from rude, sarcastic, obscene, or disrespectful speech and disruptive behavior because it may have a negative impact on everyone's learning. Students will receive one warning if their behavior is evaluated by the faculty member as disruptive. Inappropriate language, off-color remarks, or inhumane actions (rhetorical or literal) in class (read: online) will be treated as inappropriate and disruptive. If the disruptive behavior continues, the instructor will remove the disruptive person from the class, and that individual may fail (receive an “F”) in this course.
Any successful learning experience requires mutual respect on behalf of the student and the instructor. The instructor, as well as the fellow students, should not be subjected to any student's behavior that is in any way disruptive or overtly challenging to the instructor's legitimate authority to conduct and create on online learning environment. A student should not feel intimidated or demeaned by his/her instructor yet, students must remember that the instructor has primary (read: not sole) responsibility for authority over classroom behavior and maintenance of academic integrity. The instructor can order the temporary removal or exclusion from the classroom of any student engaged in disruptive conduct or conduct violating the general rules and regulations of the institution.
It is the not the sole responsibility of the faculty member to determine, maintain and enforce the standards of behavior acceptable to preserving an atmosphere appropriate for teaching and learning—students are expected to encourage each other to create and participate in an inclusive, learning environment.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity requires both students and teachers alike to conduct themselves in a straightforward and honorable manner. Indiana University, like all academic institutions, exists for the advancement of knowledge, the pursuit of truth, the development of students, and the promotion of the general well-being of society. We hold free inquiry, expression, and exchange of ideas as the foundations of academic pursuit, which consists of study, instruction, evaluation, or research.
Academic integrity is a joint endeavor. Instructors should be prepared for all student-teacher encounters, meet classes as scheduled, evaluate students’ work fairly and impartially, and be prompt for prearranged conferences and regularly scheduled office hours. Students should fulfill, in a reasonable way, the requirements and expectations of the course as outlined in this syllabus, the course calendar, and stated by the instructor.
Academic Misconduct
This and the following sections adapted with permission from the IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct
The Indiana University Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct defines academic misconduct “any activity that tends to undermine the academic integrity of the institution. . . . Academic misconduct may involve human, hard-copy, or electronic resources. . . . Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to . . . cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, interference, violation of course rules, and facilitating academic misconduct.”
Within this shared enterprise, instructors have another responsibility: that of making certain students can function in an atmosphere free of academic dishonesty. Students need to know that if they work honestly, they will not suffer because of those who do not. University policy states that the faculty member may assign an academic penalty for academic misconduct, and that the faculty member must report all cases of academic misconduct to university officials. (Procedures for Bloomington Campus).
According to the seriousness of the offense and any prior disciplinary history, the Dean of Students in consultation with the student's academic dean may add to any sanctions that I may have imposed. Dean of Students sanctions may range from disciplinary probation to expulsion from the university.
Forms of Misconduct
In addition to what is covered in this document, consult Part II of the Code, “Student Responsibilities,” for further details about forms of misconduct.
Cheating and Facilitating Academic Misconduct
According to the IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct, cheating is an “attempt to use or provide unauthorized assistance, materials, information, or study aids in any form and in any academic exercise or environment.” Egregious examples of cheating include having a substitute take a test, buying a term paper, or altering one’s grade. It is also an offense to knowingly help another student to cheat. While collaborative learning is often encouraged, working with others on projects explicitly assigned as individual is a form of cheating. It is therefore important to clarify for students—in writing—how you want students to collaborate, and what the limits of collaboration are.
Fabrication
Fabrication is a serious act of misconduct. Students commit fabrication when they “falsify or invent any information or data in an academic exercise.” “Cooking the data” is not an acceptable practice, nor is inventing sources (primary sources, secondary sources, interviews, etc.) for an assignment.
Plagiarism
Even after several semesters at IU, many students will not fully understand what plagiarism is. To plagiarize is to present “ideas, opinions, theories, formulas, graphics, or pictures of another person without acknowledgment”; i.e., to steal or pass off, in whole or in part, the work of another person as one’s own.
Interference
Students must not only perform their own work ethically, they “must not steal, change, destroy, or impede another student’s work.” Deleting others’ work or files in a collaborative space, ‘misplacing’ other students’ resources, or defacing materials and rendering them unusable constitute interference. While ripping pages from journals in our libraries may not necessarily be aimed at impeding specific students, this kind of action has the same result as more intentionally focused interference and is discouraged.
Campus Resources
IU Bloomington is a large campus with vast student resources. Knowing where to go and whom to ask when you need assistance will enrich your IU experience and ensure you never feel alone. Take advantage of the following IU support and safety services, and be sure to save essential numbers and addresses in your cell phone or a handy contact list.
Campus Policies and Student Rights
- Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct
- Enrollment and Student Academic Information Bulletin
- Incident Teams
- Student Advocates Office
- Student Affairs
- Student Ethics and Anti-Harassment Programs
- Student Legal Services
- Tobacco-Free Policy
International, Diversity, and Family Resources
- Child Care Services
- Disability Services
- Diversity Resources
- GLBT Student Support Services
- International Services
- Understanding International Instructors
- Veterans Support Services
Cultural Centers and Activities
A home for all students interested in Asian cultures, offering educational support and cultural events
First Nations Educational and Cultural Center
Center for First Nations, Indigenous, and the non-Native ally community who support Natives and Native culture
Latino Cultural Center (La Casa)
Community, academic, and service programs to promote understanding of Latino/Latina culture
Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center
Educational, cultural, and social programs promoting awareness about the black experience
Contact information for the more than 60 international student groups on campus
Bloomington Worldwide Friendship
Matches international students with Bloomington residents to form friendships
Information Technology and Computing
The size of nearly six NCAA basketball courts, the Information Commons in the Herman B Wells Library is a popular gathering place for students. Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, the IC features 350 individual and group-configured workstations, wireless networking, a multimedia production lab, and round-the-clock computing consultants. Students can borrow laptops, digital cameras, and video cameras.
Technology resources and other services for undergraduates
Services and hours for this building, which holds 4.6 million volumes
Award-winning database of answers to computing questions
Web-based portal that provides a common front door to online IU services
Deals, recommendations, and information about operating systems
Press releases, IT spotlight, IT@IU
Instructor-led and self-study computing classes
Free software you can download
Computing accounts, administration, and assistance
Student Technology Centers (STCs)
Campus computer labs offering up-to-date tools and expert consultants
Course Summary:
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