I have never liked to give minimum requirements because I believe they encourage people to reach for the bare minimum, and I believe that it can sometimes penalize students that like to get an early start in the P & E.

Responding to student feedback from previous terms however, I will state this semester that you must respond to a minimum of 3 other students throughout the week in order to earn the points for the discussion part of each P & E. You will not earn full points by waiting until the final day of the P & E to give all of your responses.

Initial attempt for each P & E must be made by Wednesday of the week. This does not have to be a complete solution, but must show that you have made a legitimate attempt at the problem(s) - you can make corrections to your attempt later in the week. Again - this requirement is in place so as not to penalize students that start early in the week.

The P & E category is an easy way to get bonus points for the course. There are actually 7 P & E opportunities for a possible 70 points and the category is evaluated out of 50 points. Most students list P & E as an area that needs improvement for courses. With permission, I am posting feedback from a previous student about P & E discussions to hopefully help you understand their importance.

This feedback is about the P&E. If what I have been reading and witnessing along the way is any indication of what students mention at the end of the course, it would seem students find limited value in the P&E. If this is indeed what is mention in feedback, then I wish there were double the responses that emphasize how important the P&E activities are to learning. Online education is NOT self-study, and I believe the design of the P&E in M126 not only invites, but also promotes, student-to-student interactions for the benefit of learning.

There are many benefits to P&E activities. We do not understand something until we are able to describe it, and I believe also able to critique it. When preparing a posting that will be read and potentially critiqued by peers, there is an additional emphasis on 'doing it right.' The activity encourages students to engage in the content more often than what may happen when procrastinating it. I believe the blend of activities is balanced and includes not only sharing our work, but also sharing our encouragement, help, and support for learning math online. It is no easy feat to learn math online; I believe it is more difficult than in a traditional setting. The P&Es do not present as 'finger exercises,' but instead strategic for the aim of each week and are challenging us to learn the material. In all, the P&E has been as important for my learning as the textbook, your video lectures, homework, and quizzes/exams.