Contribution to online discussions will be worth 50 points.
Residency classes and synchronous sessions will include discussion of group/team theories and concepts and their application. You are expected, of course, to thoroughly read the relevant material and contribute to everyone’s learning in the classroom. You are expected to attend every class session during Residency Week (and be eagerly engaged in our collective learning) unless there is some extraordinary circumstance, such as illness or a University-approved absence. The instructor also reserves the right to reduce your points if you are taking away from class learning and/or are engaging in inappropriate classroom behaviors, such as Twitter, e-mail, Facebook, bill paying, and so on during class—do those things later.
For the online portion of the course, participation and contribution is evaluated primarily by the quality and secondarily by the quantity of your comments in discussions. For each lesson after Resident Instruction Week, you will have required readings and I will post discussion questions for each of them. Your contribution to those discussions will be a key portion of your grade. The discussions are listed as non-graded (this is because each post is not graded separately), but your participation in those will be reflected in this grade cumulatively at the end of the semester.
NOTE: in addition to posting your initial comments in each lesson, you are also expected to go in and make at least a couple of substantive comments (not just something like “I agree”) on your classmates’ posts/comments for each lesson. This way we can foster a dynamic conversation rather than people simply posting an idea and not engaging with one another. Replies should help move the conversation forward, not just repeat what has been said.
Please review the guidelines for discussion participation.
The Best Discussion Posts:
- Are Timely: The best messages in the world won’t do any good if they’re posted after the bulk of the discussion is over!
- Are Well-written: Take time to revise your post. If your post is too long or poorly constructed it will most likely not be read or will lead to your peers’ frustration while trying to read it.
- Are “On Message”: Think through your messages in advance. Carefully read and consider the assignment, the discussion prompt, and your peers’ postings before you post a response.
- Are Generous: Suggest resources or ideas that may help others in their learning. What has been helpful to you in the past? Think about your own experiences, but also things to read/watch.
- Are Respectful: When disagreements arise, allow others the benefit of the doubt, valuing deeper insight and communication over trying to prove yourself right. Indeed, it’s not about winning an argument, but exploring multiple points of view. Sarcasm and anger/venting are not appropriate.
- Stimulate Thinking: Pose provocative questions, raise alternative viewpoints or explanations and provide creative, breakthrough ideas.
- Are Grounded in Evidence: Make explicit connections between course concepts and readings, your firsthand experience, and the experiences of others in your cohort.
- Encourage Others to Provide Evidence: Good follow-up messages ask peers to explain “why”, helping them clarify their thoughts, uncover inconsistencies or misconceptions, and take their understanding to a new level.
- Move the Understanding of the Class Forward: Raise questions and encourage your peers to raise questions. Help your colleagues address questions. Good messages also create connections between course concepts and the thoughts and ideas of others in your cohort. Don’t just repeat what others say. Check all the replies to a question before posting yours; otherwise, you could be repeating others.
- Are integrating. Especially after the forum has been open for a few days, consider how you might provide integrating and synthesizing comments. Also, to aid in clarity and recall, if you refer to what someone else said, briefly quote it rather than abstractly referring to it.
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