Revision Date: 07-Aug-21

INT-1050-VO09 - Dimensions of Self & Society Synonym: 207933 Location: Online Credits: 3 (45 hours) Day/Times: Meets online Semester Dates: 09-07-2021 to 12-20-2021 Last day to drop without a grade: 09-27-2021 - Refund Policy Last day to withdraw (W grade): 11-08-2021 - Refund Policy Faculty: Collin Lee | View Faculty Credentials This course has started, please contact the offering academic center about registration Browse the Canvas Site for this class. Course Description: In this interdisciplinary first-semester seminar, students make the transition to college-level academic culture. This seminar is designed to help students develop the learning skills and habits of success that will support them throughout their college experience and as they consider career pathways. Reading, writing, and discussion (both in class and online) are central to developing an understanding of academic and societal responsibility. Students will start by analyzing personal beliefs and styles of thinking and then begin to look at how others and society view core concepts such as power, dissent, alienation, oppression, and freedom. Essential Objectives: The successful student will be able to: 1. Interpret, analyze, and evaluate a text and its sources. 2. Demonstrate foundational information literacy, research skills, and academic honesty necessary for academic writing. 3. Demonstrate effective written communication skills, including active engagement in asynchronous online discussion. 4. Apply effective strategies for building new knowledge and skills through reflection on learning preferences, challenges, and goals. 5. Identify possible career goals and educational pathways. 6. Examine social issues through the lens of the individual and society. 7. Examine personal assumptions and biases, and ethical impacts of decision making and participation in society. 8. Consider issues from multiple perspectives and discuss, debate, and defend ideas with clarity and reason as part of a respectful learning community. Textbooks: Fall 2021 textbook data will be available on May 3. On that date a link will be available below that will take you to eCampus, CCV's bookstore. The information provided there will be for this course only. Please see this page for more information regarding the purchase of textbooks. Additional Instructor Pre-Assignments/Notes/Comments: Required Textbooks:The main textbook which we will be utilizing every week will be The Dimensions Reader: First Semester Seminar Anthology, 8th Edition,by the CCV staff. This is the text from which we will draw the vast majority of our weekly reading assignments. The second text is Stephen King'sOn Writing.Though this may seem as though it is only for those interested in pop culture or horror writing, Stephen King's writing advice and insights are valuable for anyone who wants to improve upon their writing, "wow" their audience, and learn the nuts and bolts of effective writing and clear expression. Methods: Welcome to Dimensions of Self and Society at CCV! This course is designed to make the student comfortable with various methods and styles of academic and creative reading, writing, and expression, as well as to make students comfortable with academic research, writing, and citation. As the title of the class suggests, it is also intended to explore the dichotomy of the relationship between the individual's rights and self expression and their responsibility and relationship to the society in which they live. As such, in this class the assignments will reflect a balance between full-class and small group discussion and collaboration in the Discussion Forums; thoughtful self-expression and reflection in the Connection Journals;honing of research and writing skills in the weekly Writing Assignments;and exercising all of the skills and methods we have learned about this semester in the Final Research/Creative Project. Evaluation Criteria: Accomplishment of course objectives will be evaluated on the basis of: I. Discussion Forums (40% of the final grade): These discussion forums take the place of the in-class discussion and interactions between students, their peers, and the instructor in a traditional classroom setting. This is where you will get to demonstrate to the instructor and the class at large what you have taken away from each week’s reading and assignments, as well as to engage in meaningful discussions about the week's topics, assignments, and reading materials with your classmates. Each week, you will be required to post a response to your choice of one of several discussion questions centered around the theme and topic of the week, as well as respond to a minimum of two of your fellow student’s questions and/or comment on their response to the instructor’s questions. Keep in mind that these are the minimum expectations- the more engaged you are in the discussion and the more frequently you post, the better your weekly discussion grade will be. In your original response, I will expect to see: a demonstration of critical thinking. specific references to the reading. reference to how this week’s material connects to previous weeks’ material and the topic as a whole. original thoughts and ideas. references to at least one independently acquired outside source, when pertinent or directed. proper English written in complete and coherent sentences. Each student’s initial discussion posts and questions will be due by Thursday night at midnight each week but are encouraged to be posted as early as possible so that the other students will have the time to read and respond to them. These responses must be posted no later than Saturday night at midnight so that they can be read and perhaps responded to by the end of Monday (our last day of each week’s class). Points will automatically be deducted for late work unless the student has contacted me ahead of time and arranged to turn in their work late. If this process becomes problematic and late posts are becoming the standard instead of the exception, I will announce a zero-tolerance policy for late work and all late work will receive zeros from then on. This is not my preference; I prefer to be accommodating whenever possible, and I know we all have lives. II. Connection Journals (20% of the final grade): In addition to weekly discussions, you will have the opportunity of journaling throughout much of the course. These journals will be focused on the essential skill of “making connections.” You will be writing about how different aspects of the course relate to one another (readings, class discussions, videos, instructor feedback, outside research, etc.); about the stories, essays, poems, speeches, etc. and what they say about the individual or their relationship to society; about your own thoughts and feelings, or your own poems and essays inspired by the week's reading; about how what you are learning in this course may be connecting to what you are learning in other courses or in previous courses; and about the connections that you make that relate to the real world circumstances of your past, present, or future personal or professional lives. The key ingredients I will be looking for are density of connections and good writing. Your job is to tell me what you are learning that I may not have set out to teach and to make yourself and me think. These Connection Journals are due by Monday Night at midnight each week at the very latest. I will provide suggested journaling topics for each week that are pertinent to the themes or questions we will be discussing during that particular week, but you are always welcome and encouraged to come up with your own journal topics. III. Writing Exercises (20% of the final grade):These weekly writing exercises are relatively simple, but will teach you the essential reading, research, and writing skills necessary to succeed in any of your future CCV classes. These exercises will directly help you with your weekly writing as well as your Final Research Projects, and will be due by Saturday night at midnight each week. IV. Final Creative/Research Project (20% of the final grade): To prepare your academic future at CCV, we will be spending a significant amount of time throughout the course focusing on the research, writing, and editing necessary to complete a significant independent creative writing and/or research assignment. The actual content and subject of this assignment will be up to the student, but should be informed by the topics, subjects, and materials that we have been discussing throughout the semester, and engage with the question of the nature of individual's responsibilities to the society in which they live (if any). The student could tackle this assignment as a short story, long poem, short research paper or documentary, or just about any other format that they can imagine. More specific criteria for themes and content will be provided in the parameters for the assignment itself. The actual format in which you present your research is also up to you. If you are a more academic or “fact” based student, you could choose to create a research paper, slideshow, website, or other research-based project to research and write about over the course of the semester. If you are more "techy" or visually creative, you may choose to do a podcast, documentary, or multimedia website. Ideally this should be a project that you enjoy doing and are proud of, so it is important that you pick a topic and a format that will keep you engaged throughout the semester. If you are a creative person, this could be a short story or long poem, though you will have to be sure that it meets the criteria for the assignment in terms of length and depth. Regardless, there will be a number of benchmarks to this assignment throughout the semester, including a Project Proposal, an Annotated Bibliography, a First Draft/Progress Report, and a Final Draft. These benchmarks are designed to make sure you are thinking about and working on your projects throughout the semester, rather than waiting until the end of the semester to think about your projects. Important notes about late work for all assignments: Points will always be deducted for late work that was not pre-arranged and late for legitimate reasons unless the practice become a habit, in which case I will adopt a zero-tolerance policy for late work, at which point all late work with start to automatically be graded as a zero. Please do not hesitate to reach out and ask if any of the expectations for these assignments are unclear. Grading Criteria: These are letter grade criteria that you have entered. They will be formatted as they appear below, in the finished course description. LETTER GRADE CRITERIA: Grading Criteria:As previously discussed in the previous section, Evaluation Criteria, your Final Grade will be determined as follows: Weekly Assignments and Participation: Weekly Discussion Forums (40%) Connections Journal (20%) Independent Research Reports (20%) Student Research Projects (20%) Total 100% Letter Grade Criteria A+ = 100% A = 93 to 99% A- = 91 to 92% B+ = 89 to 90% B = 83 to 88% B- = 81 to 82% C+ = 79 to 80% C = 73 to 78% C- = 70 to 72% D = 60 to 69% F = 0 to 59% Attendance Policy: Attendance Policy: It is essentially impossible to “miss” a class in an online course, and hopefully you wouldn’t want to. The contributions that you make to the weekly online discussions and through your Connection Journals are the primary ways that your “attendance” will be noticed and evaluated throughout the week, though there are tools in place that allow me to see how much or how little the student has engaged with the Canvas classroom and any classroom material provided therein. However, the only way that I can actually be sure that you actually read, watched, or otherwise learned something from the materials I have provided is when it is intelligently applied to our discussion forums or in your journal writing. For Financial Aid purposes, you are considered to be “in attendance” any week in which you actually post something in Canvas, rather than when you just open something up and look at it. However, in terms of your grades for participation, you need to do more than just be “in attendance”. You must participate in our discussion forums and respond to the material provided in a timely manner, adhering to the noted weekly deadlines as closely as possible. I do allow late work to be posted within reason but assume that you will receive a zero on any assignment not received within two weeks after its posted due date. CCV’s attendance policy states that missing more than three weeks of the course entirely will automatically result in a failing grade, barring some extenuating circumstances that can be documented and adjudicated at a higher level of administration than just little old me. Contact Faculty: Email: Collin Lee Hiring Coordinator for this course: Virginia Gellman Syllabus: Note About Syllabus I will provide a detailed weekly syllabus in the Canvas classroom, where I will lay out assignments, and discussion topics. Keep in mind that minor changes to the syllabus may become necessary in the weeks leading up to the class, though I will try not to post the syllabus until I am fairly certain about the weekly structure of the class and the order in which we will be discussing things. In addition, as we navigate our way through the class together, we may decide to modify or re-adjust assignments, based on your collective needs, so please make sure to respectfully make your needs known if you discover something is not working for you or if you have a suggestion for how it could work better. I cannot promise that I will be able to make every change you suggest, but I am willing to entertain and seriously consider every serious and respectfully communicated request. Week One: Greetings and Introductions In which the student introduces themselves, endeavors to bond with their fellow students, and reflects upon their expectations and hopes for the class. Week Two: Personal Narratives In which the student learns about and reads a number of personal narratives, and attempts to craft a personal narrative of their own. Week Three: Individuality and the "Self" In which the student attempts to define and value their own unique and personal perspectives and what makes them distinct from anyone else within their society. Week Four: Appreciating, Understanding, and Writing Poetry In which the student examines and attempts to interpret a number of poems, as well as write one of their own. Note: The "Project Proposal" for the Final Research/Creative Project is due by the end of this week. Week Five: Creative Non-Fiction In which we define and read examples of Creative non-fiction, as well as attempt to engage in our own creative non-fiction. Week Six: Writing Workshop In which we take a break to focus on the research and writing skills necessary to excel in this course- dedicated students will use this as an opportunity to catch up and make significant progress on their research and writing skills. Week Seven: Work Ethic In which we are going to be discussing work ethic, procrastination, and developing good work and study habits. Week Eight: The Human Experience- Diversity In which we attempt to look at the common human experience from as many cultural, ethnic, and racial perspectives as possible. Note: The Annotated Bibliography is due by the end of this week. Week Nine: The Ideal Society- Utopia In which we are really going to start digging into our thoughts on "society", what we expect from it, and our individual responsibilities to society as a whole. In order to understand what we want and expect from society, we are going to start by exploring the idea of a "perfect" or "ideal" society, an illusive ideal that is usually referred to as a "Utopia". Week Ten: The Corrupted Society- Dystopia In which we read about and discuss dystopian societies and how they serve as cautionary tales for our own society. Week Eleven: The American Experience- Society In which we will be discussing what we expect from society as American citizens and what our responsibilities are to that society. Week Twelve: Writing Workshop In which we take the time to support each other in the preparations for the first draft of the Final Research Project, due at the end of this week. Note: First Draft of Final Research/Creative Project is due at the end of this week. Week Thirteen: The Power of Perception In which we discuss the power of perception and how significantly the way that we perceive others, how they perceive us, and how we perceive ourselves can determine our success, our happiness, and our enjoyment of life. Week Fourteen: Moving Forward In which we reflect on how we can take what we learned this semester and apply it to our own personal, professional, and academic lives going forward. Week Fifteen: Student Presentations and Farewells In which the students share their Final Research Projects with each other and say their farewells to each other and the class. Note: The Final Draft of the Final Research/Creative Project is due this week. Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities: CCV strives to mitigate barriers to course access for students with documented disabilities. To request accommodations, please Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/ Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process. Academic Honesty: CCV has a commitment to honesty and excellence in academic work and expects the same from all students. Academic dishonesty, or cheating, can occur whenever you present -as your own work- something that you did not do. You can also be guilty of cheating if you help someone else cheat. Being unaware of what constitutes academic dishonesty (such as knowing what plagiarism is) does not absolve a student of the responsibility to be honest in his/her academic work. Academic dishonesty is taken very seriously and may lead to dismissal from the College. Course description details subject to change. Please refer to this document frequently.