Course Syllabus

Fall 2026 | INT-1050-VM02 - Dimensions of Self & Society

In Person Class

Standard courses meet in person at CCV centers, typically once each week for the duration of the semester.

Faculty

Matthew Ehrlich
View Faculty Credentials
View Faculty Statement
Hiring Coordinator for this course: Jennifer Gundy

General Education Requirements

First Semester Seminar

Note

Many degree programs have specific general education recommendations. In order to avoid taking unnecessary classes, please consult with additional resources like your program evaluation, your academic program catalog year page, and your academic advisor.

Courses may only be used to meet one General Education Requirement.

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 are central to developing an understanding of academic and societal responsibility. Students critically examine the relationship between societal values, individual beliefs, ways of knowing, and cultural worldviews.

Essential Objectives

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.

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV computer recommendations Support page.

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

*** This is a no cost textbook or resource class. ***

This course only uses free Open Educational Resources (OER) and/or library materials. For details, see the Canvas Site for this class.

Artificial Intelligence(AI) Policy Statement

CCV recognizes that artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI tools are widely available and becoming embedded in many online writing and creative applications.

Prohibited: The use of generative AI is not allowed in this course, with the exception of spellcheck, grammar check and similar tools. This course rests in the value of students engaging in the learning process without relying on AI-generated content. Students will develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills independently, owning their learning journey from start to finish. If you use these tools, your actions would be considered academically dishonest and a violation of CCV's Academic Integrity Policy.

There may be an assignment where we use AI and analyze the results. Otherwise, the use of AI (other than spell check and grammar check) is prohibited.

Methods

1. Attendance and Class Participation: We will engage with the weekly topics and skills-building activities together, and you will contribute comments, questions, and ideas. Class discussions and activities are a vital and required component of this course; you will learn and practice skills while building community with your classmates. Collectively, attendance and participation are worth 20% of your Final Grade in the course. Please also see the Attendance and Participation Policy below.

2. Course Texts, Videos, and Other Media: Closely reading, watching, and listening to these will be your first task to complete before each week's class meeting, and you will not be able to finish your other weekly assignments without them or adequately participate in the class discussion that week. Our extended reading this semester will be George Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984. An accessible, free educational copy will be available on Canvas for download as a .pdf, but you are welcome to obtain a physical copy or audiobook.

3. Weekly assignments: Weekly assignments will consist of journals, responses, quizzes, exercises, analytical essays, and reflection essays (not all at once!). All weekly assignments will be submitted to Canvas by 11:59 p.m. the Sunday before each week's class meeting. They are collectively worth 20% of your Final Grade in the course.

• Some Journal assignments ask you to share any questions, ideas, concerns, or suggestions about the course with me. If you need extra help or guidance in any area, this is one avenue to seek it. Other journals ask you to consider your educational experiences, career intentions, biases, and relationship to knowledge and information. You will submit your journal entries on Canvas, and I will respond in the comments section.
• Responses are more structured than journals because they ask you to reflect on specific course content and craft a thoughtful and thorough response to question prompts. Each response also prepares you to complete a multi-week project.
• Quizzes are a way for me to assess your retained knowledge of a specific topic covered in class. The quizzes average 15 questions. You can take the quiz as many times as you want to increase your score. My goal is to see that youknow and understandthe material before moving on to the next topic.
• Exercises are homework activities in which you practice concepts or skills through other institutions or agencies (linked on the Canvas page). You will then submit your results along with a short written analysis and, in some instances, share them with your peers in a structured class discussion.
• Analytical and Reflection Essays: Formally structured, five-paragraph essays that will demonstrate your analytical understanding of particular concepts we have learned over prior weeks by applying them to personal and societal questions. These also demonstrate your understanding of the principles of academic writing covered in weeks one and two, which you will practice all semester.

4. Major Projects: There are four major assignments in this course, listed below. Each assignment will follow the writing process: brainstorming, drafting, revising, and finalizing. You will have multiple weeks to complete the major assignments, which will be submitted via Canvas by 11:59 p.m. on Sundays. Each project is worth 15% of your Final Grade.

• CCV Career Project: This project invites you to explore your interests, discover some of your qualities and skills, and engage in some focused thinking about your future. This project is very personal to your goals, interests, and dreams. One goal of a first-year seminar like Dimensions of Self & Society is to help you map out your future and to think about your goals, how you’ll reach them, and the skills you’ll need along the way. You will utilize CCV’s online career exploration program, Focus2, to develop and refine a career plan.
• Beyond the Single Story Project: In her Danger of a Single Story lecture, Chimamanda Adiche argues that single stories “flatten” our experiences; moreover, they foster “incomplete” truths and “rob people of their dignity” because they present a singular view or perspective of a person, group of people, place, or even a complex topic. This MLA-formatted essay invites you to think reflectively about “single social/political stories,” deconstruct them, and then build more “complete” narratives/truths. You will share your findings with your peers in a structured class discussion.
• 1984 Book Project: Over the course of six weeks, we will closely read 1984 by George Orwell and connect that text to weekly themes of cognitive resistance, structural inequity, bias, narrative, evaluating sources and information and misinformation. Building on the response papers you have completed and your practiced college essay-writing skills, the final book project asks you to make an academic argument, supported by evidence, assessing the extent to which1984 presents a realistic vision of dystopia.
• Seeing Things Whole Presentation: This final assignment invites you to review, explore, connect, and depict key themes and concepts we’ve studied in this class. You will imagine that a publisher has hired you to design a cover for a Dimensions textbook or the homepage of a Dimensions Canvas course. They want an engaging cover design that depicts key course concepts, especially how they connect to one another and reveal your experience as a student in the course. You will share your proposed book/homepage cover with your peers on the last day of the course (Week 15) in a presentation that explains in detail the rationale behind your design.

Evaluation Criteria

Weekly Attendance and Class Participation: 20%

Weekly Assignments: 20%

CCV Career Project: 15%

Beyond the Single Story Essay: 15%

Extended Book Project Presentation: 15%

Seeing Things Whole Final Project: 15%

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Weekly Schedule

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Participation Expectations

Full participation requires active and thoughtful engagement in class each week. Attendance is mandatory! You are, however, permitted one "free" absence if you need it due to illness, emergency, or other reason; you must alert me via email or Canvas Inbox by midnight on the Sunday before that class; this does not excuse the work due then, which must still be submitted unless otherwise discussed. Beyond this, each absence will count against your attendance and participation grade up to three absences, which will result in an automatic failure of the course. Additionally, being more than 15 minutes late to class may affect your participation grade for that day (though not attendance: better late than never!)

The following habits and skills are important. You'll have the opportunity to self-assess and receive instructor feedback on each of these areas at the mid-point and the end of the semester.

• Attend class regularly, on-time and for the full session.
• Complete all of the week's reading and assignments before the start of class.
• Listen to others attentively and with an open mind.
• Positively contribute to class discussions and activities.
• Ask questions and seek help when you need it.
• Challenge yourself to do your best work.

Missing & Late Work Policy

This is a fast-flowing course, with many moving parts. Class discussions and activities build on readings and assignments; assignments build on discussions and readings, and so on. Furthermore, there are several projects and activities which you will work on in stages over the course of several weeks. Lastly, this course asks you to practice managing a college workload, meaning that you will usually be working on multiple distinct assignments each week.

All assignments and projects must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on the Sunday night before each week's class meeting. Remember, each weekly line of the syllabus contains the readings, assignments, and projects you are meant to complete beforethat week's class meeting.

For most assignments, late penalties are assessed each day, consisting of a 2/3 letter-grade deduction from the grade the work would otherwise have received. Thus, if you submitted an ‘A’ level assignment one day late, you would receive a B+; two days late, you would receive a B-; three days: C, four days: D. After five days, the assignment will be marked “Missing” and receive 0 points (“F”). Due to this calculus, it is in your interest to complete assignments to the best of your ability by the deadline, since more time will usually not earn you a higher grade and will set you behind on your tasks for the following week.

For projects, late penalties are assessed each day as above but consist of a 1/3 letter-grade deduction due to their significantly higher weight (15% each) compared to any single assignment (20% total). The exception is the final project, which must be submitted and presented on the last day of class in week 15.

We are all human! This is a fifteen-week semester, totaling 105 days when anything might happen, from illness to family emergency to technology challenges. If you are experiencing a legitimate issue that you worry will affect your ability to complete your weekly coursework by the deadline, pleasereach out to me as soon as possible via the Canvas Inbox or email atmle01300@ccv.vsc.edu to discuss options for a limited extension, depending on the circumstance.

That said, there are many assignments over the course of 15 weeks, and you will not fail the course if you submit a project a day or two late or miss an assignment (provided you are doing well overall). This also applies to grades: many students are conditioned to see grades as an indicator of intellectual self-worth or a zero-sum competition for success, but in this course, the grades you receive do not reflect your value as a person, but simply the quality of that assignment at the moment you turn it in. I encourage you to park any perfectionism at the door and embrace the mistakes you’ll undoubtedly make as you navigate unfamiliar intellectual, creative and personal terrain. It comes with the territory!

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/student-support/accessibility-services/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity

Apply Now for this semester.