Course Syllabus

Summer 2025 | PHI-2010-VO01 - Comparative Religion

Online Class

Online courses take place 100% online via Canvas, without required in-person or Zoom meetings.

Faculty

Nancy Thompson
View Faculty Credentials
View Faculty Statement
Hiring Coordinator for this course: Collin Lee

General Education Requirements

VSCS Humanistic Perspectives

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

Introduces and compares such major religions as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Students study mythical, ethical, and cultic aspects of these religions through reading and discussion of both sacred writings and literature of religious commentary.

Essential Objectives

1. Trace the history and mythological origins of the world's major religions.
2. Interpret the stories, myths, and scriptures associated with the world’s religions.
3. Compare the beliefs, ethical teachings, and rituals of selected religions.
4. Examine the role religion plays in individual lives and in the global community.
5. Analyze the ways in which the world’s religions connect and conflict through their histories, beliefs, and practices.

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 low cost ($50 or less) textbook or resource class. ***

This course uses one or more textbooks/books/simulations.

Summer 2025 textbook details will be available on 2024-12-06. On that date a link will be available below that will take you to eCampus, CCV's bookstore. The information provided there will be specific to this class. Please see this page for more information regarding the purchase of textbooks/books.

PHI-2010-VO01 Link to Textbooks for this course in eCampus.

The last day to use a Financial Aid Advance to purchase textbooks/books is the 3rd Tuesday of the semester. See your financial aid counselor at your academic center if you have any questions.

Methods

• group discussions
• interactive projects and/or activities
• multimedia resources
• readings, writing, and inquiry-based research

Evaluation Criteria

Your grade is based on the following:

Weekly work: 70%

Learning project: 30%.

Weekly work

Weekly points, which account for 70% of your grade, are tied to the number and timeliness and development of postings. weekly work.

Weekly work and deadlines:

Each week you will raise at least one discussion question on the week's topic. Your discussion questions for the week are due no later than Thursdays at 11:59 p.m.

You will respond each week to the discussion questions of two classmates. The first response is due no later Sunday at 11:59 p.m.

Each week we will have at least two topic discussions (no more than 3). Your replies to the topic questions due by Fridays at 11:59 p.m. Replies to classmates are due by Sundays at 11:59 pm.

Work posted on Mondays or later is not graded, nor do I respond to it. Mondays are your day off to prepare for the coming week, and my day to work on assessments and grading.

Development of weekly work:

Reading responses should be well developed essays that contain plentiful examples, cited where appropriate, that show clear comprehension of the text material.

Weekly discussion questions are your chance to learn about the week's focus, the texts, topics, or anything related to the topic. Please do not use discussion questions to "quiz" classmates; instead, use them to further your learning. Everyone should have regular questions about the religions; religion is a complex topic.

Your responses to classmates' discussion questions should be well developed and more than "I agree!" or "Great question!" The purpose of engaging with classmates is to explain why you agree or disagree, to help answer the classmate's questions, to offer some source possibilities, and so on.

Topic responses should contain specific examples that show understanding of the resource. Feel free to include questions in topic responses.

Citation: Please remember that, when using outside sources of any kind, the use of the source MUST be documented with BOTH in text citations and full end citations. Lack of adequate citation = plagiarism. Please be certain as well to cite specific quotes from the texts.

To earn full points, be active and prompt (meet deadlines). Develop your work, use examples, raise questions, reply to classmates, and do not plagiarize.

Learning project:

The learning project can earn 0 (not submitted;; plagiarized) to 30 (well developed) points. The learning project options are described in detail in our course site. Learning projects are expected to be thorough, focused on a main idea, supported by evidence from college-credible sources, structurally correct, correctly formatted in MLA format, and correctly cited in MLA format throughout with no plagiarism. Projects are graded on those criteria and on timeliness. To pass the course, you must earn at least 18 points on the project (a D-).

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

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

Our weekly discussions are located in each week's module. Each discussion forum will have a variety of threads set up. To post, reply to the threads I have set up. One thread will always be for problems you might be experiencing in the week . You can also ask questions there to clarify any tasks for the week.

All of your weekly participation takes place in the discussion threads. Please do not email me your assignments. You will only receive credit for work posted in class.

Each week, you are required to post a discussion question related to the week's topic and/or information from readings and resources by Thursday at 11:59 p.m.

You are required to respond to the questions of at least two classmates by Sunday at 11:59 p.m.

You are required to post a response to the week's topic questions (Questions A and B, and very occasionally C) by Fridays at 11:59 p.m.

You are required to post a response to at least one classmate's topic response in each topic discussion by Sundays at 11:59 p.m.

Please see Module 0 for a sample topic response that would receive full points for development and citation.

Missing & Late Work Policy

Each week's work has due dates. All work must be complete, even if submitted late, by Sunday of each week at 11:59 p.m. Work loses one point for each day it is late through Sunday. Work posted on Mondays or in the subsequent week is not considered for a grade, and I do not respond to it. The learning project can be submitted up to two days late. It will receive a 10% late penalty per day. After two days, the learning project will not be graded and the student will receive a zero for the assignment.

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
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.