ENG 260 syllabus > main parts of the course > Discussions

One of the most important parts of this course, and the one that will replicate most closely what goes on in a "real" classroom situation as opposed to an asynchronous, virtual course like this, is the class discussions board which utilizes the eLearning Discussions tool. I will require all students to participate fully in this part of the course by reading all the messages put up there and posting messages of your own. Specifically, I require that each student make a minimum of one significant posting to the Discussions area per weekly posting period (these periods will be indicated in the Discussions tool and on the Calendar) and for each period that you are late making a post to, one grade point will be deducted from the “course participation” portion of your final grade (see the "evaluation of student performance" section of this syllabus). That is, for example, if you had a 100 on this part of your grade but you were late with one post, I'd give you a 99, two times late and it's a 98 and so on. And even if you are late posting to a certain Discussions board period, you still must make a post to that period, no matter how late it is, or you will not be able to complete the course.

For the technical aspects of posting to the Discussions board, I've put together a tutorial which you can view in the following ways:

• as a Web page (click on the arrows in the bottom bar to advance through slides)
• another Web version (click on the control buttons to go back or forward)
• yet another Web version (click anywhere on a page to go to the next slide)
• in PowerPoint 2007/2008 (but if you're using Internet Explorer, click here)
• for earlier versions of PowerPoint

I've also made video versions of these instructions, and you can view the videos at these places:

• the Videos section of the Facebook group for this class
• the YouTube playlist for this course
• my MySpace video channel
• the room for this course at SUNY Cortland's iTunes U (look under the "extras" tab)

As for what exactly you'll need to post on the board, I expect all postings during a particular weekly period to be based on both the readings assigned (and please understand that you don't need to post about every work we read in a single week when we're doing short stories or poems; a post about just one is fine for a single week) and any other relevant ideas or life experiences you have had. Here I should clarify that by significant posting in the previous paragraph I mean the following:

• length: at least a couple of sentences
• type: postings can be general comments and responses about the readings or one reading in particular, and these comments/responses can draw on virtually any relevant aspect of the sports world in general or your experience in particular. You may also pose questions about the readings and/or answer the questions of other students, and you may certainly post replies to the postings of others--indeed, I encourage this as that's really what this part of the course is for. Whatever you post, make sure it is relevant to the course and the works of literature we will be reading. Also, please avoid simply summarizing the plots of the works. We will all have already read the same things anyway, so you won't be adding anything new; instead, devote your posts to your reactions to and/or analysis of the works. To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, click here to view a copy of a discussion thread a previous class of mine had in which there was a lot of good give-and-take and back-and-forth discussion of the kind I'd like to see in your postings here too.

I will monitor all postings the board and will join in the discussions as appropriate, and by all means feel free to respond to my responses or anybody else's. Just one thing about that, though, and this is something I also show you how to do in my Discussions board tutorials I mention above: even if you're not specifically replying to another person's post but his/her Subject: line pretty much sums up what you're going to be posting about too, e.g., if the Subject: is just the title of the work, please don't start an entirely new thread; instead, put your post under (i.e., in the same thread with) the previous one by hitting the Reply button. This'll just make it easier for all of us to have lively and relevant discussions about our works instead of having to wade through 25 different single-post threads in a week that all have the Subject: line "Hurry Kane" or just the title of another work. See again that model discussion for how all the posts on this particular topic are nicely threaded.

Speaking of Subject: lines, I would appreciate it if you would make them somewhat original, i.e., I'd rather not have you put just a work's title in the Subject: box but instead be a little more specific; for example, you could mention a certain character or characters in the work (or more than one), or some aspect of that character, or refer specifically to a theme--either a general literary one or one that's sports-related--you found in a work or in more than one. To give you a better idea of what I'm looking for, here's a sampling of good Subject: lines students have used in the past:

In addition, each week I will post some "mini-lectures" which will be the equivalent of lectures I give when I teach this class in a "live" classroom. In these lectures I may talk about some highbrow literary theme or add some background from sports history (a field I can really get into, and I'm sure some of you can too), and you can respond to these posts of mine also and have them count as your "significant response" of the week as long your response meets the other guidelines above. Also, I will make available audio podcasts of all these same mini-lectures in the following ways:

• in the space for my Literature of Sports course in SUNY Cortland's iTunes U (for how to use iTunes U see this excellent guide, and if you go there note how in the Literature of Sports Course page the lectures are divided into categories for the main units of the course and you just click on the respective tabs to view the list of lectures for that unit)
• as individual podcasts that you can get by clicking on the icon that you'll see at the top of every mini-lecture I post in Discussions or on the link at the bottom of each mini-lecture post I'll make, which will look like this:



• directly to you through RSS by clicking here or by e-mail that will contain a direct link to each new podcast, which you can get by clicking here

As I state above and in the "my expectations" section of this syllabus, I expect you to check the Discussions tool frequently because I will often reply to your own posts and in these I may ask you a question or point out an important problem with your writing about our literary works that may be something I will mark off for if you do it on one of the exams. I expect you to take my responses seriously; to the point, if I have to remind you more than THREE times about the same mistake that you continue to make in your posts, one grade point will be deducted from the “course participation” portion of your final grade. Here's the standard way I'll let you know about this: I'll point out the error to you, usually by referring you to something I had given you to read in one of the lectures of my ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature, and then if it's not the first time I've brought the matter in question up with you you'll see one of the following additional statements:

• "This is the second time I've had to mention this issue to you."
• "This is the third time I've had to mention this issue to you; please refer to the "Discussions" subsection of the "main parts of the course" section of the Syllabus under the Course Tools menu for the potential consequences of continuing apparently to disregard these messages of mine."
• "Unfortunately, this is the nth time I have had to mention this particular issue to you, and I therefore have no choice but to follow through with what I state in the "Discussions" subsection of the "main parts of the course" section of the Syllabus under the Course Tools menu, namely, I have to deduct one grade point from the "course participation" portion of your final grade." (And if I have to say this before the middle of the semester, you'll also see "And I must tell you that if you continue to disregard these replies of mine, not only will you lose additional grade points but I will have to give you a "U" for your mid-semester estimate.")

Also, you should not engage in disrespectful behavior, e.g., demeaning comments, on the board; that is, I insist that you respect other students and their opinions (any such posting that I deem inappropriate will not count as a valid response for the posting period). Certainly feel free to express disagreement with me or your fellow students on particular points, but please do so in a decent and polite way. In addition, I will not count postings that are simply statements of agreement; I'll need more than that. That is, it’s O.K. to say you feel the same way about something, but if you do say why specifically you agree, or disagree. And again, I expect you to read all of your peers’ postings so that with your post you don't just repeat an idea somebody else has already brought up, which would really bother me.

I hope that all this writing you do in the Discussions board about the works we read and reading what others have written about them there too will provide you with good preparation for the quizzes and exams, and speaking of these you can now go on to "Assessments," the next page in this "main parts of the course" syllabus section.