course guide

What’s a Course Guide?Usually called a syllabus, this document is the guide to the particular elements of the course. However, the term “guide” makes more sense as this document should be something you refer back to when you have questions about how or when to do activities and assignments.Course Structure:Your course is broken into five units. After the first two units, together span one (1) week. All the work for each unit is contained within this structure. Additionally, there are links directly to the video lectures and to the quizzes; however, you will be more successful if you do the activities in order. Activities begin on Monday and end on the following Monday at 9:00 a.m.(Pacific Time). Units 1 and 2 open at the course start and have a deadline of Monday, September 22nd, at 9:00 a.m. PST. Please see the schedule later on this page to see when the units open.Each unit will consist of the following types of items.∙Video Lecture∙In-video Quiz∙Reading∙Journal Writing∙Discussion Forums∙Peer Reviewed or Peer Assessed Writing Assignment∙Unit QuizCourse Duration: This course begins officially on September 12, 2014 and ends October 20, 2014. Each week will take 4-5 hours to complete.A note about American English: This course is based in the United States, so we require all participants to use American English for quizzes and assignments (including peer reviews and peer assessments). In the discussion forums, however, please appreciate (and be tolerant of) the linguistic variations in English used in our globally diverse course.Using the Discussions:Participating in discussions in online classes, like in face-to-face classes, is very important to your overall experience in the learning community of the course. You will learn more about discussions in the instructions for Unit 1.A group of outstanding former students are in the course and appear in the discussions as Community TAs. They will be able to help answer questions and will participate with you in the discussion forums. There is also a voting feature in the discussions.When you see an answer that you particularly like, either from a Community TA or from another student, you can vote it up. It will then be a priority response that others in the course can easily view.If you have questions about unit content, please use the forums provided for that unit. This makes it easier for all to receive assistance. If your concern is about a particular quiz question, do not post the actual question. Create a question similar to it so that we can provide you with guidance. If you believe there is an error in the course content, or you have a concern about, or suggestion for, course improvement, use the appropriate link on the main course page. We will review the concern and take action as necessary.Writing Assignments & Peer Reviews:Beginning in Unit 2, this course will use one of two types of peer activities: peer reviewed and peer assessed assignments to evaluate student work. You will be asked to use a rubric (scoring tool) to determine how well other students in your group did on writing assignments. Use of the peer review function will be further explained in the peer review assignment introduction for Unit 2. Peer reviewed assignments are graded on participation, and participation in them is required for you to receive a passing certificate for the class. Two assignments will be peer assessed, one in Unit 4 and your final paragraph in Unit 5. Peer assessment is different from peer review because your grade for these assignments will be calculated based upon the average of the grades assigned to you by your peers. The averaging process eliminates the highest and lowest scores and averages the rest of the grades. These two assessments will account for 20 percent of your final grade.The deadlines for these assignments cannot be changed regardless of a student's circumstances.Journal assignments & In-Video Quizzes:Starting in Unit 2, you will be asked to do some writing practice assignments in a journal. These journal assignments are not part of your grade in the course. However, you will need to have those practice assignments later when you take quizzes and complete your final paragraph assignment. Just because they do not have points attached does not mean that they are optional! You may use any journal tool that you choose, including paper and pen or pencil. An easy way to find online journal tools is to search “free online journals” and find a tool that you like. A blog tool, such as Wordpress or Blog Spot, would also be an appropriate way to keep your writing practice assignments online.In Video Quizzes are part of the video lectures and happen within the video format. They provide you practice before you take the Unit quiz. These points are not recorded and are not part of your course grade. If you download the video lectures, you will not see the in-video quizzes.Quizzes:Each unit you will complete a quiz to demonstrate your mastery of the material. You are allowed two attempts for each unit quiz. Results are then available at the end of the quiz. These quizzes represent the majority of your grade in this course. Once a unit quiz opens, it will be due with a "soft deadline" the following Monday. However, it will remain available until the end of the course for those who enter the course late or those who had an emergency that prevented them from completing the quiz on time. We recommend submitting at least one attempt before the soft deadline to stay on track with each unit's work. However, you can submit unit quizzes any time before the hard deadline (the last day of the course) without late penalty. Expectations:We expect you to do the following:∙Apply yourself using the materials provided.∙Participate in the discussion boards often.∙Exercise thinking skills.∙Ask for help in the discussion forums when you need it.∙Submit work on or before the deadline.∙Recognize that you are more responsible for your learning in an online class than in a face-to-face class.∙Help each other whenever possible.∙Respond to discussions thoughtfully and thoroughly.∙Be present in the course.∙Don’t wait until the end of the unit to check in! Online learning requires you to check the course almost every day. We don’t expect to hear from you every day, but we expect you to check to see what’s going on. We chec k in almost every day, although you may not see us respond. Don’t wait to do everything on the last day!For technical assistance at any time, use the Technical Assistance Forum to post your question.You can also review Coursera's help page at / to look for answers.Code of Conduct:Discussion Forums– Please treat your fellow students with respect and tact. Students in this course come from a variety of cultures, and many speak and write English as a second or third language. These forums should allow any student to ask a question or interact with the class without fear of embarrassment or censure. In addition, in this class, we discourage posting as Anonymous. You should be able to put your name to your work, your questions, and your comments. If you are uncomfortable with your name appearing, you can create a different participation name. Please review the netiquette guidelines in Unit 1. If a post is deemed inappropriate or offensive, the post will be removed, and the post writer will be warned and referred to the netiquette guidelines. (Note: even if you post as Anonymous, it is still possible for CEW instructors to determine who you are.) If the behavior persists, the writer will be removed from the forums. Use respectful and appropriate language in your responses. /netiquette/corerules.htmlAssignments– Plagiarism is not allowed in any academic environment. The work you submit must be your own original writing. If you submit another person’s work or copy work from a source, you will receive no credit for that assignment. If your peer evaluations do not follow netiquette guidelines and demean the writer, you will be removed from the course. The goal in peer assessments is to improve writing through constructive criticism.Report Code of Conduct violations through the link on the main coursepage. We will investigate these and take action as necessary.Staff Communication:CEW staff and Community TAs regularly review all discussion forums. However, communication in this course is primarily student-to-student within the discussion forums. Truly you take control of your education in this class. It is simply not possible to answer questions directed to specific instructors or Community TAs from 40,000 or more students. In order to discourage this practice, we will not respond to any thread directed to a particular staff member.There are two links on the main course page: (1) Suggestions and Comments and (2) Honor Code Violations. These allow you to send specific issues directly to the the staff. We will review these and take action as appropriate. You will generally not receive a reply to these communications, but we always review them.In previous sessions, students have managed to find the personal emails of the course instructors. Any contact through personal emails or telephone numbers is unacceptable and will not receive a response.Unit Schedule(specific dates for assignments and grading information will be available in each weekly unit overview):Unit 1: Becoming a Successful Online Learner Opens September 12 and ends September 22 Introduction to the course with a course navigation tutorial; strategies for being successful in the course and in any online learning environment; information about how you might make your success in the course useful in your future educational experience.Unit 2: Parts of Speech Opens September 12 and ends September 22The eight main parts of speech; why knowing the parts of speech will help your writing; the sentence; observing the world.Unit 3: Subjects and Verbs Opens September 22 and ends September 29Another way of looking at the parts of speech -- the building materials put to use in the structure of the sentence; gerunds, imperatives, and infinitives; thinking about verb tense and voice; regular and irregular verbs; building your confidence with empowered sentences.Unit 4: Clauses and Phrases Opens September 29 and ends October 6Adding to your basic sentences with clauses and phrases; combining ideas and creating complexity; the four sentence types; writing about your experience with complex sentences.Unit 5: Composing and Writing Opens October 6 and has two deadlines October 13 and October 20The writing process; revision vs. editing; punctuation, spelling, and commonly confused words; writing a paragraph.Grading Policy:Quizzes:350 points Peer Reviews:50 points Peer Evaluations:100 points Total Possible:500 points Points required to pass:400 pointsPoints required to pass475 pointswith Distinction:To pass this class with a certificate of completion, you must score at least an 80 percent over all (400 points). Success, however, will depend on your initial reason for taking this course and upon what you actually accomplish toward your goal. Although many of the assignments are not connected to a point value, they are essential to your learning how to be a better writer and, ultimately, on your ability to do well on the quizzes and assignments!。