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about the General Class Discussion assignment


x This page is not really a FAQ page. It is a collection of questions from students about the class discussion assignment (the General Class Discussion and/or the Town Hall Meeting). Some students appear to "make much more than it really is" out of these assignments. In simple terms, you think about a topic, then you communicate your thinking in a bulletin board.

When doing this there has to be some "minimum quality requirements" to EARN a grade -- these requirements have been posted in the Semester Calendar (when to post), Grading Criteria/Grade Recorder (where, what and how much), the "Class Discussions" information page (scope and philosophy), and the Town Hall meeting information page. These Grading Criteria may vary slightly between the various discussion assignments and from semester to semester -- present semester students need to look at the present semester Grading Criteria... For the same reason, images used to answer questions during a particular semester will be from the semester the question was answered... (I try to remove questions completely outdated...)



The GENERAL CLASS DISCUSSION is the first class discussion assignment in class. It can almost be considered a warm-up for the second class discussion assignment -- the TOWN HALL MEETING.

If you are reading this page because you missed all or parts of the General Class Discussion, then you need to learn from your mistake and make sure you don't do the same mistake again for the Town Hall Meeting. Reading the questions and comments on this page might help you, but you must also pay better attention to the dates in the weekly segments of the Semester Calendar.

You might also be helped by re-reading the Grading Criteria, the Grade Recorder, and the instructions for the assignment located on the class hub -- conveniently marked "Class Discussions" and "Town Hall Meeting".

Advice: I recommend that you PRINT the Grade Recorder and use it to FILL OUT THE DEADLINES by looking them up -- they are CLEARLY given in the Semester Calendar.



Dr. Nilsson





FAQ: DUE DATES (grade readings).
Posted Spring, 2014
Message from student: "I am really confused with the discussion assignments. I missed the first session because I couldn't get the due dates (thought it was till the end of the semester)."

Another message from another student on the same topic: "Hello, I am having problems viewing the discussions and I have submitted the quiz; is their something that I might be missing?"


Message 1 Comment: Couldn't get the due dates? The due dates are in the Semester Calendar. (Comment posted Spring, 2014.)

Message 2 Comment: Something missing? Yes. The deadline. The discussion started February 19 and ended 10 days ago. The discussions bulletin boards are closed... ((Comment posted Spring, 2014.)

For more information see the Semester Calendar. (Thumb nails below of pertinent parts for the semester the question above was asked -- but for more information, comfortable reading and the current semester dates you need to navigate to the real current Semester Calendar online. The dates in the thumb nails may or may not be the same as the dates YOU are responsible for.)

For additional clarification you might also click on the link to "Need more information?" at the bottom of the grading criteria for the General Class Discussion...


Semester Calendar detail -- Start of General Class Discussion:


Semester Calendar detail -- First grade reading of General Class Discussion:


Semester Calendar detail -- Second grade reading of General Class Discussion:


For additional clarification click on the link to "Need more information?" at the bottom of the grading criteria for the General Class Discussion:

In addition to the above documents, I often post helpful messages on the Designated Homepage on Blackboard. Notice that one of them even has a DUE DATE...









Best solution for this kind of problem (or to avoid having the problem) is to use the Semester Calendar...








FAQ: DUE DATES (secondary deadline, reopen bulletin boards after the discussions have closed, makeups).
Original post and Comment 1, Spring, 2014. Comment 2, Summer III, 2014.
Message from student: "I realized last night that the 2nd grade reading class discussions where due yesterday at 11. Is there a secondary deadline in the class discussions post?" (Student, Spring 2014.)

Another message from a student with similar topic: "I was wondering if it was still possible to open the first General class discussion, since it won't let me post my discussion." (Student, Summer III, 2014.)

Yet another message from a student with similar topic: "by any chance that you can reopen general class discussion bulletin boards of session number one discussions I barely found out that we needed to reply to other students." (Student, Summer III, 2014.)


Comment 1: No, there are no secondary deadlines. Students have the opportunity to participate in the class discussion assignments over a long period of time. If you don't participate on a regular basis throughout the discussion session, then you have to accept the CONSEQUENCES if you login late and miss the deadline. All assignments with secondary deadlines are noted in the Semester Calendar. There are no secondary deadlines for the discussion assignments because that will invite students to CRAM their messages the last day. You are SUPPOSED to participate on a regular basis from the first day of the discussions. [ Added comment: Furthermore, for assignments that have secondary deadlines, they are usually the day after the primary deadline (no a whole week, which had passed before I received the message from this student.)] (Comment posted Spring, 2014.)

Comment 2: No, the bulletin board will not be reopened after the due date. No one will read your postings. You have had plenty of time to participate during the assignment period, and the instructions caution not to wait until the last day in case something happends -- like a computer crash... Class discussion postings cannot be submitted after the due date, because other students cannot communicate in the bulletin board with you after the deadline -- and that will compromise the assignment requirement of COMMUNICATION. You are not supposed to "talk to yourself" or just to the instructor, by posting something just to save your grade -- when no one will read what you are saying -- you are talking to your peers in these discussions. After the due date it is no longer possible to interact with other students, and consequently and clearly no makeup is possible. (Comment posted Summer III, 2014.)

For more information see the Semester Calendar. (Thumb nails below of pertinent parts for the semester the question above was asked -- but for more information, comfortable reading and the current semester dates you need to navigate to the real current Semester Calendar online. The dates in the thumb nails may or may not be the same as the dates YOU are responsible for.)

Semester Calendar detail -- Start of General Class Discussion:


Semester Calendar detail -- First grade reading of General Class Discussion:


Semester Calendar detail -- Second grade reading of General Class Discussion:



Best solution for this kind of problem (or to avoid having the problem) is to use the Semester Calendar...








FAQ: MISSED DEADLINE.
Posted Spring, 2014
Message from student: "I know this is my error,, but I was just working on my Discussion of Genetic Engineering I still needed two more posts but just noticed that when I tried to reply it denied me the access,,and yes i totally thought they were due on March 8 and since i was working on Homework [for another class] since I was behind on class,,,I kind of left the other two posts till the end,,but since I actually did thought they were due the 8 ,,,i'am sorry i know it's my fault but.... are we by any chance going to have another opportunity or extra credit????"

Comment 1: ("are we by any chance going to have another opportunity ...") No. (Comment posted Spring, 2014.)

Comment 2: ("... or extra credit????") There are some "extra credit" opportunities in the class -- called "Excellence Points". See the Grading Criteria for details.. (Comment posted Spring, 2014.)


Best solution for this kind of problem (or to avoid having the problem) is to use the Grading Criteria...









FAQ: FEEDBACK???
Posted Summer III, 2014
Message from student: "I just wanted to know if I would get feedback from you indicating if we have done our general discussions posted correctly. Now I read another's email where you stated that you will not let us know if we posted correctly. But my question is if you can at least let us know if we posted something right."

Comment : No, I am not going to send feedback messages to students if they have "posted something right". (There will be some limited feedback after the first discussion session -- but all students in class are (simply put) expected to on their own be able to count to 4 -- the four messages required for a grade in each topic.)


You appear to be 'reading too much' into the grading of these very simple discussion assignments.



Feedback is not needed, because there is no subjective grading involved. You need to be 'self-confident' that you have correctly followed the simple minimum completely objective requirements, as presented in the Grading Criteria:

(1) Minimum 4, spell-checked, DIFFERENT messages posted, at least one created message minimum 100 words. All students can count to 4, and all students have access a computer spell-checker that also has a word counter that can count to 100...

If you post ten or more messages it doesn't matter if some are identical (sometimes that is effective if you wish to make a point). However, if you only post four messages in each topic during the whole discussion period, or 8 for the "excellence points" in the Town Hall Meeting, then they must be DIFFERENT messages -- NOT identical copy and paste from an earlier message you wrote. Class discussions require interaction with replies, and a "generic" copy and paste message does not qualify as a "reply to a specific person" -- it is not interacting (it is just posting for a grade). For the minimum grading criteria, identical -- or almost identical -- messages (whole or in part) will only count as ONE (1) message.

(2) An educated opinion (or several) based on your readings (reading assignment or online research) must be given in the message posted. Except for maybe the Animal Treatment Discussion (a slightly different discussion topic not so much based on facts, as on emotions and common sense), in the created minimum 100 word post, the opinion given must be SUPPORTED with the source to what you based your opinion on.

What is "educated" can be discussed, but as have been repeated a multitude of times in the online instructions, you are NOT graded on the opinion you post. You are graded on if you post 4 MESSAGES IN EACH TOPIC following the minimum requirements (so simple that no feedback is necessary).

Personally I don't think subjective grading is fair -- so I don't use it. In these discussions students are allowed to post whatever "science ignorant" opinion they have, as long as they fulfill the SIMPLE minimum posting requirements. However, "a splendor that daze the mind and dumb the tongue", must be supported with a source -- mom told me, is not a good source in the climate discussion, unless mom is a climatologist.)




I have seen some comments online on teacher's web pages about online class discussions -- some teachers apparently have more than 24 hours available to subjectively grade every student post. However, I only have 24 hours to my disposal -- so I don't grade subjectively... And it is not the idea with these discussions...

The idea with these class discussions is that students will participate and while doing so will -- hopefully -- soak up some EDUCATED (science/biology) knowledge about the topics...

I hope this answers your questions? Sorry if it is not the feedback you were hoping for. Oh, and when participating, don't forget to have fun...

Dr. Nilsson
(Comment posted Summer III, 2014.)





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