Shakespeare at Longwood

Online World Literature Discussion Guidelines

This is the most important area of the course. The time you spend contributing to the discussion area substitutes for the time you would spend in the classroom in a regular World Literature course. You can expect to spend about three hours per week here reading the comments of other students and the instructor, and making contributions of your own.

Discussion deadlines: You are required to make a minimum of three substantive responses per week/forum (or two responses for weeks in which there is a holiday, and only one discussion deadline). You do not need to respond to every thread, but the three or more responses you make to the instructor's questions or to other students' responses should be thoughtful and energetic, and should present strong arguments about or analyses of the text. You will not receive a passing grade for perfunctory responses or responses that merely summarize the text or string together quotations without analysis. Students are encouraged to raise questions that will help us penetrate these works more deeply. Please try not to repeat comments that have already been made. If you have an idea about the text that has already been expressed, think about how you might amplify this idea or relate it to an episode or passage that hasn't been mentioned already. Also, if one or more threads contain few responses, consider it your opportunity to jump in and get things going with some fresh ideas. You should also feel free to disagree with your classmates--respectfully, of course. The more you develop ideas amongst yourselves through discussion, the better this course will be. Think of each cluster of questions as a point-of-departure for articulating your own thoughts on what the poem is about--not as questions that need to be slavishly answered with "right" or "wrong" answers. And, as always, make sure you use specific episodes or quotations (not "quotes") from the text to support your arguments and analyses. In order to spread out your responses throughout the week, the readings for each week, and the questions related to those readings will be divided into two groups. Your responses to questions for the first group of readings are due by midnight (i.e., the end of the day) each Tuesday, and your responses to questions for the second group are due by midnight on Thursday. (There is one forum per week, and discussion deadlines are indicated in brackets at the end of each thread title inside each forum.) Feel free to start submitting responses as early in the week as you want, including the weekend preceding each week. But it is also important for you to check in on the discussion regularly, and to make follow-up responses throughout the week--especially if the instructor, or another student, has asked for a clarification about something you've said.  This class is much more enjoyable if everyone spreads his or her responses out throughout the week, and as much ahead of the deadline as possible. If everyone waits until one hour before the deadline to make submissions, there's not much opportunity for actual discussion, and the content tends to be fairly repetitive (this lack of interaction also tends to result in significantly lower grades for students who consistently wait until the last minute to submit responses--especially when it's clear that the student has simply submitted something without even looking to see what others have said). Unless I feel that there's a comment that merits a quick response, and unless I feel like the discussion is headed in a problematic or unproductive direction, I usually let the students run most of the discussion before the deadline. I do try to address questions in the "other questions" thread as soon as I see them. After the deadlines make sure you go back and look at my concluding responses.  After the deadlines I'll try to tie things together in each thread, and I may ask follow-up questions if I feel that the initial question hasn't been addressed adequately enough.  Your responses to these follow-up questions will be factored into your discussion grade for the next week/forum.  

Time commitment: Keep in mind that the three hours you spend in the discussion area each week doesn't include time you spend reading.  Remember that college students are generally expected to spend 2-3 hours preparing for each hour of classroom instruction—you should expect to spend a minimum of six to nine hours per week preparing for this class (i.e., reading the assignments), and an additional 3 hours in the discussion area.  Please complete the assigned reading before you submit responses to the questions in the discussion area.  Some of these questions are very specific, but some address larger themes that apply to the entire reading assignment. 

Quality of submissions: You are expected to read all of the submissions made to the discussion area by other students and the instructor each week, and you will be expected to make a minimum of three of your own submissions to the discussion area each week. These submissions should be spread out during the week--you will be penalized if you appear to be making all of your submissions in one sitting. Your responses can be either direct responses to one of the questions posed in the discussion area by the instructor, or responses to other students’ responses. These responses should be thorough, thoughtful, and insightful.  Your responses should not simply paraphrase the text, supply a factual summary of narrative events, or string together a list of quotations without analysis. You should use your responses to make arguments about what you think about the text, and you should use quotations, and an analysis of those quotations to support your arguments.  Avoid responses that are brief, vague, and flippant.  Unless you happen to be sumbitting at precisely the same moment, please don't repeat ideas that have already been presented. Instead, do what you can to develop and amplify that idea. See the rubric below for a detailed outline of what is expected. Avoid Internet shorthand ("Lazarillo stole the blind man's wine--ROTFL!! ;)")--including the use of all lower-case letters and unconventional abbreviations ("diomedes pwned him lol")--and avoid using the discussion area to discuss things not related to the course ("Wanna go to the party at Delta house on Saturday?").  Humor and wit are welcome, but let's try to stay on topic.

"Attendance": Failure to submit responses to a forum by the deadline will result in a grade of zero, and will be treated as an "absence" for the purposes of attendance. The Longwood University attendance policy in the Undergraduate Catalog will be the attendance policy for this course. Your grade will be lowered by one letter grade if you miss 10 percent of the scheduled class meeting times (i.e., the discussion forum deadlines) for unexcused absences. You will receive an F for the course if you miss a total (excused and unexcused) of 25 percent of the scheduled class discussion deadlines. Absences can be excused, and Exams can be made up only under the most grave circumstances, and with documentation from an MD or a Longwood University official. If you foresee a conflict, I expect you to discuss it with me beforehand. Written assignments submitted late will lose one letter grade for each class day late. A technology failure is not a good excuse for missing a discussion deadline, especially if it extends beyond a single discussion deadline. Have a backup plan in case your technology fails. Remember that most public libraries provide Internet access. Go here to find a wireless network near you.

Formatting and citation: When you use quotations in your response, make sure you quote verse properly.  Please also remember that "quote" is a verb and "quotation" is a noun.  You should also underline or italicize the names of books, such as Homer's Iliad. If you are using MS Internet Explorer with Blackboard, there is a font menu in Blackboard that will allow you to do this. If you are using another browser, you may need to insert the HTML tags for underlining yourself: <u> before the title, and </u> after it.

Instructor submissions: Feel free to make more than three submissions per week. You should try to spend a minimum of three hours per week in the discussion area reading questions and submissions, thinking about them, and formulating your own submissions. The instructor will not respond to every submission, and students are encouraged to ask questions amongst themselves rather than appeal to the instructor for clarification on each topic. The instructor will address issues that arise throughout the week, and try to tie things together as the discussion comes to a close, but you should not expect the instructor to dominate the discussion.

Grades: At the beginning of each week (usually Monday), you will receive a grade (posted on Blackboard) on the previous week’s submissions. You will receive a grade of 1-100 points per week, and at the end of the semester the average of your weekly grades will account for 40% of your final grade (your lowest discussion grade will be dropped). This grade is based on the quality of your contributions, and will take into account the following factors: ability to understand and analyze the text, ability to generate questions that engage other students, and ability to make connections between specific passages and episodes and larger themes in a literary work. You will lose points if you merely paraphrase the weekly readings, and if you make frequent errors of spelling, grammar, and usage. Quality submissions that are spread out throughout the course of the week will receive higher grades than submissions that appear to have been generated in one sitting per week. You should try to balance direct responses to instructor questions with responses to other students. Abbreviations, acronyms, slang, and forms of shorthand common in other Internet discussion forums are discouraged. There will be a number of issues on which class participants disagree, but you should make every effort to maintain a civil, respectful, and constructive tone of discourse. If our discussion touches on issues of theology, keep in mind that it is unlikely that everyone in the class shares your religious beliefs.  Please be tolerant of perspectives different from your own. Uncivil, hostile, and profane responses will receive a 0, and may be turned over to the Honor Board for adjudication as honor violations.

If you have questions about your discussion grades, contact the instructor. If you are a student on campus, or if you live in the Farmville area, please visit me during my office hours with a printed copy of some of your discussion responses and I will be happy to offer suggestions on how to improve your grades.

Discussion Board Grading Rubric

Criteria	A (90-100) Superior	B (80-89) Good	C (70-79) Average	D/F (69 and below) Poor
Content, Critical Thinking, and Analysis	Rich content Focus on specific details Thoughtful and insightful Analytical (little paraphrase and summary)	Substantial information Superficial duscussion Some analysis has taken place	Minimal information or detail Information is thin and commonplace Lacking in insight and anlysis	Perfunctory and superficial Weak discussion No analysis or insight
Connections	Clear connections to previous or current content	Some connections are made but they aren't clear	Limited connections Vague generalities	No connections made Off topic
Themes and Ideas	Key ideas and themes are identified and analyzed	Some themes and ideas are identified but not addressed adequately	Miminal reference to key themes and ideas	Key themes and ideas not addressed
Timeliness	Responses are posted before the deadline			Responses are posted after the deadline
Writing Style	Extremely well organized, direct, and clear Ideas are presented carefully and thoughtfully	Fairly organized, direct, and clear Ideas presented fairly carefully and thoughtfully	Problems with organization and clarity that interfere with meaning Posts not presented carefully	Unorganized, difficult to follow, lacking in clarity Posts appear to have been done at the last minute
Responses to Peers	Frequent responses to other students--not only instructor Indication of solid understanding of other students' responses Polite and civil tone	Some responses to other students Some indication of understanding of other students' responses	LIttle effort to respond to other students Indication of incorrect or unclear understanding of other responses	No responses or attention to other students' comments
Content of Responses and Followup	Remarks are detailed and reflect substantial thought Responses often prompt further discussion and/or include additional references related to the topic	Remarks have sufficient length and detail to reflect thought Some responses prompt further discussion of topic	Short or superficial remarks that do not offer further insight on the topic Postings do not lend themselves to further discussion	Short or irrelevant remarks No participation or effort to initiate discussion Postings do not encourage continued thought or discussion
Originality and Creativity	Ideas are new and fresh New connections are made Imaginative analysis of details	Some new ideas or connections Lack of depth and detail	Few, if any new ideas or connections Summary of other postings	No new ideas "I agree with . . . ."

(Adapted from Jeannine Perry, Longwood University)