ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS FOR IN-PERSON AND ONLINE COURSES
Hello everyone, and welcome to this philosophy course. This document expands upon the syllabus requirements for both my in-person and online courses, the main difference being whether the tests are in-person or online, otherwise all else is the same. This sheet provides answers to most questions that you might have as the semester proceeds. Please feel free to contact me at any time during the semester through email, which is my preferred method of communication. To get started, please read this document, then proceed to the Module 1 assignments.
COURSE ASSIGNMENTS FOR ONLINE CLASSES: Within each module, there are five types of assignments: (1) videos, (2) readings, (3) study questions, (4) discussion board comments, and (5) quizzes. Each of these is described in more detail below. Assignment due dates are posted on Canvas, and will likely change as the semester proceeds based on in-person class progress.
COURSE ASSIGNMENTS FOR IN-PERSON CLASSES: The Canvas web page for this course includes reading material, lecture videos, study question upload link, and discussion upload link. Course grades will be based on three exams given throughout the semester. Study questions and discussion posts are ungraded prerequisites that will result in lost total points if not completed. Each of these is described below, and more explanations descriptions are provided in the course "Assignment Instructions" document on Canvas. Assignment due dates are posted on Canvas, and will likely change as the semester proceeds based on in-person class progress.
Assignments are sequential in that completion of an earlier one is required to unlock the next one, and thus no assignment can be bypassed.
GRADING PROCEDURE: Course grades will be based on total quiz/test scores. Study questions and discussion posts are prerequisites for the quizzes and will be graded as "0" without a numerical score. Violations of the class internet and AI policy will result in negative scores as a penalty. Final grades will initially be based on a scale of 90%, 80%, 70%, and 60%, but I typically lower these thresholds for midterm and final grades. At any point during the semester, I may reevaluate a student's earlier assignment scores if issues such as dishonesty, failure to follow instructions, or miscalculation become apparent.
Please be aware that the study questions and discussion comments are NOT optional, and I will penalize students who try to game the system by posting a bare minimum of study question answers and discussion comments (or the wrong ones or AI generated ones) just to make the quiz available.
INTERNET AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE POLICY: Use of AI tools is not permitted in this course on any assignment. All work in this course will be produced by the student. Use of AI tools will be considered a violation of academic integrity and will be dealt with accordingly. The use of either internet-copied content, or artificial intelligence tools are strictly prohibited for all coursework, including study questions and discussion posts (e.g., Google searches, ChatGPT, Grammarly). Your study question answers and discussion posts must be based solely on the course reading material. Any such instances of internet or AI use will be considered academic dishonesty and will result in the following consequences: (1) negative points for the submission, (2) nullification of the module quiz score; and (3) potential additional penalties as per the UT Martin's academic integrity policy. Internet-copied and AI-generated content is easily identifiable, so you should submit your own original work, even if it contains content inaccuracies, typographical errors, grammatical mistakes, or stylistic imperfections. The presence of these will not adversely affect your assignment score. At any time during the semester, I may discuss your knowledge of the course material to verify your authorship of your submitted assignments. At any time during the semester, I may discuss your knowledge of the course material to verify your authorship of your submitted assignments.
VIDEOS: Lecture videos are linked within each Canvas module. These are for the benefit of online students, but also in-person students who miss classroom lectures.
READINGS: All the reading assignments for this course are posted online and on Canvas, free of charge, and most of it comes from book chapters that I have authored or edited.
STUDY QUESTIONS: All the reading material in the course has accompanying study questions that appear at the bottom of each chapter, with 21 questions per module. The first 20 are short comprehension questions, and question 21 is a 100-word short essay question about some point in the assigned readings. All 21 questions must be submitted together through the study question link within each module on Canvas.
Please note that Canvas will not allow you to proceed with your discussion post and quiz assignments until you first submit your study questions. The point is to force you to do adequate preparation before proceeding. Study questions are ungraded prerequisites and will be designated with a score of 0 upon submission and thereafter. When preparing your study questions, do not simply search within the chapter to find the location to each question, since the result will be an incomplete understanding of the material. Do not copy portions of the reading material into your answers; use your own words. Do not use AI or internet searches to create your answers, or even revise any answers that you write yourself; your answers, they must be based solely on the assigned reading material (see "Artificial Intelligence Policy above). The first twenty study questions are review questions that require only brief answers of one or two sentences each. Please do not submit your study questions without including question 21. I advise answering the study questions while reading through the chapter in its entirety. Record your numbered answers only, and do not reproduce the study questions themselves. Make sure there is a paragraph break between each of your answers. To submit your answers, click on the "Study Questions" link in each module. You can then either type your answers directly into the study question text box, or first type them into MS Word (or some other word processor) and then copy/paste them into the text box. However, do not upload a text file of your answers as an attachment, since there are frequently technical issues in Canvas that prevent me from retrieving them. Once you begin entering your answers, you can hit the back button on your browser and resume later. However, once you hit the "Submit" button, you cannot renter.
To be clear, you must include your answer to Question 21 in both your study question submission and in your discussion post. When selecting your topic for Question 21, add variety by avoiding obvious topics that everyone might write on. Please create a new discussion thread for posting it. Begin your critique by stating something like "The topic I've selected to criticize is Plato's view of the Forms". The remaining two comments must be in response to comments posted by other students. Begin these with something like "Great comment, Mary, here's a possible response." Be critical but friendly in your responses, and do not simply agree with the post you are responding to. Please avoid insults and using offensive language. At the same time, when you read other students' comments on your posts, be charitable in how you interpret them and do not assume that they are being rude or mean spirited. This is an exercise in learning how to both give and take philosophical criticism. Avoid stating your private views of God and religion, whatever they may be. Philosophy aims to discover truths and present arguments which are universally compelling, regardless of one's personal religious beliefs.
QUIZZES FOR ONLINE CLASSES ONLY: All quizzes will be on Canvas, and there will be a quiz for each module consisting of 20 questions. The time limit for each quiz is 15 minutes. The quizzes will be video monitored and require use of a suitable computer with a functioning webcam. Quizzes will be unlocked only after you submit your 21 study question answers. The quizzes are NOT open-book and open-note, and video monitoring will track your eye and head movement to assure that your eyes are only looking at the screen, and not down at your table or lap. Your full face must be visible to the camera throughout the quiz.
Please note that Canvas will not allow you to take the quiz until you have first posted your study questions and discussion comments. Again, do not try to game the system by posting inadequate study questions or discussion posts just to make the quiz available. The quiz questions will appear one at a time, randomized, with no backtracking to previously answered questions. The questions are challenging, and your best strategy will be to read the material and take good notes to review prior to taking the exam. See "hints for studying" below for quiz preparation suggestions. While you are allotted 15 minutes for the quizzes, most students finish in less than half that time. Please note that internet rush hour is between 7-11 PM on weekdays, and all day on weekends, so try to avoid taking quizzes during these times if you can.
VIDEO MONITORING FOR QUIZZES. All quizzes in online courses are video monitored. You must take the quiz by yourself, with no collusion with others, and your full face must be visible to your camera. To take the quizzes, your computer must have a functioning webcam and microphone, and if yours doesn't you can go to a UTM computer lab, or borrow a friend's computer with a webcam, or buy a USB plugin webcam. All quizzes will be done through a video monitoring system on Canvas called "YuJa Verity". You must take it using only the Chrome web browser on a Windows, macOS or Chromebook computer (it won't work on an IPad, IPhone or Android cell phones). Also, it only functions on Chrome and Edge web browsers (not Firefox or Safari, which are not Chromium based). To get the YuJa Verity extension, go to the Chrome Web Store and follow the download and installation instructions. Once installed, you must also enable incognito mode within the YuJa Verity extension (go to "all extensions > YuJa Verity > details > allow incognito mode). If you install YuJa Verity and have operational problems, here are four possible fixes. Problem (1): if Verity gives an error message like “To add this item to Chrome, please update your browser,” or if your computer refuses to install the extension, this means your device or browser is too old or unsupported, and YuJa Verity will not allow the quiz to open. Please check the computer requirements above. If your computer cannot install the extension or enable incognito mode for extensions, you must use a different computer. Problem (2): if you see a caution icon or an error message stating the proctoring extension is missing, you do not have YuJa Verity installed. If you switch computers, you must install the extension on each device. Problem (3): if you are asked for an "access code," the extension is not fully authorized. Right-click the YuJa icon, select Manage Extension, and toggle "Allow in Incognito" to ON. If that fails, uninstall and reinstall the extension. Problem (4): if your screen freezes before or during the quiz, it is likely due to high internet traffic or a weak connection. Refer to the "optimal internet hours" in the Quizzes section for the best results. Problem (5): if Canvas page elements are missing or the quiz refuses to load, an ad blocker is likely interfering with YuJa’s security checks. Disable all ad blocker extensions for Canvas and YuJa before starting. If you still have YuJa Verity problems, contact the UTM help desk at 731-881-7900.
REVIEWING QUIZZES: Students sometimes ask me if they can access graded quizzes to see specifically what they missed. This is a fair request. Unfortunately, with online quizzes where I cannot monitor students directly, I cannot allow students to have access to the questions, either through e-mail correspondence or through one of Canvas's "view quiz" features. I apologize for that, but I am also cautious with the paper exams in my on-campus classes. Further down in this assignment instructions document, I provide "hints for studying" which might help.
DEADLINES: All assignment deadlines are posted in Canvas. The biggest liability for students taking online courses is failure to complete assignments in a timely fashion. Although I try to be sympathetic, I insist on assignment punctuality and consequently will not allow assignments or tests to be submitted after the designated due dates except under extenuating circumstances. From my experience, the students who get A's in my online classes are good with time management, even in the face of busy schedules and family tragedies. I recommend that you work ahead on your assignments as a safety buffer for personal events that might interfere. The students who get D's and F's are routinely late with assignments, fail to complete several assignments, and often take the quizzes at the last minute putting down random answers (indicating no study preparation). Students who get B's and C's usually exhibit at least some of the characteristics of the D and F students.
TOLERANCE FOR CONTROVERSY: Please note that this course will cover controversial issues and you will likely be exposed to views that differ from your own. You need to respectfully address others in the class, and not let your emotions take over. A benefit of philosophy courses is that they can create an attitude of tolerance for controversial subjects. Here are three comments that students have emailed me in connection with this: (1) "The course increased my respect for some of the differing points of view, since many of them were presented in a sensible way that I had not considered as seriously before." (2) "Believe me, the class makes you look at things differently. Issues that I thought I had completely made my mind up on are not as black and white as they once were." (3) "I really thought before I took this class that I had concrete answers for these issues. I caught myself writing some of the discussions and actually arguing against a point I had made."
HINTS FOR STUDYING: Proper studying for the quizzes involves more than simply understanding the material, but rather internalizing the information so that the concepts are retained for the long term. Don't take short cuts, such as casually reading the text only once, or just hunting for answers to the study questions. It may also help if you watch the lecture videos more than once. An effective method of mastering the material is what a former A-level student wrote me about her study habits: "I spend on average 7 hours preparing for each chapter module and I get to it immediately, not at the last minute. First, I read through the material one time. Then I read through it again, highlighting as I go. Then I answer the study questions, and I do that with quite a bit of detail so that I can read over them several times before I take the test. Then I outline the material. Before I take the quiz, I reread the highlighted text at least once more, read the study questions and answers at least two or three times more, and review the outline at least two or three times more."
Most importantly, if you don't pre-schedule study time for your courses, all of your good intentions won't help. If your schedule is tight, it becomes a question of priorities and you need to cut out less important things like social media and streaming video. If you have reading difficulties, there are text-to-speech tools that will read aloud the material that you are viewing. Microsoft has a free tool called "Immersive Reader" that comes with Edge, MS Word, and is also included in Canvas. To access, highlight text > right click > click "read aloud". Chrome and Firefox have a free text to speech plugin called "Read Aloud".
HELP DESK: if you are having technical problems with Canvas, YuJa Verity, or Banner, or have even basic questions about using your computer for this class, you may contact UTM Computer Help desk at (731) 881-7900 or [email protected]. You can also contact the Canvas hotline directly at (844) 348-0034.