Political Science 201,
Spring, 2008
Office Hours: Monday 1-4pm
Office: 830 PLC
Phone: 346-4128
E-mail: csmith5@uoregon.edu
SSIL -- Social Sciences Instructional Lab -- Contact Information:
(These are the folks who will administer the midterm and final exam.)
e-mail: de@ssil.uoregon.edu
Phone: 346-4642
Course Description
The course will deepen your understanding of the theory and
practice of American politics. Our text and online activities will expose you
to a variety of viewpoints on some of the most important aspects of political
theory, political institutions, political actors and political processes in the
The course structure follows that of our main textbook, The
Struggle for Democracy 8E, by Edward Greenberg and Benjamin Page. Greenberg
and Page begin with an introductory section (“Democracy and American
Politics?”) that addresses the main thematic argument of the textbook, the idea
that democracy in
*Important note: Our department offers both a lecture based and a web based American Government course. Please double check to make certain that you have purchased the correct book.
Your grade for the class will be based on the following. More details on each of these assessments can be found below. These are the only graded assessments for the class. You will find a range of other assessments on the class web sites but only those listed below count toward your grade. No extra credit assignments will be given.
In order to use the online textbook, access course materials, do the interactive exercises, and complete the Course Compass assignments, you will need regular access to a fairly competent computer with web access, with at least 56K dial-up (although faster connections will obviously be better). Lack of such access is not an excuse to request alternative assignments or extensions on deadlines – it is a reason not to take this class. For example, if you lose your connection or crash while you are taking a quiz you will not get a second chance to take it! Be especially careful of using wireless connections, as they can be unstable and disconnect during a quiz.
This is an online course. It has no face-to-face meetings, unless you choose to come to my office hours. Contrary to what many anticipate, this makes the class harder, not easier. This independent study version of PS 201 is designed for self-motivated students who wish to proceed through the subject material at their own pace. Keep in mind that independent study is not the best option for every student. The lack of lectures or discussion sections means you have fewer opportunities to learn challenging material. Much of the material is challenging to understand well and there is a lot of information to absorb over the ten-week quarter. I am here to help you in office hours or by email, but for the most part learning and comprehending the material is done independently. To succeed in this course, you must be motivated and well organized. Due dates are firm and frequent. They creep up fast and extensions are only given under exceptional circumstances. Your reading, studying, and analytical skills should be strong. The lack of face-to-face interactions and the fact that you are essentially learning from a textbook means you should have strong reading comprehension skills. Because so much of the course grade is based on the True/False and multiple choice quizzes and examinations, please give careful consideration to whether that is a format that will work for you. To do well in this class you should be comfortable with this method of testing. There are no alternative assignments or extra credit opportunities. Historically, the range of grades in this class has been very large – there have been large numbers of both As and Fs. The quizzes and exams are not easy. Marginal students just taking this class to avoid attending lectures and section meetings, or because they think it will be easy, are strongly encouraged to drop the class now and enroll in the traditional lecture-based version of this class – you will learn more and your grade will be higher. Be warned, I cannot emphasize enough that this course requires organization, self-motivation, strong reading comprehension and an ability to perform well in True/False and multiple choice exams. Note that PS 201 cannot be repeated for credit – the traditional lecture course PS 201 and the independent study/distance education course PS 201 are treated as the same course by the Registrar’s office.
Various elements of this class are accessible through several web sites:
E-mail Access
Important
class announcements will periodically be sent out via e-mail to your UO account. It is therefore imperative that all
students either use their UO email account, and check it several times a week,
or set it to forward to the account you really use. Please take steps
immediately to make sure that this is taken care of, and also make sure that
e-mails I send out to the class via Course Compass will make it past your spam
filter. This is your responsibility. All UO students are now
automatically assigned UO e-mail accounts, which are automatically used as your
e-mail address in all UO directories. If you do not know how to access
your UO email account, contact the
I mentioned it above, but it is worth repeating again
here. You will find instructions on how
to register with the Course Compass web site packaged with your textbook. You should go to the UO Political Science
online portal at http://www.pearsoncustom.com/or/uo_polisci. Instructions can also be found here. Please follow the instructions carefully and
be sure to complete them because mistakes can cause problems that are difficult
to fix.
The required
materials for this class are: The Struggle for Democracy, 8 Edition.
Do not purchase an older version of the
textbook or a used copy. Older versions and used copies do not contain
an access code to the Course Compass web site and are hence useless for taking
the required chapters quizzes, simulations and post-simulation quizzes. The textbook and Course Compass access
code are only available for purchase at the UO Bookstore in one packet. Basically, you must purchase a hardcopy of
the textbook through the UO bookstore. This is because this class has been
specifically designed for the Political Science Department at the UO. If you
are not in
Tests and Assignments
Chapter Quizzes (27% total; 1.5 points for each
chapter quiz)
You
will take 18 chapter quizzes through the Course Compass web site, corresponding
to each chapter in the textbook. The
quiz for each chapter is located under the “Chapter Quizzes” tab in the Course
Compass web site. When first
exploring the Course Compass web site be careful not to accidentally take a
chapter quiz because you only get one chance to do so and should be prepared.
The
quizzes are not proctored, but they are closed book. In order to take them you
will need to promise that you are not looking things up in the book, sharing
questions or answers with classmates, printing out the quiz, or using a quiz or
quiz answers provided by a classmate. If you engage in any of these
activities even once, your grade for all the quizzes will be a zero, which
will make it essentially impossible to pass the class.
You
will be given 20 minutes to take each chapter quiz. After completing the quiz, please make sure
you press the submit button about 30 seconds before the 20 minute time limit
because it takes the system about that long to process your quiz. You can take each quiz only once. Each quiz will consist of 11 multiple choice
questions, worth 10% each. This means
that you can potentially score up to 110% for each quiz (a form of extra
credit).
Important Deadlines: You must complete the quizzes for chapters 1-4 by no later than the Friday of Week 3, April 18, at 5:00 PM. Quizzes for chapters 5-10 are due the Friday of Week 5, May 2, at 5:00 PM. Chapter quizzes 11-14 are due Friday of Week 8, May 23, at 5:00 PM. Finally, quizzes 15-18 are due Friday of Week 10, June 6, also at 5:00 PM. The quizzes are automatically removed from the Course Compass web site after the deadline. Access to the quizzes will be password-protected after those dates/times, and will only be available to students with approved extensions. To get an extension you must email me with a reason before the deadline for that quiz has passed.
Interactive Simulations (18% total for completion of activities in chapters 1-18, and passing short quizzes on them.)
As part of the Course Compass package that comes with the textbook, each substantive chapter (1-18) has an interactive simulation that is required. The simulations can be found in the “Chapter Contents” section of the Course Compass web site under the heading “Interactive Activities” for each chapter heading. After pressing the “Interactive Activities” tab you will be taken to another web site (MyPoliSciLab), which will open in another window. There are a number of other interactive activities for each chapter, but you are only required to do one of them. Of course, you are free to do as many of the activities as you want and I would recommend doing others, but will only be tested on the required simulation. A list of the required simulations can be found in the table below. It is your responsibility to do the right simulation. In terms of time expenditures, they range from fairly quick (probably 5-10) minutes to very involved (an hour or more to really do them right).
To
get credit for a simulation you will need to complete the simulation, then take
a post-simulation quiz associated with it.
The post-simulation quizzes you will be graded on are found in the
“Simulation Quizzes” section of the Course Compass web site. In
the MyPoliSciLab web site next to the actual simulation there are some quizzes
associated with the simulation. You can
take these if you want to but they will not count toward your grade and do not
show up in your gradebook. If you have
any questions or confusion as to where the simulations and post-simulation quizzes
are found please contact me.
Accidentally doing the wrong simulation quizzes will not suffice as an
excuse for an extension on these assignments.
Grading on the simulation quizzes is credit/no credit (you just need to pass the quiz to get full credit). To pass a simulation quiz you need to score at least 3/5. The questions should be easy if you pay careful attention during the simulation. If you do a simulation but still get fewer than 3 of 5 right on the quiz you can still get credit for it. I will give you credit for it if you send me an e-mail with a paragraph or two (6-10 sentences minimum) describing the simulation, what you did and why, and a few sentences linking it to concepts covered in the class. If your paragraph is too short or inadequate you will not receive credit for the simulation. To get credit you must send any make up paragraphs before the deadline for that particular set of simulation quizzes.
It is recommended that you do the simulations and take the quiz for them prior to taking the chapter quiz. I also recommend that you do not put them off until right before the deadline and then try to race through them. From my experience, many students do this and find that they have neither the time to do them adequately and hence perform poorly, or they miss the deadline and automatically fail the quizzes they were unable to complete.
Interactive
Simulation Deadlines:
The due dates are the same as for the chapter quizzes and are shown in the
table below.
Course Compass Discussion Board Postings (5% total for postings on five discussion boards, credit/no credit)
You
will be responsible for posting to five discussion boards during the course of
the term. The discussion forums can be
found under the “Discussion Board” tab on the Course Compass web site. One discussion thread will just involve
introducing yourself and the other four discussion forums correspond to each of
the four segments of the class. You
must post at least once to each, all five, of the required discussion forums. Each of the discussion forums has a deadline,
which corresponds to the deadlines listed above for each section of the class. The deadlines are also stated in the
discussion forum title on the Course Compass web site. Please make a note of them. After the deadline you can no longer post to
the discussion forum and will receive 0 for that discussion forum. There are no extensions for discussion board
postings.
Your
required posts must be at least one paragraph long (5-10 sentences), you
must have something substantive to say, and you must somehow incorporate or
refer to ideas from the readings. Do not just write a 2 sentence
posting, simply restate what other students say, or post on an unrelated
topic. You will not receive the one
percentage point for a discussion forum if your posting is inadequate. You may of course respond on more than one
topic or respond more than once on each discussion board if you like. You can only receive 1 point of each
discussion forum no matter how many times you post to it. However, if your final score is between two
grades I will use your level of involvement in the discussion forums as a gauge
of involvement in the class to move your final grade up or down. I encourage interaction and debate, so
please feel free to engage each other through the discussion forums. You
don’t have to start your own discussion thread. Making substantive
responses to one another is, arguably, even better (Hence the term discussion
board!). Remember to use proper netiquette – Internet courtesy.
Challenging a person’s ideas is acceptable; but insulting the person (flaming)
who voiced the ideas discourages the cooperative learning process. Postings that flame another user will be
removed and will not count toward the five-post minimum.
Discussion Board Due Dates: The four topical posts are due the same dates as the chapter quizzes. The self-introduction post will be due at the same time as the first topical post -- by the end of week 3, Friday, April 18. All postings are due by 5:00 PM of their due date.
Exams (50%
divided into a midterm (25%) and final (25%) examination)
You will take two proctored examinations based on the assigned readings in the Text – a midterm and final exam each worth 25% of your grade respectively. See below for detailed instructions for taking these exams. Exams are made up of multiple choice and/or true/false questions. The midterm will cover Parts 1-3 of the Text (chapters 1-10) and the final will cover Parts 4-5 (chapter 11-18). The final examination is not cumulative. Tests are closed-book and cannot be taken more than once. Both exams will be in the system at all times, so take extra care when logging in that you are logging in for the correct exam! If you take the wrong exam there is literally nothing anyone can do to “fix” it. The exams cover a wide range of material and require knowledge of broad concepts and specific factual details. Study guides will not be provided as there are many study tools available through the course web site.
The
deadline for taking the midterm is Saturday of Week 6, May 10. The
deadline for taking the Final exam is Thursday of Finals Week, June 12.
Chapter Quiz, Post-simulation Quiz and Exam Deadlines
|
Textbook Section |
Textbook Chapter |
Required Simulation |
Due Date |
Exam Deadline |
|
Part 1 - Introduction: Main Themes |
Ch.1: Democracy and American Politics |
Simulation: How to Satisfy Aunt Martha |
April 18 |
Midterm May 10 |
|
Part 2 - Structure |
Ch.2: The Constitution |
Simulation: You are James Madison |
April 18 |
|
|
Ch.3 Federalism: States and Nations |
Simulation: You are a Federal Judge |
April 18 |
||
|
Ch.4: The Structural Foundations of American Government and Politics |
Simulation: What are American Civic Values |
April 18 |
||
|
Part 3 – Political Linkage |
Ch.5: Public Opinion |
Simulation: You are a Polling Consultant |
May 2 |
|
|
Ch.6: The News Media |
Simulation: You are the News Editor |
May 2 |
||
|
Ch.7: Interest Groups and Business Corporations |
Simulation: You are a Lobbyist |
May 2 |
||
|
Ch.8: Social Movements |
Simulation: You are the Leader of Concerned Citizens for World Justice |
May 2 |
||
|
Ch.9: Political Parties |
Simulation: You are Redrawing the Districts in Your State |
May 2 |
||
|
Ch.10: Participation, Voting and Elections |
Simulation: You are a Professional Campaign Manager |
May 2 |
||
|
Part 4 – Government and Governing |
Ch.11: Congress |
Simulation: You are a Member of Congress |
May 23 |
Final June 12 |
|
Ch.12: The Presidency |
Simulation: You are Appointing a Supreme Court Justice |
May 23 |
||
|
Ch.13: The Federal Bureaucracy |
Simulation: You are a Federal Administrator |
May 23 |
||
|
Ch.14: The Courts |
Simulation: You are a Clerk to Supreme Court Justice Judith Gray |
May 23 |
||
|
Part 5 – What Government Does |
Ch.15: Freedom: The Struggle for Civil Liberties |
Simulation: Balancing |
June 6 |
|
|
Ch.16: Civil Rights: The Struggle for Political Equality |
Simulation: You are the Mayor |
June 6 |
||
|
Ch.17: Domestic Policy |
Simulation: You are Trying to Get a Tax Cut |
June 6 |
||
|
Ch.18: Foreign Policy and National Defense |
Simulation: You are the President |
June 6 |
Examination Policies and
Procedures:
Exam testing policies can be viewed on-line at http://distanceeducation.uoregon.edu/info.oncampus and http://distanceeducation.uoregon.edu/info.offcampus. It is each student’s responsibility to understand and follow the policies outlined in this document. If you have any further questions, please contact me.
Test Scheduling and Deadlines: You may schedule an exam at any available time (available test times will be determined by SSIL or your approved remote proctor), up to the deadlines – Saturday, May 10 (week 6) for the midterm and Thursday, June 12 (Finals Week) for the final, up until SSIL’s last time slot that day. It is your responsibility to make sure that you take the exam before the deadline. I strongly recommend making an appointment as early as you can, and taking the exams at least a day or two before the deadlines in case something comes up at the last minute. You will take the chapter quizzes on your own through Course Compass – you do not need to make appointments for them, but please recall that quiz deadlines have been scheduled several days earlier than the exam deadlines.
On-Campus Students: If you are taking this course on campus, you will take all your tests at the Social Science Instructional Lab (SSIL) located in McKenzie Hall 445. All on-campus tests are given and scheduled by appointment only. Before you can schedule an exam, you must complete the On-Line Introduction to Test Taking by going to: http://distanceeducation.uoregon.edu/ and clicking anywhere on the paragraph that begins “be sure to get your Test Taker ID.” After you complete the introduction, you will be given a Test Taker ID Number and Password. With these, you can log into your Test Taker Home Page from the above distance education web page. From your Test Taker Home Page you can make appointments to take tests, cancel appointments, see your test scores, e-mail your professor, change your test taker password, and more. You should go through the On-Line introduction the first week of class. Take the time to read the information under the link, “On Campus Students.” If you have further questions about testing, contact: de@ssil.uoregon.edu.
It is strongly recommended that students make appointments in SSIL for taking tests early. You cannot, however, make appointments more than two weeks in advance of your intended test date (not the test deadline). If you want to take tests early you may do so. Remember that SSIL has limited testing slots available each day so make certain that you plan ahead.
Be sure to schedule yourself enough time to finish a test. Budget extra time for possible software complications: Thirty minutes is the average time needed to complete the exams, and appointments are for one hour. Budget extra time for possible software complications. The lab fee for this class also entitles you to use the computers in SSIL for word processing, web browsing, etc. Absolutely no food or drink allowed is in the lab. For more information, check the SSIL Web page at: http://ssil.uoregon.edu/.
To ensure that SSIL test times are available for all student schedules, a wide variety of test-taking times are available. They will be posted at http://distanceeducation.uoregon.edu/. If your schedule is inflexible it is your responsibility to sign up far enough in advance to get a space in a time slot that fits your schedule. It is not SSIL’s or the instructor’s responsibility to make an additional exam time for you. More slots are likely to be added during the term as the level of demand becomes clear.
Remote Site Testing (other than
All
visits to the proctored test sites must be scheduled in advance. You can get
all necessary information about your testing site by contacting the testing
site proctor or the
For security reasons, the following class policies will be strictly enforced at both the Eugene Campus SSIL testing center and the remote site testing centers. Students at the remote sites should be aware that each remote site may have additional policies.
Do not hesitate to ask the person
administering the test for help with the testing software. If you experience any
problems with the software, notify the person administering the test
immediately. The person administering the test will help you restart the
software and contact the professor about the problem.
For
questions concerning administration and scheduling of exams,
contact the SSIL lab first; for questions regarding quiz or exam
content, activities, discussion board postings, essays or
grading, contact Professor Smith.
Online Gradebook Information
The CourseCompass online gradebook will house all your
earned grades for the quarter. Do not check the
Final grades are calculated based on your percentages on the 18 chapter quizzes at 1.5% each, completion of the 18 interactive activity quizzes at 1% each (credit/no credit), the 5 required Blackboard discussion postings at 1% each (credit/no credit) and the midterm and final exams each at 25%. The grades in the class Blackboard page will be updated only twice – after the midterm and then again after the final. After the midterm, I will also post an item on the grade sheet showing your average so far.
If necessary, I reserve the right to apply a curve at a level which I deem appropriate. While a curve is a possibility, you should not count on it; rather, you should assume that your grade will be based on your raw scores and the cutoffs below. If I do use a curve, no one will receive a grade below where the raw scores would have placed you; but depending where you are in relation to the cutoffs, it is possible that some students’ letter grades would increase while others would not, or that some students’ letter grades would increase more than others.
Cutoffs for letter grades are as follows:
|
|
Minus |
Plain |
Plus |
|
A |
90-93.33 |
93.34-96.66 |
96.67
+ |
|
B |
80-83.33 |
83.34-86.66 |
86.67-89.99 |
|
C |
70-73.33 |
73.34-76.66 |
76.67-79.99 |
|
D |
60-63.33 |
63.34-66.66 |
66.67-69.99 |
|
F |
|
0-59.99 |
|