Religious Studies 101
Asynchronous, ONLINE Learning
Summer Session 1, 2009
(5/11–6/12/2009)
15 May 2009
HOW IS THE COURSE STRUCTURED?
This summer Introduction to Religious Studies will have five units, one for each week of the summer session.
Each unit includes readings and lecture-type PowerPoint presentations, followed by quizzes on that specific material. There will be online discussions related to
particular concepts presented in that unit, and students will be required to make thoughtful
contributions to these discussions at least four times each week (i.e., on
four different days).
Each unit requires a short (2–3 page) essay. Two of the assignments include viewing
feature films. One includes a short field research experience (a site visit at a church, mosque, or synagogue) and a student podcast of the site visit experience.
The course concludes with a cumulative final exam.
DO I HAVE TO BE AVAILABLE DURING THE WORK DAY?
No. The course will run totally asynchronously. If you want to participate in the online discussions at 3 AM, no problem. (Just don't expect the instructor to be available to answer any emails at that time!) As long as you participate at some point at least four days each week, you'll be fine.
CAN I SET MY OWN PACE?
Yes, and No. You can speed up the pace somewhat, but you can't really slow it down much.
- The course will
be delivered through the JCU Blackboard (BB) site, which is set to allow
individual students to progress through the course at a faster pace if desired.
(Each successive unit becomes available as the student completes the earlier
one.) I am trying to make the RL101 BB
available to each student as she or he registers for the course, so
students who register early may have a chance to begin the work before the summer session officially begins.
- It is essential for students to keep current with
the assigned readings and other coursework. To allow for a certain amount of flexibility, each of the first
four units will be available for ten days from the official "opening date"
indicated on the course schedule. However, a student who takes ten days to
complete each of these units would soon fall behind. Especially given the
brevity of the five-week summer session, getting behind in coursework is a
recipe for failure.
All course assignments must be submitted
by the afternoon of 12 June 2009, the last day of the Summer1
session. The RL101 BB site will go offline at 5 PM EDT that day. No extensions beyond that time
will be granted for any reason, so do not wait until the last minute and
then be foiled by a power outage, server malfunction, or some other technical difficulty.
WHAT BOOKS ARE REQUIRED?
All the required readings will be available on the Blackboard site. Some additional recommended texts are listed on the Syllabus, but you won't be required to buy any books. There will be two required films in addition to the textual resources.
WHAT CAN I DO TO "JUMP START" THE COURSE?
Decide what you want to accomplish by taking this course. Do you want to improve your writing skills? Learn about a non-Christian religion (e.g., Judaism or Islam)? Gain a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of Christian theology? Improve your spiritual life? Think about what skills youo want to gain or improve, what content you would like to learn, and what kinds of understanding you would like to develop or strengthen. Use the Course Goal Setting worksheet to help think about these questions, and then rank your objectives in the order of importance they have for you. Once you have listed your objectives and put them in rank order, compare them to the ones listed on the Syllabus. If you have learning goals that do not match those on the syllabus, think of what you might do to achieve those goals. (Email Dr. McGinn if you need help with this part.) Finally, complete your Learning Contract for this course and send it along for approval.
TECHNOLOGICAL
REQUIREMENTS
One final word of caution: this course requires
access to a computer that can manage the technological demands of the internet
delivery system (including at least 1GB RAM). Make sure your browser is
up-to-date. I recommend using Mozilla Firefox because it seems to
have the fewest compatibility problems with BB. Students who use Internet
Explorer seem to have the most frequent problems. (If you don't have Firefox,
it is a free download.)
For maximum efficiency and to reduce the likelihood of
delivery problems, your browser should be given the following settings:
- Check for a newer version of a stored page every time you visit a
website.
- Empty the cache every time you shut down the browser.
- Keep the pages in the history for 0 days.
- Permit Java scripts to run on trusted sites.
- Include http://blackboard.jcu.edu on the
list of trusted sites.