Syllabus, sample

Course Goals:

GEO 204-V -- the virtual version of World Regional Geography -- is a course designed to make you more globally aware. Geography and geographical principles are very important in today's globalized world, even if you have no intention of ever traveling anywhere. Given the integration of the world's economic and cultural systems, we impact many people the world, and their actions impact us.

Given this importance, this course introduces you to the basic physical and human geography of the world. We try to do so in such a way that a geographical perspective will become part of your way of thinking. This course is not just about memorization of countries and their capital cities, it is about understanding why places are where they are and the sorts of issues that are important there today. We integrate a lot of current events into the lessons, making the course as relevant as possible.

Course Etiquette:

An entirely online course is quite different from the traditional courses you have taken at Michigan State University. In an online course, the only contact you are likely to have with your Instructor or with others in the class is through email, discussion boards, or chat rooms. In general, this system works very well and many students prefer it to a traditional (lecture) class because they can ask questions freely without feeling intimidated. We have also discovered, however, that this same feeling of freedom can be a negative thing, particularly because some students feel they can be rude.

Unfortunately, we have had several instances in the past where students were rude to other students during online conversations, and even to their instructors during routine question and answer sessions. This increased rudeness seems to stem from the feeling of anonymity that a web course enhances among students, especially those who, for one reason or another, are not receiving the grade that they feel they deserve. Again, most students make an effort to respect others and their opinions. We ask that you make a special effort to be one of these respectful people.

Students who make rude comments will be warned the first time by email. Upon the second, you will be asked to discuss the matter with Dr. WinklerPrins. REMEMBER: THE ONLY BASIS YOUR INSTRUCTOR HAS FOR GRADING AND DISCUSSIONS ARE THROUGH YOUR WORDS ON A COMPUTER SCREEN. He/she has no other context in which to understand your thinking. Therefore, it is important to be concise, informative, and polite while "talking" with your section instructor and other students in the class.

Course Organization:

This course consists of 12 online lessons (or lectures). Each lesson has associated lesson reference pages, textbook readings, reflection assignments, and optional, supplementary assignments. You will be quizzed on each lesson, which will cover all of its associated readings, assignments, and supplementary material.

Lesson	Topic	Text chapter
1	Introduction to World Regional Geography -Basic Geographical Principles --How to Think Spatially --Using Maps -What is a Region/ Realm? -Demographic Primer	Introduction
2	Europe -Physical and Human Landscapes -Resources and Industrialization -Language Mosaic -Unifying and Disunifying Forces	1
3	Russia -Physical and Human Landscapes -Evolution of the Russian State -Devolution of the Russian State -Cultural Mosaic	2
4	North Africa & Southwest Asia -Physical and Human Landscapes -People-Environment Interactions -Cultural Hearth -Geopolitical Issues	7
5	Subsaharan Africa -Physical and Human Landscapes -Historical Geography -Environment and Conservation -Geography of Health and Disease	6
6	South Asia -Physical and Human Landscapes -Religious Diversity -Agriculture and the Green Revolution -Changing Economic Geography	8
7	East Asia -Physical and Human Landscapes -The Population Question -Why is Everything ‘Made in China?’  -Japanese Popular Culture	9
8	South-East Asia -Physical and Human Landscapes -Deforestation -Economic Tigers and Export Processing Zones -The Spice Trade and Colonization	10
9	Austral & Pacific -Physical and Human Landscapes -Political Geography of Microstates and the Sea -Legacy of Being Far Away -Environmental Change	11, 12
10	South America -Physical and Human Landscapes -The Columbian Exchange -Urbanization and Urban Structure -Agricultural Issues	5
11	Middle America -Physical and Human Landscapes -Environmental Hazards -Tourism -International Migration	4
12	North America -Physical and Human Landscapes -Migration -Urban Issues -Agriculture	3

Throughout the lessons, you will be provided with directions boxes and links to other web pages - some of which are required, while others are optional. The lesson's text will indicate whether you need to visit and explore URLs or if such a link is supplementary or optional. In such cases, exploration of these sites will increase your understanding of the subject matter and will help you with the quizzes. Some quiz questions will be derived directly from selected web sites that you are required to visit.

In each onine lesson, you will have the opportunity to test your knowledge with several popup or bullet questions. These questions are not graded and do not need to be handed in while you work through your lesson. You will, however, be able to look at the correct answers and discuss any further questions you may have with your instructor. However, you might see some of these questions (or similar questions) again on a quiz.

• Technological requirements: computer, internet connection, web browser (preferably Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox), applications/plugins, etc (see the Help-Setup page for details).
• Textbook pack: The World Today: Concepts and Regions in Geography, 3rd edition by H.J. de Blij and Peter O. Muller (2007) packaged with a National Geographic Atlas of the World, College Edition
• You are required to complete each lesson and are responsible for all of its associated components (e.g., web links, lesson questions, text readings, writing assignments, SCS assignments, etc.). 
• You are also required to take the quizzes and submit your responses to assignments ON TIME.

PLEASE NOTE:
(1) All course emails will be sent to your MSU (mail.msu.edu) accounts ONLY through the ANGEL system. You will need to check your MSU account at least once a day for emails from your Instructor and Virtual-Geography staff. If you need to, please set your MSU account to forward your emails to an account that you do check frequently.
(2) We highly recommend that you view this course website in Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, as the site was designed specifically for use in these browsers.

Dr. WinklerPrins is the advisor of this course, as well as an Instructor on record. She created this course and is the professor responsible for the class in the context of the Geography Department at MSU. During this semester she will NOT be involved in the day-to-day workings of the course.

Instead, section Instructors are responsible for each section of this course, from the day-to-day management to the grading. Specifically, section Instructors take care of the grading of writing assignments and quizzes, any content questions you may have, any questions about how to work through the course, and calculating final grades. Any email correspondence should go to your Instructor. Dr. WinklerPrins will be available only if a major problem arises, which potentially includes problems with the ANGEL system, issues of plagiarism, or final grade concerns.

There will be 12 quizzes during the session. There is one quiz for each lesson. The course is setup this way so that you can demonstrate your grasp of the material from these lessons while it is still fresh. That being said, creating a quiz schedule for this course is extremely difficult due to your other assignments, brevity of the course, ANGEL maintenance, weekends, and the number of quizzes.

The dates of the quizzes are listed on the course schedule page and calendar. You will be notified of an upcoming quiz on the course calendar page and through course announcements. This notification will provide you with information concerning the quiz date and access times.

Each quiz will be offered during a large window (e.g., 12-24 hours) on date specified (course schedule page and calendar). You may log into the quiz at any time during that window. Once logged into the quiz, you have a set time limit to complete your quiz and turn it in. Otherwise, your quiz will be saved by the computer at the time limit and automatically turned in for you.

You are expected to treat the online quizzes as you would a quiz in a traditional lecture class – the quiz is yours to take, without help from anyone else. If we find that you are working together on tests we will consider that cheating and appropriate action will be taken. Quizzes are open-notes and open-text which you may consult while taking the quiz. Be forewarned however, that having an 'open-book' quiz does not release you from studying! Quizzes are timed and if you are not prepared you will spend you time trying to find the answers. Your Instructor and other administrators CAN and DO, however, monitor your quiz logs before, during, and after you have taken the quiz - they can detect patterns consistent with cheating and have the authority to discuss the matter with you immediately. Once you have turned in your quiz, it is automatically graded by the computer and your grades are uploaded to your personal gradebook (Tools -> My Grades) by the following day. Official grades, answers, and explanations for the quiz are provided on the course website about 3-4 days following the quiz.

Quizzes will consist largely of multiple choice questions, although some T/F or short answer questions may be asked. All quiz questions are selected at random from a pool of questions. All answer options for each question are also ordered at random. Please take note that your quiz is unique and completely unlike any other student's quiz. Cheating on these quizzes would be a waste of time.

For each quiz, you are responsible for one web lesson and all of its associated components.

Of the 12 quizzes given in this class, only your 10 best quiz scores will count to your final grade. In other words, 2 of your quiz scores will be dropped to calculate your final grade in GEO 204.

Makeup Quizzes

Makeup quizzes are only allowed in special cases. If you miss a quiz due to an emergency, you are required to contact your section instructor IMMEDIATELY. You have one day to schedule your makeup quiz. If you do not contact your instructor in this time frame, you will NOT be allowed to take a makeup and will receive 0 points for the quiz.

In addition to the quizzes, you are required to submit responses to writing assignments (~1 per week). Your answers to each of the 6 assignments will be due at 11:59 pm (ET) on the date specified! You are strongly encouraged to submit your responses before the due date. If you experience difficulty submitting your response, please email it directly to your instructor by the due date. Only your 5 best assignment scores will count towards your final grade in this class.

The assignments will be loosely based on the lesson(s) you are working on that week and will require to you draw upon your own experiences to respond to the question. Responses are graded based on a specified rubric. LATE assignment responses will receive 0 points.

A note about writing assignments: These assignments have been designed to provide you with the opportunity to reflect upon a topic discussed in class on a more personal level. We do not want to read your unfounded and unsupported opinion about an issue. You must support your ideas and opinions with credible, properly referenced sources. Claiming that a phenomenon occurs because it's "mother nature's will" is NOT acceptable and your response will be graded accordingly.

Course Policies

Academic Honesty. Article 2.3.3 of the Academic Freedom Report states that "the student shares with the faculty the responsibility for maintaining the integrity of scholarship, grades, and professional standards." In addition, the Department of Geography at Michigan State University adheres to the policies on academic honesty as specified in General Student Regulations 1.0, Protection of Scholarship and Grades, and in the all-University Policy on Integrity of Scholarship and Grades, which are included in "Spartan Life: Student Handbook and Resource Guide". Students who commit an act of academic dishonesty may receive a 0.0 on the assignment or in the course.

Plagiarism. On a specific note, an important issue with virtual classes is plagiarism. As defined, plagiarism is:

"to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own" or to "use (another's production) without crediting the source " (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

For a more detailed definition of "plagiarism," please refer to the MSU "English Department Policy on Plagiarism." 

Studies show that plagiarism is very common at most universities (including MSU), but is an even bigger problem in virtual classes since it is easy to copy directly from a website and use those exact words, or most of the words, as your answer. This is a potential problem in this class with quizzes containing essay questions and with your responses to writing assignments. It is essential that you provide references when needed (i.e., you cite information that did not originally come from you) and that your responses are phrased in your OWN, original words. If the instructor suspects that a part or all of an answer has been plagiarized, the student will be contacted immediately - plagiarized content is given 0 points.

Please see the example below for clarification:

THE QUESTION ASKED:

How do humans influence species populations and ecosystems?

THE WEBSITE MATERIAL:

"Increased human population often leads to greater influence on the environment and sharper declines in species and ecosystems. According to the authors of the human footprint study, however, land transformation probably poses the single greatest threat to biodiversity, resulting in habitat loss and/or fragmentation for wild species. Beyond its effects on the nearby area, it can have global consequences, such as worldwide changes in soils and increased demand for fresh water for irrigation.

The authors also found that the greater the human access through roads, rivers, and coastlines, the greater the likelihood of resource extraction, pollution, and the introduction of invasive species. Both human access and land transformation have been fueled by increased power infrastructure (access to fossil fuel and electrical power) over the last century. Throughout most of human history, impact on the environment was constrained by raw human and animal muscle power. But today, one person with a bulldozer can match the power of 300 horses." (The Human Footprint, NASA-EO, 2003) 

A PLAGIARIZED STUDENT ANSWER:

Increased human population can lead to declines in species populations and ecosystems. Land transformation probably poses the greatest threat, resulting in habitat loss and fragmentation for species. While land transformation can affect the nearby area, it can have global consequences, like global changes in soils and increased demand for fresh water for irrigation. Also, the greater the human access through roads, rivers, and coastlines, the greater the likelihood of resource extraction, pollution, and the introduction of invasive species. Both human access and land transformation have been fueled by increased power infrastructure over the last century.

When reading the above example, the instructor cannot tell whether this student learned anything from answering this question, or if they just looked for key words and then copied a few sentences into their answer. This is the main reason why you must be sure to read the website, think through the information, and then answer the question in your own words. The example below is a good answer - the information is basically the same, but the sentences are not the same as the website sentences, and it is obvious when grading this question that the student has thought through the information before answering. Furthermore, a reference is provided to support the student's answer.

AN EXAMPLE OF A GOOD WAY TO REWORK THIS INFORMATION INTO YOUR OWN ANSWER:

Humans can negatively influence species populations and ecosystems through land transformations. As humans transform previously "wild" lands they may encourage habitat loss or habitat fragmentation, both of which may lead to ecosystem degradation and a decline in species populations. Land transformations affecting large areas may even change an ecosystem's soil properties or alter water resources. Humans can also negatively influence species populations and ecosystems through increased access into "wild" lands as more roads are constructed or rivers and coastal areas are more heavily traveled. (Web reference: The Human Footprint, NASA-EO, 2003, http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/footprint/) 

Please be conscientious of this potential problem as you work through the course, and do not hesitate to contact you instructor if you have any questions.

Grading:

• 10 quizzes worth 30 points each = 300 points
• 5 writing assignments worth 20 points each = 100 points

The maximum number of points for this class is 400. No extra credit work will be offered!

Final grades will be based on the following STRAIGHT SCALE (that has been specifically developed based on the performance of the 1,100+ students in GEO204-V in years past):

You can view your grades for the assignments and quizzes using your personal online gradebook.

Extra Credit: