Syllabus – 1102 – Spring 2017

Syllabus –- Assignments –- Schedule –- Brightspace (D2L) — Home

World History 2, 1102, with Jack Norton

“You can best serve civilization by being against what usually passes for it.” Wendell Berry

“Learning is always rebellion . . . Every bit of new truth discovered is revolutionary to what was believed before.” Margaret Lee Runbeck_

Welcome to World History. Our course will focus on one theme: rebellion.

There are no prerequisites for this course, and you do not need any
specialized knowledge. The class will be taught in English, with
occasional cheesy jokes and mild vulgarities in Spanish.

By the end of this class, you should be able to do the following core
learning outcomes:

Correctly identify major geographic features of the world and explain how geography shapes the success or failure of rebellions.
Write effective historical prose in different genres.
Identify and effectively use primary and secondary historical sources.
Analyze secondary sources, including websites, videos, and journal articles, for their credibility.
Demonstrate understanding of the provenance of rebellious ideas,
such as world religions.
Develop strategies for advancing your learning skills, such as
effective reading, writing, and critically analyzing
historical sources.
Recognize how to apply skills used in this class outside of the
academic setting.
Demonstrate an understanding of the ethics of acquiring, using, and presenting historical sources, as articulated by both professional organizations and historical subjects.

Required Resources

A computer or access to a computer that has multiple browsers.
Tablets and smart phones will not work for most work we do in
this course.
High-speed internet connection.
Critical Mind
Yeah, that’s right, this course has \$0 textbook costs. Tell your friends.

Contact Information – Jack Norton

Office Phone: 952-358-8911.

Cell Phone: 612-208-3723 – Please do not send me text messages. No calls
after 7 p.m.

Email: jack.norton@normandale.edu
. Email is the best way to reach me. I respond to emails and calls
within 24-36 hours Monday-Friday (most of the time much faster). On
weekends I respond by Sunday evening.

Office: Fine Arts Building, F 2204 (In the little hallway connecting
Science and College Services – red section of this map left of the tutoring center)

Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 1-2 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday, 1:30-2:30 p.m. Also, by appointment: we can always set up a time to chat 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. by phone or video (skype, google, facetime).

Course Policies

Attendance- Attendance is required! You need to check in with our
course regularly throughout the week. Are you committed to logging in, reading others thoughts, writing down your thoughts, and working independently at least five times a week for at least 8 total hours? If so, this course is for you. If not, you may do better in a face to face course. I do not take attendance, rather the course grades are set up to reward students who regularly contribute and and can hurt grades for those who do not contribute. For example, there are no make-up quizzes or discussions, no exceptions.

As an incentive for regular attendance, those students who turn in all
their assignments on-time, and miss no discussions or quizzes, will earn
a bonus of 3% on their final grade. To be clear, a student needs a
complete grade record, with no late or missing grades of any type to
earn the bonus.

E-Learning- What you need to know– You must use your student email
for all emails to me. As an online course, this is NOT a learn at your
own pace course. The due dates for assignments are hard (Fridays at 8
p.m.) and discussion boards close at the same time. Online education
allows you to learn without coming to campus, but it is in fact a more
demanding form of college. You need to be a reasonably skilled
keyboardist and comfortable with computer technology. If the words
upload, download, convert, or “As Jon mentioned in his post on
religion. . . ” are foreign to you, this might not be the course for
you. I want you to succeed, which is why I want you to be honest with
yourself about your abilities. To succeed in this course you will need
to:

Download and install software on your machine.
Watch streaming video from pgs.org and other websites.
Navigate the Normandale Library website successfully.
Spell check everything you post on D2L
Recognize that written communication requires more careful word choice than
oral communication. For example, sarcastic comments don’t work
because you can’t read sarcasm, only hear it.

If you need technology help, you may call our IT help desk at
952-358-8181. Even better, ask them a question on Normandale’s “Ask
Us” page, which will help
track your request.

Late Work- Assignments are due by the 8 p.m. on Friday for the week
of the assignment listed in the course calendar. Assignments handed in
late are penalized 12 points. Late work may be handed in until the D2L
Assignment folder for late work closes, the penultimate week of class. Quizzes,tests, responses, and discussions may not be made up.

Reading and Writing- This is a reading and writing-intensive course.
You will read up to 75 pages a week and write at least 16 pages of
typed, doubled-spaced pages of text. Writing guidelines for each
assignment will be discussed in course and included on the assignment.
All work will be written in plain text in the Markdown syntax. I assume you know how to turn on a computer, and open a web browser. Everything else I will teach you how to do with careful instructions.

Grading- Written work, unless otherwise noted, will be graded
according to a rubric (a grading chart,) which will be posted at the
time of the assignment. If you are struggling with any assignments,
please do not suffer in silence. Stop in for a chat or make an appointment with me so that we can address your questions. I succeed when you succeed.

Academic Standards-

Students in this course will adhere to the rules of Normandale Community
College’s Code of Conduct. Such rules prohibit plagiarizing other’s work
(taking credit for someone else’s work or stealing work from the web)
and creating a hostile academic environment for students or staff. Refer
to your student handbook for the full Student Code of Conduct or see:
http://catalog.normandale.edu/398.htm . We will work through how to
properly cite material during the semester. Please be aware that the
penalty for plagiarism is failure of the assignment, then possibly the
course, and possibly dismissal from the College.

For a plagiarism tutorial and how to avoid plagiarism, seehere .

Writing Resource- You are encouraged to use Normandale’s Writing
Center as you create and rewrite your assignments. It is located in the
central hallway between College Services and Fine Arts buildings (the
old bookstore) All good writers revise their work. Writing tutors can
help you at any stage of writing.

SmartThinking(Under “Resources on your D2L homepage) also has free, online writing
help.

Automatic bonus points: all writing assignments worth more than 5% of
the grade submitted to Smart Thinking or that have been reviewed by the
Writing Center receive an automatic 2 percentage point bonus.

General Resources-

Normandale provides a broad range of support services for you. I
strongly encourage you to use these resources as past student experience
shows that students who use support services succeed.

Counseling–
This department, located at the front of college services provides
“academic planning, career development, and personal concerns.” For
your career or mental health, they are there, including if you need
an emergency mental health session. 952-358-8261.

Veterans Resource
Center– a one-stop shop for information and support. 952-358-8501

Tutoring Center
Houses the writing tutors along with math, science, logic, reading
and EAP tutors. Free and walk-in hours. 952-358-8830

Child Care Learning Tree
Development Center offer child care at Normandale. The rates are
decent and their flexible with schedules. Professors send their kids
here too. 952-358-8613

Office for Students with Disabilities I welcome
all students to this class, regardless of disability. Those students
with disabilities or other special needs that require accommodation
should talk with me in the first week of course. Students should
also call the Office for Students with Disabilities at 952-487-7035
(952-487-7032 TTY). Students must be registered with the Office
for Students with Disabilities to receive special accommodation.
This syllabus is available in alternate formats.

Success box: I have the following items available to students who
are facing economic hardship and need a bit of help: snack bars,
juice, soda, vegetable juice, toothpaste and brush, soap, shampoo,
and deodorant. The items are in my office and I or the secretary who
sits outside my door can help you to them, no questions asked.

If you have a student in your home who qualifies for free lunches,
your household qualifies for a low-cost (\$10/month) internet
connection from Comcast. See
here for details.

The bathrooms in the lower-level of the Koop Student Center have
showers, which can be used any time the Student Center is open.

I reserve the right to amend this syllabus to better facilitate
students’ learning. Changes to the syllabus (if any) will be announced
in on the class website and a new syllabus will be posted on the class
website.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License