In a traditional classroom setting, often, a few students tend to dominate the discussion and when the class is over, there is no record of what was discussed or who contributed.  There is also no way to revisit the discussions in a real time meeting or ways to refer to them in course work.  These dynamics have changed when using a Web-based forum, which archives who contributed what and what each participant said.  Every class member is expected to fully participate in the online discussions. As we respond online, week by week, to readings, we create an archive of ideas that serves both as an reference for class discussions and as a long term resource for research papers and other assignments.  

For our online discussions we will use Townhall, a Web-based forum.  For competency reflections we will use blogs.  The advantage of using Townhall and blogs is that they are available for writing and reading 24 hours a day (barring server problems).  You can post your response to readings and comments on others' reaponses, and your blogs any time of the day or night, at your convenience, as long as you post by the due date/time. 

Each student (for each week there are assigned readings) will be expected to contribute a 250 - 300 word commentary on the reading, paraphrasing and pulling out relevant short quotes (also citing the sources) where appropriate.  Express your own views on the subject, while being informed by and referring to the authors' points.  Your responses should show that you actually read the readings, by referring to the original authors' comments in your own response. Also refer to class members' comments in your discussions.  For example, you may agree or respectfully disagree with a particular point of view and explain why (honoring everyone's right to their own opinions, of course).

Each week, all writers in the class will post their responses to the assigned readings before the next Tuesday's class  Responses to readings should be posted by the date and time agreed upon by the class.  Please respond to other students' postings that you find particularly interesting or provocative. 

Each week, a small group of students (approx. 3 or 4) will lead class discussions based on the readings.  See the group led discussion assignment.

Students will also be expected to use a blog to post (weekly or every 2 weeks) reflections on the competencies.