not applicable; internet course
The goal of this course is to provide you with an overview of the major religious traditions of the world, framed in a historical context. It is an introductory course; no prior knowledge is assumed.
There are two exams and a paper required in this course. Having two exams in a course is standard for upper-division college-level history courses, including the traditional classroom sections taught at Midwestern State. A college graduate will be expected (by future employers) to handle large amounts of information, and so this course develops that skill by having students learn and synthesize several chapters for each exam. Moreover, these same employers will expect a college graduate to be able to apply critical reasoning to written material and communicate their analysis through clear, correct writing, skills that will the paper will develop.
Each exam will count for 40% of your final grade and will consist of 50 multiple choice questions worth two points each. Each exam will cover the material assigned for that exam period, including the textbook and the Essays on the web site. Each test is self contained. The "final" will not be comprehensive. Grading is done on a standard 100-point scale (i.e., 100-90=A, 89-80=B, etc.)
PAPER: The goal of this paper is for students to utilize the primary sources in the reader, The World’s Wisdom, in order to critically analyze these sources in relation to specific questions. The reader has eight chapters, and each chapter has a sampling of texts from a particular religious tradition. For this paper, you are to select two chapters and compose a paper in which you compare and contrast the religious worldviews expressed in these writings. In this comparison, the questions you should consider are: How does this religion seem to conceive of the divine? How does it understand the relationship between a human being and the divine? What appear to be its moral, ethical and spiritual imperatives? How does it handle what your textbook calls the “three Ms:” mortality, morality, and meaning. What are the similarities and differences between the two traditions (chapters) you have selected? You should also consider a question that was posed in your textbook’s introduction: Do differences in religious language (or, in this case, expression) reflect experiences of different realities? Or are they different expressions of or ways of describing the same reality?
Although you must address the above questions, in writing this paper you must use the essay form, not “Q & A.” You should back up your assertions by references to the reader, providing evidence for your statements. Use page numbers for your citations. You must use the texts in the reader ONLY and not any other source.
Papers will be graded using TrackChanges, and returned to you. Your grade on this paper will be 20% of your final grade in the course.
Paper: This paper must be at least seven pages long, double-spaced, and in a font no larger than 12. It must be written in Word, but NOT Word 7 or the version of Word that accompanies Vista. If you have one of these versions of Word, please save your work in an earlier version before submitting it. You will submit your paper as an attachment to an email sent to the instructor via WebCT. Attachments that cannot be opened because they are not in the correct format constitute an unacceptable paper submission – in other words, you will not be given credit for having submitted the paper!
Exams: All exams will be taken through Blackboard/WebCT. You can find the exams under “Exams” on the home page or under “Assessments” on the left. Each exam will be available for a period of time during which you may log on and take the exam. (See the course schedule below for the dates.) You may not log on before or after the specified time. Once you log on you have 50 minutes (1 minute per question) to take the exam. If you go over the allotted time, two points will be deducted from the exam grade for each minute that you go over the allotted time.
Therefore, please note: You should not log on to the exam until you are ready to take it!
Also, please note the following policy about technical difficulties during exams: It is the student’s responsibility to have reliable computer, browser and internet access capability in order to successfully complete exams within the allotted time. Consideration will NOT be given for technical problems on the student’s end during exams. Please be certain that your computer, browser, and internet access provider are adequate and RELIABLE before taking an exam in this course
This paper is due no later than Friday, March 30. Late papers will be penalized 5 points off for every day past the March 30 deadline, and no paper will be accepted after Friday, April 6!
Exams must be completed by the established deadlines. Make-ups will only be given to students who can present documentation of a major emergency or technical problem which prevented them from taking the exam during the scheduled window. Incompletes will only be given to students who can present documentation of a major emergency, occurring after the last date to drop, which prevented them from completing the course within the specified time.
Instructor Drops: Students must maintain adequate progress in this course in order to continue to be enrolled in it. Failure to do so means that a student may, at the instructor’s discretion, be dropped from the course.
There is no provision for extra credit!!!
This course will be conducted entirely over the internet. It is the student's responsibility to make certain that he or she has reliable and adequate computer access and capability for the course. This includes the computer itself, the browser being used, and the internet service provider (ISP). If you have not already, please go through the "Browser Check" tutorial on the WebCT log-in page, in order to avoid problems later. Also, if your computer or ISP has a tendency to freeze up or lose connection, DO NOT USE THEM TO TAKE AN EXAM, but find a more reliable system. Students will not get consideration for technical problems during exams if those problems are on the student’s end. However, if you feel the problem occurred at MSU’s end, with WebCT itself, you can report it to Tech Support and IF Tech Support verifies there was a problem at MSU’s end, then consideration may be given. However, this consideration will ONLY be given for technical problems at MSU’s end verified by Tech Support, NOT for any problems arising from the student’s own system.