Sociology SOCI 220 American Popular Culture 3 Credit Hours 8 Week Course Prerequisite(s) None Table of Contents Instructor

Information Course Description Course Scope Course Objectives Course Delivery Method Resources Instructor Information
Instructor: Dr. Nancy Wack Email: Message tool in classroom & nancy.wack@mycampus.apus.edu Phone: By appointment only Office Hours: Monday through Friday (Central Standard Time) By appointment Email: Anytime I will reply most often within 24 hours

Evaluation Procedures Grading Scale Course Outline Policies Academic Services Selected Bibliography

Table of Contents Course Description - Catalog

This course is a contemporary study of popular culture in America its development and characteristics, its role in shaping our individual lives and key social institutions; and its broad effects on our globalizing world. The course is designed around the interdisciplinary nature of cultural studies, and students will learn how to use key concepts and theories to examine popular culture from a number of different fields including Sociology, Anthropology, Communications, History, Cultural Studies, English, Womens Studies, Ethnic Studies, and American Studies. Students will develop the skills to analyze the reciprocal relationship between culture and key stratification factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, region and sexuality. The course will cover many facets of popular culture from all forms of media, to sports, fashion, and the influence of technology. Students will learn to situate popular culture within its social, historical, political, and economic contexts and their personal lives.

Table of Contents Course Scope This course is a general education course that may fulfill part of the Social Science requirement, and it is an elective in the Sociology degree path. It is designed to provide students with an introductory survey of the study of popular culture. Each student comes to this course with some familiarity in popular culture. This course will provide the tools necessary to critically view popular culture in a new light. It will give students the knowledge and skills to critically understand and investigate popular culture by introducing key concepts and theories used in the interdisciplinary study of the field. Students will move beyond their everyday understanding of popular culture to see how it is shaped by society (on the individual and structural/institutional levels), and conversely how society is shaped by it. Students will work independently and as a cohort to navigate each weeks topics through Forums, completing low-stake quizzes, and applied homework exercises. This will include use of the texts, popular sources and peer-reviewed journal articles to explore topics in popular culture. Students will be encouraged to explore subtopics in popular culture that are of interest to them through discussions and applied exercises. Table of Contents Course Objectives

Knowledge of Content 1. Discuss and compare culture, popular, high culture, elite culture, mass culture, low culture, subculture and counterculture. 2. Understand and analyze why the popular becomes popular. 3. Describe examples of the different types of norms operative in popular culture, and how these are related to the process of social control 4. Outline and apply key cultural theories and analytical dimensions for examining popular culture 5. Explore different types of contemporary American culture. 6. Examine the various elements of popular culture and how they inform or reflect our attitudes, behavior, and society. 7. Identify the qualitative and quantitative research methods used to create knowledge about popular culture. 8. Discuss the relationship between popular culture and key stratifying factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, region and sexuality 9. Relate diversity in popular culture to concepts of multiculturalism, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism 10. Locate and analyze culture within individual, social, historical, political, economic, and global contexts. 11. Describe the cultural and social significance of popular culture in shaping the larger twentieth century American society. 12. Examine the roles print media, art, music, radio, television, motion picture, the Internet, sports, fashion, and technology have played in the development of American popular culture.

13. Apply cultural knowledge to everyday life and practices. Research and Writing Skills 14. Investigate and write-up questions and about popular culture using popular and peer-reviewed sources. Critical Thinking Skills 15. Discuss how patterns of thought and knowledge are directly influenced by political-economic social structures. 16. Describe underlying assumptions in cultural theories and arguments. 17. Exercise written, oral and/or mediated communication skills, and critical thinking skills. 18. Constructively comment and elaborate on the work of others. Information Literacy Skills 19. Construct and implement effective search strategies in finding resources relevant to popular culture. 20. Demonstrate the ability to identify, locate, and retrieve information relevant to popular culture. 21. Analyze, evaluate and synthesize popular and peer-reviewed research on a subtopic in popular culture. 22. Use American Psychological Association style guide for paper formatting and citation style.

Table of Contents Course Delivery Method This is an online course delivered via distance learning that will enable students to complete academic work in a flexible manner, completely online. All lessons, instruction and interaction will occur within the course website. We will all use online technology to read, discuss, and write about popular culture. Resources and access to an online learning management system will be made available to each student. The course requires that students work independently and interdependently with the course instructor and with fellow students. Consequently, students must be able to make a commitment to sustain their participation in the course and to communicate regularly with fellow students and with the instructor. Students must possess self-motivation and be self-directed to successfully progress through the course. Students must also feel comfortable with computer tasks such as using email, browsing the web, using word processing software, and posting messages to an electronic bulletin board. Students report the most difficult aspect of online learning to be time management. I know you may have other demands on your time, but in order to succeed in this course, you will have to set aside regular time for reading as well as writing and thinking about the materials assigned.

To get started, I recommend the following: Read all the pages in the "Read Me First" Folder. Read all the pages contained within the Syllabus and review the contents of the "Resources" area (pay special attention to the Homework Assignments, APA Formatting and Resources folders) Take time to familiarize yourself with all aspects of the coursethat is, just browse around the course until you have a good feeling where everything is. Every APUS course has nuances to its class and online structure. The course is laid out for you in the course schedule and will also be broken down week by week under the Resources> Lesson Packets; this is a good place to start each Monday where you will find links for what is assigned including links to lecture notes and other relevant materials Email me with any questions that you have as you familiarize yourself with the course. Table of Contents Resources REQUIRED TEXTS:
Author(s) Book Title Publication Info ISBN
Print ISBN-13: 978-1-4058-74090 Print ISBN: 0-9789041-4-1

John Storey

Leslie Wilson

Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction (5th ed) Americana: Readings in Popular Culture (2nd ed)

London: Pearson

Hollywood: Press Americana

APA formatted citation for texts: Storey, J. (2009). Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction (5th ed). London: Pearson. Wilson, L. (2010). Americana: Readings in popular culture (2nd ed). Hollywood: Press Americana. OTHER READINGS: 1) LECTURE NOTES Eight weeks of lecture notes are uploaded in the Resources section of the classroom. These notes are considered required reading and are designed to help you better understand the readings and enhance your ability to analyze popular culture.

2) WEB-BASED READINGS and VIDEOS Students should be alerted that this is a media-rich course that it recommended for those who have ISDN, cable or broadband connections. Individuals with dial-up or slow connections should read the transcript that accompanies many of the presentations. Note to students: If your internet connection does not have enough bandwidth to view videos, use the American Public University library, search for an article related to the weeks topic, and use this as supplementary input for discussion posts or writing assignments. Readings and assignments are listed weekly in the Course Outline. If you incur problems with a specific YouTube URL or web address, let me know. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS Microsoft Office 2003 or newer versions (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint; Open Office offers a freeware version of applications which may view and create the same types of files) Adobe Acrobat Reader (for PDF files) To view streaming media and audio, individuals should have the following installed on their machines (all are free downloads): o Real Audio http://www.real.com o Windows Media Player http://www.microsoft.com o Quick Time http://www.apple.com/quicktime Table of Contents Evaluation Procedures: Course Requirements Students will be evaluated on their knowledge, comprehension and application of the materials presented through online quizzes (mix of multiple choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank), discussion questions and activities, and three applied written exercises (Movie Review, Music Analysis, Annotated Bibliography). All grades will be available in Gradebook. Sociology lives when we engage it we read about it, we discuss it, we debate it, we frame our research questions with it, we put it to the test of empiricism, and every once in a while we build it ourselves. Therefore, the success of this course depends on all of us thoroughly engaging it (aka maximum participation). One of the most important parts of the course will be the discussions and debates we participate in, in our online Forum. These discussions need to be informed by thorough reading of the assigned texts and research outside of the texts. The nature of an on-line course dictates a significant degree of independent work. I will provide you with the resources, experience, and guidance; you assume the responsibility for managing your time, learning the material, and completing assignments on time.

It is imperative that you read the announcements every time you log onto the Internet and the classroom. If there are updates to your assignments, due dates, etc., they will be posted in the announcements section. For the purposes of this course, a week is defined as the time period between Monday Sunday. The first week begins on the first day of the semester and ends on midnight Eastern Time the following Sunday. ALL deadlines are based on Eastern Time.

I. WEEKLY FORUM DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (32% of the final grade; 10 points each): Students will follow the directions in each weeks Forum Discussion Questions (DQs); answering all questions in the Forum for that week to receive full credit, and reply to TWO of their fellow students. o Initial student discussions are due by Wednesday at midnight ET and the TWO responses are due at the end of the same week by Sunday at midnight ET. o Initial discussion postings must be substantive with a minimum of 250 words; the two responses must be a minimum of 100 words each. NOTE: Direct quotes from the text or any other source do NOT count towards you word minimum.

Forum Procedure: 1. Your initial response MUST be posted by Wednesday of each week (minimum 250 word count for entire assignment). -EXCEPTION: for Week 1, only, you have until Sunday to complete ALL Forum posts 2. Your replies MUST be posted by Sunday of each week (minimum 100 word count for response). 3. Submit your initial posting and response in the Forum.

See Communication Policies for more detail on Forum expectations. See Appendix D for the grading scale.

II. QUIZZES (20% of the final grade; 10 points each): There are eight quizzes for the course; each quiz is worth 10 points. All quizzes are open book and there is no time limit, but each quiz must be completed before its deadline (11:59p on Sunday of each week). The quizzes may be found under Tests & Quizzes. Note: the quiz will be locked as of this time, so you must be done BEFORE the deadline.

Please note that all quizzes are automatically graded. Technology can be inflexible, so please email me if you have any problems. For example, if you misspell a word and it counts the answer as incorrect, please email me if its just a misspelling, etc. Points will be awarded back, if it warranted. III. HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS (48% of final grade, 25 points each) Note: The 3 homework assignments must be submitted on-time, TWICE: 1) Through the Sakai Assignment link (see Course Tools Menubar>Assignments) 2) Through Turnitin.com (see Resources>Turnitin>Turnitin Class ID and Password) 1) MOVIE REVIEW ASSIGNMENT (12% of final grade; 25 points): Students will watch and critically review one movie evaluating its representation of popular culture themes in society. Your write-up must be 3-5 pages and must include a sociological/cultural analysis (using at least 4 sociological/cultural concepts from the text and/or lecture notes) of the representation of popular culture in the movie. Due Sunday of Week 2 See HW Assignments folder (under Resources) for specific instructions.

2) MUSIC PAPER (16% of final grade; 50 points): Students will choose one social issue/problem and analyze how music has portrayed/framed/addressed that social issue problem. This will include a comparative analysis how the social issue is portrayed in at least three songs; two popular sources and one peerreviewed journal article will also be used to support your analysis.. Your write-up must be 3-5 pages and include use of APA formatting. Due Sunday of Week 4 See HW Assignments folder (under Resources) for specific instructions.

3) ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (20% of final grade; 100 points): Each student will identify a subtopic in American Popular Culture that is of interest to them and conduct research on the topic using peer-reviewed, popular and open web resources. This will allow each student to learn more about a particular subtopic of interest to them, become familiar with the online library resources, and develop some information literacy skills. The annotated bibliography is a structured write-up of the sources each student finds about their subtopic; is it structured in table format. Each student will use a minimum of 3 peer-reviewed sources, and 4 popular and/or open-web sources. Due Saturday of Week 8 See HW folder (under Resources) for specific instructions.

There are no prerequisites for the course, and it is assumed that everyone begins with their own range of experiences and knowledge. Your experiences are important and you need to value them. However, because interpreting experiences can be highly subjective, it is going to be

critical during this course for you to distance yourself from how you personally feel about something in order to argue convincingly for how experiences are to be understood or perceived within the context of our culture and society as a whole. For example, just because you personally may or may not be partial to a brand or genre of music has little or no bearing when it comes to discussing the impact of that brand or form music has within the context of popular culture. One of the challenges of studying popular culture is to not just rely on opinion to inform an argument, and never to argue an opinion on the basis of what you consider to be good and bad (i.e. value-laden). The assignments will ask you to draw on your own experiences of various popular culture forms, but you need to keep focused on arguing a thesis that answers the question of the assignment and draws on other sources to back-up your answer.

IMPORTANT: Critical information is found throughout the following sections. Students need to read through them all very carefully to avoid assignment points loss and/or significant negative impact on their course grades. Late Policy: Please note that APUS is in West Virginia which follows the Eastern Time Zone (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=62). A serious risk of taking an online course is that, without face-to-face weekly sessions to keep you on-track, it may seem very tempting to procrastinate with assignments. (On the other hand, many of you are no doubt taking courses online because you are busy people who are good at time management.) The course schedule, available below, is carefully put together so as to pace the readings and assignments fairly evenly over the semester. Blanket schedule adjustments are not offered for this course. Unlike traditional face-to-face classes, this course does not require students all to be in the classroom at a particular time, but this is not the same as setting ones own assignment deadlines. This is one way academically rigorous APUS coursework is distinct from self-paced, correspondence-type assignments, although many traditional correspondence courses also have deadlines. Students are expected to submit all assignments by the posted due dates and to complete the course according to the published class schedule. It is very important that you stay on top of things and do not attempt to fit an entire huge and complex field into your brain in one big push at the end of the semester, or even in a couple of smaller pushes corresponding to the deadlines. There is a lot of material here, including two books very densely packed with information, and supplemental readings and assignments that require significant research, reflection, integration, writing, and virtual interaction with your professor and classmates. Also, your ability to post meaningful comments to the Forum will plummet if you are not up-to-date with your work. Because of this, there are strict deadlines for handing in assignments, and penalties for Lateness LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

I do not accept late assignments after 24 hours & the assignments are an automatic deduction of 10 points. Any assignment submitted after 24 hours is an automatic zero. It is your responsibility to make sure the assignment is uploaded, submitted properly, & present in the appropriate assignment area. I highly recommend checking that your assignment is submitted technology is not an alleviation to the late policy. Online assignments are due by the date listed in the classroom 11:59 EST. While Distance Learning provides some flexibility in when you choose to conduct your studies, you are expected to follow the syllabus and turn in your assignments on time and on schedule.

Beyond the above should a student need to request additional time to complete an assignment due to deployment, extended emergency family and/or health conditions that are otherwise unavoidable (vacations, cruises, unplanned trips or trips to places with poor connectivity, taking too many courses at once, forgetting course work or wanting more family time dont count as reasons for late assignment submissions), he or she must contact the professor before the assignment due date so the situation can be discussed and an acceptable resolution determined. Such situations are evaluated on a case-by-case basis & proof is required. Extra credit: There is no extra credit. WRITING STANDARDS AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY Students should proofread each assignment carefully before submitting it. Spelling and grammar errors will result in point deductions. Collaboration on coursework, unless so assigned by the professor, is not allowed. Avoiding Plagiarism: All written assignments must be in the students own words, and MUST include citations (in proper APA format) giving the source credit for ANY paraphrases or direct quotes based on published authors work, and should be submitted error free. - For this courses Forums, this means including an in-text citation for any section of the text or another source used for developing ideas and including a full reference citation for all sources below the post. An in-text citation includes the publisher(s) name and the year of publication, i.e. (Storey, 2009); for a direct quote the page number should also be included (Storey, 2009, p. 34). ANY copying from the Internet or other published sources without including proper citations (giving the original author credit for their work), including the course text (i.e. plagiarism), found in any course assignments, including Forums will result in an automatic score of zero with no option for revision. More than one instance of plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the course. Additionally, submission of written work purchased from paper writing sources, including in person, by mail or via the Internet will result in course failure and a report sent to the University Registrars Office for placement in the students permanent academic record. There is no option for resubmission in any of the above cases. These are stringent requirements but necessary to

protect the integrity of APUS classrooms and honor students who have completed their work in compliance with University policy and course rules. Academic dishonesty: It is a serious violation to cheat on exams, hand in work that is not your own, or plagiarize others materials. If you do these behaviors, your grade will suffer. Penalties may include reduction of grade for the assignment, reduction in course grade, or course failure. For University policies on this, see http://www.apus.edu/student-handbook/writingstandards/index.htm#Academic_Dishonesty . More detail on avoiding plagiarism is below, but if you have any questions, please ask me. I did not know is never an acceptable excuse.

Evaluation Procedures: Evaluation Criteria The points earned on course requirements will determine the course grade. The final grade in the course will be based on total points. Grades will be assigned based on the following composite scores:

Grade Instruments Forums Quizzes Movie Review Music Analysis Annotated Bibliography TOTAL

Points Possible 8 x 10pts = 80 8 x 10pts = 80 1 x 25pts = 25 1 x 50pts = 50 1 x 100pts = 100 335 points

% of Final Grade 32% 20% 12% 16% 20% 100%

Table of Contents

Grading Scale Please see the student handbook to reference the Universitys grading scale.

Table of Contents

Course Outline
Week Topic(s) Learning Objective(s) #s correspond to objectives above Think 1-4, 10, 16-22 Reading(s) Assignment(s)

Introduction

Read Lecture Notes in Resources 1) Storey: Ch. 1 and 2

Do

What is Popular Culture The culture and civilization tradition

2) Wilson: 1) From Beatniks to Brittney and Beyond (p229) 2) Plague of the Century (p284)

1. Required Introduction 2. 2 out of 3 Introductions on Week 1 Forum (2 points) 3. Course Contract - submitted TWICE: Sakai and Turnitin
Due by 11:59p ET Sunday.

4. Week 1 Forum (8 points)

Due by 11:59p ET Sunday.

5. Quiz 1 (10 points)

Due by 11:59 ET Sunday.

Culturalism

Think 1-3, 12, 1620, 22

Read Lecture Notes Do 1) Storey: Ch. 3 2) Wilson: 1) An Invasion of Vulgarity (3) 2) Darkness on the Edge of Town (40) 3) Quacks, Yokels an Light-fingered Folk (200) 4) Rituals of Nostalgia (263)

1. Week 2 Forum (10 points)

Due by 11:59p ET Wed & Sunday.

2. Quiz 2 (10 points)

Due by 11:59 ET Sunday.

3.HW1: Movie Review (25 points) -submitted TWICE

Due by 11:59 ET Sunday.

Marxisms

Think 3, 4, 8, 16-18, 22

Read Lecture Notes Do 1) Storey: Ch4 3) 1) 2) 3) Wilson: Jazz Strategy (27) Those Old Crazy Dreams (45) Ridin the Rails (166)

1. Week 3 Forum (10 points)

Due by 11:59p ET Wed & Sunday.

Go online and view YouTube Videos: (CTL + click to follow 2. Quiz 3 (10 points) link) Due by 11:59 ET Sunday. 1) No shelter 2) Who owns culture?

Structuralism and poststructuralism

Think 4, 10-13, 1618, 22

Read Lecture Notes 1) Storey : Ch. 6 2) Wilson: 1) Playing War (73) 2) Car Crashes and Soap Operas (95) 3) The Contested Grounds of Rodeo (219)

Do

1. Week 4 Forum (10 points)

Due by 11:59p ET Wed & Sunday.

2. Quiz 4 (10 points)

Due by 11:59 ET Sunday.

3. HW2 Music Analysis (50 points) -submitted TWICE

Due by 11:59 ET Sunday. 5 Gender and sexuality Think Read Lecture Notes Do

8, 11-13, 15, 17, 18, 22

1) Storey: Ch. 7 2) Wilson: 1) Women Dont Rape But They do Kill (108) 2) Modern American and Its Discontents (211)

1. Week 5 Forum (10 points)

Due by 11:59p ET Wed & Sunday.

2. Quiz 5 (10 points)

Due by 11:59 ET Sunday. 6 Race, racism and representation Think 8,9, 11- 15, 17-22 Read Lecture Notes 1) Storey: Ch. 8 Do

1. Week 6 Forum (10 points)

2) Wilson: 1) Welfare Queens, Model Minority, and Racialized Due by 11:59p ET Wed & Sunday. Bodies (81) 2) Body Image and the American Popular Culture 2. Quiz 6 (10 points) Landscape (270) 3) Consuming the Black Body (276) 4) Encountering the Other (299) Due by 11:59 ET Sunday. Go online and view Videos: (CTL + click to follow link) 1) Music and Popular Culture (optional)

Postmodernism

Think 6, 10-13, 1518

Read Lecture Notes 1) Storey: Ch. 9 2) Wilson: 1) 2) 3) 4)

Do

1. Week 7 Forum (10 points)

Due by 11:59p ET Wed & Sunday.

Star Wars Episode 1 (69) Cartoon Culture (101) Reading Cereal Boxes (154) The Last Amateur Sport (187)

2. Quiz 7 (10 points)

Due by 11:59 ET Sunday.

The Politics of Popular culture

Think 11, 13, 14, 15, 17-22

Read 1) Storey: Ch. 10 2) Wilson: 3) The Cowboy Myth (144) 4) Through the Looking Glass of Silver Springs (175) 5) The Turnaround Point (249)

Do

1. Week 8 Forum (10 points)

Due by 11:59p ET Wed & Sunday.

2. Quiz 8 (10 points)

Go online and view YouTube Videos: (CTL + click to follow Due by 11:59 ET Sunday.

link)

1) Video games and public policy 2) Does nature matter?

3. Annotated Bibliography (100 points) - submitted TWICE

Due by 11:59 ET SATURDAY.

Table of Contents

Polices Please see the student handbook to reference all University-wide policies. Quick links to frequently asked question about policies are listed below.
Drop/Withdrawal Policy Plagiarism Policy Extension Process and Policy Disability Accommodations

Communication Policies
Methods of Communication Emailall email communication must be done via the Sakai internal email found within the course (Mailbox). This reduces lost external emails due to spam and quarantine filters. This should primarily be used for personal questions (including questions about grades); general class questions should be posted in the Virtual Office. Virtual Officeunder Discussions, this is the best place to post general questions about class logistics and assignments Homework Assignment Submissionsall final versions of your homework assignments will be submitted TWICE: once via the Assignments Tool in Sakai and once via turnitin.com (Course name: SPECIFIC CLASS ID: password: PASSWORD). Synchronous CommunicationI will be available via the class Chat function during my office hours, and by appointment. If necessary, set meeting times may occur via another synchronous method (telephone, chat, instant message, etc.) Communicating with the Instructor If you have any questions, concerns, or other general comments about the class, the best way to communicate with the instructor is via email. The instructor reserves the right to take up to 48 hours to respond to your emails and Virtual Office questions. The instructor may have to do some grading, look something up, or may just being taking care of his or her own life requirements. Therefore, do not put off your homework to the last minute, have a question, and then expect the instructor to respond prior to the deadline. Grades for assignments should be posted within 5 days of their final submission deadline. If one week after the assignment has been submitted, you have not seen a grade posted, please email the instructor.

Communicating on the Forum These postings are the heart of the interaction in this course. The more engaged and lively the exchanges, the more interesting and fun the course will be. Only substantive comments will receive credit. Although there is a final posting time after which the instructor will grade comments, it is not sufficient to wait until the last minute to toss your required comments/questions on the board. The purpose of these is to actively participate in an on-going discussion about the assigned materials. By substantive, I mean comments that contribute something new and hopefully important to the discussion. Thus a message that simply says I agree is not substantive. If you feel very strongly about it and wish to be supportive of your classmate, you can certainly post such a statement anyway but PLEASE limit such comments as there are few things more boring to read than discussions where 80% of the content is content-free! A substantive comment contributes a new idea or perspective, a good follow-up question to a point made, offers a response to a question, provides an example or illustration of a key point, points out an inconsistency in an argument, etc. As a class, if we run into conflicting view points, we must respect each individual's own opinion. Hateful and hurtful comments towards other individuals, students, groups, peoples, and/or societies will not be tolerated! Netiquette It is expected that you will follow the basic rules of netiquette when interacting with your instructor and fellow students online. A general review of netiquette may be found at http://www.iwillfollow.com/email.htm. Announcements Course announcements are made via the announcement feature in Sakai. These may include changes to the schedule, clarification of material, or notice of system issues. Be sure to check the Sakai announcements area every time you log on to the course.

Disclaimer: Changes in the Syllabus: If needed, I reserve the right to make adjustments to any aspect of this syllabus. If this happens, I will post a message about the change in Announcements, so be sure to check them frequently. You are responsible for keeping up to date with Course Announcements and noting any announced changes.

Agreement: Students accept to comply with these requirements by reading this document, signing the course contract and remaining enrolled in the course.

Table of Contents Academic Services ONLINE LIBRARY RESEARCH CENTER & LEARNING RESOURCES The Online Library Resource Center is available to enrolled students and faculty from inside the electronic campus. This is your starting point for access to online books, subscription periodicals, and Web resources that are designed to support your classes and generally not available through search engines on the open Web. In addition, the Center provides access to special learning resources, which the University has contracted to assist with your studies. Questions can be directed to orc@apus.edu. Charles Town Library and Inter Library Loan: The University maintains a special library with a limited number of supporting volumes, collection of our professors publication, and services to search and borrow research books and articles from other libraries. Electronic Books: You can use the online library to uncover and download over 50,000 titles, which have been scanned and made available in electronic format. Electronic Journals: The University provides access to over 12,000 journals, which are available in electronic form and only through limited subscription services. Turnitin.com: Turnitin.com is a tool to improve student research skills that also detect plagiarism. Turnitin.com provides resources on developing topics and assignments that encourage and guide students in producing papers that are intellectually honest, original in thought, and clear in expression. This tool helps ensure a culture of adherence to the University's standards for intellectual honesty. Turnitin.com also reviews students' papers for matches with Internet materials and with thousands of student papers in its database, and returns an Originality Report to instructors and/or students. Tutor.com: Students have access to 10 free hours of tutoring service per year through Tutor.com <http://www.tutor.com/>. Tutoring is available in the following subjects: math (basic math through advanced calculus), science (biology, chemistry, and physics), statistics, English, Social Studies, Career Services, and more. Additional information is located via the Online Library in the Tutorial Center (http://www.apus.edu/OnlineLibrary/tutorials/index.htm). Table of Contents

Selected Bibliography Table of Contents See weekly lecture notes.

Appendix A FORUM RUBRIC 10 points

For the initial post you are required to: post 250 words of more respond substantively clearly address the instructor question(s) using the text use APA formatted in-text citations and references for material paraphrased or quotes For each response post discussion question you are required to: post a substantial response (100) words respond substantively to one of your classmates' initial responses use APA formatted in-text citations and references for material paraphrased or quotes

By substantive, I mean comments that contribute something new and hopefully important to the discussion. Thus a message that simply says I agree is not substantive. If you feel very strongly about it and wish to be supportive of your classmate, you can certainly post such a statement anyway but PLEASE limit such comments as there are few things more boring to read than discussions where 80% of the content is content-free! A substantive comment contributes a new idea or perspective, a good followup question to a point made, offers a response to a question, provides an example or illustration of a key point, points out an inconsistency in an argument, etc.

Forum Grading Rubric

10 Points

7-8 Points 3-5 points 0

Initial student discussion directly responds to the central issue of the discussion question and clearly represents reading of the text; response adds new or different information or examples into the discussion; response is professional and treats other students with respect; response is written in correct spelling/sentence structure/grammar; APA formatted citations are used for all paraphrased or quoted information from an outside source (i.e. text, website, etc); initial discussion and the two responses meet the length requirement; initial discussions and the responses are posted by the deadline for each Initial discussion or responses are somewhat related to the issue at hand; citations are inserted without explanation; initial discussion or response length are under the requirement; response has several errors in spelling/sentence structure/grammar; missing response to others. Initial discussion or responses simply rephrases a previous posting; course material is referenced without citation; vague or no details that support the issue; response appears nonprofessional and has many errors in spelling/sentence structure/grammar; missing response to others. No discussion has been posted or discussions or responses are clearly offensive