Course Learning Activities

Course Learning Activities: The course is organized into Learning Modules. The “Experience Developmental Psychology” module will engage you in a series of interviews with individuals of different ages.  This activity extends over the entire term.  The 5 numbered modules each contain a website assignment folder, a chapter assignment folder and a knowledge audit folder. The various learning activities located within these folders are detailed below.

Term Research Project: This is a three-part assignment that spans the entire duration of the course. In the first step, you will select a research topic from the textbook and discuss it with other students. In the second step, you write the paper and submit it to the instructor. In the final step, you submit your paper for class discussion.

Internet Resources Assignments: Each module includes a Internet Resource review and a discussion forum. These assignments are designed to introduce you to some of the psychological resources available on the web. You must locate a relevant and authentic resource, write a brief, original summary/analysis paper which includes a link to the resource website, then lead a discussion about it. Before submitting your review to the class for discussion, you must submit it to the SafeAssign dropbox, which will detect, and help you avoid, plagiarism. After editing your essay (as needed to meet the originality requirements) you resubmit it to the dropbox for my evaluation and to the website forum for class discussion.  This assignment requires that you lead the discussion on your own resource and also participate in the discussions of at least  3 websites reviewed by other students. 

Student-led Discussions: In every module you will find several Student-led Discussion forums. Each forum covers one chapter.  This is the way you cover the content of the textbook. For each forum you must ask one original “critical thinking” question about some topic in each chapter. Other students will respond to your questions, and you will then reply back to those students. In addition you leading your own discussion thread, you are required to answer two questions from each chapter posed by another student. You are encouraged to keep up these “virtual discussions” as long as they are productive. The idea here is for each student to lead one discussion with the other students about some important and/or controversial issue introduced in each chapter, and participate in additional discussions for each chapter. A large percentage of your final grade is determined by your participation in these discussions. I will grade these discussions, but I will not be a participant. If a discussion you are leading gets off track, it is your responsibility to refocus it. You are responsible for maintaining the quality of the discussion threads you lead. Every posting to a discussion should add something substantive to that discussion.

Knowledge Audits: In each module your appreciation for and understanding of the important content issues and concepts will be assessed by means of a reflective blog.  You are asked to write about the 4 most important things that you learned in each module, and how you think the knowledge you are gaining from the module will impact your values, attitudes, beliefs and behavior. After you submit your blog, you are required to respond tho the blogs submitted by 5 of your classmates.

Student Contributed Content:  When you encounter interesting information / fun facts etc. related to what we are studying – feel free to post and discuss in this ungraded, voluntary forum.

Talk with the Professor:  In each module there is a “Talk with the Professor” area. In this area I may ask discussion questions about issues which I feel haven’t been fully explored in the Student Led discussion area. Also, in this area you may ask me questions, which I will respond to. Most often, I expect these questions (mine and yours) will be related to the discussions or the textbook – but no relevant topic is “off-limits.” You should check this area each time you log on and participate in these discussion threads.

Extra Credit / Make-up Work / Incomplete Grades

1. The major requirement in this course is to discuss, with other students, the contents of each chapter in the text. There is no substitute for this requirement, and I do not permit “extra credit” or “alternative credit” assignments.
2. Also, there is no way to “go back” after a module has ended and “make-up” missed discussion activity, because there are no other students left to learn from your posts and discuss the content with you.
3. Finally, an incomplete in the course is not appropriate, as there is no way to complete the course once it has ended and all of the other students are gone.