Syllabus

Herkimer County Community College

Survey of World Religions- Online

HU 172- VB

Summer 2018

Professor:  Dr. John McLean

Office:  CA 123

Phone:  (315)866-0300 Ext. 8426

Email:  mcleanjp@herkimer.edu

If you have any questions, please contact me by sending me a message on Generals Online.

 

Office Hours:

By appointment.

 

Course Description: This course is designed to introduce students to the social, ritual, and theoretical expressions of the world’s major religions.

 

Textbook: You do not need to buy a textbook for this class.  The readings for each learning module will be available for free and linked in that module.

 

MAJOR DIVISIONS OF SUBJECT MATTER

 

  1. Ancient Religions
  2. Judaism
  3. Christianity
  4. Islam
  5. Hinduism
  6. Buddhism
  7. Confucianism
  8. Shinto

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

 

This course is designed to:

  1. Introduce students to the social, ritual, and theoretical expressions of the world’s major religions.
  2. Provide a basic understanding of the development and history of the world’s major religions.
  3. Have students examine the effects of religion on their followers and others, and the world.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

 

The student who successfully completes this course will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate a working knowledge of the social, ritual, and theoretical expressions of the world’s major religions.
  2. Demonstrate an understanding of the world’s major religions development and history.
  3. Assess the effects of religion on their followers and others, and the world.

 

COURSE INFORMATION

 

  1. Reading assignments

This course is a survey course that covers many major world religions.  You do not have to buy a textbook for this class; all the readings will be available for free online.

 

This course is divided up into six learning modules, each one about six days long.  For each module you will have to do a reading, write a short essay, participate in a discussion forum, and complete a multiple choice quiz.

 

  1. Short Essays

For each chapter from the textbook you read, you will be required to write a short essay, at least 500 words in length.  While essays shorter than 500 words will be penalized, longer than 500 words is ok.  The specific question you have to answer will be found in the instructions for the assignment.

 

In each short essay, you must have at least one direct quote from the reading for that module, with a citation.  Essays which do not have at least one direct quote from the textbook with a citation will be penalized.

 

In this class the readings will either be from the online textbook Philosophy of Religion by Philip Pecorino or will be passages written by me.  If you use a quote from the Philosophy of Religion textbook, use the citation (Pecorino) after the quote.  If you use a quote from one of the passages written by me, use the citation (McLean) after the quote.  All of your quotes that come from sources linked in the modules should have one of these two citations after the quote.

 

While you must have at least one quote from the module readings to get full credit for your essay, you can have more quotes if you’d like.  Also, it’s a good idea to have at least one citation at the end of every paragraph in your essay even if there is no quote in that paragraph.  Anytime you have information from a reading in a paragraph, you need to have a citation somewhere in the paragraph showing where that information is coming from.  The short essays will be graded on a 100 point scale.

 

  1. Class discussions

For each textbook chapter you read, you must also participate in class discussions. Within the modules you will find discussion forums with a discussion question listed.  The discussion question will be based on the readings linked in the module. Each student will be required to post a primary response to the main discussion question in the forum, using specific quotes with citations from the reading in your answer.  In order to get full credit for any discussion post, you must have a quote with a citation from the readings.  Use the same guidelines for quotes and citations listed above in the “Short Essays” section.  Please note that you will not be able to view other student’s responses until you post your own.  Only the first primary response you post will be graded.  Primary responses must be at least 200 words in length and contain a quote from the textbook with a citation to receive full credit.

Each student will also be required to post at least one reply to a post made by another student.  In this reply, state whether you agree or disagree with that student’s reasoning.  If you disagree, present a quote from the reading as evidence for why you don’t agree.  If you agree, present additional information from the reading to back up the other student’s argument. The reason quotes are required is that I am not just looking for your opinion- I need you to back up your opinion using information from the reading.  Secondary responses must be at least 100 words in length and contain a quote from the reading with a citation to receive full credit.  You are required to have at least one secondary response, but you can reply to as many students as you want.

Each discussion forum will be graded on a 100 point scale based on the posts you make.  I will give points to any post that has information from the readings.  Please note that you can only post one primary response, but you can post as many replies to other students as you want.  It is perfectly ok to post casual replies to other students- just make sure you have at least one reply that has a quote from the reading.

Try not to repeat information and quotes taken from your own or other student’s discussion posts.  If you have the same opinion as another student, try to use different information from the reading to back it up.  If one response is very similar or uses the same quotes as a previous post, I will deduct points.  The readings are long enough that you shouldn’t have to repeat the same quotes as other students.  The students who post the first responses will be in the best position to get full credit for their responses, because none of the quotes and information will have been used yet.

At times I will reply to a student’s post requesting more information.  If you answer me and supply the info I am looking for I will raise the score of your original post.  Please note though that replies to me do not count towards your required posts- you still have to reply to at least one student.

Also, please do not post the same work in your discussion posts and the short essays.  Please use new, unique work for every assignment.  Don’t copy and paste the same work into multiple assignments.

  1. Quizzes

You will also be required to complete a multiple choice quiz based on the readings posted in each module. These quizzes are open book and all the answers are in the readings.  Feel free to take your time and use the book in order to get the best score possible.  You will be able to take each quiz up to 2 times, and your overall score for the quiz will be the average of your two attempts.  All attempts must be completed by the due date for the module to receive credit.

 

  1. Comparative Essay

You will be required to write one 1500 word essay for this course.  This will be an essay comparing and contrasting two of the religions we have studied in the class.  The essay must be 1500 words to get full credit.  This essay is your final project for the course and will be worth 25% of your final grade, so make sure you put the time and effort into doing it well.

 

  1. Important Information

Please note: The learning modules in this class are around 6 days long.  Make sure to keep track of the ending date for each learning module.  It is required that you have all of the work for the module completed by 11:59pm on the ending date of the module.  I will accept late essays with a grade deduction (25 points will be taken off from short essays; thus the best grade you can get on late essays is a 75) but I do not accept late quizzes or discussion responses.  It is your responsibility to submit your work far enough in advance to make alternate arrangements should your computer/internet fail or should unexpected circumstances arise. 

Very important: do not use any information from outside websites like Wikipedia or spark notes in your essays or discussion responses.  If I learn that you are copy/pasting information from websites and trying to pass it off as your own work, you will receive an F for the assignment.  Also if you copy another student’s work from a previous semester or class and try and pass it off as your own you will receive an F for the assignment.

Academic honesty – Cheating is defined as giving or receiving help on a quiz or exam.  This will result in an ‘F’ for that assignment and the lowering of the overall course grade by one full letter. Further information can be found in the Academic Dishonesty Procedure, Penalties, and Appeal Process sections of the Student Handbook.

 

Students with disabilities who are seeking academic accommodations should contact Leslie Cornish in the Services for Students with Disabilities office at 866-0300 Ext. 8331.  The SSD office is located in the Academic Support Center in room 115. Further information may be found in the Services for Students with Special needs section of the Student Handbook.

 

GRADE DETERMINANTS

  1. Short essays and discussion responses (the two lowest grades are dropped): 40% of final grade. SLO #3; CO # 3.
  2. Quiz average (the lowest quiz is dropped): 35% of final grade. SLO #2; CO #2.
  3. Four- page Comparative essay: 25% of final grade. SLO #1; CO #1.

 

Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes

Weekly short papers and discussion responses and quizzes will be used to assess SLO #3 and CO #3.

Weekly quizzes will be used to assess SLO #2 and CO # 2.

The four-page essay will be used to assess SLO #1 and CO # 1.

 

Grading Scale:

100 – 97.5 = A+

97.5 – 92.5 = A

92.5 – 90 = A-

90 – 87.5 = B+

87.5 – 82.5 = B

82.5 – 80 = B-

80 – 77.5 = C+

77.5 – 72.5 = C

72.5 – 70 = C-

70 – 67.5 = D+

67.5 – 62.5 = D

62.5 – 55 = D-

55 – 0 = F