Bulletin Board Policies for Online Students

 

You are required to participate in Bulletin Board discussions.  THE PURPOSE OF THESE DISCUSSIONS IS TO ENGAGE YOU IN CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT THE CONTENT.  This is a LEARNING PROCESS; therefore, I do NOT expect your initial comments to be 100% accurate all the time.  But I do expect them to reflect that you have done the assignment, read the book, worked the corresponding lessons on StatsPortal and THOUGHT about the materials.  You will use this forum to make guesses, question what others have submitted, or debate others' comments.  It is perfectly legal to make comments about homework problems or other related questions. The criteria used to determine your grade is whether or not your comment contributes to the conversation by moving the discussion forward.  If your comment is simply a repeat of what others have said, does not reflect thought on others' previous comments, nor encourage further conversation, that posting will not count.

Some Bulletin Board assignments will be for the whole class to participate in, and others may be designated as group assignments.  Some assignments will be given more weight than others (typically, group assignments will count more than the whole class discussions). This weight will be designated by the number of points each discussion is worth.

BULLETIN BOARD PROCEDURE:  

  1. These are designed to serve as online "study groups" for your benefit.  Direct the comments to your classmates, not to me.  I will act as a facilitator and will contribute to discussions in a very limited way. 
    2.
  2. AT ALL TIMES, you are to act in a civilized manner on the discussion forums and on the class email list. This means that you are not to be argumentative, derogatory towards other students, use vulgar language or any other violation of the CSU Student Behavior Guidelines. You may certainly disagree and debate with other students, but it must be done in a respectful manner. Please remember, too, that often tone (joking, etc) does not convey well over written communication.
  3. About every other week, you will be asked to post a detailed, well-documented solution to a homework problem from the textbook for the chapters to be covered that particular week (not a StatsPortal problem).  While it is desirable that your solution be correct, it is most important here that you have made a good-faith effort at answering the problem.
  4. You will also be expected to post 2 additional times in each week's discussion, either asking a question about something you don't understand completely, (politely) pointing out an error in a classmate's solution, suggesting an alternate method to solve a particular problem, or responding to questions that I may post directly in a forum.
  5. I may also add in a few group discussion assignments. For those assignments, I will be announce them via the class email list that operates through your CSU email address.  (Assignment deadline dates are also posted on the StatsPortal Assignment List.) When I announce (via email) that the assignment is posted, I'll also tell you how many thoughtful, relevant comments are required for that posting and the deadline. This information will be repeated in the instructions in StatsPortal. To be eligible to receive the group grade, you must meet the requirements stated above.  At the end of the time limit for the discussion, I will read the group's "final answer" and grade that on a scale from 1-20.  You will NOT be graded individually on the quality of all comments that you contribute to the discussion.  Accuracy of answer will be included in your grade, but only on the final answer that you submit to the discussion thread.  It is not important that you know the "right answer"  as you utilize the bulletin board to discuss the scenario.  Rather, as a group, your discussion should eventually lead you to the correct solution/answer.  If your early comments are statistically invalid, that's okay as long as you make progress toward more correct statistical thinking.  

    The bottom line:  Your grade will be based on two things:
    bulletDid you individually make the required number of postings where each posting reflects some thought? AND
    bulletDid you, as a group, come to the correct answer?  (On group assignments, it is possible for group members to receive different grades because of the individual accountability.) 

  6. If you do not participate in the weekly discussions for 2 consecutive weeks, you will receive zeros for ALL subsequent weekly discussions.
  7. For group discussions, YOUR FINAL ANSWER MUST BE posted to the Bulletin Board thread for that assignment.
    8. bulletIn the subject line, write FINAL ANSWER.
    bulletOnly one person from your group needs to submit the answer but they must include all group members names.  
    bulletIt is acceptable to post a Word document in the thread for your final answer. Please do not post graphs or other pictures without accompanying descriptions, though.
    bulletYou will receive solutions after I've read and graded ALL comments.