These course materials
are licensed by Lori Ostergaard under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
The work you do in Moodle every week represents exactly 1/2 of our course time this semester, so you'll want to spend a great deal of time developing your weekly responses and projects that are completed online. In almost every case, you'll want to start with a very rough draft of a response and then spend at least an hour revising and fine-tuning that response draft into an interesting, thoughtful, and informed analysis. Plan to move beyond summary and beyond a surface level response to the material. Plan to answer the important questions: what isn't a very important question, but how and why questions are. While your moodle work accounts for a smaller percentage of your course grade than the longer projects, it does weigh very heavily on your GPA in the class, and missed Moodle posts will earn you both a 0 and, because these responses represent class time, an absence.
There will be 2-3 short projects assigned throughout the semester. I will also find some extra credit activities, usually involving your attendance at a campus lecture or presentation & your analysis of that lecture or presentation. These extra credit activities will earn you a 4.0 that can then be applied to your lowest short project grades. For every extra credit activity you complete, you will get to substitute a 4.0 for a low short project grade.
Group Project: for this project you will work with a small group of classmates to investigate one of this culture's fears from the past (at least 20 years ago). You will use the Internet as your primary source of research, and you will examine this fear as it was portrayed in at least two of the following sites: mainstream media (TV, magazine, and newsprint primarily), entertainment (movies), educational materials, and propaganda (posters, etc). Your group will then compose a collaborative project that accurately presents your findings to a group of interested and educated people outside of our classroom. Links to possible topics here.
Group Presentation of research--each group will present their research projects (websites, digital stories, videos, podcasts, etc) to the class.
Individual analysis of your group's topic (2-3 pages)--each individual will write a critical and researched analysis of their group's topic, explaining the way the fear was represented to the general public, explaining the historical context for that fear, examining what that fear was meant to teach the public, and analyzing what that fear really represented.
Length r equirements: compose a hyperlinked article or website with at least 5 separate pages (and at least 1800 words) OR create a wiki article (with links to outside sources and at least one internal page) of at least 1800 words OR develop a digital story that is at least 7 minutes long OR shoot and edit a video that is at least 5 minutes long OR record and edit a podcast that is at least 10 minutes long. (we'll go over some of the technology for these projects in class, but I'll also give you some time to play with the software to decide if you want to try it out).
Individual research and development of an article, wiki, documentary, or website. With your group project you investigated a fear from at least 20 years ago and developed a group project/presentation and individual researched analysis.
Three things will be different about Project II:
this time we're turning the critical lens on ourselves and you will investigate a more recent fear, one that is no more than 20 years old (preferably something from the last decade or so);
this time most of your time in and out of class will be spent working on the individual researched analysis of this fear, with only a little time allotted for developing your collage;
this time you're working on your own; although you will have time to peer review and consult with your classmates on your project, your analysis, annotated bibliography, and collage will be done on your own.
Your researched analysis will include both online and library resources, so be prepared to choose a fear that you sense has been covered by academics, researchers, and/or the government. In other words, a project examining more current iterations of the "end of the world" might bear little fruit, while one examining the SARS epidemic (and our and the media's reactions to that epidemic) will be very fruitful because we can assume that the medical community has researched SARS as well.
The goal will be to discover both the hype of that fear (probably in online sources, the media, and movies/TV) and the reality of that fear (probably in library and more authoritative sources).You will use primary research to investigate this current fear (one from the last 20 years). As a part of this project, you will attend one online and one "real" class on research methods in the OU library. Your work will use either MLA or APA citation of sources, use your sources ethically, and develop a short annotated bibliography of relevant sources.
Go here for a list of possible topics.
Paper Assignment Analysis
For this assignment you will analyze a paper assignment another professor has given you this semester to determine what that professor is looking for; what s/he values; what kinds of goals s/he has for your writing; and what academic style, kinds of research, tone, and level of correctness s/he is looking for.
Your analysis of this paper will be 3-5 pages long, so take your time exploring what it is this professor is asking you to do. In fact, since this is a class examining research methods, you might consider visiting your professor during her/his office hours to research her/his expectations for this paper. This primary research you gather (interview) may then be included in your paper assignment analysis.
To begin, ask yourself what kind of knowledge this professor values & what she/he hopes you will learn, learn to do, illustrate through this assignment.
What kind of research does she/he ask for & why do you think she/he asks for this type of research. If she/he does not ask for research, why do you think that is & what is she/he hoping to see in this paper instead of research?
Can you find an article this professor has written for publication? If so, what kind of topics and research does this professor pursue? What interests her/him? (a library database search and google search should give you a pretty good idea about what your professor values in research and finds interesting in his/her field).
Your goal with this Paper Assignment Analysis is to determine what, exactly, your professor is hoping you will achieve with this paper. You will tell me all you think you know about the task being assigned to you & why that task seems important to your professor. You should speculate about what it might take to make an A on this paper & you may, of course, speculate about how you will complete this assignment.
These course materials
are licensed by Lori Ostergaard under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.