Course Overview

This is an introductory course in political theory. The purpose of the course is to help students develop and exercise analytical skills useful for democratic citizenship.

Students are expected to participate in all aspects of the class:  to complete all readings, writing assignments, and examinations, and to take part in class discussions via the discussion forum.

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Required Texts

The primary texts for this course are:

• Ideals and Ideologies:  A Reader, 6th edition, by Ball and Dagger.  We will refer to this text as IIR.
• Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal, 6th edition, by Ball and Dagger.  We will refer to this text as PIDI.

In addition, the course pages include links to readings on the Internet and in other electronic forms.  

The primary texts are available from Friday Center Books & Gifts at The Friday Center. You can order the books online, or you can print out the book order form to fax or mail with payment for texts as indicated on the form.

Hotlinks for materials on course reserves or on the World Wide Web are provided on the weekly assignment pages.  Just click on the reading assignment to view it. For readings requiring a password, the username is Leonard and the password is Student (these are case sensitive).

Students enrolled in Carolina Courses Online can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works. If you encounter difficulties, please report your problem by visiting this Web page for reporting a problem.

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Course Objectives

By the end of this course, you should have a working knowledge of the range of ideological perspectives that inform political and policy debates in modern democracies, and some familiarity with common arguments and assumptions about fundamentally important issues in US politics today. Most importantly, however, you should also have begun to learn the most important skill for a democratic citizen: how to critically assess arguments about political issues and policies.

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Course Requirements

POLI 276 has several required components, as described below.  You should pay very close attention to the schedule for course activities and the due dates for assignments. In fairness to students who are diligent in completing their coursework as required, I do not make any exceptions to the course requirements.

Weekly Quizzes—20% of course grade
Each week you will have an online quiz on the reading material you have been assigned.  (The introduction week has a practice quiz that you must complete before taking any other quizzes.) The quizzes are due by 11:00 pm Eastern time each Wednesday (except for the introduction week practice quiz, which can be taken any time during the semester). This ensures that you complete the readings before participating in the discussion for the week. 

Each quiz will consist of ten questions.  The quizzes are administered using Blackboard. A hotlink will take you to the Blackboard site where you will enter your Onyen and password.  You will then be able to access your quiz.  You will have ten minutes to complete each quiz.   No late quizzes will be given for any reason. You must complete your quiz by 11:00 pm every Wednesday.

Exams—30% of course grade
You will take one midterm exam and a final exam, each of which will count 15 percent toward your final grade.  The exams will consist of 100 multiple-choice questions, and will be administered using Blackboard.  You will have one hour to complete each examination. (Note: This may seem like a short timeframe for a 100-question exam, but students familiar with the course materials have never reported any difficulty completing the examination on time. The function of the short timeframe is to prevent students who are unprepared from using additional time to read materials they did not cover during the scheduled lesson-weeks.) No late exams will be given for any reason. You must complete your exams during the scheduled time frames.

Discussion Analysis Writing Assignment—15% of course grade
You will prepare a writing assignment of approximately 1500 words (about six double-spaced typed pages).  The writing assignment is an analysis of the issues and arguments central to the discussion forum topic you choose.  Early in the semester, you will be asked to specify which writing assignment you will analyze.  Making thoughtful use of the discussion forum exchanges and the course readings can often improve the quality of your writing assignment.

Your writing assignment should be thoughtfully crafted, well organized, concise, grammatically correct, free of spelling and typographical errors, and supported (where appropriate) with textual material using any serviceable citation method. You should carefully review the Guidelines for Writing Assignment before beginning the semester, and again before you write your paper.

Writing assignments are due one week after the completion of the discussion forum in which your topic is discussed. You will submit your paper to me via e-mail as an attachment, and I will return your graded essay with comments within two weeks.  No late writing assignments will be accepted. You must complete the essay assignment to pass this course.

Discussion Forum—35% of course grade
You will have the opportunity to share your ideas and insights, pose questions, and respond to fellow students' postings in our electronic classroom, the discussion forum.  I typically do not participate in the discussion forum, although I will monitor and, when necessary, intervene in the discussions. I may on occasion offer questions to which you may respond. The quality of the discussions will be contingent on active and engaged student participation; it is absolutely critical that students fulfill their discussion forum responsibilities.

For most of the forums (the Introduction, Week 1, and Week 13 forums are the exceptions) the following format will be used: You will be assigned two forums (or one, if the class is large enough to cover all of the discussion topics) in which you are responsible for defending a particular analytical position—you will be the “advocate” for the position. The other members of the class will be responsible for criticizing the position you defend—they will be the “critics.” The positions are clearly defined for each of the discussion weeks.

A passing grade your “advocate” role—when you are assigned a forum topic (or topics) to defend—will require a minimum of three contributions of at least 250 words each by 11:00 pm on Sunday of the lesson week. Typically, you will be responding to the commentaries of other students. You must complete your assigned “advocate” topics to pass this course.

A passing grade for weeks in which you are acting as a “critic” will require a minimum of one posting of at least 250 words by Thursday of the lesson week. You must complete at least eight discussion forums as a “critic” to pass this course.

For each weekly forum, you will be graded on both the quality and quantity of your contributions.  Your “advocacy” and “critics” weeks will be weighted according to their proportion of the overall number of forum assignments. You should note that forum contributions that meet only the minimum expectations will receive only minimum passing grades (that is, a “D”) . Your forum postings should demonstrate an awareness of the topic being discussed and a thoughtful understanding of the reading material—not just your opinion. It is absolutely imperative that you complete the assigned readings for each lesson before the week covering the lesson begins. Please make an effort to be a part of the conversation, replying to threads in such a way that the discussion is advanced by what you say and starting a new thread only when the topic you want to broach isn't already being covered in another conversation. Simply posting "I agree" or "I think that's wrong" doesn't really help to advance the discussion. Try to support your ideas by citing the course materials and readings.

The purpose of the forums is to share ideas, develop arguments, and work with other students to enrich your grasp of the course material. Additional points about expectations and assessment standards for the discussion forums are found on the Discussion Forum Pointers page.

Discussion forums are managed using a software program called Blackboard. You will need to have a UNC-Chapel Hill Onyen (Only Number You'll Ever Need) and password to enter the Blackboard site. See Course Mechanics for more information.

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Grading

Grading is on the +/- system, and, in compliance with the guidelines outlined by the UNC-Chapel Hill Registrar Procedures Memo No. 24, is as follows:

Plus and minus distinctions will be awarded as necessary to designate levels of attainment superior or inferior to the proximate grade indicated. For purposes of grade calculations, the standard GPA scale (A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, etc.) is used.

Late work.  All assignments, including quizzes and exams, must be completed by the dates specified; late assignments will not be accepted.  Any deadline extensions must be arranged with the instructor in advance.  In fairness to other students, there will be no exceptions made to these rules.

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Course Mechanics

Blackboard

Your discussion forums, quizzes, and tests are accessed through a software program called Blackboard. There is a link to the Blackboard site in the gray navigation bar at the top of every page in this course. Click on that link, and then use your Onyen to log in to Blackboard. Click on the "POLI 276" link, and you will see navigation buttons on the left taking you to the forums, quizzes, and so on.

If you experience problems accessing Blackboard, this is what you should do:

• If you do not already have a UNC Onyen, go to the Onyen Web site and follow the instructions for creating an Onyen.

• If you have an Onyen but have forgotten it (or the password), visit the Onyen Web site.

• If you have your Onyen but can't log in to Blackboard, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.

• If you can log in to Blackboard but can't find this course listed, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.

• If you can't locate an exam or discussion forum in Blackboard, contact the Instructional Designer.

• If you have other technical problems while using Blackboard, contact Blackboard Help (use the Help button in Blackboard, or call 919-962-HELP).

E-mail

E-mails regarding the course will go to your UNC Onyen e-mail address (the one that appears when you post to the discussion forum). Off-campus users can access their UNC mail using Webmail. You can have your Onyen e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking “Forward email” at the Onyen Web site. Please also notify Janice Durham at the Friday Center of the change.

If you use a filter on your e-mail account, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not prevent you from receiving messages from me, the course listserv, or Friday Center staff.

Hotmail users should be aware that Hotmail will block messages sent from within Blackboard because Blackboard uses “blind carbon copy” to protect privacy. We recommend that you use your UNC Onyen e-mail account rather than forwarding to Hotmail for this course.

Submitting your work

It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to your instructor via e-mail. If your instructor doesn't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered.

Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to your instructor, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to your instructor and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course.

Other Questions

Contact your instructor with questions regarding the content of the course and your progress. There is an e-mail link to your instructor at the top of every lesson page. Please include "POLI 276" in the subject line of your e-mail. The instructor cannot provide advice on technical difficulties you encounter with any hardware or software used for instruction and learning in this course. All requests for dispensation because of technical problems must be accompanied by proof that you contacted the appropriate technical assistance personnel at UNC.

Contact your Instructional Designer at the Friday Center about problems with this Web site, including bad links.

Contact the ITS Help Desk (help.unc.edu; 919-962-HELP) if you are experiencing technical difficulties with your hardware, software, or Blackboard.

If you have any logistical questions as you work through the course (enrollment, Onyen, credits, withdrawal, and so on), contact the Student Services staff at the Friday Center for Continuing Education (phone 919-962-1134 or 800-862-5669)

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Lesson Schedule

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Honor Code

Remember that as a student of UNC-Chapel Hill, you are bound by the University's Honor Code, which states that "It shall be the responsibility of every student at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obey and support the enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University students or academic personnel acting in an official capacity."

An especially serious Honor Code violation is plagiarism.  If you have questions, please consult your instructor.

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Week 1