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Office Hours: This is an online course, so "office hours" will
be replaced with ANGEL messages and, if the need arises, IM (please contact
me for an appointment).
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Email Address: jkb171@psu.edu This
is my email, but I request that all course correspondence use ANGEL’s “In Touch” feature. Please use my regular email only in an emergency.
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Chat Account:
CAMS45Web (AIM)
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Course Information:
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Credits
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3
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Course
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CAMS 045
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Location
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Online
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Homepage
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http://cms.psu.edu
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Required Texts:
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1. Homer.
The Essential Homer. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis, IN:
Hackett Publishing Co., 2000. ISBN: 0872205401.
2. Ovid. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Trans.
David Slavitt. Baltimore,
MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1994. ISBN: 0801847982.
3. Hesiod. Works and Days; Theogony. Trans.
Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis,
IN: Hackett Publishing Co.,
1993. ISBN: 0872201791.
4. Sophocles. Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra.
Trans. D. F. Kitto. New York:
Oxford UP,
1998. ISBN: 0192835822.
5. Euripides. Ten Plays. Trans. Moses Hadas. New
York: Bantam Books, 1984. ISBN: 0553213636.
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Other required readings will be available online or
through Penn State Libraries' Electronic Reserve (ER, on which see below).
While all readings in this course are required, the textbooks listed above
are optional to buy. All readings
in this course are available for free online, so purchasing the books
listed above is not mandatory. You may, however, find it easier to read
from a book than from a computer screen and some of our readings are pretty
long.
I suggest buying the books listed above, but if you
are looking to save money or clutter you don't have to. I do, though,
STRONGLY urge you to buy two of the books on the list: Ovid and Homer. Ovid
is the backbone of the course, and we will be reading much of that book.
Ovid is an author you may want to be able to highlight/underline, etc. The
assigned Homer book is an abridged version of the Iliad and Odyssey,
so if you use another edition or the online versions, you will likely end
up doing more reading than you need to (and in some cases by a lot). Homer
is not short, and so having the more concise version, as well as having it
in book form may prove very useful to you.
There is also the issue of language. The online
translations of our readings are old, and therefore the English is stilted
and awkward to our ear.
Consider the following from the opening lines of
Ovid's Metamorphoses:
"My
soul is wrought to sing of forms transformed to bodies new and strange!
Immortal Gods inspire my heart, for ye have changed yourselves and all
things you have changed! Oh lead my song in smooth and measured strains,
from olden days when earth began to this completed time!" (Brookes
More, online version available through Perseus Project)
"Bodies, I have in mind, and how they
can change to assume new shapes--I ask the help of the gods, who know the
trick: inspire me now, change me, let me glimpse the secret and sing,
better than I know how, of the world's birthing, the creation of all things
from the first to the very latest." (David Slavitt,
ibid.)
The second is remarkably more readable, I think, and
because it is such an essential text to our class, it is probably worth
buying. As for the other books on the list, they are shorter, and the difference
between reading 250 pages on your computer and 45 pages is vast. I leave it
to you.
NB: You are always responsible for your
reading assignments. "The server was down" or "the page
wouldn't load" will never be acceptable excuses for not completing
the reading, and this may mean that, if you rely on the online readings,
you will need to seek out the readings. Please also understand that the
links in ANGEL to the online readings are mostly to a site hosted at Tufts University (the Perseus Project);
this means that if a reading is unavailable, I can’t do anything about
it. Sending me an email to ask why
the readings won’t load is like my emailing you to ask why youtube.com
isn’t working. It’s not my deal, and
I can’t fix it. I have tested all the links, and
they all work, but servers go down, site have maintenance, etc. So, electing to rely on the internet
versions of these texts brings with it the risk that, when you need it, the
reading may not be available. The good thing about the actual books is that
they are reliable.
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Tentative Schedule:
Please see the Reading Schedule (Lessons tab) and the
Calendar (for specific due dates). You
can always rely on the course calendar (Calendar tab) for due dates, times,
etc. This calendar is fixed and
reliable. If you see a conflicting
date in an email (sometimes I make mistakes) or somewhere else in the course,
feel free to clarify with me, but the calendar is correct.
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Course Requirements:
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Your grade in this course is determined based on the following:
- Quizzes:............... .20%
- Midterm
Exam:.......25%
- Paper:....................20%
- Discussion Boards:..10%
- Final Exam:
............25%
Quizzes: Most but not all lectures have a corresponding
quiz. Quizzes are found in the Quiz folder, under the Lessons
tab. The quizzes are based on lectures and readings. Because you are, for the most part,
self-paced in this course, quizzes can be completed when you want. BUT: all quizzes that correspond to lectures that
fall before the midterm (up to Lecture 11) must be completed BEFORE the
midterm posts. Likewise, all quizzes that fall before the final exam
must be completed prior to that test. No quiz taken after its
deadline will be considered. All deadlines are posted in
the Quiz folder and on the calendar.
Please follow these dates carefully.
Midterm: Your midterm will cover all lecture and reading
material through Lecture 11. Your midterm will look like a large
ANGEL quiz, consisting of multiple choice, true-false, matching, ordering,
ID, and similar examination elements. Please consult the Midterm
Folder under the Lessons tab for more details. Please check the
calendar and the midterm folder for all dates.
Paper: You must write a 4-6 page paper for this course on a
posted topic. The topics and guidelines for the paper are in the
Paper folder (under the Lessons tab). Later papers will not be
accepted. Please see the calendar for due dates.
Discussion Boards: 10% of your grade in this course is based
on "discussion." Because we do not meet in a traditional
classroom, we must rely on electronic discussion. You have been
randomly assigned to an ANGEL "Team" (there are 5 teams). You
must contribute to the message board each week (at least one post and at
least one reply). The idea here
is to create, however small, a community for you to discuss the course
material. The message boards are not
an appropriate place to ask questions about deadlines, paper expectations,
etc. (these should be directed to me via ANGEL mail).
While there is a weekly minimum (1 post and 1 reply), there is no
maximum to how much you can post/reply.
In fact, the more the better because the goal of the message boards is
to create ongoing and engaged conversations about the readings, lectures,
or other relevant ideas. You are
welcome to keep a thread alive as long as you want (but do remember that a
new post is due each week, so contributing to an ongoing conversation does
not excuse you from your weekly original post.
You must make all your own posts
(there are no "team" posts). The teams are set up to divide
the work and to reduce the anonymity of a large, online course. This message board activity makes up 10%
of your final grade. All of your posts, whether they are replies or posts,
should be well thought out, well written, and show that you are engaging in
the course material. 3 sentences to 1 paragraph is sufficient
length. “Achilles is a brat. I
prefer Brad Pitt” is not a good post.
“I find Achilles to be a let down as a hero because of X, Y, and Z”
is a good post. The message boards
should not dominate your life, but they should be thoughtful, critical, and
show that you are taking the course seriously. 10-15 minutes per week is a sufficient commitment
to your team’s discussion board.
Final Exam: Your final exam will
resemble your midterm. It will be online in ANGEL and consist of
multiple choice, true-false, matching, ordering,
ID, and similar examination elements. More information is located in
the Final Exam folder under the Lessons tab and on the Calendar.
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Grading Policy:
A:
100-94
A-: 93-90
B+: 89-87
B: 86-83
B-: 82-80
C+: 79-77
C: 76-70
D: 69-60
F: 59 or below
NB: I do
not round up grade percentages. If a student
has worked particularly hard, been an especially strong message board contributor,
etc., I will bump that student from, say, 93.6% to the 94% needed for an A,
but I will never bump your grade more than .5 points. If you’ve got an 88.75, do not expect me to
grant you the 1.25points needed to get to an A-. It’s unfair to the students who worked hard
to get the higher grade.
Also, I do
not believe in extra-credit.
This is an ideological issue for me, so I will not offer extra-credit
to anyone, even if you’re looking at a D, and “if I get a D my parents will
pull me out of State…” I do not offer
any form of extra credit to any student.
So, if you’re worried about your grade, about whether you’re
going to make a cut-off that is necessary for your scholarship, your parents’
approval, or for any other reason, do not wait until you’ve taken the
final. Email me early, and we can
discuss study strategies, I can help you with your paper, etc. I want you all to succeed and to do well in
my course, but I also need to protect the integrity of this course, and the
integrity of those students who worked hard all term to earn satisfactory
grades. Let me help you do well by
keeping in touch with me if you’re struggling or if you need help, or if you
find yourself in an extenuating circumstance.
I’m unbending in my policies (I have to be in an internet course), but
I’m also not a despot. If you have a
genuine emergency, family situation/tragedy, etc., I will gladly work
with you to make it all easier. I
will not, however, take sympathy on you after you’ve failed the work. If something is going on that makes it so
that you can’t focus and succeed, let me know before it’s too late.
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Academic Integrity:
Students are expected to behave within the guidelines
of academic and personal integrity. Penn State
defines academic integrity as the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open,
honest and responsible manner. All students should act with personal
integrity, respect other students’ dignity, rights and property, and help
create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the
fruits of their efforts (Faculty Senate Policy 49-20).
Dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated in this
course. Dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing,
fabricating information or citations, facilitating acts of academic
dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations,
submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing
the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students.
Students who are found to be dishonest will receive academic sanctions and
will be reported to the University’s Judicial Affairs office for possible
further disciplinary sanction.
It is YOUR responsibility to familiarize yourself with
College and University policy on academic integrity if you are not already
familiar with it. PLEASE don't assume you know the policies if you have not
encountered them before. I refer you to http://www.psu.edu/ufs/policies/
for a rundown.
I have reported at least one student to the College of Liberal Arts almost every semester
since Fall 2002. What you should take away from this is that it's not
that hard to catch someone when they're cheating or plagiarizing, and I don't
ever let it slide. Please save us both the headache of going through
the Academic Integrity process. Don't be a cheater.
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Examination Policy:
Your exams in this course are online, and administered
through ANGEL. Basically, your exams look like big ANGEL quizzes.
Your exams will include matching, true/false, multiple choice,
and multiple select. You will have 2 hours to finish your exams from
the moment you start them, so it is advisable that you plan your time
carefully, so that you don't run out of time. After two hours, the
exams auto-submit (plus, because the exams are administered through ANGEL,
the timer will be unforgiving). For more information about your midterm
and final, please refer to the Midterm and Final Exam folders under the
Lessons tab, and the Calendar.
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Disability Access
Statement: Neither I nor Penn State
discriminates against students. If you have any special needs that must
be met for you to have success in this course, please inform me as soon as
possible. This request includes physical access, as well as
accommodation of learning differences/challenges
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Additional
Information:
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Using Electronic Reserve (ER):
Electronic Reserve is a wonderful service available
through the Penn State Libraries. All you need to use ER is an internet
connection and Adobe Acrobat Reader (which is a free download, and
preloaded on many computers). There are two good ways to access ER.
1)
Click on the Tools tab in ANGEL. Under the Library Tools header, click on
"Library Reserves." This will take you to the list. You may be
asked to login to the Library's server (use your regular PSU login +
password).
or,
2) Go to www.lias.psu.edu. From the banner at the top, select
"Course Reserves." Type the last name of your instructor (in this
case, Brooks), and click the Search By Instructor command. A list of names
will show up, and you just select Brooks, Jason. This will take you to our
list of ER readings. Follow links.
**If you are trying to get into the course reserves
from off-campus, you might be asked to login to the Library server (use
your PSU login + password).
You can print the readings or read them on your
screen. Several extremely important readings will be available only through
ER, so it is essential that you learn to use this system.
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Legal Stuff: Some of the materials contained in this
course are copyright protected and are therefore available on restricted
access only. Due to this legal issue, some of the images used in lectures
will not remain available for the duration of the course (that is, they
will be un-viewable after a given time). I will happily honor requests to
make such files available again before the paper or exams for limited
times.
...You are not allowed to abuse ANGEL (or its
users). Please read the information on this page before you're tempted to
sell your football tickets in this class: http://guru.psu.edu/policies/AD20.html
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