Government Department
Austin Community College
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How should I study?
Studying a textbook is something everyone must learn how to do well. Since this course is textbook-focused, you must learn how to learn from a textbook.
First, familiarize yourself with the way your textbook is organized. Does it have chapter summaries? If so, is the summary at the beginning of the chapter (an overview) or at the end of the chapter. Does it have definitions of key terms in the margins or key terms highlighted in bold? Does it have an index? A separate index by subject or name? Does it have a glossary? Appendices? Learn a little about the book so that it can be a useful study and reference tool for you. Before reading an assigned chapter, look at the table of contents and become familiar with what will be addressed in that chapter. (Reading the chapter summary, if the textbook has one, serves a similar purpose.)
Remember that reading a textbook means studying the chapter. Studying means outlining the chapter, taking notes to fill in the details on the outline, writing out definitions of terms, highlighting concepts with margin notes, looking for the answers to the learning objectives as you read, noting the key terms as you find them, etc.
Each chapter of a textbook will have a variety of resources for students, including charts and graphs, highlighted information in boxes, perhaps a summary at the end of the chapter, and related Web sites. In each chapter, key terms are often highlighted in bold, so make a note of those as you study the chapter. Do not skip tables and figures, or the colorful boxes. All of these things have a purpose and help convey crucial information. Make use of the chapter-ending material. The final section of each chapter is often a summary with key terms that provides an overview of what has been covered.
In addition, on the course Bb page, I've loaded PowerPoint slides and learning objectives for each chapter (look under the individual unit tabs in Blackboard). These slides and the learning objectives provide an outline for each chapter, highlighting key concepts. They are NOT a substitute for reading and studying and taking notes on the details of each chapter, but they can be a good starting point.
Remember, these PowerPoint slides and the learning objectives can be found under the individual unit tabs on the course Blackboard page. And under the "Course Resources" link on Bb you will also find some other material that should be helpful to you. Please take advantage of all of these tools as you study each chapter in the textbook.
Do not sit down and try to read the entire chapter at once just so that you can say you have. (That feeling of accomplishment is diluted if you don't remember anything you just read!) Study the chapter in manageable pieces and use all the available learning tools - that will be time well spent.
Professor Gaye Lynn Scott FAQs about ONL classes |
Why should I take a Government course? The second answer to this question is because it's good for you (think spinach!). It's good for you because you live in a republic, a representative democracy, and the basic idea in any republic is that the government must be responsive to its citizens. In order to ensure that the government is truly responsive and representative, those citizens must participate in an informed way, and informed participation requires, among other things, understanding how government and politics work. In other words, many would argue that we get the government that we deserve: if we are not informed and participating citizens, then government can't and won't respond the way we want it to. Why should I take this course in a Web-based format? You can answer this question better than I. Presumably you are comfortable with the technology necessary for such a course (including e-mail, Web browsers, chat rooms, search engines). Perhaps you are a Web junkie. (You probably have a lot more technological know-how than I do.) Perhaps you think this course will require less work than going to a traditional classroom. (In this you would be wrong!) Perhaps the obligations on your time prevent you from attending a regularly scheduled class several times a week. Perhaps the relative anonymity of computer-based communications with your instructor and your classmates is appealing to you. Whatever your reasons, I will try to make this course interesting, informative, useful, and different from other methods of instruction. There is a student handbook available online for all ACC Distance Learning students. This handbook provides a lot of information about Distance Learning courses and how they work, the support services available for Distance Learning Students, strategies for being a successful Distance Learner, etc. Click here and download it as a pdf file and check it out. How will this course be different? Most obviously, this course will be different because it revolves around computer technology. Your communication with me and with your fellow students will be done largely through e-mail and in Web-based discussion boards and blogs. Your assignments are explained on-line, will be submitted electronically, and will revolve around research using the World Wide Web. Your study tools will be available on-line. Most of the resources you will use in this course will be on-line resources - except for the textbook, of course. What won't be different is the expectation I have regarding your commitment and your willingness to do the required work. Whether it's in class or online, I assume that students are prepared for the requirements of a college sophomore-level Government course. Since you signed up for the ONL version, I assume that you are self-disciplined and able to study and learn without the direction and focus that a classroom provides. If you're not, you might rethink your decision to take this course via Distance Learning and investigate in class options. If you are - welcome aboard! Please familiarize yourself with the course Blackboard home page found by accessing the ACC Online Web page. Once you have logged on, the courses that you are enrolled in will come up on the screen. Click on a course and that will take you to that particular course's Blackboard page, with links on the left side of the screen. Take some time to play with those links and see where they take you. And remember - learning is fun! What is expected of me in a Government Distance Learning course? What you must realize is that, in any Distance Learning course, there is more responsibility placed on the individual student. You are responsible for meeting course deadlines. You are responsible for keeping up with the readings. You are responsible for taking notes as you read the textbook, using the online study tools provided, looking up definitions for terms, etc. You are also responsible for using the available technology for study and research and for keeping in touch with me. Keep in mind that since we are not meeting in a traditional classroom, I cannot read your body language or your facial expressions to tell if you understand the material, so you must communicate with me or with your classmates whenever you have a question or a problem. If you do not make the effort to communicate, you will not receive the benefits of interaction with other students and with the professor. How much time will be required for this class? As with any college course, the amount of time you put into it directly affects what you ultimately get out of it. I know that you are taking this course because it's required, but if you want to get your money's worth, you should plan your efforts accordingly. If you were taking this in class, you would be spending several hours a week sitting in a classroom, in addition to the work you would do outside of the classroom each week. (One oft-sited rule of thumb is three hours of work outside of class for every hour spent in the classroom.) That same time and effort is required of a Distance Learning course. The rule of thumb is three hours outside of class for every hour in class - so do the math for this course! You should spend time on the course each day, outlining the chapters, reading the textbook and taking notes in preparation for the required exams, and then re-reading the textbook and taking more notes, using the PowerPoint slides, chapter learning objectives that are available on the course Blackboard site, etc. You should plan to spend some time on each unit's discussion board (don't wait until the last minute to do the research and craft a solid post - it won't work). And of course each Wednesday is the deadline for the Aplia problem set that week, and each Friday is the deadline for the chapter quiz that week. And please remember that servers can crash, email can go down, internet connections can disappear, viruses can infect your computer (the 21st century version of "the dog ate my homework"), so don't wait until the last minute to do the work required for the discussion board or the problem sets or quizzes or blog posts. How much feedback will I receive in this class? Quite frankly, the nature of Distance Learning courses is such that, in general, students get as much feedback as they seek out. I provide feedback on the essay exams, but feel free to make an appointment to come in for more feedback if you like. I also use the "Assignments" feature in Bb for the blogs, which allows me to type comments in a box once I've graded your blog assignment and you will then be able to see those comments. I believe that these features provide an avenue for some constructive feedback, at least on your assignments and your essay answers. I'm happy for you to visit with me during office hours or at some other mutually agreeable time, so please feel free to email me for an appointment. I try to post general comments to the class after I've graded a unit discussion board. I hope this is helpful, but they are broad comments aimed at the entire class. For more individualized feedback, please get in touch with me and we'll set up a meeting. What will not be materially different in this Distance Learning course as compared to in class is the course content or the standards by which your performance as a student will be assessed. You will still be responsible for learning, and by this I mean learning not only the separate bits of information about government and politics that the learning objectives direct you to, but also learning how those separate pieces interact and help to explain what goes on in the political system. You will be responsible for developing your ability to think objectively and critically about the national political system so that you may draw your own conclusions about how government and politics work. Click here for the GOVT 2305 ONL course syllabus. Click here for the GOVT 2306 ONL course syllabus.
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| Contact Information | ||
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Email: gls@austincc.edu Fax: 223-3777 Office: Building 3000, room 3360, Rio Grande Campus |
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Emailing Me
The best way to communicate with me is through email. I do my best to check email several times a day during the week, however, if you email me late on a Friday afternoon I cannot promise to respond before Monday.
Recommended prerequisite:
The Government Department strongly recommends that students complete ENGL 1301 or its equivalent with a grade of 'C' or higher. This course involves substantial writing (on assignments, discussion boards, and exams) and students must bring college level writing and research skills to the course.
Take the Government Department's Learning Style Self-Assessment to get an indication of your aptitude for this course.
The challenges of taking a college sophomore-level Government course in an online setting
For most students, this is the hardest way to take a required Government course. (Let me repeat myself - this is the hardest way to take a required Government course.) You're not in the classroom, able to hear lectures, ask questions, engage in discussions, take notes, absorb material via your ears as well as your eyes. You have chosen to take this Government class in this format and you need to know that there is a heavy burden on you: to be self-disciplined, to be able to read carefully and thoroughly, to be able to take notes on a textbook, to recognize important information when you read it, and to take advantage of all the study tools available to you. I will be a resource for you, but the "heavy lifting" will be done by you.
If you do your part and make the effort, the rewards will be great. You will be studying interesting and significant questions about the U.S. political system, and at the same time you will be honing your communication and critical thinking skills. To understand government and politics, you must be able to discern causes and effects. In other words, you will be developing your ability to discover why things happen in our political system. This ability will serve you well as you participate in the political system now and in the future.
Online Discussion Boards
One of the course requirements is to participate in online discussion boards (found by clicking on Blackboard's Discussion Boards tab. These will be observations that you can think about before you communicate them, thus you can presumably communicate them more effectively, which will help me (and your fellow students) get to know you. Because your participation does not require you to speak up in the classroom, something that not all students are comfortable with, I hope every student will be able to participate comfortably and effectively. In general, the more you participate and communicate, the better I will get to know you and you will get to know each other, and the more you will get out of the course.
How will forums be graded? I will try to balance several things as I grade them. I will look to see if you did what I asked, if the comments are thoughtful and coherent, if they are responsive to the questions asked in the forum, if they contribute something new to the discussion, if they reflect an effort to move the discussion along, if they reflect an understanding of the readings, and so forth. I will gauge whether the student is just posting something to get that particular requirement out of the way ("I agree" isn't really helpful in moving the discussion along, e.g.), or whether the student read the other comments and tried to advance the discussion in some way. These discussion forums may be accessed from the course Blackboard home page (first, log in at ACC online and then click on this course) by clicking on Communications.
Google email for students!
Students now have access to an ACC email account supported by Google. Please visit this FAQ page to find out more.
Student email addresses in Blackboard are, by default, their ACC g-mail addresses. If I send an email to the class through Bb, it will go to your ACC g-mail account, so please make sure that you activate this account and check it regularly - or else have it forwarded to your preferred email account. For more information, visit www.austincc.edu/google