Hello all,
I have finished scoring the posts and replies in Forum 1. Overall, I am very pleased with the discussions about some very tough issues I've placed before you.  Here are some general feedback comments that may or may not apply specifically to you or your group, but I highly suggest you read them.

WEAKNESSES

Very few students addressed the material in the NYTimes article.  While many students didn't like the combative nature the AIM video took against the PBS series, few responded to the anti-PBS point of view of the article.  Could it be that audio/video trumps the written word, or some other aspect of the media used for information delivery?  Interesting. :-)

Those students who included specific information (page numbers, quotes, speakers names, topics) in the videos or written materials were able to be much more convincing than those who did not. In addition, some addressed my week 2 question better than others. (I asked, "which source gets your "vote", on that specific issue")  Some students mistakenly took this to simply choose PBS over AIM, or Herring over PBS, in their ENTIRETY.  That's not what I asked.  At three and four weeks into the term, no one can justifiably deny, without question, the validity of an entire source (PBS, AIM, Herring, Appy).  I would be remiss in my role as instructor if I simply presented 100% bogus information to students.


Both videos came out in the 1980's, when the Cold War and the fear of communism was still present in American society.  That fact cannot be forgotten.  The purpose of the PBS series was to illustrate the history of the conflict.  The AIM video was simply a "rebuttal" of the PBS series.  That is the reason why it felt very "different" to most everyone.  As a counter argument, AIM did NOT attempt to tell the entire history of the Vietnam War, so they should not be expected to do the same thing in 45 minutes that PBS does in 11 hours.  Oh yes, and you should know that you are viewing an EDITED version of the PBS series.  When it first came out, it was 13 episodes and 780 minutes on VHS tape.  It is now 11 episodes and 660 minutes on DVD.  We could spend the rest of the term examining what has been edited, changed, or cut out completely, but we won't.  Ahhh, the intrigue continues. :-)

STRENGTHS

It seems that most students now have a clearer understanding of how the Cold War and anticommunist stance of the United States played THE most important role in this conflict.  Good.  That does indeed get us closer to the historical truth.  If not, then we might as well consider presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon all crazy and incompetent leaders, and by extension, the American people for voting them into office in the first place… and that wouldn't be accurate at all.

The back-and-forth mini-discussions between students definitely added up points. It is highly recommended that you continue that involvement in the next forum.

Also, asking questions that weren't mine (as long as you didn't ignore mine) were terrific and also added up the points, as well as improving the knowledge of the subject matter.

You will have some "new" and some "old" group members for your next forum.


GRADEBOOK

The Moodle gradebook shows the cumulative points you received, and you can go to Forum 1 itself to see what you scored on each individual post. You were attempting to earn the maximum of 18 points. (1 post and 2 replies each week, each one a possible 3 points) Look at your posts. If you made less than 6 posts in the two weeks, there was no way that you could have earned full credit on this assignment. You should also notice that I have made a very generous grade adjustment (+17%) on this first forum by reducing the possible points to 15, instead of 18. I hope this provides some encouragement for the next forum.  Sadly, quite a few students failed to post anything at all during these two weeks.  On a more positive note, a number of students earned "A" grades before I made this grade adjustment… keep up the good work.

I suggest that you take the opportunity to look at the posts from students in the other two groups.  You will see differing discussions about different topics, all which were part of the assigned videos and NYTimes article.  You will also notice some groups had significantly more posts than others. Now I will admit that "more" does not always mean "better", but in online forums, that is most certainly the case. The groups with more posts had more numerous and meaningful interactions. Even the "me too" posts provided positive confirmation to the thoughts and examples of other group members, as well as earning the poster a point or two.

I look forward to reading your Assignment 2 this coming Saturday at 9pm.

Good luck with your 5th week of studies… the midterm exam is right around the corner.