Hello students, Sorry for the long note, but it was necessary. You've completed your first written assignment. I've already emailed you about that. I hope that you've been able to see ALL of my feedback, including the text that is written in the little yellow bubbles. I you cannot read those comments, please let me know right away. Now you've completed your first forum. Besides the midterm and final exams, you will be doing similar Assignments and Forums for the remainder of the term. This message will provide you with detailed forum feedback. FORUM 1 I have completed scoring your posts for both weeks of Forum 1. By returning to and looking at Forum 1, you can see what score each of your posts or replies received. (You can only see the scores on your own posts.) VERY IMPORTANT Recall that you could earn from 0 to 3 points per post or reply, and that you were "chasing" 9 points for each week of the two week assignment. The instructions directed that you contribute AT LEAST one excellent post and two excellent replies each week. Some of you did more than the bare minimum, which undoubtedly had a positive impact on your grade. If you did not post or reply at least 3 times, you definitely were not contributing enough, and your grade will reflect that. Moodle simply "adds up" all of your posts and replies, up to the grand total for the assignment. Therefore, please do not be confused or dismayed when the forum shows you getting #/15 for your post or reply. The top number is your score for that post, from 0 to 3. Disregard the bottom number for now. I am fully aware that 3/15 is normally a horribly low grade and "looks bad", but in our Moodle forum, a post with this score is considered "excellent". (numerator score of 3) Below are my Forum suggestions for the class. Forums are meant to encourage discussions. You were supposed to actively participate throughout the duration of the assignment and not cram in all of your work on Sunday night, just before the deadline. It is clearly not fair to attempt to discuss an issue after everyone has already talked about it. It often seems like simple repetition, not usually worthy of the highest scores. Moodle notes the day and time of each and every post or reply that is made, so this is an easy issue for me to track as I score your work. To get the discussion started, all students were supposed to make their first posts by Wednesday of each week. A number of students missed these midweek deadlines and had to play "catch up". Some never caught up. Get involved early and often… that's what I recommend. Very long posts have the following characteristics. While they can often earn an excellent score if they are "on track", sometimes too much is said and factual errors get introduced to a normally worthy post, bringing it down a point or two, depending on the error. In addition, sometimes group members might simply ignore and not read the long posts. It is more difficult to read and respond to someone's mini-essay than to discuss the materials in more manageable, bite-sized chunks. Besides, two separate issues combined into one post can only earn 3 points at most, when in some cases, each well-developed point in separate posts/replies, could earn 3 points each. Forum 1 Significant Scoring Statistics Students who posted before the Wednesday deadlines each week usually earned the best grades for Forum 1. After all, when you post early, others are more likely to read and respond, giving you another chance to respond, all the while racking up the points. The highest grades in the forum were usually earned by those students who posted more than the minimum 3 times each week. Since there is no maximum number of posts or replies you can make, this is definitely the type of assignment where all students *could*, dare I say *should* earn maximum credit. Forum 1 Things to avoid Sometimes the discussions can get a bit "off track". When this happens, it is difficult to earn "excellent" scores. But no post or reply can earn less than 0, so no points can be "taken away" if the discussion wanders. I recall one discussion centered around "which Vietnam-based Hollywood movies have you seen". I had no problem with this, as it was tangentially related to the bigger issue of using media to learn about the war, and I believe most students earned at least 1 point for each of their replies to each other about this topic. I'm also pleased that this was NOT the entire focal point of the week's discussion. That brings me to my second point. Be sure that you include the extra materials that I've included for the forum and have asked you to discuss. Both groups will find that very few mentions were made of the AIM program in the first week of the discussion. You were asked to examine your "sources", and students focused on Herring, Appy, and the PBS series, to the exclusion of part 1 of the AIM web video. In the second week, almost no one discussed the New York Times article that was critical of the PBS series producers attempt to "hijack" the history of the Vietnam War. While I'm glad students definitely examined the conservative bias of AIM and the liberal bias of PBS, what bias do you think the New York Times brought to the story? How about liberal? One liberal (print) media taking another liberal (television) media to task. Now that's interesting. Also, when I saw it for the first time, I thought some of the more salient points offered in the AIM video, such as the Vietnamese scholar's trouble with PBS depicting the South Vietnamese as ignorant and clueless were worth noting. Many students have expressed their appreciation of the Appy book for presenting people from "both sides" of the conflict, but most were less willing to hear, accept, and/or address the claims from this particular Vietnamese person. Are we making a mistake of simplifying the conflict to two sides only? Us versus them?… and not allowing for a third side, perhaps? How about more "sides"? Forum 1 Grades Since this was your first forum, I have "adjusted the points possible" in your favor. Instead of 18 being the points possible for the two weeks, I've reduced that number to 15, which increases the scores for all students. In essence, this is like giving everyone a "free pass" for missing one post or reply for this assignment. This is the reason that the denominator is 15 instead of 18 when you look at your scores. Remember though, the number on top is the score you want to pay attention to. Recalling that assignments are worth 25% and forums are worth 25% of your grade in this class, you can see what an impact this has on your overall class grade, shown on the bottom line of the Moodle gradebook. This score includes your first written assignment and your first forum. Next week, it will include your midterm exam, at yet another 25% of your total grade in the class. Please take a look at the Moodle gradebook often. If you have questions, be sure to contact me. Midterm Exam This is week five of the term, almost the half-way point, and your midterm exam "window" (Nov 1-5) will begin one week from tomorrow. So it is time to start thinking about your midterm exam. The testing lab on LCC Main Campus is in CEN456. Click the appropriate link in Moodle for the testing lab hours of operation to determine what day and time you plan to take your test. No appointment is necessary and although there is no time limit, most students finish the exam within one hour. Good luck with your studies as we approach the midway point of the term. HST195 - Week 5 Update by Joe Escobar - Saturday, 23 October 2010, 11:22 PM Hello students, Our first two-week Forum 1 has come to a conclusion. I will be scoring your posts over the next few days and you will be able to see the individual post scores and the cumulative forum grade in the gradebook later this week. Assignment 2 is now visible and due by 9pm next Saturday. This is week five of the term, almost the half-way point, and your midterm exam "window" (Nov 1-5) will begin one week from tomorrow. So it is time to start thinking about your midterm exam. The testing lab on LCC Main Campus is in CEN456. Click the appropriate link in Moodle for the testing lab hours of operation to determine what day and time you plan to take your test. No appointment is necessary and although there is no time limit, most students finish the exam within one hour. Good luck with your studies as we approach the midway point of the term. HST195 - Forum Scores and More by Joe Escobar - Wednesday, 27 October 2010, 02:57 PM 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. smile 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. smile 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. F First, read the pdf handout "Vietnam The Real Story on PBS - The New York Times" so you can become a bit more familiar with the 1985 controversy about the videos you are required to watch for this class, both the PBS series AND the AIM program. Be sure that your posts and replies reflect a clear understanding of the points made in the article. Second, watch the second half of the AIM program. In the PBS series, the only individuals we hear from, besides the narrator, were people taking part in various aspects of the war. As viewers, we *assume* that experts and historians were working behind the scenes, fact checking every bit of information presented in that PBS program. In the AIM program, we hear *directly* from experts and historians themselves, yet it is somehow easier for some/many viewers to discredit the accuracy of the issues raised in that program. In fact, over the past years teaching this course, I've found that most students "prefer" the stories in the Appy book over the "history" presented by George Herring, renowned scholar and historian, in his book. To some degree, some students would rather read, watch, and listen to eyewitnesses, interviewees and their stories (no matter how very limited a view they present as to what the Vietnam War was all about), rather than examine what the experts have to say about the enormous, very complex, and lengthy conflict. This is the direction you will take as you continue this, the final week of discussions in Forum 1.