Some of the assignments for this class involve on-line discussions in specially created Discussion Board forums on Blackboard.  These assignments will be shown on the respective chapter webpages and you will be alerted to them through BB Announcements.

To earn points on these on-line discussion assignments, you should regularly read posts to the forum and offer your own thoughts, advancing the conversation.  Saying “I agree” doesn’t contribute.  Adding new thoughts, raising questions, politely challenging other arguments, clarifying points, providing evidence on points raised—all these constitute contributions.  You will not win points, indeed you may lose points, for saying the same thing that another student has already said in a post. (And you should have read the chapter and accompanying webpage before you start weighing in.)  I evaluate your work on the basis of regular and productive contributions.  (It will not pay you to post a batch of comments only as the window for the exercise is about to close.)  When appropriate—and it will often be appropriate—I encourage you to add links to websites that provide supporting evidence for the points you make.