Credit Hours: 2 hours CRN: 10238
Term Year: SPRING 2010
Syllabus
LIS 342
Online Course from January 20 – March 19 available at bb.uis.edu
Instructor: / Eric Hadley-Ives
UHB 3028
Office Hours: / Mondays from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays by appointment.
Phone: / 1-217-206-8207
Email: /
Fax: / 1-217-206-6217
Skype: / hadleyives (I use while working from home or when traveling)
eric_ives (I use while in my office on campus)
Facebook: / I check Facebook once or twice per week.
You may friend me with my “Eric Joseph Orsay Hadley-Ives” identity.
To Begin… look at the orientation slideshow in PowerPoint. It can be found in Blackboard in Course Documents, and there is even a link directly to that portion of Course Documents in a special section of class called “Orientation Slide”
To see your Advisor and Facilitator go to the “Staff Information” on your navigation bar on the left side of the page once you have entered the LIS-342 class in Blackboard.
To see all the Liberal Studies Faculty go to:
For Staff go to:
Course Description
This is a course in which you will learn how to gather information for an academic research paper (usually a formal written analytical paper with a thesis in which you do background research using published and unpublished materials rather than scientific research through experimentation and observation). You do not actually write your research paper in this course, but you do complete an annotated bibliography including at least ten sources, a thesis statement, a research plan, a Refworks folder of sources, an I-Search Paper, a research journal, and a self-evaluation. The process of completing these assignments, reading course materials, and participating in online discussions will prepare you for serious academic writing and work.
COURSE OVERVIEW
This 2 credit hour course is conducted in seven sessions over an eight-week period at the beginning of a semester. As a two-unit course, students are expected to give 75-85 hours of their time into the class, or about 12 hours per session.
·Each session you will read through the designated Weekly Session. The weekly session describes what you are supposed to do, and what you are supposed to read. The weekly session pages can be found in the “Weekly Lectures” area, which is the second button from the bottom on the far left in the course menu.
·When you have completed assignments, you upload them in the “Assignments” area (fifth button from the top on the far left in the course menu). Some of the assignments will appear here later in the semester.
Course Objectives/Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, participants will be able to plan and prepare to write a thorough and academically sound research paper.
Associated with these goals are several learning objectives, including:
1) Students will gain an understanding of evaluating sources
2) Students will learn how to write an annotated bibliography
3) Students will understand the format and expectations of a research paper.
4) Students will be able to create good research questions.
5) Students will become familiar with resources available from a university library, including online resources.
6) Students will learn APA formatting for references and citations, and may also become familiar with other standardized reference formats (such as MLA).
7) Students will gain an appreciation for the importance of discriminating among sources available on the World Wide Web, and will become critical consumers of information on the internet.
8) Students will become experts in a content area of their choice, and read materials about their chosen topic from a variety of sources in order to decide how they would proceed to gather more information and write a research paper.
9) Students will understand how they can validate sources.
10) Students will learn how to appropriately and ethically quote, paraphrase, and summarize the work of others.
Your work in LIS 301 should results in the production of seven products:
1)an annotated bibliography including at least ten sources,
2)a thesis statement, (Due in a preliminary form on February 22, and due in its final form by March 15)
3)a research plan, (Due in an initial form on February 8th, and due in a final form on February 15)
4)a Refworks folder of sources, (Due in an initial form on February 9, but due in a final form on March 15)
5)an I-Search Paper, (Due in a draft form to your classmates on March 9, and due to your instructor in a final form on March 15)
6)a research journal, (Due March 15)
7)and a self-evaluation. (Due March 15)
COURSE FORMAT
Class sessions will include presentations of information, discussions of a variety of educational issues and experiential exercises. Adult learners are resources to each other so it is essential that you participate in class sessions and complete assignments in a timely manner. You will be provided with session outlines and instructions for completing the work.
For each course session there is a course session or lecture you should read. This really isn’t a “lecture” in the standard sense; rather, it is a web page in which the instructors have listed everything you are expected to do that week. There typically are some paragraphs to give you directions and encouragement or explanations, but mainly you will be referred to readings and assignments to complete for that week. There are activities and assignments to help you make progress toward the sort of assignments you actually turn in, and there are web pages to visit or web sites to explore. You’ll also have readings assigned, mostly from your textbook. And of course each week there are discussions questions you’ll need to participate in.
As far as turning in assignments, most of the work you do in this course is all due at the end of the last session, although you do turn in some work (thesis statement, research plan, and Refworks folder of resources) in initial drafts weeks before you turn in the final versions of these.
EXPECTATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
We assume that both facilitators (teachers) and participants (students) share responsibility for the success of a course, and that classroom learning (even virtual online classroom learning) at its best is a collaborative, collegial process. There are, of course, components of the course that are more the facilitator's responsibility and components that are more your responsibility as participants in a self directed learning process.
As facilitator of this process I expect that you will attend all class sessions and participate in on-line discussion boards. The vicissitudes of life and outside obligations or emergencies may force you to miss a session’s discussion posting, or miss a deadline with an assignment (please notify me that you will be absent from a week’s class discussion or explain after the why an assignment is late).
Our Expectations and Thoughts About Your Responsibilities
1) Participate in all course sessions. We ask that you come prepared to devote your full energies to the work of that session. In particular, be sure to answer the discussion questions for each session, and then respond to some of your classmates’ answers to the questions.
2) We expect you to ask questions and seek the help you need. If you are unclear about an assignment or particular activity, ask for clarification. If you experience difficulties as you proceed with a component of the course, ask for assistance. Knowing when to ask for help and how to formulate questions to get the information you need are important characteristics of autonomous learners.
3) We expect you to have high standards for your work, to be willing to thoughtfully consider our feedback, and to take responsibility for improving the areas in which you experience difficulty.
4) Finally, we ask that you be open to letting yourself experience the challenge of the learning process that is at the heart of this course. The process of research is not always simple or straight-forward. A certain degree of frustration and confusion is usually part of the process.
Writing should be turned in on time, and must be turned in on the course’s Blackboard website (at through the assignments page. Assignments should be submitted in either rich-text-format or else in Microsoft Word format. However, files sent in text-only format, html format, or pdf documents may be accepted. Word Perfect documents are not acceptable.
As students you can expect that I will be sensitive to external and internal barriers; give you timely feedback on your work, design relevant learning experiences, and respect your individual style and degree journey.
As a facilitator, you may have the following expectations of me:
1) I will provide sound learning opportunities (written assignments, readings, session activities, discussion and individual consultations). They are selected to assist you in developing the necessary skills, attitudes and knowledge you’ll need to write good research papers.
2) You may expect me to respond to your questions, to be sensitive to the barriers (internal and external) that you may be facing as you undertake this process, and to be willing to help you when you need it.
3) I will make assignments and evaluation procedures and criteria as clear as possible. I will provide thoughtful, honest and constructive feedback on your work throughout the course.
4) I will be responsive to feedback you give us throughout the course, both informally and through more formal evaluation processes. This course has changed considerably since it was first offered and many changes are the result of suggestions made by students.
5) I recognize the resources and skills that you bring to class and are open to learning from you and drawing on what you offer in making this a successful course.
Delivery Method
This section of LIS-342 is an online activity with instructor lectures and discussion, experiential activities, peer evaluation, readings and discussion boards. Those materials can be found at bb.uis.edu. The instructor devotes 10-15 hours of time on this class each week (on average), putting most hours into giving feedback on papers, with some time devoted to monitoring and participating in on-line discussions, answering questions posted in Blackboard, and maintaining the Blackboard course website. This instructor time is usually used on three days of the week, not all seven days of the week, so there may be lags of two or three days between the time you post a question or assignment and the instructor sees it. Since many assignments require 30 minutes to 90 minutes for the instructor to carefully read, edit, and comment upon, it will usually take between 1-14 days for you to receive feedback on materials you turn in. Materials not properly delivered to your instructor may never receive feedback. (You should use the assignments section in Blackboard, and not some other area of Blackboard to post your assignments for instructor feedback. Do not e-mail assignments directly to the instructor, nor should you ever submit an assignment in Word Perfect format).
Late Work and Incompletes
If you keep up with the assigned reading and writing throughout the course, you will not find it an overwhelming task to complete the work on time. Later assignments build upon earlier work, and the effectiveness of course activities depends on your preparation. Please schedule your time carefully and seek help early if you are having difficulty keeping up. Time management is the key to juggling work, studies, family, community activities, hobbies and leisure (remember leisure?)
Incompletes will be granted only in extraordinary circumstances.
Course Schedule:
Session 1 (usually the first couple weeks of the semester).
You must do the following. . .
Read this syllabus
Look at the class orientation Powerpoint presentation
Read Rodrigues' Chapter 1 and 2
Decide on your topic for the course (the topic you’ll research to prepare for a research paper)
Browse the internet to see what you can find about your topic
On the discussion board answer three questions:
- Discuss with your peers the most interesting discoveries from your research on research papers. What have you found interesting, challenging, different from the concept you had when you started the class?
- Share your thoughts withme and your classmates on using the new research tool called Refworks.
- After you have browsed your topic in the library, share with your classmates the ideas you got for your topic from browsing. What sections of the library did you find your information? Chat a bit with other researchers about their topics, or the places they went to for information or whatever else helps you to build camaraderie?research can be so lonely!
Date Syllabus Prepared: 1/10 EJHI