Course Syllabus

Overview

This course will help students complete the following:

• Build a knowledge base of ideas.
• Help you learn analysis skills.

Not all of these ideas and skills will come easily. It may take a lot of work and practice before some of the things we talk about will even start to make sense, so don’t be surprised to find that it takes a little extra time to comprehend these ideas. Just be patient—as students approach the end of the semester their knowledge of and proficiency in, the things we have studied will start to come together and they will really see how much progress they have made. Students will understand what this course is working to teach them, and they will be glad you persisted in their efforts to learn.

An additional benefit of this course is that, as students thoughtfully apply the learning model to teach one another and ponder and prove what you have learned, and as they humbly seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Lord will bless them with a greater knowledge of His mercy and love, and they will receive an increased testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Requirements

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Proctored Exams and Assessments

The Proctorio exam requires a functioning webcam and microphone connected to your device. Make sure to properly set these up before beginning your exam.

This course will use an online proctoring software called Proctorio. This makes it possible for students to take assessments and exams without a human proctor present. Proctored exams can be accessed like any other exam, once the software has been installed. Exams will be recorded by Proctorio and reviewed by the BYUI Testing Center. Any questionable exams will be forwarded to the instructor for further review.

For step-by-step instructions on Proctorio installation, please refer to this help guide article.

Week 10 will allow for a trial run using Proctorio. The Week 12 Quiz will use Proctorio, but is otherwise a normal, weekly terminology quiz. 

**There will be a Final Project, but no mid-term or final exams.

Disclaimers

The instructor reserves the right to change any part of this syllabus any time during the semester in order to adapt to changing course needs. Students will be notified prior to any changes that may take place.

Course Text

There is no required textbook. All reading materials will be available in the "Files" Canvas folder. 

Structure

Course Outcomes

• 1. Be able to determine why states act differently. This is accomplished through the following two sub-objectives.
• 2. Learn to identify and understand the three primary structures in every state.
  • • Political
    • Economic
    • Societal
• 3. These structures constantly intermingle and, as they do, influence decision-makers
• 4. Start comparing these structures across countries.
• 5. By comparing structures across countries, we can identify what seems to work, what does not, and why.
• 6. Understand how this affects students directly and why the student should care.

Weekly Patterns

The table below displays typical weekly activities, due dates, and activity descriptions. 

Weekly Patterns

Due Date*	Learning Model	Activity Title	Description
Midweek	Prove	Assignment	Apply key political terms through your own research.
Midweek	Ponder/Prove	Assignment	Study a selected reading on the week's topic and apply to contemporary Think Tanks.
End of Week	Teach One Another	Discussion	Contribute to a discussion on current, international events.
End of Week	Prove	Quiz	Quiz on this week’s political terms.
End of Week	Ponder/Prove	Assignment	Make comparisons across selected states based on the week's course topic.

*Set your time zone within user preferences so the dates and times for course activities will display correctly for your time zone.

Learning Model

Skim Reading

When most of us were taught to study, we learned to read things through once and believed that this constituted high comprehension. In this course students will be asked to do something different from what they are probably used to doing: students will be asked to skim through the same material several times. Although this will probably feel new, and a bit awkward at first, they will begin to see benefits that will help not only in this course but in any future situation where students are asked to learn a lot of information in a short amount of time. Research has shown that recall is much higher when one reviews the material several times, even if they don’t feel like they're are grasping everything when they are only skimming the material.

Peter Kump, author of Breakthrough Rapid Reading, and an expert in speed-reading says the following about the power of repetition:

The First Misconception

The first misconception is that you should read everything, in the same way, word by word. Whether you are reading the newspaper, a good adventure novel, or a physics textbook, it was implied that you should start at the beginning and go once through, from the beginning to the end. This is a waste of your time and it is possibly the worst habit that you have to break in your development as an efficient reader.

The Second Misconception

The second misconception concerns comprehension. It was implied, again because you were taught nothing else, that if you read the material using this once-through approach you should be able to understand it. Of course, you now know that many times you have not been taught. Yet what techniques were you given to use when a passage was difficult? Probably none.

The Third Misconception

It was finally implied that if you read a passage once through you should not only understand it but you should also be able to remember what was important. Yet how many times were you given tests on passages which you had read once through and found out that you didn't remember as much as you should have? Perhaps your teacher told you to "study" harder next time. But what did that mean other than reading once through once more? (a)

And S.D. Frank, author of The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program (Evelyn Wood is probably the most famous speed reader) had this to say about quickly reviewing material multiple times: I’ve heard some students object, 'But doesn’t all this…take more time than just going through the book once the way I’ve always done it?'

“The answer to this question is emphatically no…the multiple-exposure or layering approach to learning does increase your comprehension of and contact with study assignments. But this approach doesn’t take more time; it takes much less.” (b)

If you will dedicate some time to learning how to skim well you will be able to see similar results: greater recall of the material, higher comprehension, and no more time commitment than it would take you to read something normally.

1. This quote about the power of repetition comes from chapter 7 of Breakthrough Rapid Reading by Peter Kump, Parker Publishing, NY, 1979.

This excerpt is from Chapter 7 "Don't read just for its own sake"

1. (Frank, S.D., (2009), The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program, Barnes and Noble Publishing, NY.)

Workload

Course Schedule

• Each week will open early in order to accommodate students who want extra time to get started. New weeks will be opened two weeks before they begin. Weeks have no end date.
• Each week has two main due dates.
  • Mid-week. By mid-week you will need to complete the following weekly assignments:
    • Terminology Assignment
    • Readings Assignment 
  • End-of-Week. By the end-of-week you will need to complete the following weekly assignments:
    • Current Events Discussion Assignment 
    • Comparison Assignment
    • Quiz

• Current Events: Each week, students will have the opportunity to research and discuss a current event with another person in their lives. They will be able to see different perspectives on the issue by comparing how they view it differently. Students will report on  the summaries of the current events and the takeaways from their conversation.
• Terminology Assignment: Each week, students will be required to give real-life examples for key political terms. 

• Readings Assignment: Students will study specific week related articles that are available in the Files Canvas tab and examine in relation to contemporary Think Tanks.
• Comparison Assignment: Students will examine weekly topics as they compare across various states.

• Quiz: This assessment will allow the student to test their understanding of political terms.
• Some weeks have additional assignments, such as Week 1 and later mid-course feedback.
• The due dates of the Introduction weeks activities have been relaxed and are not due until the mid-week due date of Week 02. This extra time is given to help students who add late have time to complete the assignments. Be sure not to procrastinate these assignments until Week 02 as that will make completing all of the assignments in Week 02 more difficult and time-consuming.
• In this course, students will be required to turn in activities in .doc format. If they do not have Microsoft Office they can access a free download for either PC or MAC from BYU-Idaho's bookstore.
• If any of your pages are not loading correctly read How to View Insecure Content article.

Grading Scale

Grading Scale

Letter Grade	Percentage Range
A	100% – 93%
A-	92% – 90%
B+	89% – 87%
B	86% – 83%
B-	82% – 80%
C+	79% – 77%
C	76% – 73%
C-	72% – 70%
D+	69% – 67%
D	66% – 63%
D-	62% – 60%
F	59% – 00%

Class Policies

Course Questions, Problems, Concerns

As this is an online class you will be interacting with others in various assignments, please remember to be kind, considerate, and respectful of differing viewpoints. You can differ in opinions (sometimes the best learning comes when others challenge your thinking) but still, be civil. Any violation of basic common courtesy-including interaction with the instructor-will negatively impacts your grade.

This course has an Announcements page where they can post general questions, problems, concerns, etc. Using this page will inform the instructor, other class members, and others monitoring the course of the issues they find and will allow the proper people to correct them for everyone. Please use this page each week. If students are experiencing the same problem as others who have posted, they can post as well so others know the seriousness of the problem. If you know the answer to a problem, please post solutions. Helping to solve your classmates’ problems is another way to teach one another. Additionally, your instructor will use this board to inform you of fixes and solutions. So check back often to learn of any changes to the course. Students should spend approximately 9–12 hours a week devoted to this class.

NOTE: Students should only email their instructor directly if the problem is of a personal nature or the instructor informs you this is the way he or she would like to be informed of questions, problems, or concerns.

Late Work Policy

Assignments are due on the day indicated. Late work may be accepted for a 10 percent penalty each day past the due date. 

University Policies

Students with Disabilities

Brigham Young University-Idaho is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere that accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. If you have a disability and require accommodations, please contact the Disability Services Office (Links to an external site.) at (208) 496-9210 or visit their website and follow the Steps for Receiving Accommodations (Links to an external site.). Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have qualified documented disabilities. Services are coordinated with students and instructors by the Disability Services Office.

This course may require synchronous meetings. If you are currently registered with the Disability Services Office and need an interpreter or transcriber for these meetings, please contact the deaf and hard of hearing coordinator at (208) 496-9219.

Other University Policies

Student Honor and Other Policies

Please read through the document called University Policies (Links to an external site.). It gives important information about the following topics:

• Student Honor
  • Academic Honesty
  • Student Conduct
    • Sexual Harassment
• Student with Disabilities
• Complaints and Grievances
• Copyright Notice

Go to the Student Resources module to review further resources and information.