Reading Time: 4 minutes

This section is intended to help you understand how and why I have designed this class as I have.

This is an asynchronous course. An asynchronous online course is a fully online course with no required on campus activities or any mandatory face-to-face class sessions; thus, no meeting days or times are listed in the schedule of classes. All course activity is conducted online. Students access the course when it’s convenient for them while still meeting the deadlines posted in the syllabus. Online asynchronous courses use Brightspace and other digital tools for class activities including lecture delivery, assignments, and exams, as well as all class communications.

How I Approach Teaching in This Class

This class has been designed to be highly active. This is not a lecture class. Each week, you will encounter new material (by reading, viewing, or listening), engage with that material through a number of individual and group activities, and reflect on your learning of that material.

I see myself as more of a learning mentor than as an instructor. We will work through this material together, learning from each other. This class will work best if each student brings in their own unique knowledge and understanding to every class discussion. If you put as much effort as you are capable into this class, you will learn more than you could ever learn from a bunch of lectures, and you will, in the process, be teaching me and your classmates.

This class is also highly collaborative. Although the asynchronous nature of the class limits certain kinds of group activities, much of the work you do will be completed in a way that allows your classmates to consider your ideas along with their own.

Guiding Principles for this Class

1. A good course is informed issues of equity and justice. It takes into account social, political and cultural issues — including students’ backgrounds and socioeconomic circumstances — to craft a learning experience that is just.
2. A good course is interactive. Courses are much more than placeholders for students to access information. A good course provides information such as readings or lecture videos, but also involves interactions between professor and students and between students and students.
3. A good course is engaging and challenging. It invites students to participate, motivates them to contribute and captures their interest and attention. It capitalizes on the joy of learning and challenges students to enhance their skills, abilities and knowledge.
4. A good course involves practice. Good courses involve students in “doing” — not just watching and reading — “doing again” and in applying what they learned.
5. A good course is effective. Such a course identifies the skills, abilities and knowledge that students will gain the end of it, provides activities developed to acquire them and assesses whether students were successful.
6. A good course includes an instructor who is visible and active, and who exhibits care, empathy and trust for students. This individual understands that their students may have a life beyond their course.
7. A good course promotes student agency. It gives students autonomy to enable opportunities for relevant and meaningful learning. Such a course redistributes power – to the extent that is possible – in the classroom.

Adapted from “The 7 Elements of a Good Online Course” by George Veletsianos.

How You Should Approach Learning in this Class

1. Preparation. This is a reading and writing intensive course. As an asynchronous course, you will be working through a series of tasks and activities each week. It is imperative that you keep up with that weekly schedule however it best fits into your other commitments.
2. Workload. In a normal college course, for every hour you spend in the classroom, you should expect to spend 2 to 3 hours studying outside this classroom. As an asynchronous course, there is no time spent in the classroom; that time is incorporated into your independent work time. As an upper-level 3 credit course, you should expect to spend 7 to 9 hours each week on this class.
3. Attendance. As an asynchronous class, there is no required attendance; however, you must engage with the class on a regular basis in order for the University to consider you “in attendance”. Keeping up with the weekly assignments in Brightspace will ensure your adherence to this requirement.
4. Engagement. Your active engagement in this class is critical to its success and your learning. By participating actively, you add to what the class as a whole learns as you enhance your own learning. You should engage having read the assigned materials, completed any assigned work, and prepared to share your opinion, listen to the opinions of others, and ask questions relevant to the topic of class.
5. Late Work. Work is due as assigned. If you are experiencing a hardship that is interfering with your schoolwork, please come see me outside of class. You should never presume to turn in work late; however, you should also never presume that you cannot turn in work late.

Academic Integrity

Effective learning, teaching and research all depend upon the ability of members of the academic community to trust one another and to trust the integrity of work that is submitted for academic credit or conducted in the wider arena of scholarly research. Such an atmosphere of mutual trust fosters the free exchange of ideas and enables all members of the community to achieve their highest potential.

As students of Xavier University of Louisiana, you are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. Behavior or actions like those described in the Preamble of the College of Arts & Sciences Academic Integrity Policy are grounds for disciplinary action. Any work submitted as may be analyzed using TurnItIn, an originality checking system, or through other means of analysis. The consequences for plagiarism or cheating in this class will be determined on a case-by-case basis but will range from the student having to redo the assignment to the student receiving a 0 for the assignment. All violations of academic integrity will be reported to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

In all academic work, the ideas and contributions of others must be appropriately acknowledged and work that is presented as original must be, in fact, original. Using an AI-content generator (such as ChatGPT) to complete coursework without proper attribution and authorization is a form of academic dishonesty. If you are unsure about whether something may be plagiarism or academically dishonest, please contact me to discuss the issue. We all share the responsibility of ensuring the honesty and fairness of the intellectual environment at Xavier.

If you need help with research and citations, in addition to speaking with me, you can also work with the staff in Xavier’s Library Resource Center.

Some of this statement has been adapted from Washington University in St. Louis “Undergraduate Student Academic Integrity Policy.”