Hilary E. Davis
hdavis@yorku.ca
Virtual Office hours: by appointment on Google Hangouts or Zoom on Mondays between 4:00- 5:30pm, EST

INTERNET COURSE
(100% online)
ACCELERATED COURSE
(24 Class Modules in 12 weeks)

All required components are ASYNCHRONOUS
All synchronous components are optional

• The overall purpose of this and all Modes of Reasoning (MODR) courses is to teach students to reason correctly and to express themselves clearly and precisely in verbal and written form. These critical thinking skills will help students not only with the remainder of their academic studies, but also in their professional and personal lives in general.

• This course (MODR 1730) will introduce important critical thinking and analytical skills by focusing on arguments made about social issues found in the social science, science, ethics, and mass media. In the past these have included the refugee crisis, student debt, online dating, sexting, and Ebola screening at airports. You will learn how to distinguish between inductive and deductive reasoning and how to identify, evaluate, and construct arguments. In addition, MODR 1730 will include a brief introduction to evaluating statistical and scientific information. You will be asked to develop arguments that arise from your personal interests and opinions as well as critical arguments that assess the writing of others. Throughout the course our focus will include the analysis of various media such as the news and popular press, feature films, advertising and political rhetoric, blogs and websites, as well as academic writing and philosophical arguments in this field.

• This is an approved LAPS General Education course for Social Science.

• Course credit exclusions: AP/MODR 1770 6.00, AP/MODR 1760 6.00. This means you may not take this course for credit if you are currently enrolled in or have a credit in either MODR 1770 or MODR 1760.

Technical requirements for taking the course:

To participate in the required asynchronous portions of this course, students will require a computer and/or smart device an internet connection. To participate in the optional synchronous Zoom webinars held weekly during our scheduled class time (Mondays between 2:30-4:00pm, EST), you will need a computer or smart device with webcam and microphone and a stable internet connection. Zoom can be downloaded as an app on most smart phones. You are not required to turn on your camera to participate in the Zoom webinars.

Here are some useful links for student computing information, resources and help:
Student Guide to Moodle
Zoom@YorkU Best Practices
Zoom@YorkU User Reference Guide
Computing for Students Website
Student Guide to eLearning at York University
To determine Internet connection and speed, there are online tests, such as Speedtest, that can be run.

Times and locations:

Please note that this is a course that depends on remote teaching and learning. There will be no in-person interactions or activities on campus.

This course moves at an accelerated pace. Two modules of material – lecture videos, discussion forum activities, quizzes will be posted weekly on Moodle. 24 modules will be covered in 12 weeks.

This course can be taken by engaging only with the asynchronous course materials and activities which will be available on the course Moodle. However, for a more in-depth learning experience as well as live interaction with the instructor and your classmates, optional synchronous Weekly Wrap-up Zoom webinars will be offered during the first half of our scheduled class time – Mondays between 2:30-4:00pm, EST.

Each week’s asynchronous materials and activities should be completed before Monday’s Zoom webinars. Weekly quizzes and forum discussion posts will be due on Mondays at 11:59pm EST.

Virtual office hours:

Office hours will be offered by appointment on Mondays during the second half of our scheduled class time, between 4:00-5:30pm. They can be scheduled for Google Hangouts (chat) or Zoom.

Lewis Vaughan. Concise Guide to Critical Thinking. (Oxford, 2017)

Mark Battersby. Is That a Fact? A Field Guide to Statistical and Scientific Information. Second Edition. (Broadview, 2016).

Additional topical articles may be posted on Moodle

Weighting of Course:

1. Moodle Quizzes (weekly) = 20%

2. Definition Argument Essay = 20%

3. Collaborative Evaluative Critique Wiki = 10%

4. Researched Proposal Essay Assignment = 30%

5. Discussion Forum Activities (weekly) = 20%

6. Total 100%

 All quizzes and discussion forum activities are due at 11:59pm EST on Mondays)
 All other assignments are due at 11:59pm, EST on their respective due dates.
 Please note that this schedule of deadlines and grading breakdown is non-negotiable. The value of assignments will under no circumstances be reweighed or redistributed.

• This entire course can be engaged with asynchronously as though it were an online (ONLN) course. All required elements, including lecture materials, the submission of assignments, discussion forum activities, and quizzes can be accessed on the course Moodle. Like an online course, you can learn the course material at your own pace, following the schedule of readings and activities. That said, there are non-negotiable weekly deadlines for quizzes and discussion forum activities. Assignment (essays & wiki) deadlines are also non-negotiable.
• Weekly course material (e.g. video lectures, handouts, web links, discussion forums, etc.) will be posted on Moodle by midnight on Mondays.
• All modules, assignments, quizzes, and Discussion Forum Activities are opened weekly. None will be opened in advance of their scheduled date.
• All deadlines and launch times are Eastern Standard Time.
• Optional Weekly Wrap-up Zoom webinars and virtual office hours will be held during our scheduled meeting time, Mondays between 2:30-5:30pm. These Zoom sessions will not be recorded.
• You should view the video lectures and engage with the other course material prior to the Monday Weekly Wrap-up Zoom webinars. All quizzes and discussion forum activities will be due at 11:59pm EST on Mondays after the Zoom Weekly Wrap-up.
• I will not formally lecture during the Weekly Wrap-up Zoom webinars. I will answer questions and we will work through practice exercises, sometimes in breakout rooms. We might also take up answers to Discussion Forum Activities.
• This is an accelerated course. Each week covers 2 modules, i.e. what would be 2 weeks worth of material for a regular in-class 6.0 credit course. If you took this course on campus, then you would be required to attend two 3-hour lectures weekly. The content displayed each week reflects this time commitment. While you don’t have to log in to Moodle at a specific time each week, but you need to keep up.
• If you are planning a vacation, work full time, have a heavy course load, or will be engaged in any other events that prevent you from logging onto Moodle 2 or 3 times per week, you are strongly urged to rethink whether you should enroll in an accelerated section of Modes. There are full year sections of Modes which spread out 24 week’s material over the Fall and Winter Terms.

By the end of this course, if you apply yourself, do all the reading, watch all pre-recorded lectures, and complete all assignments, activities, and quizzes, you can expect to see improvement in the following areas:

• Reading Comprehension: You will become a more active reader which includes learning how to read between the lines and how to ask critical questions.
• Writing: You will learn how to write two different types of arguments – a definition essay and researched proposal essay. Your essay planning, essay organization, and essay editing should also improve.
• Critical Reasoning Skills: You will learn to identify and evaluate arguments in order to distinguish strong from weak arguments. This will include learning how to evaluate evidence and sources used in arguments and those you use in your own research.
• Critical Thinking Skills: Ideally, you will learn to become a 'reasonable skeptic' and become able to identify and discuss the weaknesses and strengths in claims and arguments you encounter in the media, academic texts, and everyday conversation.

Course policies

• The lecture slides, handouts, and all materials found on this site are for the personal use only of students who are registered in this course, MODR 1730A. They are for educational purposes only and intended only to enhance accessibility. The instructor of this course holds the copyright to this material and does not give permission for any course material to be to duplicated, copied, and/or distributed outside of the class. Nor do students have permission to upload course materials to commercial websites, file sharing websites or apps, or social media. Anytime you download material from this Moodle site you agree to these terms. Any person who uploads or shares course material without the instructor's permission violates copyright regulations and also FIPPA and will face serious consequences.
• Students do not have permission to record and capture images from Zoom sessions – either webinars or office hours. The Weekly Wrap-up Zoom webinars will not be recorded by the instructor.
• Successful academic performance includes students not only completing assignments, but completing them on time. Late penalties are applied to assignments submitted after the due date. Exceptions to the late penalty can be presented to the course director by email for consideration. All essays must be uploaded to Turnitin via Moodle.
• Without a valid excuse all late assignments will be penalized 10% for the first day they are late, 20% for the 2nd day, 30% for the third day, etc….
• An assignment will be considered late one minute past the Turnitin deadline.
• You are strongly encouraged to avoid uploading assignments within the last hour of a deadline. If, for whatever reason, your document does not upload, it will be considered late.
• There will be no opportunity to make-up missed weekly quizzes or weekly Discussion Forum Activities. If you miss these weekly deadlines, you will receive a “0” for the assigned work.
• The lowest 2 marks will be dropped for both the Quizzes and the Discussion Forum Activities. This is to say that of the 12 weekly quizzes only the highest 10 will count toward your final mark and of the 12 weekly discussion forum activities only the highest 10 will count toward your final mark.
• No make-up work or outstanding assignments will be accepted after Monday, April 5th