AP/MODR1730 6.0 A: Reasoning About Social Issues
Offered by: MODR
Session
Summer 2022
Term
SU
Format
ONLN (Fully Online)
Instructor
Calendar Description / Prerequisite / Co-Requisite
This is a skills-based course focusing on critical thinking, research-based writing, and qualitative and quantitative analysis. The particular focus will be on different positions taken within the social sciences on issues such as abortion, euthanasia, pornography, immigration etc. Typical examples are to be analyzed. Course credit exclusions: AP/MODR 1760 6.00, AP/MODR 1770 6.00.
Course Start Up
Course Websites hosted on York's "eClass" are accessible to students during the first week of the term. It takes two business days from the time of your enrolment to access your course website. Course materials begin to be released on the course website during the first week. To log in to your eClass course visit the York U eClass Portal and login with your Student Passport York Account. If you are creating and participating in Zoom meetings you may also go directly to the York U Zoom Portal.
For further course Start Up details, review the Getting Started webpage.
For IT support, students may contact University Information Technology Client Services via askit@yorku.ca or (416) 736-5800. Please also visit Students Getting Started UIT or the Getting Help - UIT webpages.
Professor Philip MacEwen, pmacewen@yorku.ca
Virtual office hours:
Virtual office hours for all participating faculty members will be indicated in the course outline which will be posted on the course website.
This course is 1) an introduction to critical thinking 2) with a focus on a range of social issues. The critical skills include logical analysis, conceptual analysis, fallacy analysis, language analysis, and writing analysis. Using these critical skills, the social issues we will study include climate change, environmental degradation and pollution, inequality, poverty, racism, sexism and genderism, speciesism, the threat of nuclear war, and many others.
Technical requirements for taking the course:
MODR 1730A in entirely on-line and asynchronous. In order to fully participate, students will need a computer and/or smart device with stable, higher-speed Internet connection and Zoom access.
Here are some useful links for student computing information, resources and help:
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.]
The required course texts/readings will be posted on the course website. There will be no hard-copy required course texts/readings for this course. Any optional readings will be on-line resources and referenced in the course outline.
| Weighting of Course:
There will be five short, small-group writing assignments for the course, each worth 20% of the final grade (5 x 20%=100%).
Submitted assignments will be assessed according to the following criteria, each worth 33.33% of the grade: 1) content, i.e., what the submissions say; 2) organization, i.e., where the submissions say what they say, and style, i.e., how the submissions say what they say.
No grade will be assigned for “attendance” or “participation.” However, students are encouraged to interact with course materials via discussion forums, chat rooms, office hours, and other venues, either as provided by the course or as developed by themselves.
|
Times and locations:
Since MODR 1730A is entirely asynchronous, there are no times, locations, in-person activities, or interactions on campus for any of the lectures and tutorials in the course.
The live lectures and tutorials will be mounted on-line and uploaded to the iCloud. Once this process has been completed, you can access the recordings by clicking on “Zoom” at the top, right-hand corner of the main page of the course website and following the relevant links.
The learning objectives of the course are twofold: 1) to gain facility with a variety of critical skills students will need to be successful in any academic or professional career and 2) to use these skills in studying a variety of topics which are, or ought to be, of broad public concern.
The material for MODR 1730A will be posted on the course website before the course begins.
That way, students will know in advance what the five writing assignments are and some detailed instructions on how to write them.
Since MODR 1730A is an asynchronous course, the five assignments can be submitted any time before they are due. However, assignments must be submitted by certain deadlines which will be specified in the course outline.
Before the course begins, students will be assigned to one of the participating faculty members. During the first week of the course, students will be apprised by their participating faculty members of the small writing groups to which they belong and what electronic format/s they should use to submit their assignments.
The participating faulty members to which students are assigned will assess the assignments their students submit for each of the five assignments and address any concerns their students might have with respect to the course.
- Academic Honesty
- Student Rights and Responsibilities
- Religious Observance
- Grading Scheme and Feedback
- 20% Rule
No examinations or tests collectively worth more than 20% of the final grade in a course will be given during the final 14 calendar days of classes in a term. The exceptions to the rule are classes which regularly meet Friday evenings or on Saturday and/or Sunday at any time, and courses offered in the compressed summer terms. - Academic Accommodation for Students with Disabilities
