Intercollegiate Sports in America, 1900-2021

Spring 2021





Discussion Forums

This class is structured for an online experience equivalent to a regular in-person class of three hours a week. In the regular, in-person class, we would meet once a week for a lecture presentation with slides by the instructor. The rest of the class activity would be conducted online through a Moodle discussion forum. In this online version, we have translated the in-person class into three parts for each week's online activities.

The first part is the introductory presentation by the instructor with a set of slides illustrating a variety of concepts relevant to each week's themes. This part is, more or less, equivalent to the classroom lecture and slides of the in-person class.

The second part is a special Attendance Discussion forum on Moodle focused on the introductory presentation with its slides. Everyone should participate by posting at least twice to this special forum each week. These posts take the place of what would have been in-person attendance in a normal one-hour classroom lecture and presentation by the instructor.

The third part is an extensive Readings Discussion forum, beginning in Week 3, based on the reading list. Everyone, including the instructor, must engage in the reading list class discussion forum through Moodle. Minimum participation in the Readings Discussion forum part of the class is at least three posts to the forum discussion per week. More forum postings are better than fewer. Thoughtful contributions that refer explicitly to articles from the readings are better than undocumented opinion. Readings Forum discussion that explicitly references materials from the reading list are essential for a high grade. A large number of discussion posts in the last few weeks do not compensate for a failure to participate consistently throughout the semester.

Each week's discussion forums open for posting on Monday at the beginning of the week. When the next week begins, the previous week's discussions close and the next week's discussions open. Key to good participation is to be involved each week, although there may be weeks where students post many comments and others where they post fewer. However, it's not possible to make up in the last few weeks for a consistent lack of participation.


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