Overview
Welcome to the PSY 700 Course on Critical Thinking. This course is designed for incoming cohorts to Fielding’s Media Psychology program to stimulate discussion about critical thinking, which is deemed essential for successful scholarly research and practice. The course is led by Dr. Jason Ohler and Dr. Jean-Pierre Isbouts. PSY 700 unfolds over a six-week period. The schedule is as follows:
Week #1: Feb 7-13 -- Creating a Blogfolio
Week #2: Feb 14-20 -- What is Critical Thinking
Week #3: Feb 21-27 -- The Power of Social Media
Week #4: Feb 28-March 6 -- Bias and Stereotyping on the Web
Week #5: March 8-13 -- How Marketers view the Psychology of Consumers
Week #6: March 14-20 -- Capstone Essay
How it Works
Each week runs from Monday through Sunday, and is dedicated to a particular topic.
• The first three days of the week are designed to familiarize yourself with the week’s readings and screenings.
• By Thursday 9:00 PM (PST), you should post a 2-paragraph reflection on these materials on the PSY 700 forum, which is located on Fielding’s on-line environment called Felix. Click here to go to the Felix forum.
• You should also read and respond to at least three other postings by your fellow students, and be sure to continue to engage in discussions in your own thread. All of these discussions should be concluded by Saturday evening by 9:00 PM (PST).
• Based on your initial posting and the subsequent forum discussions, you should then post your own scholarly analysis of the week’s topic in your own personal e-portfolio. Creating an eportfolio is the first week's task. To create an e-portfolio, you can do create a blog, a Google site; you can even use Facebook; whatever works. It just needs to be an organized, professional site that accommodates your work in this class.
Blogger - a good default. If you are new to this, then we recommend use Blogger. It is very simple and will do everything you need it to for this course. Go to Blogger and follow instructions for choosing a template and personalizing your blog.
After you create you e-portfolio, email me to tell me your website address. When you give me your web address, I will turn it into a link on our class website. Email me at jasonohler@gmail.com.
Your Electronic Venues in this course
You will use four primary venues to take this course:- The class website. That is, the website you are currently looking at.
- Your e-Portfolio site. That is, the site you create to hold your work, described above.
- Felix. You use this for forum reflection and peer discussion (both addressed later in this posting).
- Snapgrades. This is a grading site that allows us to post the discrete grades you earn in this course. Snapgrades is addressed below.
A few notes about Snapgrades.
For most courses you take at Fielding, you only turn in a few assignments. Thus, grading is easy to stay on top of. However, for this course, you turn in a number of small assignments. While we will always tell you what your grades are, you can go to Snapgrades to see them all in one place.
To check your weekly grades, go to Snapgrades. When signing on, just enter your name as it appears in the list below:
Christopher Zadeh
Janice Sequeira-Higgins
Vincent Gardner
Your temporary password is your first name, all lower case. Once you are in, you can change your password.
The first time you sign on, you may be asked for some information. If so, respond as follows:
- School: FGU
- City: Santa Barbara
- State: California
Writing Styles - Avoid blogspeak
Since Fielding’s doctoral program is primarily assessment-based (meaning, faculty read and critique papers you write to demonstrate your mastery of the theoretical material), the quality of your writing is very important. In both forum discussions and e-Portfolio essays, you should use proper grammatical English that is devoid of syntax or spelling errors. Use of incorrect English will negatively affect your grade. Colloquial English, “chat room” language or the use of slang is to be avoided, with the exception of citations. Bear in mind that this is a PhD program focused on scholarly skills of research and analysis, so that the use of proper scholarly English is essential.
• Forum Reflection
Each week you will post your initial reflections on the week’s topic on our class forum. You should use this reflection to summarize the key arguments presented in the week’s readings and screenings, as seen from your specific professional or academic perspective. You may certainly cite examples from your own experience to illustrate your reflections, provided the focus on the week’s conceptual ideas remains intact. We as faculty need to see that you have not only read and absorbed the theoretical material, but are able to analyze it critically, using a variety of perspectives, and in your own voice. Failure to cite relevant samples from the week’s readings will negatively affect your grade, while a cogent discussion of these topics in an imaginative and personal context will improve your grade.
• Peer Discussion
After you post your reflection, read those of your fellow students. Be sure to respond to at least three peer reflections (though we encourage you to do more, and continue to post responses as the discussion develops). In your response, identify what struck you and why, what you find particularly effective, and what areas you thought could have been further elaborated upon. The idea is not to “criticize” each other, but to foster a genuine academic discussion about important issues related to critical thinking in our modern media universe.
Since the purpose of the forum is to engender discussion, there is no set formula for writing your reflection. Use your good judgment. Imagine yourself giving a short but cogent presentation about what you’ve read to a group of friends. Therefore, the style of writing can be conversational, provided your posting adheres to the quality of writing we’ve identified in the foregoing.
Your forum reflection should be between 250 and 350 words. Responses to peer reflections can be shorter, but never less than 100 words. Remember to post your reflection no later than Thursday of each week, and complete your responses to others no later than the Saturday of each week.
• e-Portfolio Essay
At the end of the week, after you’ve digested the forum discussions and had a chance to revisit your initial reflection, it’s time to write a scholarly assessment. This is your opportunity to write a short but theoretically sound mini-essay to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the subject that is informed by the many points of view articulated during the forum discussions. Your e-portfolio posting should be a minimum of 400 and a maximum of 500 words (not including sources), and follow the following structure:
Abstract – a brief statement of the principal problem or subject matter
Treatment – a carefully drafted argument that briefly cites different conceptual perspectives on the subject, weighing the pros and cons of each point of view
Conclusion – a summary in which you argue which interpretation you find most persuasive, and why.
Sources – a listing of any and all sources used in your blog essay, including articles, books, Internet sources or media.
Since you are using an audiovisual medium, try to illustrate your key arguments with images, graphs, or (embedded) YouTube videos.
We strongly recommend you write your e-portfolio entries first in a word processing program like Word. This will enable you to write multiple drafts before posting the final version to your e-portfolio. Our experience has shown us that students who write directly to their e-portfolio score significantly lower than students who take the time to lay out their argument first, before posting it. Be sure to verify the quality of your writing and the consistency of your argument. Your e-portfolio essay is due each Sunday by 9:00 PM (PST).
Due Dates
Please post your work when it is due. Since this is a collaborative exercise, we must all work in tandem lest you deprive your fellow students of a timely opportunity to read and critique your work. Late postings will incur a penalty in grading. To reiterate, your work is due as follows:
• Your forum reflection: due each Thursday by 9:00 PM (PST)
• Your discussion postings: due each Saturday by 9:00 PM (PST)
• Your e-portfolio essay: due each Sunday by 9:00 PM (PST)
Grading Rubric
You will receive a grade each week up to a maximum of 6 points, based on (1) the quality of your initial posting and that of your responses to other student postings, and (2) the quality of your end-of-the-week blog, as follows:
Postings (3 points maximum): 1 point (=poor); 2 points (=fair); 3 points (=good)
e-Portfolio (3 points maximum): 1 point (=poor); 2 points (=fair); 3 points (=good)
Maximum total: 6 points per week.
Your media project, at the Media Boot Camp in Santa Barbara on September 13, can receive up to 5 points, and your capstone essay at the end of the course can receive up to 10 points.
Grade summary
To summarize, here the assignments and point value associated with each:
Week 1 - Setting up your e-Portfolio: 1 point (Total= 6)
Week 2- Felix postings, discussion: 3 points; your e-Portfolio posting: 3 points (Total= 6)
Week 3- Felix postings, discussion: 3 points; your e-Portfolio posting: 3 points (Total= 6)
Week 4- Felix postings, discussion: 3 points; your e-Portfolio posting: 3 points (Total= 6)Week 5- Felix postings, discussion: 3 points; your e-Portfolio posting: 3 points (Total= 6)
Week 6- Capstone Essay: 10 points (Total= 10)
Total points possible: 40 points.
Can you redo your forum postings to increase your points? No. The discussion comes and goes too quickly to make this possible.
Can you redo your blog posting to increase your points? Yes. I wish you would.
* "thinking man" image from Clipart.com, through a paid subscription
