Houston Community College System
Government 2301 - Internet
Instructor - E. Ballard
Fall 2005
CRN 13449, 13448, 13421

Contacting Your Instructor

Office Location and Hours:
Eastside Campus
6815 Rustic
Houston, Texas
713-718-5243 (I check my voice-mail once daily Monday-Thursday)

Office Hours:
Eastside Campus
Felix Morales Bldg.
Room 240
Wednesday 10am - 3:00 PM.

Online - contact me at either the WebCT e-mail or evelyn.ballard@hccs.edu

e-mail - on WebCT (this is the best way to reach me - I check this mailbox Monday-Thursday, several times a day)

Mailing Address

Evelyn Ballard
HCCS-Southeast
6815 Rustic
Houston, TX 77087

Course Description

Government 2301 is one of the two courses designed to introduce students to the politics of national, state, and local government. Government 2301 and 2302 are fully transferable to other colleges and universities.

NOTE: Students often contact me to ask about using older editions of the textbooks. All that I can offer as an answer is that I use the editions listed above when I write the exams. It is your responsibility to determine if an older edition will work for you.

Books may be purchased from the Houston Community College Bookstores.

The following Grading scale will be used:

Note: There are no "extra credit" points in the course. Please do not ask.

There will be four exams. All exams will be taken online. The exams will be averaged and will be worth 80% of your final course grade. Each of the exams will be available until a specific date - these are listed on this syllabus. You must take each exam on one of these dates.

You will also be required to participate in 4 class discussions worth a total of 5% of your final course grade. Finally, there will be 2 writing assignments due in October and November which will be worth 15% of your final course grade. I will be checking all writing assignments for plagiarism (if you do not know what this is, find out - as a college student, you are expected to know) or any form of cheating (working together is considered dishonest and, therefore, cheating).

Make-up Exams

Make-up exams are not available for this course.

All exams will consist of multiple choice questions. Many of the exam questions will require that you analyze, critique, or apply what you have learned. In other words, you must understand the material rather than simply memorize it. Increasingly, today's employers rely on databases to store information, they want employees who are literate and have the ability to process information and use it in a productive manner. That is the goal of this course as well.

Some students initially feel intimidated by the requirement that they go beyond simple memorization to critical thinking. Often, they have not been expected to apply such skills in high school and previous college classes. Yet all of us have this ability and use it every day when making decisions. Actually, it is a lot easier (and fairer) to be tested on understanding, if you have studied as required. Furthermore, it is more relevant. Calculus teachers rarely test students' ability to memorize and repeat a formula--they test the students' ability to solve problems, using the formulas. Similarly, I will rarely ask you to repeat a theory about politics, but, instead, I will test your ability to recognize and apply that theory to the real world.

You will be allowed to use your textbooks and notes for the exams, but you must read and make notes in your books before the exam - there will not be enough time to look up each answer if you are not already very familiar with the materials. Each exam will have 50 questions and you will have 60 minutes for each exam.

Please be aware that, although you are allowed to use your notes and books for the exams, it is necessary to read the materials carefully and make notes as well as marking your materials. You will not have enough time to look up each question unless you are very familiar with the materials and are very well organized.

Basic Intellectual Competencies

Students in this course will fulfill the following basic competencies of a college class:
Reading: Students will complete assigned readings and lectures, as well as additional online materials.
Writing: Students will complete 2 writing assignments as well as 4 written discussions with each other.
Listening: Students will visit at least one virtual tour online and will view the video and listen to the audio. Students are expected to listen carefully to these audios.
Critical Thinking: Exam questions and writing assignments go beyond memorization and require critical thinking.
Computer Literacy: In order to successfully complete this course, a student must be computer literate.

Participating in the Discussions

Periodically, I will place discussion topics in the discussion section of your class. Your participation grade will depend on two things: 1) Your logging in and responding to these topics as directed and 2) the quality of the thought that goes into your responses - I expect college-level responses (and I will contact you if that is not what you are submitting). There will be 4 discussions - one for each course module. Discussions are designed for you to show that you have a growing understanding of the course materials, whether that material is from the course lectures, the readings, or from supplementary materials from the Internet.

NOTE: As with on-campus classes, all students in HCCS Distance Education courses are required to follow all HCCS Policies & Procedures, the Student Code of Conduct, the Student Handbook, and relevant sections of the Texas Education Code when interacting and communicating in a virtual classroom with faculty and fellow students. Students who violate these policies and guidelines will be subject to disciplinary action that could include denial of access to course-related email, discussion groups, and chat rooms or being removed from the class.

Lectures:

The lectures are available on the class site. The materials in the lectures will be covered on your exams, just as lecture material in a classroom would be covered.

If you decide to drop this course, go to any HCCS office and do this. If you fail to drop officially, you will receive either an "F" or a "W" in the course, depending on when you stop participating in the class. If you stop participating (turning in assignments, taking exams, participating in discussions) before the official drop date, you will be eligible for a W in the class. If you stop participating after the official drop date, you will receive an F.

Attendance:

You are required to log on to the course site at least twice a week - my experience indicates that students who do well are those who log on several times a week (5-6). If you do not log on for a week, I will deny you access to the course. You will then need to contact me to gain access again.

Overview of the Course

There are four modules in the course. There will an exam over each module. The exams will be taken online on specific dates (see module schedules at the end of this syllabus). Each exam will be limited to 60 minutes and students will only be able to access an exam one time. Additionally, the questions on each exam will be chosen randomly from a testbank I have prepared. In other words, each student's exam will be slightly different from every other student's exam.

The written assignments will be short (2-4 pages) and will require some Internet research. These will be due October 1 and November 1. The specific instructions for these assignments are available from the course homepage on WebCT. These written assignments are designed for you to illustrate your growing knowledge about politics and government by writing about that knowledge at a level that indicates a college-level understanding. Your writing must also show the ability to write at a basic college level, using language and grammar correctly.

Your grades will be available on WebCT.

This Internet government course will cover the same materials as the traditional in-class course. One major difference is that you do not have to attend lectures and we will communicate more often with one another online. Obviously, the main difference is that this course requires you to be self-motivated. You will have to rely on yourself to complete the readings, study the materials and participate in discussions. This course assumes that you have basic computer skills, or a basic level of computer literacy. By the end of the course, you will be comfortable navigating a "virtual classroom," participating in online discussions (synchronous and asynchronous), surfing the Web for supplementary information about government and politics - this supplementary information will be both written, visual and auditory, so you will need to read, as well as watch and listen carefully.

NOTE: As with on-campus classes, all students in HCCS Distance Education courses are required to follow all HCCS Policies & Procedures, the Student Code of Conduct, the Student Handbook, and relevant sections of the Texas Education Code when interacting and communicating in a virtual classroom with faculty and fellow students. Students who violate these policies and guidelines will be subject to disciplinary action that could include denial of access to course-related email, discussion groups, and chat rooms or being removed from the class.

Any student with a documented disability (e.g. physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing, etc) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the appropriate Disability Support Service (DSS) Counselor at the beginning of each semester. Faculty are authorized to provide only the accommodations requested by the Disability Support Services Office. Students who are requesting special testing accommodations must first contact the appropriate DSS Counselor for assistance. Please contact the Distance Education Counselors, Angela Foote at 713-718-7014 or angela.foote@hccs.edu or Carmen Gentry at 713-718-7008 or carmen.gentry@hccs.edu in order to be referred to the appropriate DSS Counselor.

Honest work and effort are expected and are rewarded. However, if any student is caught cheating on a test or plagiarizing papers, the student will receive a grade of zero on that test or assignment. A second infraction will result in a grade of "F" for the semester. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, unauthorized collusion on tests or papers, copying directly from another person's work but passing it off as your own, or using unauthorized "cheat sheets, notes, or other forms of information during a test. Review your obligations in the HCC Student Handbook, page 28.

This syllabus acts as a contract between students and instructor. I will make every effort to fulfill the requirements of this syllabus during this semester. However, in the unlikely event that changes must be made, I reserve the right to make such changes and to notify students in a timely manner of any such changes.

Reading Assignment for MODULE 1:

Reading Assignment for MODULE 2:

Reading Assignment for MODULE 3:

Reading Assignment for MODULE 4:

Note: There are no "extra credit" points in the course. Please do not ask.