Course Syllabus
HI/POL 451
History of Modern
Instructor:
Terrence Monroe
808.941-7140
808.941-7140
Office hours: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Mon. - Fri. (not available
weekends or holidays)
Experienced as an instructor of in-class courses
(since 1974) and online courses (since 2000) in various disciplines of world
history and contemporary Asian civilizations for colleges and universities
throughout the
Course Overview:
This course examines the political, economic, and cultural
forces that shaped modern
Learning Outcomes:
·
To
understand today’s
·
To
understand the causes of the 1893 overthrow of the
· To appreciate the formation of an American Hawaii with its unique local culture.
Text:
There is
no text assigned for this course; reading will be comprised of the online
lectures.
Course Requirements:
Successful completion of this course depends upon:
·
A
careful reading of the online lectures and the exercise of initiative in researching
websites and other sources that relate to the topic that you’ll write about
each week.
·
Completion
of one essay each week on any topic of your choice having to do with modern
Hawaiian history, culture, and politics.
·
Participation
in weekly discussion forums. You should try to make a total of at least five or
six substantive postings (of 100 words or more each) in the course of
responding to at least several of the discussion topics posted for that week
and in responding to the responses posted by your classmates.
·
Completion
of a midterm and a final exam; the midterm exam will be open-book (which you'll
complete on your own and email to me); the final exam is proctored. Each will
be comprised of essay questions that will be provided to you in advance.
In addition to the above-noted exams, completion of a
proctored final examination comprised of a comprehensive essay of approximately
1,000 words discussing the main points of the course material.
Grading Policy:
Your weekly essay is due by the Sunday that ends each week of instruction. I do accept late essays (not discussion postings), but I will assess a 2 percentage-point penalty for every day that your essay is late. So, if your essay is four days late, and your grade is otherwise a 90, your adjusted grade (including the “late fee”) would be an 82. Discussion postings should be posted throughout the week and must be posted before the week closes each Sunday night. Discussion postings may not be made up once the weekly discussions close; if you miss a particular week’s discussion forum, you may not go back in after the Sunday night deadline for that week and post.
Still, you are expected to complete all assignments on time. Please bear in mind that an Incomplete is generally not an option, since there is no way to make up the discussion forum participation element of your grade once the course is finished (after all, the group will have moved on, and there wouldn’t be anyone to discuss anything with); participation in the discussion forums is what makes an online course work.
Your essay, discussion, and exam grades will be posted in
the Gradebook within 10 days of their due dates. Each
essay grade will have a maximum value of 100 points (for a total of 800
points), and each week’s discussion forum will have a maximum value of 100
points (for a total of 800 points). The midterm and final exams will each have
a maximum value of 200 points (for a total of 400 points). Total points for
this course: 2000.
Grading
Scale:
A: 90 - 100 (1800 - 2000 points)
B: 80 - 89 (1600 - 1799 points)
C: 70 - 79 (1400 - 1599 points)
D: 60 - 69 (1200 - 1399 points)
F: less than 60 (less
than 1200 points)
Assignment Schedule:
Week 1 (Jan. 12 - Jan. 18):
Submit Week 1 essay
Participate in Week 1 discussion forum
Week 2 (Jan. 19 – Jan. 25):
Submit Week 2 essay
Participate in Week 2 discussion forum
Week 3 (Jan. 26 – Feb. 1):
Submit Week 3 essay
Participate in Week 3 discussion forum
Week 4 (Feb. 2 – Feb. 8):
Submit Week 4 essay
Participate in Week 4 discussion forum
Week 5 (Feb. 9 – Feb. 15):
No essay or discussion forum assignment this week
Submit midterm exam
Week 6 (Feb. 16 – Feb. 22):
Submit Week 6 essay
Participate in Week 6 discussion forum
Week 7 (Feb. 23 – Mar. 1):
Submit Week 7 essay
Participate in Week 7 discussion forum
Week 8 (Mar. 2 – Mar. 8):
Submit Week 8 essay
Participate in Week 8 discussion forum
Week 9 (Mar. 9 – Mar. 15):
Submit Week 9 essay
Participate in Week 9 discussion forum
Week 10 (Mar. 16 – Mar. 22):
No essay or discussion forum this week
Final Exam: date, time, and locations to be announced
TO: Military
Students and DOD Employees
In an effort to service our students on the
***If you are a civilian and have a MWR student pass you
can take your exam at the Main campus or Schofield. You must already have your
pass; the Army will not make civilian passes for exam purposes only. Civilians are not able to take exams at
Instructions to reserve a seat at
one of the military installations:
1.
Some
instructors prefer students test at the main campus. Please discuss your
testing options with your instructor prior to registering for a seat.
2.
You
must have access to the military base you will be attending.
3.
This reservation must be made no earlier than the 7th week
of the course. We do
have a maximum seating, so reservations are first come first serve.
4.
You
must email the following information to one
site only:
Ø
Name,
Social Security# (last 4 digits)
Ø
Contact
phone # & valid email address
Ø
Type
of access (Active duty, Military family member, DOD)
Ø
Time
slot (1 per class) –
Ø
Course
#, Course Title, & Instructor
5.
You
will receive an email confirmation for the site requested, if you do not receive a confirmation email within 2 days, please
contact the office you emailed or resend the reservation request. You must
print out your confirmation and bring it with you to the exam (along with a
valid picture ID).
6.
If
you do not pre-register for a seat, no exam will be available for you at either
of the sites.
Participation Policy:
One of the reasons why
people take an online course is that other obligations make it difficult or
impossible to attend traditional classes. When you work on your assignment is
entirely up to you, but you should plan to spend at least ten hours a week on
this course--in reading, researching websites, thinking, writing, and in
discussion in online forums. You should log onto WebCT to attend the classroom
at least several times a week, and when you do so and from where, of course, is
up to you. It is best to log onto WebCT once a day, if just to check for
announcements and to read through the discussions. If you procrastinate and
fail to log in for more than a few days, you will begin to get lost. What’s
more, if most students wait until the end of the week to make their discussion
postings, then there won’t be much until then for others to respond to;
therefore, a good discussion grade depends on the student making consistent
postings from the beginning of each week on through the end of the week;
students who wait until the end of the week to make their discussion postings
will be penalized for their procrastination. Many people who drop out or fail
online courses do so because they have not developed the habit of logging in
often to stay in touch with things.
Academic
Integrity (DO NOT FAIL TO READ THIS):
It is important for you to keep
in mind that all of your work for this course must be in your words, however
humble. Your essays are not evaluated on compositional excellence, but on
quality of insight. Please understand that after some 35 years of reading
student writing—and of reading and researching the corpus of professionally
produced writing on our subject--it is usually instantly recognizable to me
when a submission is not a student’s own work.
My policy is to submit anything
that arouses suspicion to Turnitin.com, an academic service to which I
subscribe that utilizes an algorithm-based methodology to compare the suspect
sample to all published material on the Internet. Keep in mind that the
Internet these days includes many web-based counterparts of conventionally
published materials (meaning that, if it’s been published anywhere in
print—whether in an old encyclopedia, a magazine or newspaper, or in a
brand-new best-seller—it’s probably on the Internet somewhere). If Turnitin indicates that there is a significant match
between your work and a previously published source, some very pointed
questions will be asked
Consultation:
I’m always available via email, or you may call and leave
a message at any time, day or night. My phone ringer is turned off, so don’t
worry about calling in the middle of the night—it’s okay! I will try to return
your call within 12-24 hours. For those of you who are outside Hawaii, calling Hawaii
these days is cheap—free on most cell phone plans, several cents a minute with
a prepaid phone card, 10-25 cents/minute with phone company long distance
plans. If you just leave a quick message, you shouldn’t suffer much
financially, and I’ll pay for the return call, of course. As far as email is
concerned, I will try to respond to your message within 24-36 hours; however,
please do not expect me to respond on weekends or holidays—I need to have a
life of some kind!
Now, don’t forget to read the Orientation!