Lectures

Syllabus & Assignments

Resources

Introduction to the Study of Religion
Alternative Delivery Format (ADF) - Fall 2003

This course is designed for the independent learner. Your mentor provides you with learning opportunities and guidance, encouraging you in the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. It is up to you, the learner, to make the most of these opportunities.

In addition to the basic course information provided in the Religion 100 syllabus, ADF learners should use the following information to guide them through the course requirements. (For ADF learners, what follows supersedes the "student responsibilities" and "assignments" sections noted in the main syllabus.)

• Important phone numbers, e-mail and web site addresses:

• Mentor's e-mail: lshulman@nvcc.edu (please include you name in your e-mail messages)

• Mentor's Web site: http://www.nvcc.edu/home/lshulman

• Rel 100 discussion forum: http://bb.vccs.edu/ (click on "Discussion Board") (be sure to check the "announcements" when you enter the site for any updates and reminders from your mentor)

• Humanities office FAX: 703-878-5678

• Humanities office: Room 402, phone: 703-878-5715 (do not call for the mentor at the Humanities office except during her office hours).

• Mentor’s voicemail: 703-878-5800 ext. 7128

• Mentor’s home phone: 703-368-2237 (please do not hesitate to call, leave a message if I am not there and I will call you back within 24 hours).

Office hours: I will be on campus on Mondays and Wednesdays between 10:45 AM and 5:30 PM (I am in class from noon-1:15 PM). This is when I will check my mailbox for any submitted work. If you leave (or FAX) something for me after 5:30 PM Wednesday I will not get it until 10:45 AM the following Monday. I also have office hours at the Loudoun campus, room LC 114 (phone: 703-450-2541), on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 3:30 and 5 (Thursdays) or 6 (Tuesdays) PM. If these times do not suit your needs, give me a call and we will see if we can arrange a mutually agreeable time and place to meet.

Withdraw or fail: Your final grade will be based on whatever work you have submitted by the end of the semester. You can avoid failure by officially withdrawing from the course. Last day to withdraw without "mitigating circumstances" is Thursday, Oct. 30. If you fail to submit any work for the three weeks prior to this date (i.e. participate in on-line discussion, submit midterm field research reports, etc.) your mentor will automatically withdraw you from the course unless you consult with her (through e-mail, phone or otherwise) regarding your problem and intentions. After Oct. 30, you will need a reason for withdrawing and must either withdraw yourself or communicate with the mentor regarding your reason for failing to complete assigned work.

Important!: All three proctored assignments must be completed in order to pass the course!

1. via e-mail: either in the body of the message or as an attachment. Please be sure your name appears in your e-mail message! To assure prompt receipt of your completed work, all attachments should be in MSWord format and always include your name on your work.

2. FAX to the humanities office: make sure you send a cover sheet or otherwise indicate who the FAX is for so it will be put in my mailbox.

3. Drop off assignments in the Humanities office (room 402): again, make sure my name appears on your work so it will be put in my mailbox. You may need to drop off your journal and/or personal project in person.

4. Several assignments and online discussions are done through the course discussion board on the Web.

5. Three writing assignments will be completed in the testing center where your mentor will pick them up

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ADF Assignments

Full descriptions of assignments are available in the “ASSIGNMENTS” section of the Blackboard site (and on your Mentor’s Website)
Three of these assignments are proctored*. They will be completed in the testing center where you will receive further directions. These three proctored assignments must be completed to pass the course!

• Participation in online discussion (15%)

• Reflective journaling (15%) (submitted to your mentor at the end of the semester – e-mail or drop off)

• Religious Scavenger Hunt (5%) (submit via e-mail or FAX)

• *Spiritual Autobiography – Proctored (5%) to be done in the testing center

• Website Critique(10%) (posted to discussion board* )

• Two “Encounter & Dialogue” reports (@5% each = 10%) (posted to discussion board)

• *Video Response Essay - Proctored (10%) to be done in the testing center

• Personal Project(s) (10%) (submitted to your mentor at the end of the semester – e-mail or drop off)

• “What is Religion?” essay (15%) (e-mail to your mentor)

• * Self-assessment essay – Proctored (5%) to be done in the testing center

• Extra credit (up to 10%) Extra credit will not substitute for required work but will supplement a poor grade. Extra credit may include additional Encounter & Dialogue reports, additional personal project(s), or any other additional, unsolicited work. All extra credit must be submitted before finals week.

Spiritual Autobiography: before you report to the testing center, take the “Belief-O-Matic” online assessment. E-mail the results to yourself, then forward it to your mentor (please be sure to add your name to the message you forward to me). You may also print the results and bring it with you to attach to your autobiography.

Videos: (on reserve and to be viewed in the library)

1. Religions Around the World (between chapters 2 & 3)

2. Masks of Eternity (Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth series) (chapter 4)

3. The Message of the Myth (Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth series) (chapter 5)

4. Rabbi Harold Kushner (Searching for God in America series) (chapter 9)

You are encouraged to take notes as you view the videos, jotting down points of interest or things you did not understand. You are then encouraged to discuss these issues on the discussion board (there is a forum there for “Video Discussion”). After viewing all four videos, report to the testing center for proctored assignment. You are not to bring any notes with you to the testing center. This is not a test and should be easy if you have seen the videos, paid attention, took notes, contributed to and/or read the discussion board comments on these videos.

Website Critiques: Due to the collaborative nature of the website critique project, it is especially important to be timely with this assignment. You will find it most difficult to complete this assignment if you are working out of pace with your classmates.

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ADF Schedule

Although you can do your work independently at any time, this is not an entirely self-paced course. In order for you to complete your coursework on time, it is important to try to keep pace with the recommended schedule of readings and assignments. You do have specified deadlines that you are expected to meet (although you may certainly complete assignments early). If there is something significant going on in your life that will make it difficult for you to keep up for more than a week, please let your mentor know what’s going on. 

Work that is submitted more than two weeks behind schedule may be downgraded. If you fall too far behind, you might find it best to withdraw from the course and take it again at a later date when you will be able to keep up. 

Be sure to check the week-by-week schedule at your mentor's website every week for details on Web resources, activities and assignments.

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Orientation checklist: complete the following tasks:

2. Go to the mentor’s website (http://www.nvcc.edu/home/lshulman) and locate the Rel100 course site.

1. Locate and review the "Orientation to Online Learning"

2. Locate and review the syllabus and "Welcome Letter" for this course

3. Locate and review the "ADF information" (the web version of this handout)

4. Locate the directions for the various assignments

(when you get home, go back to the above pages and read through them more thoroughly)

5. Locate the "week-by-week" schedule for ADF students (be sure to reference this weekly to access specific online resources)

6. Locate the "lecture" material for this course

3. Go to the on-line discussion forum for this class: www.bb.vccs.edu

1. to login: user name: your VCCS e-mail address (BEFORE and @)
   password: your birthdate: MMDDYY
   if you do not know your user name/VCCS e-mail address, go to: http://whoami.vccs.edu/
   for additional directions go to: http://www.nvcc.edu/bbstart/

2. Note the "announcements" (check these for new ones every time you log on)

3. Locate the grade book where you will be able to track your progress

4. Locate the course discussion board and introduce  yourself in reply to the "introductions" message in the first forum

4. Are you familiar with use of your NOVA e-mail? If not, go to the NOVA homepage and login to your e-mail (this is the default e-mail address I will use if you don’t supply me with some other address)

5. Physically walk around the building and locate the following:

1. The Humanities office (room 402)

2. The library (where you will view videos)

What are the Library hours?_____________________________________

3. The Testing Center (room 437, through the library)

What are the Testing Center hours? _______________________________

4. The bookstore. While you are there, purchase the two texts for this class (if you do not already have them) and, if you want it, the optional Religions of Star Trek book.

6. Call or e-mail me if you have trouble completing any of the above exercises. Otherwise: see you on-line :-)

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