Updated 4/3/2020 Sections in English 25 are beginning in the second week of instruction. They will require students to engage primarily in asynchronous "discussion forum" activity each week. See details below and watch for email announcements from your TAs. |
This version of the English 25 course is designated "X" for experimental. (The URL of this course site starts with an abbreviation for the course ending in "x": eng25s2020x. The "X" version of the course has been adapted by Professor Liu for two special current situations: the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic during which UCSB is conducting instruction through remote online means, and the COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) strike by participating graduate-student TAs (including those assisting in this course). Depending on how these situations evolve (and how well features of the course function during them), Professor Liu may need to make additional alterations to this "X" course during the quarter. |
Recordings of lectures and PowerPoint slides: Because student circumstances and schedules will be disrupted during this unusual quarter when they are not on campus, it is important that those unable to watch live lectures can catch up with them in recorded form. Professor Liu will thus record his live Zoom lectures and as soon as possible upload them to a folder in Gauchocast. Students enrolled in the course will be able to watch the recordings in streaming form (as MP4 videos). In addition, Professor Liu will upload his PowerPoint slides after each lecture to the course Gauchospace site. Note: while Professor Liu will start the process of uploading his recorded lectures to Gauchocast as soon after each lecture as possible, it sometimes takes a long time for the Gauchocast servers to "process" the videos and make them available for viewing.
In second week of instruction:
Section activities start in the second week of instruction.
Students must participate in an easy first assignment in a Gauchospace discussion forum. Basically, they will be asked to introduce themselves in the forum. (TAs will communicate details of the assignment to their sections and also post in each section's discussion forum a prompt for this first assignment.)
Students will also be asked to sign up for the "summary" assignments in later weeks (see below).
Students on the wait list or crashing should wait until they are enrolled in the course (if enrollment is possible) and then complete the initial assignment the following week.
During subsequent weeks of instruction:
Each week in a section, one or more students will be assigned to write for the discussion forum that week a summary of a course reading (of the reading's claims, evidence, and stakes). Summaries must be posted by 11:59 pm of the Friday preceding the week for which it is assigned.
Other students must write responses to one of the readings (as summarized) by 11:59 pm of the Monday of the week of the relevant section. In their responses, students can connect the reading to other readings, to other relevant material or issues outside the course, or to the nature of the media, communication, and information forms they are experiencing in their lives (e.g. during the COVID-19 emergency or in the current remote-teaching situation itself). TAs will give specific instructions for their sections.
Each section may also occasionally ask students to participate in supplemental asynchronous activities at the discretion of the TA.
TA office hours and other real-time activities: TAs will have a synchronous activity of some kind that functions as office hours, and at their discretion can also have other occasional synchronous meetings that are optional for students.