Rather than repeating material from the textbook in lecture, much class time will be devoted to clarifying topics covered in readings, tieing topics together, and expanding ideas introduced in the texts. Toward this end, students must read assigned materials before class and formulate two discussion questions. Some appropriate types of questions are:
Thus, questions should seek to clarify points of confusion or to expand ideas just introduced briefly. For the most part, simple factual questions should be avoided (unless the facts are in dispute). The instructor will assume that students have a clear understanding of topics not covered in questions, and students should be prepared to contribute to class discussions on all areas not asked.
During the semester, the class schedule will include links to submit discussion questions about 30 reading assignments. Students are expected to submit an average of one discussion question per reading -- with a total of 30 questions expected from each student over the semester. (Additional questions may be submitted for extra credit, except that no more than 2 questions may be submitted per assigned reading.)
Send me your disscussion questions in the body of an email. The schedule will include links to send me email about each reading. If you prefer to use different email client (e.g., webmail), use a subject line of the following form:
[csc213-dq] 08-28
This lets me use an automated email filter (procmail) to sort these questions out from my other mail.
Questions for a given day should be submitted no later 5:00 pm the previous day. This will give the instructor time to review questions prior to a class.
Discussion questions will be graded using a binary scale (0 or 1). Reasonable questions related to the reading will earn 1 point. Trivial questions or questions unrelated to the material at hand will receive 0 points.
Janet Davis (davisjan@cs.grinnell.edu)
Created August 21, 2006