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so the discussion boards are a very

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important part of the course it's a way

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for you to interact with each other to

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help teach yourself and others the

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material and to interact with me and

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learn things from me get clarifications

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from me and and also helped me learn as

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well so the discussion boards are

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something that I really enjoy and what

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I've decided to do this semester is to

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make them much more student-led than

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they've been in the past in the past

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I've largely led the discussion boards

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but I've found that I'm not really able

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to respond or interact with as many of

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the comments on the discussion board as

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I would like to optimally so this

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semester what I'm doing is having

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students essentially act as the leads or

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the curators for the discussion I'll

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still participate but I want you all to

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get the opportunity and the experience

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of leading a discussion helping to

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answer questions and curating different

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directions in a discussion board I think

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it's good practice for you and I think

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it'll enable me to better interact with

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what's going on on the discussion board

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by freeing up my time to be able to

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really focus on posting responses I have

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a full-time job outside of this teaching

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engagement and there's also a lot of

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work behind the scenes during the

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semester to keep the course running and

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that all really limits the amount of

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time that I can spend actually on the

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discussion board so I want to make sure

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that you feel you're getting really good

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feedback and having a really engage time

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in the discussion board and and as such

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I don't want that to have to rely on on

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me being available to make sure that

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that's going on so I'm empowering you

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all to really ensure that we have an

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active and vigorous discussion this

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semester so what the way this is going

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to work because of the number of

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students we have about 20 students in

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the class is that I'm going to divide

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everyone up each week into two separate

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groups

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you'll be randomly assigned to a group

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so it'll rotate around and that'll give

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you the chance to engage with different

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people

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it'll make sure that your discussion pod

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does not stagnate at any point in the

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past I've taught two sections

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this class simultaneously and it's been

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really interesting to see how each

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section operates as a really independent

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organism the discussion boards end up

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looking very different and by moving you

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all around from week to week I think

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it'll encourage a variety of different

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styles and and and different directions

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in the discussion to emerge and you'll

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still get to know each other because

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you'll probably be together for you know

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an average about half of the discussions

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since it's random so I'll divide you up

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into two groups of ten into two

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different discussion boards and in these

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two discussion boards that's where

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you'll spend most of the week chatting

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with your classmates and interacting

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with me and each week there will be a

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lead for each of the discussion boards

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everyone in the class participates in

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one of the two discussion boards and

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what I'll do is post the name of the

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participants in each of these sub boards

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on the front page of that board like I

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mentioned each board has a lead and that

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name will will go out in advance so you

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know on a schedule when you're leading

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the discussion each week in these boards

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should really be related to the material

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in the class so the things that are in

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the lecture video are the things that

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are in the book you can ask questions

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about the material if there's something

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you don't quite understand if there was

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something you found interesting I

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encourage you to bring information from

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outside of the class into the discussion

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can be personal information or perhaps

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new scientific findings or things that

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are going on outside of the class that

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are relevant to that week's topic please

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do bring it in it really makes it very

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stimulating and and you all will be

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grading each other's so the participants

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each week will grade the lead of that

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week and the lead will grade the

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participants each week and over time

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your discussion and participation score

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will be cumulatively based on these

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grades that you receive for these two

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roles in the class so each week towards

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the end of the week the curators are

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leads of each of these weekly discussion

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boards so the two people assigned to

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lead these discussion boards in a

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particular week

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at the end of the week they'll sum up

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the discussion and their board and then

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post it on a third board that'll be

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higher level and which everyone in the

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entire class can look at so not just the

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two subgroups but actually all twenty

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students and it's expected that you'll

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look at this and it should be

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interesting to see the the different

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summaries of what the two groups talked

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about at that point you can have some

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discussion about the summaries or other

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topics that you want to bring up in the

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the whole class forum and in general you

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know most of the discussion should take

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place the week in which it's most

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relevant but it's fine you know for

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things to continue into the the

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following week especially you know on

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this whole class board where the

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summaries make you up some questions for

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me or questions from you or other points

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you want to add the summary should be

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fewer than 500 words and it should be

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posted on Tuesday this as the syllabus

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says the class resets every Wednesday

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and goes goes on to the next week's

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material everyone in the class should be

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familiar with what's on the whole class

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discussion board and like I mentioned

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all the students can participate in

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comment in addition there may be some

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weeks where there will be a topical

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discussion a particular topic that I

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thought the whole class would find

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interesting and the intention is for

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everyone to be engaged with that special

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topic and to post on it and have

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discussions on it not every week will

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have this but some weeks will and if

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you're interested in the grading process

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there's a lot of detail in the syllabus

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about this I'm not going to go into it

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here except to say that the course

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engagement score is is the the total

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grade for course engagement is worth

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quite a bit of your total grade in the

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class and a lot of that grade is

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determined through the peer grading

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process so the discussion board is

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really important

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you really should participate as much as

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possible and it should not be quantity

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of participation it's really the quality

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that matters and there are some

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parameters in the syllabus to help the

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participants grade the

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and the leads grade the participants so

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I encourage you to look through them I

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don't want to go through them in this

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video because they're already written

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out and I think they're fairly

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straightforward but this is how the

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discussion boards are gonna work I think

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it'll really help you get much more

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timely feedback and much more voluminous

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feedback it'll help me really focus on

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what to respond to and be able to spend

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my time interacting with your ideas

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instead of sort of keeping track of your

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performance on the boards and I think

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overall it's a win-win for everyone so

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I'm really excited to see how this works

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and and and and thank you for doing the

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experiment with me if you have any

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questions about this please post them in

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the discussion board for general

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syllabus or general class questions that

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you might have thanks