Catalog Description

ADM 270 Evaluative Research on the WWW, 4 units

Prerequisites: ADM 140, ENGL 201, and upper division standing or Departmental approval. This course instructs in the proper use of the WWW to conduct extensive detailed searches for credible data produced and presented by reliable sources. Reviews and instructs on the techniques for data acquisition, interpretation and presentation in the modern business environment. Instruction includes additional practice utilizing business applications in the production of research and presentation materials, as well as refining analysis, inference, and explanatory skills.

ONLINE CONTACT:

All forum posts from students to the instructor and messages sent through the course interface will be answered 80% of the time within 24 hours. Occasionally I will be unable to respond that quickly, but in no case should that time exceed 48 hours. Remember, Humphreys College does allow me weekends off, so if you send a message on Thursday it is possible for you not to receive a response until the following Monday, but I will make every effort to respond by Friday. You will find that for a great percentage of the time, I will respond much faster than the 24 hours but I’m not online 24/7 so please be cognizant of that. The course interface warns me every time I log on that you have submitted a message, however; my regular email does not, so please use the course interface for messages that you think requires a quick response.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Administrative personnel in support of Marketing, Engineering, and Manufacturing are often asked to research specific proposals for their respective departments. Whether the research is aimed at producing a new product or service that taps a potential new market, or the feasibility of adding new production capabilities or production techniques that might enhance one’s market advantage over competitors, research skills along with the ability to analyze the data recovered are necessary skills.

Business research skills in the modern world incorporate traditional reading comprehension, writing, source documentation, and oral presentation abilities. In addition the WWW has become a vast source of information for data acquisition. This course integrates WWW resources, reading comprehension, writing research materials utilizing the MLA format, and the use of presentation software.

The Instructor will select one text as an example of a controversial view on a special topic of interest. The text chosen must include an extensive bibliography that is utilized to back the position taken by the author OR be representative of author(s) who have standing, employment, or have been recognized in their fields as making noteworthy contributions. The text will be used to spur course debate, and an analysis of the position or positions taken by the author.

ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENTAL LEARNING OBJECTIVES RELEVANT TO THIS COURSE

1. Administrative Management Learning Objective: Critical Thinking and Analytical Skills

The ability to think through issues and analyze situations for efficient and effective problem resolution is invaluable. Practice in analysis, interpretation, inference, explanation and evaluation increase ability to think critically.

2. Administrative Management Department Learning Objective - Business Technology Skills

A solid foundation in current software and use of the Internet are absolute necessities in the modern office. A series of software courses in areas such as word processing, spreadsheets, databases, and presentation software with progressive degrees of difficulty are required to prepare students to function effectively in the computer-oriented workplace.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will learn research, and evaluation techniques relevant to the WWW. Students will learn techniques for critically evaluating and reporting on data mined from WWW sources, and students will learn methods for presenting analytical, interpretive data in a persuasive manner utilizing business application software and oral presentation.

HOURS OF INSTRUCTION:

Asynchronous Internet Communication.

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION/COURSE CONTENT:

This class is a lecture/discussion forum, where we will learn together. Communication is of paramount importance to the success of this type of learning situation. We must be committed to understanding as a collective, feel free to express our confusion, our understanding, implied meanings, and personal biases so that we can come away from this experience wiser and more prepared to compete and enjoy our lives. It is the express hope that we all come away with a better understanding of self through the careful examination of others.

This Online Lecture Courses is composed of three components

1. Lecture - Online lectures may be written or audio summaries of the learning objectives for the week or module and these lectures are considered required reading and are to be considered relevant material for required quizzes and or tests. Occasionally the instructor may elect to provide a multi-media presentation based on a PowerPoint presentation, or an AVI file that can be played in Microsoft Media Player, or perhaps converted into a Flash multi-media file, in which case your Browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Netscape) will need to have the Flash plug-in installed (See Introduction to Online Courses). In many instances your instructor will provide links to content appropriate to the lessons under study and will identify these materials as required reading or simply as supplemental reading material in order to help clarify the main reading assignment or to provide an alternative view to the conceptual material under study.

2. Discussion Forum/Email - Discussion forums and email take the place of the teacher-student and student-student interactions that normally take place in a lecture classroom. The forum provides the student the opportunity to respond to the course materials and concepts being presented during the course of a lesson. Unlike a classroom situation, the online environment allows you, the student, time to think about your response and contribute your own personal understanding of the question or concept to the class a whole. In a typical classroom setting, instructors often pose questions to the class and frequently it is only a very few students who answer and based on the few the instructor will assume that he/she is getting the point across or will undertake another track to frame the concept in another manner in order to help facilitate understanding. Online, you will have time to reflect and compose a short, concise answer to the question, or to frame a question of your own.

The discussion forum serves as the central hub for what has come to be known as an e-community and here at Humphreys College our forums are designed to be e-learning communities. Online communities are groups in which students learn from instructors as well as from other students and where instructors learn from their students as well. This participation and discovery process as students explore the course content and share their insights is one of the major cornerstones of online communities and learning specifically. Be sure to read the posts of your peers and instructors often as their perceptions of the course content will aid you in grounding your own understanding of the concepts being introduced.

Your instructor will grade your participation in these forums and may require that you respond once, twice, three, or four times in every forum. Your instructor may have separate forums, some that are graded and some that are not depending on the subject or the instructional method the instructor has deemed most beneficial for the transmission of the concepts for that particular course. The Rubric that is used for this course can be found latter in this document.

3. Written Papers: Grading rubrics, academic expectations and paper assignment details will be posted on the class web site.

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AND MATERIALS:

Into The Buzzsaw. Edited by Kristina Borjesson, Promethus Books, 2002.

Hardware, business applications skills (Internet Explorer, Word, PowerPoint), and software requirements for participation in an online course in the Humphreys College online environment.

Student responsibilities will include:

Assignments to be completed individually

Two short position papers.

One final position paper examining an approved (by the instructor) subject, written in MLA or APA format.

One online defense of the PowerPoint presentation to be posted on the online forum site by the instructor after student submittal.

Questioning of classmates PowerPoint (ONLINE)/Oral (FACE TO FACE) presentation.

Class participation which means excellent online attendance, being responsible for class lectures, taking notes, contributions to class discussions, critically evaluating the work of others, thinking creatively, and being completely ready for each class by having read the assignments before the beginning of each online class week.

Grading:

Class Participation = 25% of the total grade and are your weekly forum postings, see student responsibilities above for the definition of “Class Participation”. 10 pts. Each class meeting week (wks 2-10) for a total of 90 pts.

Two short critical essays worth 25% of the total grade 50 pts ea. For a total of 100 pts.

One term paper worth 30% of the total grade (120 points).

One PowerPoint presentation and online forum defense worth 20% of the total grade (80 points).

Week 1 participation and all assignments (10 points)

Letter Grades:

GRADING RUBRIC FOR FORUM PARTICIPATION

PLAGIARISM: Plagiarism is not condoned or excused. Term papers, research reports and essays are expected to be the individual work of the student. References and sources of information should be identified and accurately documented within the body of any written work. Violation of the honor code or plagiarism is cause for dismissal.

LATE ASSIGNMENT POLICY:

There is no late assignment policy, all dates are final, Moodle will accept no late discussion forum posts, nor will access be available for quizzes beyond the posted open test times. Mid-Term essay may be turned in up to one week after the due date for a 20% reduction in grade. The Final paper will not be accepted late, if for some reason your final paper is not received on the due date and the student has completed all course work up till that time, an incomplete will be given by the instructor and the student will have five additional weeks to submit the late paper for grading.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Week	Class	Homework	Assignments
1	29 March - 4 April Week 1 Introduction - Audio Week 1 Getting Started Assignments Submit Word Introduction Online Syllabus Quiz	Listen to course introduction Read the course syllabus View Archive Tutorial – Download one and be able to use it if planning to work from home – No download needed if you are planning to work from one of the computer labs on campus.	Post a Forum Introduction Syllabus Quiz Document Submittal – Including Word and PowerPoint files in one archive file.
2	Course Introduction Lecture Conducting an Internet Search Evaluating Information Internet Sites for Quality	Required Online Tutorials Required Reading Links Readings From Into The Buzzsaw Front and Back covers – Foreword – Editor’s Introduction and Articles: The Price of Liberty by Gerard Colby and The Fox, the Hound, and the Sacred Cows by Jane Akre	Participate in Lecture/Discussion 10 points. Be prepared to discuss the reading assignment from the text on the first or 2nd day of next week’s forum questions.
3	What is a position? How are positions formed? What is at stake? How is value determined?	Readings From Into The Buzzsaw Article: Into the Buzzsaw by Kristina Borjesson	Forum Assignment 10 points (focuses on issues surrounding last week’s readings from text). Homework: Complete Reading assignment before next meeting and be prepared to contribute to the class discussion.
4	Class Discussion: Lecture – The Scientific Method and Discovery – Data and interpretation.	Readings From Into The Buzzsaw Articles: The Silence of the Lambs: An American Journalist in Exile by Greg Palast	Forum Assignment 10 points (focuses on issues surrounding last week’s readings from text). First deliverable due – A position paper (2-3 pgs.) from any one of the first three assigned readings. Homework: Complete Reading assignment before next meeting and be prepared to contribute to the class discussion.
5	Lecture: Position papers and persuasive papers.	Readings From Into The Buzzsaw: Articles Shouting at the Crocodile by Maurice Murad and Coal Mine Canaries by David E. Hendrix	Forum Assignment 10 points (focuses on issues surrounding last week’s readings from text). Class Assignment: Search the WWW for information about bias in research. Homework: Complete Reading assignment before next meeting and be prepared to contribute to the class discussion.
6	When Black Becomes White Stories We Love, Stories We Hate The Story No One Wanted to Hear Bias - a demonstration	Readings From Into The Buzzsaw Articles: Verdict First, Evidence Later: The Case for Bobby Garwood by Monica Jensen-Stevenson and Mainstream Media: The Drug War’s Shills by Michael Levine	Forum Assignment 10 points (focuses on issues surrounding last week’s readings from text). Second deliverable due – A position paper (2-3 pgs.) from any one of the second five assigned readings. Homework: Complete Reading assignment before next meeting and be prepared to contribute to the class discussion.
7		Readings From Into The Buzzsaw Articles: Stories We Love, Stories We Hate by Helen Malmgren and The Story No One Wanted to Hear by J. Robert Port	Forum Assignment 10 points (focuses on issues surrounding last week’s readings from text). Third Deliverable Due: PowerPoint Presentation (with optional audio narration) based on one of your two previously submitted Position Paper Assignments. Homework: Complete Reading assignment before next meeting and be prepared to contribute to the class discussion.
8		Readings From Into The Buzzsaw Articles: The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On by Gary Webb and The Rise and Fall of Professional Journalism, by Robert McChesney	Forum Assignment 10 points (focuses on issues surrounding last week’s readings from text). Critically Review Peer Position Papers in the appropriate forum.
9	How did this book affect you?		Forum Assignment 10 points (focuses on issues surrounding last week’s readings from text). Continue the Critical Review of Peer Position Papers in the appropriate forum.
10	Let us talk about the ramifications of what we’ve experienced.		Discussion Forum – Instructors Topic FINAL PAPER DUE – LAST DELIVERABLE
11	Have a great break!		Complete online evaluation by Wednesday of Finals Week