HONORS COMPARATIVE POLITICS

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OUR CLASSROOM IS A "NO CELL-PHONE" ZONE. KEEP THEM SILENT AND INVISIBLE. OTHERWISE, RECEIVE A "DAILY WORK" POINT DEDUCTION.

OFFICE, OFFICE HOURS: MWF 9-9:50, 11-11:50; Tues Thurs 8:30-9:15 AM in Petrocelli 324. 

"MOBILE" OFFICE HOURS are 1-5 PM, 7 days a week. Call 978 660 5968. 

MESSAGING: Text 978 660 5968 or email me at cohenf@franklinpierce.edu. In ALL emails, leave a contact phone number. In all texts, provide your name.

BE ENGAGED. I accept NO EXCUSES for not being fully informed on everything going on in class, as Canvas keeps you informed of all events, work, due dates, instructor comments by way of text message, email, Canvas Dashboard, Canvas-course home (syllabus) page. Adjust your "notification preferences" using these instructions: How do I set my notification preferences as a student? My recommendation is to click "Notify me right away" or "Daily summary" for, at a minimum, "due date," "course content," and "submission comment."

EXPECT TO WORK REGULARLY. From day one, expect to be assigned work EVERY DAY of the work week. When we are not doing project-based work, you are gauged constantly for your grasp of reading/audio/visual material and classroom lecture/discussion. 

A PORTABLE, PERSONAL COMPUTING DEVICE is essential to doing work in- and outside the classroom.

CANVAS is where all work is assigned and submitted. It is where all feedback and grades are provided.

OFFICE365. All students have Office365 accounts, meaning all of you have online and downloadable versions of Microsoft Office. Any files submitted must be in MS Office formats.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY (Plagiarism, Cheating). My policy is that which is stated in the Franklin Pierce University Academic Catalog (p.18). For "instructor's discretion," a student receives a zero for the assignment, in addition to the penalties described in the catalog.

SPECIAL ACADEMIC ACCOMMODATIONS must be sought at the Center for Academic Excellence.

THE GOAL OF THIS COURSE is for students to learn how to compare nations to gain insights into their politics, economy, governments, constitutions, and domestic/foreign policy. To reach this goal, we will inquire deeply into the nature of political interactions in societies across the world. GLE Learning Outcomes: Social Science, Inquiry and Analysis, Critical Thinking.

ACTIVATE your subscription to the NEW YORK TIMES! We will be using it a lot.

DAILY WORK (90%)

(1) DAILY (5 days/week) QUESTIONS on following:

• reading and audio/visual materials;
• classroom lecture/discussion;
• current editions of the New York Times; 
• online-discussion transcripts 

To answer questions on classroom lecture/discussion, especially if you're absent, then you may review the classroom notes posted by students that I make available in every set of class-session questions. 24 hours after questions are due, the answers to them are shown.

(2) Regular, online DISCUSSIONS of an assigned question.

(3) PROJECTS, as teams and individuals, involving research, written communication, oral presentation, and digital content creation. During longer projects, we use the classroom for MANDATORY "labs."

FINAL EXAM (10%) 

You are required to take the final exam in our classroom. The final is comprehensive, that is, it covers the whole semester's material . It is open-note and consists of a mix of essay and objective-response questions.

EXTRA CREDIT and SUBMIT NOTES (up to mid-semester)

Students receive 1 extra-credit point for every lecture session for which they submit and share their class notes. Just click on the "Submit notes" link in the "Course Summary" below. Take notes or copy/paste (from another document) in the text box provided; upload an MS Word document; or, for those who prefer handwritten notes, upload a focused photo of clearly-written notes. Notes must reasonably reflect the content of lecture, discussion, and Q & A. If you are either late or have your cell phone out or are browsing unrelated websites, then I will not accept your notes for extra credit. After mid-semester, submitting notes is required.