TeamRules/ E-Mail/ Blackboard/ DiscusionForums/ PostingAnalysis

Connected Learning Community

"To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding, in spite of distance or thoughts expressed, can make of this earth a garden." --Goethe

 

The course will create a Connected Learning Community-- utilizing new technological tools-- to explore issues currently confronting the American presidency. The course seeks to enhance your knowledge of the essential technological skills that any UTC graduate entering the 21st century workforce must master!

Team Rules

As stated in the course goals--and rewarded by the class grading system--teamwork has become an important component of the 21st century workforce. In an excellent article, "Decisions, Decisions" (Psychology Today, November l971), Jay Hall shared some of his observations on how team (small group) decision-making can be most effective. His findings revealed that the synergy of group decisions proved more "correct" in experiments than the approach of any one team member. I'd like to share Hall's guidelines on how to achieve consensus decisions to help you in the formulation of your Democratic and Republican teams' rules and organization for the Discussion Forum collaboration and class presentations.

l. Avoid arguing for your own viewpoints. Listen to how others repond to your ideas and suggestions.

2. Do not assume someone must win and someone must lose (political scientists call this zero-sum games) when discussion reaches a stalemate. Look for the next most acceptable alternative.

3. Do not change your mind simply to avoid conflict and to reach agreement and harmony. (We will later discuss Irving Janus' idea of "groupthink" and its hazards.) Yield only to positions with objective and logical foundations.

4. Avoid confict-reducing techniques such as majority vote, averages, coin-flips and bargaining.

5. Differences of opinion are natural and expected. Disagreements help team decision-making because they provide a wide range of information and opinions.

E-Mail
All UTC students have been given e-mail addresses and accounts, and received information about them in the mail, along with their UTCID. The UTCID is used for new students moccasun accounts and it will be used to access additional student technology services .

See http://gemweb.utc.edu/phonebook/ for a directory of student addresses. (From the UTC home web page, click Current Students, then look under Campus Life for the "student email directory" link.)

The student's onenet address is an alias that points to a "real" e-mail account. Student GEM e-mail addresses all end with "@gem.utc.edu". Both the onenet and "real" address are displayed in the student email directory. Faculty are advised to use the GEM address when communicating with students, so please keep the onenet email address pointing at the "real" e-mail account you are actually using.

NOTE: You may read your UTC email from any computer with a web browser (Netscape or Microsoft Explorer) by going to: http://webmail.utc.edu/ Type in your UTCID, password and make sure you scroll to the server: moccasun .utc.edu and then click on login.

Blackboard Web Courses
Your user name for Login on Blackboard [http://bb2.utc.edu/ will be the same as your UTCID (a mixture of letters and numbers). Your initial password is the last four digits of your social security number. After you log on the first time, please change your password.

1) From the Tools menu, select PERSONAL INFORMATION.
2) Then select Change Password and enter a new password.
3) Changing your password in the Blackboard system DOES NOT change your password for your campus e-mail account or for your campus network access.

If you forget your password, the system will e-mail it to you if you select the FORGOT YOUR PASSWORD from the log on screen. NOTE: The system will e-mail you at the e-mail address listed in the Blackboard system. Click here for more information on Blackboard and DO's and DON'Ts on slecting a password. You may access Blackboard in the Library, University Center's student computer labs, Political Science Lab or other campus computer labs, as well as from your home or dorm room.

Don't know your UTCID? Call the Student Help Desk at 425-4000 on weekdays from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM (Fridays until 5:00 PM) for assistance with computer questions, including access to Blackboard, the Internet, and e-mail. Sometimes it is better to email : HelpDesk@utc.edu. For more information, visit the Student Technology Support Center in the basement of the University Center or http://itd.utc.edu/students.

Discussion Forum
Students will use the campus Blackboard software for Team Forums with asynchronous threaded small group discussions of their team assignments. An asynchronous discussion means that you can post your comments and responses when your schedule permits--you don't have to be on-line at the same time as your teammates (chat room). I will assign you to particular discussion forums to participate in these closed discussions. Only students assigned to that team will be able to read your comments.

Posting Individual Speech Analyses

Each student must post a copy of his/her assigned individual speech analysis (3-5 typed double-spaced pages) in sufficient time for the next two members of the party team to post constructive ad substantive comments. These peer critiques should improved the quality of your oral report to the class and the written report submitted to the instructor. Some guidelines for your comments:

1. Make clear, specific comments, not simple "Sounds good."

2. Be honest, but not harsh.

3. Point out strong areas and parts requiring more work to clarify or support arguments.

4. Offer concrete suggestions to guide further research or revisions.

5. Don't proof read. You teammate should have their own Spellchecker and dictionary.

Copyright © 1997 The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

All rights reserved. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is an EEO/AA/Title VI/TitleIX/Section 504/ADA institution.

Last updated on September 1, 2006