New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
Computer and Information Science Department (CIS)
CIS677: Information System Principles, Spring 2001
Professor: Michael Bieber

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CIS677 Weekly Discussion (Distance Section)

[Version 2 with small corrections and clarifications]

Discussion on-line takes the place of discussion in the class room. Each week we will discuss the articles, and discuss the taped lectures and class materials in general. This is in addition to chunking.

Each of you will participate in three discussion conferences on WebBoard (please use the ones corresponding to the first letter of your last name).

• Discussion (distance)
• Article Critique (distance)
• Chunking

Here is the general flow of class discussion - see the description below and in the chunking assignment for details:

By Saturday Night

Everyone should have:

1. read the text chapters (listed on the schedule)
2. read the articles and any other assigned readings (listed on the schedule)
3. posted their 2 chunking entries

By Sunday Night

Everyone should have:

1. watched the video lecture (listed on the schedule)
2. posted 4 comments in their Article Critique conference
3. posted 1 comment in their Discussion conference

By Monday Night

• Everyone should have posted their 2 chunking replies

By Wednesday Night:

• Everyone should have posted 3 replies: 1 for each article in their article critique conference, and 1 in their discussion conference.

General Discussion

By Sunday night, everyone should post at least one comment in their discussion conference about some aspect of the class materials. This can be about:

• the lectures,
• the textbook readings,
• the articles (besides the critique) or
• something happening in the real world relevant to the week's topic.

Important:

• Post your comments as a reply to that week's head entry
• Always use a good topic label (subject). Do not post a comment without changing the topic!

Article Critique

By Sunday night, everyone should post at least two comments in their article critique conference for each of the articles. This makes at least four comments in total.

Check the Article Review Guidelines posted on-line for an explanation of each critique category.

Important Groundrules:

• One of your comments must be in the "synthesis" or "further critique" category.
• Your other comment should be one of the other categories.
• No one may post an initial comment in the "conceptual or empirical" or "article domain and objectives" category; you may only reply there.
• Make sure that your comment does not repeat what the others said. Read the other comments before posting your own.
• You may post more than two comments if you wish.

Also Important:

• Post your comments as a reply to the appropriate article's head entry and subcategory.
• Always use a good topic label (subject). Do not post a comment without changing the topic!
• Note that the "Analysis" topic is not the same as "General Critique" - see the Article Review Guidelines for details.

Replies

By Wednesday night, everyone should post at least three replies:

• 1 reply in your discussion conference
• 1 reply for each article in your article critique conference

You also, of course, may add additional replies and additional new comments.

Important:

• Post your replies as a reply to the comment you are replying to :-)
• If you are replying to a longer comment, use the "Reply/Quote" feature and delete all but the part you are replying to.
• Feel free to change the topic label if appropriate.

GRADING:

Grading Discussion Regularity

We will grade you on your regularity and entering article review and discussion comments, and replies on-time. You can find a discussion record form on the course home page. Fill it in weekly. Turn this form in twice this semester: on 3/7 and 4/18.

Grading Chunking Quality

Your peers in the distance sections will grade you on the quality of your discussion comments. (This is in addition to the chunking quality evaluation.) You can find a discussion evaluation sheet on the course home page for your WebBoard discussions. You should turn this in three times this semester: on 2/10, 3/7 and 4/18. The first two forms will not count for a grade, rather will give you an indication of what your peers feel about your chunking quality.

Many students question whether they are capable of grading their peers, and whether this is even appropropriate. We strongly believe both. By the end of the semester you will have read many discussion comments from each member of your group. We do not expect you to reread all the article critique or discussion comments in your conference to make this evaluation. You should have simply a good feel for the overall quality of each group member after this period of time, and be able to grade them based on what you recall at the point of evaluation.

This page: http://www.cis.njit.edu/~bieber/CIS677S01/discussion-dl.html