World Regions Syllabus Spring 2021 PDF

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Syllabus for the 2020-2021 school year....

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GEOGRAPHY 1014: WORLD REGIONS SYLLABUS GEOGRAPHY 1014: WORLD REGIONS SPRING 2021 Semester Standard Stats: World Regions GEOG 1014 CRN: 15617 (Online) Lecture: Lessons/activities online; Live interaction lectures TBA Hot-linked quick reference outline: 1. STAFF 2. RESOURCES 3. ASSIGNMENT OPTIONS/GRADING 3.1 Weekly READING quizzes 3.2 Lecture Video quizzes 3.3 “ON LOCATION” Flash Quizzes 3.4 International Films 3.5 TWITCH TALK: Current Event of the Week Chat/Quiz APPENDIX A: Schedule for Weekly BOOK READINGS Quizzes APPENDIX B: Schedule for Weekly VIDEO LECTURES Quizzes APPENDIX C: Schedule for Weekly International FILMS Quizzes 4. COURSE OBJECTIVES 5. IMPORTANT CLASS POLICIES

1.STAFF Instructor: John Boyer email: [email protected] Office Hours: TBA, online at Twitch, FB, and or GoogleLive Since this is a digital class, STAY CONNECTED to the Professor in a variety of ways (only if you want!): -Subscribe to Plaid Avenger on Twitch for office hours here: www.twitch.tv/plaidavenger -Follow Plaid Avenger pics on Instagram: http://instagram.com/plaidavenger -Subscribe to Plaidcast on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Plaidcast -Follow the Plaid Avenger on Twitter: https://twitter.com/plaidavenger -Use the class Twitter hashtag #wrvt to interact with fellow students, ask questions, and get info

ALL questions about grades and assignments go through the TA’s: Head Honcho TA for all students: Tyler Stanfield Email: tylerstanfi[email protected] Office Hours: Fridays from 1:30PM - 3:00PM via Zoom. Email for appointment Contact for all questions about technology and/or signing in issues

Tech support: Katie Pritchard

Email: [email protected]

Office Hour: Holla at her anytime for tweet tips and questions and to sign up for Moodle.

2.RESOURCES Texts: Required: The Plaid Avenger's World, 10th edition, 2020 ITS THE FREAKIN' 10thEDITION! The Populist Apocalypse edition to be exact! Looks like this! This is an ebook-only edition for now, so you grab it online! The ebook with access code is ISBN: 9781792401121 and can be found at: https://he.kendallhunt.com/plaid The good news is that no trees were harmed in the production of this textbook! And thus, it is also way cheaper in price! Woo hoo! Savin’ some money! Not a whole lot though... it is still like $100 bucks. Damn the man making us pay! Of course, it’s still probably a lot cheaper than all those serious rip-off chemistry and/or personal health textbooks you buy for those “regular” classes. For those that prefer a PRINT edition, I sporadically see pretty cheap new copies of the book with an unused access code from ‘OTHER SELLERS’ at https:// www.amazon.com/dp/1792401140 But for those digitally inclined: Since it is an ebook/digital app, you don’t even need to leave the luxurious privacy of your living room in order to grab a copy of the book! So stay in your pajamas, and head here to snag that nifty 10th edition: https:// he.kendallhunt.com/plaid And YES, you have to get a brand new copy with an unused access code of the new edition in order to keep up with tons of new current events and world leaders. Plus, there are several brand new chapters on new content that does not exist in previous editions. Old editions from previous semesters will contain all sorts of out-ofdate info that will be wrong for current quizzes and tests....and will serve to confuse you and screw you up. More importantly, you MUST HAVE A BRAND NEW 10th EDITION in order to get an unused passcode (when you purchase the ebook version, they will email the code to you) which you must have to access the class website where all the course materials and grades are managed. YOU MUST GRAB A COPY OF THE EBOOK IMMEDIATELY IN ORDER TO ACCESS THE COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM!!! And that course management system is called Moodle, and conveniently, here are the instructions on how you get on to that site once you have your access code:

How to access and enroll in the class course management system (Moodle) 1. Go to moodle.plaidavenger.com 2. In the LOGIN box in the top right, click on the orange text that sez: 'Create new account.' 3. Enter all required information to create your account. Create a username & password of your choosing, and please write them down somewhere so you will have it to reference later. Write it inside the textbook. Write it on your desk. Write it on your pet hamster’s back. Write it down in ten places if you are the forgetful type. Just be sure to write it down! This is the info you MUST enter: • First and last name as listed in Hokie Spa • Email address (please use your VT email address) • Scroll down to the bottom to enter your Student ID # (example: 905012345, NO dashes) • Those are the required field for this class, but feel free to upload a photo so I know what you look like. 4. When you're done click "Create my new account.'" 5. You'll now see a message that you need to confirm your email. Please go to your email and click the link to confirm. Make sure to check your SPAM box! If you do not receive an email in 30 minutes please contact [email protected] 6. After you click on the link in your email and go back to Moodle click "continue" then "home" in the top left column. 7. Click on "World Regions Spring 2021" and enter the 8 character key located on the inside cover of your new 10th edition of the Plaid Avenger's World or in the email receipt for the ebook 8. Then click "enroll me" and you're now in the course! 9. If you run into any issues contact [email protected]

www.plaidavenger.com is also required reading for the course. Content derived from the current event exploits of the Avenger and the Global Leaders pages will be part of the weekly quizzes, as well as into the midterm and final exams. It has a weekly updates on current events that are pertinent for this class, content which also may turn up as weekly quiz material, or flash quiz material.

Other Web Resources Often referenced and utilized international news sources of the instructor: World Press Review www.worldpress.org/wprw.htm This site has a daily update on global news--and an exhaustive list of linked news sources from around the globe, from news sources around the globe, reported from the countries themselves....you can pretty much go straight to any online news site in the world from here, organized by country. The International Herald Tribune online edition ttp://global.nytimes.com/?ihht BBC www.bbc.com Click on the NEWS section. Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/news/ Asia Times Online www.atimes.com/ The Economist www.economist.com/ Foreign Affairs www.foreignaffairs.com/ CIA World Factbook http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/ LINK TV for news stories, video, recorded programs, and music: http://www.linktv.org/

3.ASSIGNMENT OPTIONS/GRADING (aka How to earn the grade) This is a radical, experimental hybrid online/live lecture course when it comes to content delivery as well as grading, and I hope you embrace and enjoy this change. If you don't, then you should bail out now, not later. Instead of having a set amount of mandatory activities that you are required to do and then assessing your grade from your performance, I am going to provide a host of opportunities for you to earn points towards your grade. This allows some flexibility in your schedule for reading and watching the material at your own pace, while providing more than enough point opportunities for you to get the grade you want. In addition, while you CAN take the entire class online and never see me in person, many of you specifically like to see some live lectures from yours truly, so I will try to sporadically make that happen too! I will schedule some “live podcasts” lectures in on Twitch, which will be focused on current events and any Q+A you would like to cover. How is that for a hybrid approach? So it’s a recorded/live hybrid approach to content, and it's a 'create your fate' grade: you choose want you want to work on, and keep earning points doing different activities until you achieve the grade you desire. There are enough point opportunities to allow you to actually exceed the amount needed even for a full on A! So you don’t have to feel like you have to do every single thing, every single day. BUT BUYER BEWARE! You can't wait until the last minute to make this happen! The one way you can screw this up is to keep putting off things until the end of the semester, living under the delusion that you can do a whole bunch of stuff in the last weeks of class to make up for slacking all semester. THIS WON'T WORK! Almost all of these assignments consist of watching/reading/testing that happens every week all semester long...so if there were 4 different quizzes in week 3 worth 150 points and you didn’t do them, they are gone! AND THERE ARE NO 'MAKE-UPS' or 'EXTRA CREDIT' or any other additional opportunities offered at the end of the semester to earn points. So choose and plan your semester wisely!!! Please note that the point totals shown for each activity are the maximum points possible; you don't simply get all the points simply for participating. In other words, you can earn up to 390 points for doing the weekly reading quizzes, but if you only get half the questions right (a 50% conventional grade) than you would only receive 195 points towards your final grade (50% of 200 points = 100 points earned). This of course applies to all quizzes/tests as well as any other written assignments we invent...participation alone does not get the full points; it has to be good quality stuff to get the max!

So here are the activities you can do to earn points towards your final grade, followed by the grading scale: Assignment 1)Weekly reading quizzes 2)Weekly video lecture quizzes 3)Flash Quizzes 4)International Films 5)Twitch Talk Current Events/Quiz

Maximum points POSSIBLE =390 (13 weeks x 30 points) =725, roughly (variable credit per vid) =??? UNKNOWN!!! =400 (40 pts each, roughly 10 rounds?) =200 (20 pts each, roughly 10 rounds?) Total 1600++ to 2100++ ???

Final Grade Breakdown: 1350 points = A 1300 points = A1270 points = B+ 1230 points = B 1200 points = B1170 points = C+ 1130 points = C 1100 points = C1070 points = D+ 1030 points = D (Minimum passing grade for P/F) less than 1029 = LOSE

My advice: DEFINITELY do all the weekly book quizzes, AND plan on taking virtually all of the weekly video lecture quizzes as possible, AND most of the film quizzes. That alone will pretty much get you a strong C or B, if you stay on top of things and keep up with your weekly quiz assignments in a timely manner. If you are really smart and really want to ensure an A or high B, you will completely lock in a high grade by staying connected and tagging those flash quizzes AND weekly Twitch Talk sessions every time they pop up as well. If you like international cinema, you can snag serious points by doing all of them, and suggesting even more to me to post up! Hell, if you do enough work early enough, you may finish the course well before the semester’s end! Go for it! But that is up to you and your work ethic! **Statute of limitations: Please be aware that you must contest a grade that you believe is in error within two weeks after its due date! More details on this policy are available in the “Important Class Policies” section of this syllabus. Bottom line for now: you can’t wait until the last week of class to contact me or the TA and say you are missing grades from Week #4. It’s too late at that point. And that would make you a sad, sad panda. And likely, a panda with an F. So check your grades weekly. Here is an explanation of each possible assignment:

3.1 WEEKLY BOOK READING QUIZZES Each week, an online quiz will be posted on Moodle (the class website you will get to by using your access code located in the front of the textbook). The quiz will consist of questions from 2 selected chapters of the textbook. These quizzes are open-notes, open-book, open-website and can be taken as many times as you like. In other words, you can keep taking the damn thing until you get a 100% on it!!! Take it early, take it often, but just don’t forget to take it! It’s worth 390 possible points towards your freakin’ grade! Again, take the quizzes as many times as you want! Only your highest grade will be recorded! You should earn all 390 points towards your final grade by semester's end. Every week you will get a class email (likely will be on Friday night) telling you which chapters you need to read for the upcoming week, and the name of each of the quiz to take. You will have an entire week of time, every week, to read the selected 2 chapters and take the quiz for that week...or take it a hundred times if you like! But here is the sad and bad news: the weekly deadline for the textbook quiz is every Friday at 5PM. Dayum. Yep. Friday at 5PM it is, every week. Does having to work until Friday at 5PM really piss you off? THEN DON’T WAIT UNTIL FRIDAY TO DO IT!!!! Do it on Monday, or Sunday, or Wednesday morning. Hell, do it at 3AM on Tuesday if it turns you on! Just do it before Friday at 5PM! READ IT Word to the wise: former students always tell me that if they had one piece of advice to pass on to the next generation of students, that it would be to JUST READ THE DAMN CHAPTERS. Too many of them tried to just take the quizzes over and over and over again until they figured out what the right answers are to click on, without having to read the book. That’s cool with me, because you will spend way more time doing it that way. I’m all for you taking the quiz 20 times, instead of just reading the chapters and taking it twice. “Cheat” to your heart’s content. #fail It’s every week. It’s open book. It’s open notes. It’s unlimited attempts. If you don’t get all 390 point on this assignment, who is to blame? Personally, I blame the Canadians! They are always up to no good up there! Build a damn wall! But seriously, it will be your own fault. APPENDIX A: Schedule for Weekly Book Reading Quizzes is attached to this syllabus as, and will be entered into the course calendar.

3.2 WEEKLY VIDEO LECTURE QUIZZES

Much like the weekly Book Reading Quizzes, I am setting up a calendar of pre-recorded video lectures for you to watch every week, and then you can take some quizzes on those for points too! Sweet! Does the point-generating fun ever end? And let’s keep the party going by making them also due on Friday night! Can you feel the Friday night love yet? Yeah....I didn’t think so. But again, Friday at 5 is just the deadline for you to take the quizzes: you can actually take them whenever you want to 24/7 the week of. Get it? Got it? Good. But it does get tougher.... There are some important distinctions to be made with this assignment versus the book reading quizzes, namely: 1) ONE SHOT Video lecture quizzes can only be taken ONE TIME! What time that will be is entirely up to you, but you only have one crack at it! 2)...