Psychology 206

COURSE SYLLABUS

WINTER 2010

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Developmental Psychology online explores human development from conception to old age, death, and dying. We’ll examine the interrelationship among biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial factors as we progress through the lifespan. One goal of the course is to develop an appreciation for the challenges and opportunities facing each age. Psychology 200 online is equivalent to the Lifespan Developmental Psychology course offered each quarter on campuses in the SCCD.

COURSE OUTCOMES AND OBJECTIVES

Understand the essentials of major biosocial and cognitive theories of developmental psychology.

Understand the complexity of individual and social factors in development and that interactions between individual and environment are two-directional, characterized by reciprocity.

Increase ability to communicate effectively in diverse settings with people from diverse experiences and situations.

Gain multi-cultural literacy with regard to human development across the lifespan.

Compare and contrast human development across several U.S. cultures including (but not limited to) African American, Asian American, Latino, Native American, Euro-American.

Become aware of language indicating bias in relation to gender, age, religion, ethnicity, and sexual or affectional orientation.

Increase appreciation of the United States as a multi-cultural society by learning to compare and contrast how various systems (e.g. family, educational, economic, political, religious, etc.) affect the psychological development and health of individuals and communities.

REQUIRED TEXT

The Developing Person Through the Lifespan,7/e , by Kathleen Berger, Worth Publishers. You can buy the book at the NSCC bookstore or anywhere else that you can find a good deal on the 7th edition.

The electronic version of this text is available if anyone wants to try it out. It’s cheaper than buying a new text but you’ll have to login to the publisher website whenever you want to read an assignment. You can print as much or as little as you wish. If you want to try this, go to http://ebooks.bfwpub.com/bergerls7e.php and follow instructions.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This course is structured around reading the assigned chapters in the text and all the posts in ANGEL, completing true/false quizzes, responding to your choice of an essay question for each assigned chapter, and discussing topics related to text material with other members of the class in discussion rooms/seminars. You will also be asked to submit a brief autobiography at the beginning of the quarter, and self evaluations at mid-term and at the end. Your responsibility as a student will be to read the text assignments, read all class instructions and announcements posted in ANGEL and in our course web site, read (or at least skim) all the seminar posts, take the quizzes, demonstrate you have done the reading and have a good understanding of what you read by submitting answers to essay questions, and contributing to seminar concerning that reading. Your essay writing and seminar contributions should include frequent and judicious use of the vocabulary you are learning.

Each week, your assignments will include the following:

(See Assignments and Calendar page for specific due dates and assignments.)

Reading assignments from text and all relevant posts in the course website and Angel. Watch videos provided in ANGEL each week as time and interest allow.
True/False quizzes for the assigned chapters (open book and untimed). These quizzes are in ANGEL. Click on the In box/out box tab and the quizzes are located in each week's assignment folder. At the end of the quarter, you will receive full credit for your two lowest quiz grades.
Responses to essay questions for the assigned chapters. For each assigned chapter there are a few options. You are required to choose only one for each assigned chapter. If you write on more than one per chapter, you will not receive "extra credit." Please submit your essays to the instructor using the In box/out box tab in ANGEL. Essay responses must reflect college level writing (i.e., they must be carefully proofread for spelling, typographical, punctuation, and grammatical errors - submissions with too much "static" will be returned without credit.) Please carefully review ESSAY GRADING CRITERIA each time you sit down to write an essay. (Note: Essay questions are not the same as Seminar Discussion questions. Please see FAQ page so you will know the difference.) At the end of the quarter, you will be given full credit for your two lowest essay grades.
Seminar participation (using ANGEL). This consists of reading, or at least skimming all posts in seminar, responding to provided discussion questions and/or comments and questions of other students, and/or making up your own discussion topics. Contributions to the online seminar discussion should be made about five times/week (this would be considered “average” participation.) You are expected to read (or at least skim) all posts but you only respond to those that are of interest. Your seminar grade will be determined by both the quantity and quality of the number of posts you've made. Timeliness of your contributions will also be considered.

Important note: Plagiarism must be avoided in essays and seminar posts. See information about what plagiarism is and how to avoid it by clicking here.

Your task during the quarter is to consult the Assignments and Calendar page of the course website frequently so you’ll know exactly which chapters to read when and what the due dates are for the written work.

Also, be sure to check daily for announcements by clicking on the COMMUNICATE tab in ANGEL.

Assignments must be submitted by the deadline.

I do not accept or grade late papers.

GRADES

I see learning as a developmental process. For your evaluation I will be looking for ongoing development in your commitment, contribution, and achievement in the following areas:

Seminar preparation

This includes reading assignments in a timely manner in order to participate in an informed way in the discussion rooms/seminars. It also includes completing True/false quizzes and responses to essay questions and submitting them on time. (Generous use of chapter vocabulary in your essay responses is desired and expected.)

Each week, submit essays in the required format using ANGEL's In box/out box tab.

Each essay is worth 20 points. At the end of the quarter, you will receive full credit for your two lowest essay grades, with one exception. If there is even one sentence that is plagiarized in an essay,the student will fail the assignment. If a student gets no points for an essay due to plagiarism, this essay can not count as one of the "free" essays for the quarter. If plagiarism happens more than once, further disciplinary action will be taken.

Each quiz is worth 15 points. At the end of the quarter, you will be given full credit for your two lowest quiz scores.

Seminar participation

Making thoughtful contributions to the class, sharing your thoughts about course topics, asking questions, helping to clarify text material for others, pointing to the book and to other sources, and reading other students' posts are several of the criteria by which you will be evaluated. You will also be asked to take responsibility for the quality of the discussion and show a commitment to learning by demonstrating interest, enthusiasm, a willingness to be coached and joining the discussion prepared. And, remember, ample use of chapter vocabulary in your seminar contributions is desired and expected.

Access the discussions at least five times per week, read the posts, and post your questions, responses to posts and interpretations of text material. (Five posts per week will be considered "average" participation.)

Please click here for more detailed instructions about how to effectively participate in seminar.

Seminar participation will be evaluated based on quantity of postings, quality of posting, the number of posts you read/skim written by your classmates and the teacher, and the timeliness of your posting (i.e., did you post enough before the closure of the discussion room to allow your classmates to respond if they want?).

Each post/reply earns 2 points toward the "quantity" part of the grade (44 points total at mid-term and 100 cumulative points by the end of the quarter).

You can earn up to 6 points for reading 90% of the posts by others at mid-term and 9 points for the second half of the quarter for a total of 15 cumulative points for the quarter.

At mid-term, you can earn up to 10 points for posting 90% of your posts before midnight of the Sunday before the room closes and 15 points for timeliness of posts for the second half of the quarter (cumulative points for timeliness is 25 points).

For the "quality" part of the grade, 100 points possible at mid-term and 100 points for the second half of the quarter (total 200 cumulative "quality" points for the quarter). Carefully review the criteria for good quality seminar participation by clicking here.

So including quantity of posts read/skimmed and written, timeliness of posts, and quality, the total points possible for seminar at mid-term = 160. Total cumulative points possible for seminar at the end of the quarter = 350.

Proper and timely completion of self-evaluations

Click on the link above to see instructions in our course website. They are also found in ANGEL. A self-evaluation will be due at mid-term and at the end of the quarter. Each is worth 25 points.

Autobiography.

See instructions in ANGEL's Week one folder regarding how to complete this assignment. It is worth 5 points toward your final grade.

The total number of points possible for the course = 1190.

If you earn 90-100%, your grade will likely be between 3.5 and 4.0.

If you earn 80-89%, your grade will likely be between 2.5 and 3.4.

If you earn 70-79%, your grade will likely be between 1.5 and 2.4.

If you earn 60-69%, your grade will likely be between 0.7 and 1.4.

If you earn below 60%, your grade will be 0.0