PSY
400
PSY
400| Instructor: Dr. Jon Mueller | Office: Goldspohn 16 |
| Office Hours: 1:30-2:30 MWF | Phone: 637-5329 |
| Evaluation | Course Format |
| Humor Links | WebBoard |
| Course Schedule | Assignments |
As a seminar course, student participation will be a crucial element of its success. I will direct some of our discussion and you will lead a good deal of it also. More detail about your role is given below. These details are subject to change early in the term.
Your grade will be based upon your participation in the course, your performance on two exams, your poster presentation, and your pair's performance leading the class discussion. Participation will include in-class and out-of-class contributions. Your in-class contributions will be graded on quantity and quality. That does not mean that you have to participate in discussion every class period, but you should contribute to discussion during most class periods with thoughtful questions and comments. Your out-of-class participation will be through the course WebBoard. You will be required to post at least 30 messages on the WebBoard during the term, at least 24 of which will be replies to others' posts. You must also post at least one message a week. Each message that extends a discussion thread will be worth two messages. "Extending a thread" will be defined as a message that a) is at least the third message in a thread and b) involves commenting upon another person's analysis in a manner that broadens or enriches or critiques the other person's comments. Each meaningful reply to a guest's message will also be worth two messages. You will be graded on the quantity and quality of your messages. You can earn up to 40 points for your in-class participation and up to 60 points for your out-of-class participation.
Exams 1 and 2, each worth 100 points, will test your understanding of the readings and class lecture/discussion. Exam 1 will be given in class while Exam 2 will be a take-home test.
The poster presentation will be your final test of how well you learned the course concepts. The poster presentation, worth 200 points, will have two parts. The first part is a paper analyzing four humorous items and answering two common humor questions. The second part is a poster presentation of your analysis. More details about the poster presentation can be found on the Assignments page.
Finally, you and another member of class will lead the class in an approximately 35 minute discussion of a common humor question. The presentation will be worth 100 points. More details can be found on the Assignments page.
| Participation | 100 points | A = 90% | 540 pts. and above | excellent performance | |
| Exam 1 and 2 | 2 @ 100 pts. = 200 | B = 80% | 480 pts. and above | very good performance | |
| Poster Presentation | 200 points | ||||
| Discussion leading | 100 points | C = 70% | 420 pts. and above | good performance | |
| D = 60% | 360 pts. and above | adequate performance | |||
| TOTAL | 600 points | F = < 60% | under 360 pts. | less than adequate |