Class discussions are key to helping you learn about complex ideas where there are several different relevant perspectives. Many students enjoy discussions, but some are more timid. Therefore, there will be two ways to participate in class discussions. In addition to the discussions which take place with the lectures, small group discussions on a computer conferencing system will be devoted to this class (mis411.511).

Electronic Etiquette:

There are no hard and fast rules regarding computer etiquette, so you will need new ways to convey "feeling" or to recognize signals from others in a conference. Some examples include:

1. EMPHASIS: You can format BIG changes in meaning by capitalizing a word, oryou can add *emphasis* with highlighting marks, or you can comment parenthetically (to clarify meaning), or you can misspell with intent to provide sooooo much feeling.
2. HUMOR: It is useful to provide a light touch (laugh) at times. You can also illustrate your frustration (e.g., !!!!! I did it again!!!), or that you are thinking (e.g., Hm... that seems strange). What is important is that you let readers know when you are kidding or joking around. A sideways smile :-) is an easy way to convey humor.

Edit your posts before you post them to the conference for factual correctness, logic, and grammar. Posts making corrections to your earlier posts are bothersome. Do not criticize individuals -- criticize their logic, data, etc.

Grading the Posts:

I will be reading the posts every day or two and responding to them. This means you should also be reading our conference a few times a week. I expect that 1 to 2 posts a week would be a good average to maintain. To make an informed post, you should have read the assignments for the topic to which we are referring. Your class discussion grade will depend upon the entire corpus of your posts. Iwill be grading the posts for:

1. Knowledge (Have you read the assigned materials?)
2. Relevance (Is your contribution helpful to the discussion?)
3. Logic (Do you make good points and defend them ably?)
4. Etiquette (Are you polite?)
5. Insight (Do you look at the problem in a novel, helpfulway?)

Making a Post (or "I don't have anything to say!"):

There are lots of ways that you can contribute to the class discussion. They do not all require having some fabulous insight or world-shattering theory. Here are some suggestions of what might be a useful contribution.

1. Bringing Things Up
2. offering information
3. offering an opinion (someone else's or your own)
4. giving examples (or counter-examples)
5. providing evidence (for or against)
6. pursuing and analyzing an argument, example, suggestion
7. Clearing Things Up
8. revealing confusion
9. clarifying
10. indicating alternatives
11. testing for agreement
12. identifying areas of disagreement
13. suggesting an integrative agreement or compromise
14. Social & Emotional Work
15. relieving group tension
16. offering encouragement
17. expressing feelings
18. agreeing with another person's comment, question, feeling
19. Directing Traffic
20. bringing up a new topic
21. setting standards
22. pointing out prejudiced, narrow-minded, or simplistic arguments
23. gatekeeping (helping someone else in and out of the discussion)
24. summarizing
25. Asking For Things
26. asking for clarification
27. raising new questions
28. seeking information from other participants
29. seeking opinions from other other participants