Comments from the Syllabus Quiz and Student Questions

Before I get into discussion of this week's readings, I wanted to comment on a few things related to the syllabus and the assignments.

• First, I have added a revised syllabus with the Peters 7th edition readings in parentheses for the relevant weeks. I think this will cut down on some future confusion, but again please make sure that the content you are reading for the week matches the content listed on the syllabus. That being said, because this is an online class you MUST be familiar with the syllabus. Unless I state otherwise, follow the schedule and directions outlined there.
• Second, I know some of you are anxious about the reflection papers. Although there are 13 documentaries listed on the syllabus, you only need to turn in five over the course of the semester, but you have to turn them in the week that they are due on the syllabus. So, for example if you choose to write your first paper on Obama's Deal which is assigned for next week, you must turn it in by 9/4 to receive credit. This is because I have chosen the documentaries to go with the readings we have each week. In terms of content there are four things I am looking for:
• The paper needs to be well-written: The papers do not need to be as formal as a research paper, and it is expected that you will write in the first person, but you need to be able to adequately communicate your ideas to your reader.
• The paper needs to reference the substantive reading for the week. Most weeks this will be fairly easy. For example, the reading for next week is on healthcare reform and the documentary is on the process of creating the healthcare reform bill. You should be able to pull out parts of the documentary that parallel with the reading.
• The paper needs to reference the theoretical reading for the week. This will often be a little harder, but again, I have matched these up so that you can do this for every week. How did the documentary bring a concept from the reading to life? For example, next week's theoretical reading is on explaining policy choices. When watching the documentary, you should keep in mind which theories discussed in the chapter explain the final health care reform bill as a policy choice.
• Finally, I want to hear your thoughts about the documentary. What did you like? What didn't you like? Do you think the filmmaker was overtly biased or were they more or less presenting the truth? What, if anything, did you learn? etc.
• Most importantly, I do NOT want a summary of  the film.
• I have also had some students express concerns about the weekly participation credit. You only have to participate once per week to get full participation credit. You can participate by posting a comment or question on blackboard, tweeting using the #paf340F11 tag, or posting a comment or question on my blog. Again, you only have to do one per week so it is your choice which you want to use.
• Finally, for those of you who are nervous about twitter, I know it can be overwhelming at first, but the best advice I can give is to start using it. I sent out my first tweet in May and now I am using it for class. Tweetdeck is a really great resource to keep things organized. You can set up a column with the course hashtag and anytime someone tweets with the tag for the class, it will show up. Here's what mine looks like:

The people I am following are on the left hand side, tweets that mention me are in the middle, and those that use the #paf340F11 tag (this is a column that I created, the others are default columns) is on the right hand side. There isn't anything here that twitter can't do, but it looks a little nicer. 

Key Points from The Syllabus

Hi all,

I just wanted to emphasize a few things about the course before we get started. This is not my first time teaching this course, but it is the first time teaching the course online. My goal is to use the technology to our advantage. I know you have all read the syllabus, so I am sure you noticed that we will be using Twitter, podcasts, and streaming videos on a regular basis. This may be a little messy so please let me know when issues come up. I'm hoping we can engage on policy issues in ways that feel less like work and more like discussion.

Since we will not be meeting in person, it is important that you read and understand the syllabus on your own. This means asking me questions NOW not an hour before assignments are due. For every week except the final week, you have three assignments due: The twitter or discussion board comments, the documentary reflection paper, and the reading quiz. The final week, you will have a paper due instead of a reading quiz.

Because we are using twitter in this class, it is important that you share your account name and tag your posts with #paf340sum11. I recommend creating an account for this class and using it to follow policymakers, newspapers, think-tanks etc. It is likely that new accounts will not appear in search right away so if you are creating a new account, you will probably want to post your comments on the discussion board during week 1. You can search for yourself to verify if your account is visible.

We have two books for this class Stone's Policy Paradox and Peters' American Public Policy. Both are on reserve in Hayden library and available from multiple sources.

I tried my best to find at least one free documentary per week, but that was not possible for week 4 so you will have to use iTunes or Netflix to access the documentary you choose. Of course, documentaries are designed to tell a story so you cannot take them as the absolute truth. I hope that you will view everything that you read and watch in this class and online with a skeptical eye. We will explore this more with Stone's book.

The quiz for this week is a "Welcome Quiz" on both the readings and the syllabus so please be sure you read the actual document posted on blackboard and not just this post!