Introduction

Welcome to World Religions online. Because this is an academic course on religion, you should expect to study a number of religions from a critical perspective. We will study all religions, including one you may believe in, from the perspective of a curious outsider. You should not expect to come to believe the traditions we'll study, but you should expect to understand why someone else might.

In accelerated sessions, the pace of courses is bracing. It is possible to keep up, learn a lot, and do well, but it is not for the faint of heart or those prone to procrastinate. I have been teaching World Religions in accelerated sessions for many years, and I have seen many students do excellent work. It isn't for everyone, though, and you should look at the amount of reading and writing that will be required of you and make sure you want to proceed. I hope that you will. If you would like to see other students' view about how manageable the workload is, you can review the comments about the class on Rate My Professor.

Course Description & Format

This course will introduce students to the beliefs of the world's major religions. I assume that students who enroll in the course believe there is something valuable to be learned from these traditions and that it is possible to respect all of them while still practicing the teachings of one of them, or of no religion. My job will consist in presenting each of these traditions in a sympathetic (though not uncritical) light.

By the end of the class, students should be able to:

(1) describe varieties of religious experience, belief and practice
(2) critically compare and interpret religious texts in the context of traditional beliefs
(3) appreciate the varieties of religious belief and experience
(4) analyze the worlds religious traditions through the writing of essays totaling a minimum of 3000 words
(5) demonstrate in online discussion and writing the ability to think creatively, independently and critically about the varied issues, problems and concerns of religions around the globe

Prerequisite & Workload

While there is no prerequisite for this course, all requirements of this course require good reading and writing skills, and eligibility for English 1A would be a distinct advantage—having completed English 1A would be better still. There is a fair amount of reading for this course—and the amount is accelerated when we cover all the material of a full-semester course in only 8 weeks. I assume you have the books (or will very soon) and are ready to get started.

Contacting Me

It is VERY easy to get a hold of me. First, you can ask general questions via the class discussion board. Sometimes another student will see and respond to your question even before I do. You can email me privately through Blackboard if your question is individual. You can also email me at my general RCC email address though I prioritize those emails lower than emails sent through Blackboard. Finally, you can leave a message on my RCC voicemail: this is best for questions that require the quickest response. In its wisdom. RCC has adopted a system that forwards voice messages to me over email, and I generally receive them in 15 minutes or less. I WILL return your phone calls.

We can also communicate using FaceTime or Skype.

Grading & Attendance

Grades in the class will be determined on the following basis: quizzes, 25%; lesson (discussion board) postings, 25%; first essay, 25%; final essay, 25%; see the chart below for a more detailed breakdown of points. Keeping up and completing every assignment is the easiest way to be assured of doing well in the class.

I treat regular completion of assignments as comparable to attendance in face-to-face classes. I may drop students who miss more than four quizzes and/or discussions.

Plagiarism

As I think most students know, plagiarism is presenting someone else's words as your own. I expect that ALL WORK you submit for the course will be your own, and that any use of someone else's words will be indicated by use of quotation marks and citation to the original source. Plagiarism is cheating and it will result in your forfeiting credit for the assignment that includes plagiarism and may result in your failing the course. You may use the Internet to inform and supplement your own work, not to substitute for the need to work. I apologize if this sounds harsh but it is the result of the academic dishonesty of past students. Any language you borrow from elsewhere must be identified with quotation marks and the source should be indicated. It's fine to include a URL in parenthesis following a quotation.

I report all instances of plagiarism to the college administration for review and potential action.

Lessons

Our approach to each religion will be the same. You will begin by clicking on the "Lessons" icon on the homepage and then opening the icon for the appropriate lesson. Each lesson is divided into five parts: Introduction, Connect, Apply, Reflect, Evaluate. The material in the online lesson will structure your reading, quizzes, and our class discussion. The Connect pages will usually prepare you to read a chapter in The World's Religions, which will be followed by a quiz. The Apply pages will prepare you to read a Van Voorst chapter, also followed by a quiz. The Reflect and Evaluate pages will give you a number of questions to respond to on the class discussion board.

Quizzes: please read the instructions carefully

We will take quizzes (usually 2) on each lesson whose intent is to "encourage" you to keep up with the reading, so it is important that you don't procrastinate. Once you begin the quiz, you have 30 minutes to respond to two questions (you get four to choose from—it does NOT help you to answer all four questions since that usually results in each answer being too short); you may take longer than 30 minutes for the quizzes—Blackboard should NOT log you out (it sometimes does, but rarely)—but I will take the additional time into account in scoring your quiz. It's not a problem if you exceed 30 minutes by a minute or so; it is a problem if you exceed it by several minutes. The quizzes will ask questions about broad themes from the lesson's reading. I will score each question (two per quiz) from 0-5 points. For each question, you'll receive 5 points for an answer which is correct, accurate in spelling and grammar, and of appropriate length (at least 125 words); you will receive fewer points for answers which are lacking in one of these areas. In quiz answers, I strongly prefer answers in your own words rather than quotes from Smith or Van Voorst. Quizzes must be begun by 11 pm of the posted date; I will not extend the deadlines for quizzes. Lessons and quizzes open (become accessible to you) four days before they close (are due).

To receive full credit for the quizzes, it should be clear you have done the reading in Smith and Van Voorst; answers derived from other sources are likely to receive less than full credit.

You must take the quizzes for each lesson to be eligible to receive full credit for the discussion for that lesson. You may forfeit 3 discussion points for each quiz (if there is more than one) you miss for a lesson.

Once I read and score a quiz, you can review my comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the quiz by going back to it: click on the "View scores for quizzes" link at the top of the Blackboard quiz page.

Class Discussions

Students must complete discussion posts for each lesson. Discussion postings should generally be 250+ words (the equivalent of one double spaced, typewritten page). 15 points are available for each lesson's discussion. They are due by 11 pm of the posted date. To receive full credit for your post, you need to respond to the questions posed on the Reflect & Evaluate pages of the lesson. Skipping questions will cause you to receive partial credit. You can also comment on any additional research you've done on the Internet (include URLs when you can). I expect that you will read the discussion posts of your classmates and comment (respectfully) on similarities and differences between your views and those of your classmates. Participation in class discussion is mandatory, and you will receive 12 points for your own initial post. The remaining 3 points will come from responses to other students on the bulletin board. For the "responding" points, you may (politely) disagree with or extend a comment by a classmate. Simply agreeing with what someone else has said isn't discussion. Responding posts should be at least 125 words to receive full credit.

Please keep a clear distinction in your mind between disagreeing with an idea or belief a classmate has stated and attacking the person. One of the most rewarding aspects of this class is the exchanging of views about our subject, but people will not share their views if they see others attacked for doing so. Please also be careful not to be overly sensitive. I have seen past online discussions where students took reasonable disagreement as personal attacks. Always assume that your classmates respect you (even if they don't agree with you) and read their remarks in that light.

Because our subject is one that people often disagree about, I do not take your beliefs into account in scoring any work. If you choose to disagree with our authors, however, you should make it clear what you disagree with lest I be tempted to suspect you've not completed the reading. At the end of each lesson I will compile and read your work, and then compose and post to the bulletin board a response on some of the ideas that were discussed in your work.

There are no extra credit assignments for this class. There are 615 points possible in the class, but I will assign grades as though there were only 600. This means there are 15 "automatic" extra points available for students who complete all assignments, and these extra points will take the place of extra credit. Use them sparingly. I read but do not score late reflect posts, so please make every effort to get your work in on time; waiting until the last minute is especially unwise when you are dependent on your computer and ISP to cooperate.

Hint!

As you can see, virtually all of the work for this class is written. I DO take spelling and grammar into account when scoring your work. I strongly suggest, therefore, that you get in the habit of composing and saving all your work—quizzes, discussion posts, replies, and essays—in a word processor. That will allow you to easily spell check, and do a quick word count to see if your answer is sufficiently detailed. Do not expect your word processor's spelling or grammar-checker to substitute for careful proofreading. When you are pleased with your answer, you can then easily cut and paste your response into the appropriate Blackboard response box.

Essays

Students will write two five-page (double-spaced) essays for the course. The first will be due by July 8, the second by July 27. To do excellent work on the essays, you should incorporate what you've learned from Smith, supported by scriptures from the Van Voorst book, your classmates' discussion posts, and your web research (these last two are helpful but less crucial). You can find more guidance on writing a good essay at my website page on essay writing. The page is not part of Blackboard or password protected, so if you find it helpful you can bookmark it and use it for other classes.

First Essay

You should (1) suggest a definition (not a description) of what religion is (about a page) and (2) apply that definition to three of the following: primal religions, Confucianism, Taoism, and Hinduism (about 4 pages—5-6 pages total). I am not asking what the content of your religious views are but that you define religion itself: "dinner" is not just what you ate last night. Huston Smith suggests several aspects of religion that you might consider in writing your essay (pages 92-94). An excellent essay will not only draw on the description of these traditions in Smith but will give illustrations from the scriptures of Confucianism, Taoism, and Hinduism found in Van Voorst. You must submit the first essay to remain in the class.

Second Essay

It is common to hear that "eastern" and "western" religions are very different in character. Do you agree? For your final essay you should assess this claim through a comparison of a feature common to at least two "eastern" religions (Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism and Buddhism) and two "western" religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). For "eastern" religions you should discuss one Chinese (Confucianism or Taoism) and one Indian (Hinduism or Buddhism) tradition. One of the "western" traditions you discuss must be Islam. Thus your essay will focus on a common theme but discuss it with regard to four distinct traditions. Once again an excellent essay will not only draw on the description of these traditions in Smith but will give illustrations from the scriptures found in Van Voorst. In general, the more narrow your theme, the better the quality of your essay will be. You need to choose a theme for which there is support in the scriptures included in the Van Voorst book, or scriptures you can readily identify in another authoritative source.

The following chart illustrates the points you'll receive for essays and for the course to receive the corresponding grade. Good luck in the class and do not hesitate to let me know if you have questions. You should post general questions to the discussion board and send me private questions via Blackboard email.

There are 16 quizzes at ten points each for a total of 160 points; there are 9 discussions at 15 points each for a total of 145 points; there are two essays at 150 points each for a total of 300 points. Thus 615 points are possible in the class but I treat 15 as extra credit, and term grades are based on your percentage of 600 points. The threshold to receive an A is 90%, for a B, 80%, for a C, 70%, and 60% for a D. Note that RCC does not allow the assignment of +/- grades for term grades.

AVOID THESE
TEN COMMON MISTAKES ABOUT RELIGION

1. Confucianism recognizes no higher power
2. Taoists worship Lao Tzu
3. Hinduism is polytheistic; Hinduism is monotheistic
4. Buddha is a God
5. Nirvana is a place
6. Christians observe the Ten Commandments
7. Christians keep the Sabbath
8. Catholics aren't Christians
9. Islam disrespects women
10. Islam promotes violence