Course Wayne State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) Department of Interdisciplinary Studies (DIS) Winter 2006 semester Creativity: Building the New, ISP 5660, 3 or  4 cr Creativity: Attached Directed Study, ISP 5660, 2, 3 or  4 cr	Instructor
	David R. Bowen 2311 A/AB Wayne State University Detroit, MI 48202	Daytime tel: (313) 577-1498 Evening tel: (248) 549-8518 At Ford: 313-390-2155 FAX: (313) 577-8585 Home Page:     http://www.is.wayne.edu/drbowen Email: d.r.bowen@wayne.edu

Last updated: 1/19/06
Link back to course Welcome

Syllabus, ISP 5660
Creativity: Building the New

1/19. Corrected the section on Late Assignments.

Contents:

• Content, Overall Schedule, Textbooks
• Instructor and Office Hours
• Grading and grading scales
• Moodle
• Important Dates
• Assignment Schedule
• Assignment Descriptions
• Online Citizenship
• Changes to Syllabus
• What you should do in this course
• Grade appeals
• Educational accessibility
• Dropping classes and grades
• Plagiarism

Content and Overall Schedule.

There is an overview of the course below, for those taking the course for undergraduate credit, and also attending the four required class meetings. If you are taking the course for graduate credit, and/or if you do not attend the four required class meetings, see the additional assignments after the overview.

Course description, three-credit course. Roughly, creativity is the act of producing something new and valuable, although there are problems with this definition. For example, at least for some people, creativity does not necessarily have to involve a "thing" - it can simply be an attitude that is fresh and appealing. In fact, creativity does not have a clear and unambiguous definition that everyone agrees on, so part of this course will be understanding how we use this word. A difficulty in studying creativity, if we cannot define precisely what we mean by it, is that in looking at specific people, "things" or events, we can mistake other things, such as expertise, for creativity. One approach we will take is studying highly creative people, people in whom creativity is unquestionably a or even the major factor in their lives, or "looking at creativity under a microscope."  Then we can extrapolate what we find in these people, to more ordinary people.

Creativity, and its close relative, innovation, are found in virtually all walks of life. There is also no single "creative type. Some requirements for creativity are (a) an opportunity to concentrate in a field of work, often for years, and (b) a determination or desire to be recognized as creative. The modern concept of creativity is that it involves the creative person, the domain of the work (e.g. science, business, art, poetry), and the field of other people involved in that domain. The field both introduces the creative person to the domain and has the defining role in deciding whether or not a person or work is creative.

The major course work is reading assigned works, and writing essays from a list of topics, on those works.

1. Week 1. What do we mean by Creativity?
   1. There is an initial description of Creativity offered in the web page, "What is Creativity?" (see the link from the course "jump page"). This is a common although not universal description. There is no black-and-white definition of creativity that everyone agrees to.
   2. Students develop their own working description, and describe at least one creative person they know, both through postings in the computer conference.
2. Weeks 2 - 7. A survey of Creativity
   1. There is an initial class meeting to demonstrate the web site and computer conference, and to go over the assignments and content of the course.
   2. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in Creativity, reports on a study of ninety-one twentieth-century creators. the study is based on in-depth interviews. This technique allows a more uniform analysis than one based, for example, on historical sources, or on autobiographical writings, which are not uniform for person to person. On the other hand, the sample cannot be as selective as a case-study approach, and we cannot be as sure of the judgment of history about the creativity of the participants. However, the uniform interview approach and the large sample size allow firm conclusions to be drawn about common elements. Csikszentmihalyi also breaks the sample down into broad domains of creative activity, and finds that while there are common elements across fields, there are also consistent differences.
   3. Csikszentmihalyi also adopts what he calls a Systems View of creativity. This recognizes a dilemma for creativity researchers; they often cannot independently understand what it is about a particular development that makes it creative, particularly in a field that is far from their own area of expertise. Therefore, they must rely on people in that field to evaluate the creative nature of a development. In some fields, such as Physics, there is a relatively precise, numerical standard for which creative theory explains facts better. Hence it is easier to measure what is a change, and which changes are successful. Csikszentmihalyi remarks that in his own field, Psychology, there are no such clear metrics, and different schools of thought will not agree. So, the nature of the field influences how changes can be evaluated, or even detected or perceived.
   4. Also, Creativity applies its conclusions as to how we can make our own lives more creative, and even why we might want to.
   5. Participation in the computer conference continues throughout the semester. (moved from first week to here)
   6. Essay 1 is due. The essays are described below, and there is a separate web page for essay topics.
3. Weeks 8 - 10. Corporate Creativity, or creativity in the business world.
   1. In their book Corporate Creativity, the authors Robinson and Stern give many case studies of creativity and innovation in the business world. The Creativity here ranges from minor innovations ("little c" creativity) to the creation of whole new industries ("big C" creativity), in contrast to Gardner's focus on "big C" creativity. While the conclusions are often startling from a business perspective, they are generally consistent with Gardner's conclusions from his case study approach.
   2. Essay 2 is due.
4. Weeks 11 - 15: Methods in Creativity, and a study of highly creative people, people who changed our culture
   1. Howard Gardner, in Creating Minds, starts out with a survey of methods that have been applied to the study of Creativity. Whatever method of study a researcher uses, s/he usually relies on experts in that field of work to assess the creativity of specific people and products.
   2. The largest part of Creating Minds is a series of case studies of creative individuals of the modern era. Gardner also draws conclusions from these case studies about the general nature of creating and creativity. Again, these conclusions are common within the field, although not universal. Elsewhere, Gardner writes that were he to choose a second rank of creative individuals, or to focus more on individual works instead of careers, there would be disagreements over how creative his choices really were.
   3. Essay 3 is due.

Four-credit course. The four-credit course follows the schedule above, and in addition: weeks 2 - 15: Work on a personal interest in the area of Creativity

1. During the semester, students will choose a fourth book with the approval of the Instructor, and read this fourth book. A list of pre-approved choices for the fourth book is given below, but books outside this list of your own choice can also be used, with the approval of the Instructor.
2. Students will choose a final topic for Essay 4, with the approval of the Instructor.
3. Essay 4 is due near the end of the semester.

Graduate Assignments: If you are taking the course for graduate credit, for either three or four credits, you are assigned an additional book and an additional essay.

Assignment to make up missed face-to-face classes:

ISP 5660 Textbooks

All textbooks below are required, and are in at the WSU Barnes and Noble Campus Bookstore, although there are many other places where you can buy them. WARNING: do not try to buy the first book, Creativity, online, since the slow delivery time can seriously delay your being able to start the reading. These books are available at many local bookstores.

1. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (paper), Harper Perennial / Harper Collins, New York NY, 1997. ISBN 0-06-092820-4
2. Alan G. Robinson & Sam Stern, Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and Improvement Actually Happen, pub. Berrett-Koehler Publishers (San Francisco) 1997 (paperback if available). ISBN (hardbound) 1-57675-009-4
3. Howard Gardner, Creating Minds, pub. Basic Books 1993 (paperback). ISBN 0-465-01454-2

Before you start reading each textbook, you should read the possible essay topics for that book, so that you will be able to focus your reading towards those topics. The possible essay topics are listed on a separate web page.

Pre-approved choices for fourth (and fifth, if needed) book for four-credit courses. You can choose any of the books in the list below as your fourth book, and just inform the Instructor of your choice. If you choose a book not on the list below, you must get the Instructor's approval first.

* - I also have reading questions for the three books marked below with asterisks (*)

1. * The HP Way. Hewlett Packard has been very successful, a market leader, and consistently innovative.
2. * Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Peter Drucker is one of the foremost business "gurus." Here, he speaks forcefully for the need for innovation, gives many case histories, and describes methods for innovation. He argues against the idea of innovators as risk-takers. "Big C" creativity, he argues, the type that creates a whole new product, is unreliable for business purposes.
3. The Nature of Creativity, Cambridge University Press 1988. Research papers on creativity. Apparently out of print, but can be found in large libraries.. A survey of academic approaches to creativity. The contributions of society are analyzed.
4. John Kao, Jamming. pub. HarperCollins, 1996. A quick tour of management and business techniques to foster creativity and innovation. Makes use of analogy to "jamming" by jazz musicians.
5. Daniel Goleman et al., The Creative Spirit, pub. by Dutton and Penguin USA 1992. Companion to a PBS series on creativity. A survey of creativity in art and culture, children and business.
6. Rollo May, The Courage to Create, pub W.W. Norton & Co 1994 (first published in 1975). Rollo May is a psychoanalyst who is also an artist, and here he describes artistic and cultural creativity from both perspectives. A large part of the courage here is making a full commitment to a domain of endeavor.
7. Tom Peters, Liberation Management, pub Fawcett Columbine 1992. I haven't read this one yet, but Tom Peters is another business "guru." The book advocates "Necessary Disorganization for the Nanosecond Nineties" (the quote here is the subtitle). Something like this was implemented by Chrysler to develop the Viper supercar in record time. But this way-out thinking may also have gone too far, perhaps contributing to the "stock market bubble," for example. At this point, I don't know whether or not this is correct.
8. Robert Lutz, Guts pub Wiley 1998. A Chrysler VP (now at General Motors) given a lot of credit for innovation and creativity in the automobile industry, tells what he did and how he did it. An iconoclastic and passionate presentation.
9. * Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow pub. Harper and Row 1990. Presents Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow" as optimal experience. Based on extensive research on everyday lives of a large number of people.  This is the work on "everyday" creativity that Csikszentmihalyi is famous for, but the book does not really do the concept justice. I liked the audotape better, and Finding Flow is also a very good description.
10. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow pub. Basic Books 1997. A detailed experimental study of how people find meaning in everyday lives. Also, how to increase the level of creativity or "flow" in your own life. An excellent choice if you want to pursue your personal creativity.
11. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Isabella Selega Csikszentmihalyi, editors, Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness pub Cambridge University Press 1988 (and later dates for paperback). Research studies by the editors and others on the Flow experience.
12. Ed Frank Barron et al., Creators on Creating pub. Tarcher/Putnam 1997. Individual creators, classical to contemporary, tell their own stories of how they create. Also has an extensive introduction on the nature of creativity and creativity research.
13. Ed. Margaret A. Boden, Dimensions of Creativity, pub MIT Press 1994. A cognitive approach, seeking to understand the creative process in some detail.
14. Ed. Steven M. Smith, Thomas B. Ward and Ronald A. Finke, The Creative Cognition Approach, pub MIT Press 1995. Also takes a cognitive approach.
15. Teresa Amabile, Creativity in Context, pub Westview Press (Perseus) 1996. The negative effects of external motivation on creativity, and creative business environments.
16. Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class, Basic Books 2002. On often-cited description of how creative people create opportunities for creativity, innovation and growth in urban areas.
17. Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life. a Practical Guide. Simon and Schuster 2003. By the best-known contemporary American modern dance choreographer, an artistic heir to Martha Graham.
18. Philip Sandblom, Creativity and Disease: How Illness Affects Literature, Art and Music, pub Marion Boyars 1997.

Again, you can definitely go outside of this list. If you do, you need my approval, and I will want more than an author, title, publisher and date of publication. Give me a paragraph to read about the content, say from a book review. You can find books and this information in libraries, or at amazon.com, or other places. If you have a particular interest, ask me for help in finding a suitable book.

Instructor and Office Hours

The Instructor is David Bowen / Department of Interdisciplinary Studies / Science and Technology Division.

Assignment listing: the ISP 5660 course grade will be calculated as follows:

Grading Scale

The "-" range for a grade is the lower three points, and gets averaged at the middle. For example, A- is 90 to 92 and gets averaged as 91. The "+" for a grade is the top three points, and gets averaged at the middle. For example, B+ is 87 to 89 and gets averaged as 88. A grade of 100 is an A+. Note that the highest grade recognized by the University is A.

NOTE 1: If you want to drop a course, you should withdraw officially using an official Drop/Add form. If you simply stop attending, you are supposed to receive a grade of "X", or possibly "I" if you have completed most of the work. You cannot graduate with these grades on your records, so you will have to retake the courses.

NOTE 2: I will allow you to redo assignments and turn in missing work during the semester and/or after the course is over, without a grade penalty. Such work will not appear in your regular grade, but it will be taken into account in a Change of Grade, and it will eventually appear on your official transcript. The University will allow me to file a Change of Grade up to one calendar year after the end of the semester in which you took the course. For this course, that is through the end of the Winter 2007 semester. I will not accept major assignments during the last six weeks of this period. While there is no grade penalty for late work, there are possible negative consequences:

• Late work may very well not be graded and returned in a timely manner. This may affect your grades on later assignments.
• If you turn in one or more late assignments near the end of the course, you may get a temporary grade of I (Incomplete) until I can finish the grading.
• If you turn in multiple assignments at the end of the semester, and they contain plagiarism, you will go straight to the later steps of the plagiarism policy for this course, without the chance for a warning..

Moodle account

Moodle is a web-based Course Management System, similar to BlackBoard. You will be using the online discussion (called a "Forum" in Moodle) and turning in homework using Moodle.

1. Start a web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, etc.) and go to techtools.culma.wayne.edu/moodle. Alternately, there is a link to Moodle on the course web site at www.is.wayne.edu/drbowen/crtvyw06 .
2. Scroll down to the bottom and click on "Login"
3. Follow the seven steps on the right-hand side. Note that you will need an active email account to complete these. Any Internet email account will do. An Internet email account is any email account with "@" in the address.
4. In Step 5, choose this course. If or when you see "All courses", click on that. If or when you see "Interdisciplinary Studies", click on that. If or when you see "W06 Creativity ISP 5660" click on that.
5. When you are asked for the "enrolment key" for this course, use the key that the Instructor gave you.
6. On the left-hand side, under "Administration," click on "Edit profile" and complete your profile, paying special attention to the items i - iv below.
   1. There are two "Update profile" buttons. Everything above the upper one is required; the information below is optional. You can update your profiel as many times as you like.
   2. Under "Forum auto-subscribe" I recommend the "No" choice. Subscribing to a Moodle Forum does not refer to participation in the discussion, but instead to getting emails of every posting to the Forum. This can remind you about the Forum, and each of the emails has a convenient link to that Forum, but the emails will pile up.
   3. Under "Forum tracking" I recommend the "Yes" choice. This means that Moodle will keep track of which postings you have read.
   4. In "Description," fill in a brief description of yourself, which will be visible only to people taking the course. People will probably be interested in your standing (Freshman, Sophomore, etc.), any other higher education you have, when you expect to graduate, and so forth.
   5. Fill in Phone 1 with a daytime number and Phone 2 with an evening number (only visible to me, the Instructor).

You can edit your Moodle profile as often as you want.

NOTE: For getting around in Moodle, the "bread crumbs" on the left-hand side of the bar at the top are invaluable - much better than your Browser's "Back" button, although that works also.

Digital Photo for Moodle

One of the things that I like about Moodle is that you can upload a digital photo, that Moodle will put beside every posting and assignment. This gives you an me a better sense of who is participating. You can use a photo of your own, or I will take photos at the first class, or by appointment afterwards. Uploading a photo to Moodle is a two-step process, like attaching a file to an email message; "Browse" to find the photo file, then actually upload that file. To upload your photo, edit your profile, scroll down to "New picture," and browse through your files to find the photo. The photo is actually uploaded when you click an "Update profile" button.

If you do not supply a digital photo, Moodle will use a default graphic instead.

Keeping track of Moodle work

Moodle does an excellent job of keeping track of people in the course, work that you have turned in, and your grades on this work. Here are some important links:

• Left-hand side
  • "Participants" will list the people in the course, and their descriptions, photos and emails (no telephone numbers).
  • "Assignments" will list each assignment you have turned in, the date you turned it in, the name of the file that you turned in, the date that I graded it, and your grade on that assignment. Postings are not listed here, but your Essays will be. Many of these items are clickable, meaning, for example, that you can click on the file you submitted and read it.
  • "Forums" will list each Forum that you are a member of, how many posts you have submitted. (Note that non-substantive posts will be counted here, but I will not count them towards the Postings requirement.)
  • "Grades" will give a summary of all of your grades (except for Postings.)
  • "Activity reports" means listing everything you have done on Moodle. In this section, "Forum posts" will list each of your posts, including the content. This is what I will use to count how many substantive postings to credit you with.
• Right-hand side
  • "Online users." This lists others on Moodle at the same time, and it should give you the chance to chat with them, if they are agreeable.
  • "Upcoming events" lists, among other things, upcoming due dates for assignments.
  • "Recent activity" lists posts. The listings are clickable, meaning that you can click to see the content and reply.

Important Dates

Dates of major assignments and evaluations:

NOTE: Near the end of the semester, in the event that some of your work is incomplete, or appears to be incomplete, it is important that I can get in touch with you. Make sure that my information for your telephone number(s) and email address are up to date!

Other important dates:

• Monday January 9: Classes begin.
• Mon Jan 9 - Mon Jan 23: Late registration, $70 late fee
• Friday February 3: Last day to file certificate or degree applications
• Mon Feb 6 - Sat Apr 15: Priority Registration for Spring/Summer Term.
• Monday April 24: last day of classes.
• Tuesday April 25: Study Day. No classes or exams.
• Wednesday April 26 - Tuesday May 2: Finals.
• Thursday May 4: Commencement

Assignment Schedule:

Late Assignments:

Exceptions:

• Half of your required postings must be completed by 3/27, in order to count towards the regular course grade. They will still be accepted after this time for a change of grade after the regular grade.
• ISP 5660 Essays 1 and 2 must be in no later than 4/3 in order to count in the regular course grade. They will be accepted after these dates for a change of grade after the regular grades.

During the semester, in addition to turning work in late, you can also rework Essays and similar assignments (with the exception of failure for plagiarism) during the semester, for a better grade. While there is no direct grade penalty, late work often has the following consequences:

• I may not return late work in a timely manner. This may mean that you have a handicap on later assignments, due to not understanding my grading approach.
• At the end of the semester, you may not know your standing until Final Grades come out.
• Multiple assignments with plagiarism also turned in late, will have the effect of skipping the “warning” stage and going directly to the later stages (see Plagiarism section below).
• Assignments that are more than two weeks late, or that are turned in after the last regular class, may not be graded in time for the regular grades, resulting in a temporary grade of I.

You can also turn in late and reworked assignments after the course is over, for a Change of Grade, with the exceptions noted above. You can turn work in up to six weeks before the end of the Winter 2007 semester, at the end of December 2007. However, if you turn in a big bunch of this work at the end, I will assume that it was a rush job and grade it closely. Instead, I expect to see this late work turned in as you complete it.

NOTE: You should never just stop working on a WSU course; nothing but bad can happen to you. The single exception is a serious (life threatening) illness or other health situation, for you or a close relative. In this case, you should ask about a Medical Withdrawal. But otherwise, if circumstances pile up and you simply cannot finish, you should always discuss the situation with the Instructor.

Assignment descriptions:

Essays. Essays are to be four to six pages, double-spaced, 10- or 12-point font, top and bottom margins one inch, right and left margins one-and-one-half inch, or the equivalent. Essay topics are posted on a separate web page. There will be approximately five topic choices for each essay; choose one. A creative work is also acceptable for Essay 4. In this case, a preliminary description is also required. A contribution to the web site for this course is also an acceptable alternative. Call or email the Instructor to work out a project.

The essays should be written for a general reader, say a magazine reader or a newspaper reader. Specifically, the essay should not be written "to" the Instructor. A general reader will not be interested in whether or not the essay was written for a particular course, or to fill a particular assignment, so these aspects of the assignment should not be mentioned in the essay. If you cannot get interested in your Essay, pretend that you are.

The essay should have the following parts, in this order:

• Header, a separate page, not counted in the four to six pages, containing
  • Your name
  • Assignment (which essay this is)
  • Topic (both the number and statement of the topic)
  • Course, semester, year.
• A descriptive Title; that is, a title that describes the specific contents of the essay. "Creativity Essay" or "Essay 1" are not descriptive in this sense, because it is general and does not describe the specific content. Snappy titles should not count extra, but they do make life more interesting for me, and I am often grateful for that.
• An Introduction that describes what the reader should expect in the essay; a road map for the essay.
• A Body that contains the information in the essay and addresses the specific points above. The Body should contain detail to support the general points. References to readings can be made "in line", for example "as Howard Gardner states on Pg 37 of Creating Minds". Titles of books should be underlined; other sources, including conference postings, should be in quotation marks.
• A Conclusion that summarizes the main points of the essay as a whole. New material should not be introduced in the conclusion; the conclusion should be a summary of material presented earlier. New material in the Conclusion is a signal that you have not finished thinking about your Essay. The 

A cover page is not necessary, but the header is necessary.

Essays will be graded on the following basis:

• Content. 40%. Content includes the ideas, arguments, concepts, and references to the readings and the computer conference discussion.
• Form 40%. Form includes the presence of the parts Header, Title, Introduction, Body, Conclusion and Bibliography, and the organization of the essay in a logical and progressive manner. The essay should flow well or naturally from one topic and part to the next. The essay should have a consistent voice (first person, second person, etc.) and tense (past, present, future) throughout.
• Mechanics 20%. This includes grammar, spelling, punctuation, and other mechanical aspects of writing. It also includes having the header described above, and the correct file name.

NOTE 1: The weights above all assume that the essay basically deals with the course materials and Forum. An essay with a completely different focus will get a much lower grade.

NOTE 2: The essay form counts for a major part of the essay grade. It requires careful reading in the textbook, and careful writing. You should read the description of the form carefully, and clear up any questions or doubts you may have about it, before starting to write an essay. The requirements for the Introduction and Conclusion mean that you should have written a draft or an outline or at least thought through your content before you begin to write the final version.

NOTE 3: Your Essay should be based on the textbook reading. These Essays are not simply book reports, which describe the content, nor are they research papers, which refer to other books that you find on your own. Each of your Essays should use the reading in that textbook to focus on the topic you choose from the list of topics.

Why Essays?
The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies likes essay assignments because:

• A well-written essay should demonstrate completion and understanding of the reading assignments.
• A well-written essay requires thought about the topic.

Computer Conference assignments (computer conference not ready yet)

• There will be a web-based computer conference (only web browser needed). This is not a chat, where everybody has to log in at the same time, but a conference, in which you can log at any time. The conference web site will be announced later.
• Using the computer conference, contribute a minimum of five lines, on the average of twice a week after the first week, for a total for the semester of 30 (actually this is a bit more than two per week). These contributions must be substantive, concerning the readings or other points from the conference. For example, "Gee, I thought that was right on" is not substantive -- it does not make a contribution. As an alternative, you can agree with another comment, and then explain it further, extend or go beyond it, or apply it in a new way. The following special postings are included within the 30 total:
  • A self-introduction under the topic "Introduce Yourself." NOTE: This requires your understanding of how to post a message under a given topic.
  • A description of "What about Creativity is most interesting" to you. This posting must be under the appropriate topic.
  • "Creative people we know," a description of someone whom you think is creative (this person can certainly be you). Describe the person, describe how they relate to other people, and describe what they do that is creative. This posting must be under the appropriate topic
  • Post a minimum of nine times by the date in the table above
  • For students in the four-credit course, post a draft topic for Essay 4 by the date in the table above. This posting must be under the appropriate topic.
  • By the date given in the table above, go back and read your "Creative people we know" description, and say how you would change it as a result of your work in the course
  • Periodically, the Instructor will post reading questions. You must post a response to each of these questions.  These postings must be under the appropriate topics.

NOTE 1: This does NOT mean that you have to log on to the computer conference twice or three times a week. You can make multiple postings during a single session.

NOTE 2: "Under the appropriate topic" means that you must be able to find an existing message on the left-hand (yellow) side, pull up the message, and respond to it, either as "Reply" or "Reply/Quote."

NOTE 3: Postings must make use of the following techniques for helping your readers establish a context:

• If you are responding to an earlier posting, editing the title to indicate that this is a response and not the original positing
• If you are responding to an earlier posting, using "Reply/Quote" but editing out parts of the original posting that you are not responding to

Here is a summary of the required computer conferencing skills for this course:

1. Log in to computer conferencing system
2. Read NewMessages
3. Reply to new messages, including
   1. changing the Topic of the message to reflect what is new in your Reply
   2. Using Reply/Quote to establish the context for your Reply, but editing the original message to focus the context
4. Posting a message under the appropriate specific Main topic and subtopic
5. Using "Mark All Conferences Read" to keep your list of New Messages down to a reasonable size
6. Finding a message in the list of all messages (new plus old)
   1. using the list
   2. using Search

We will learn from each other. I encourage you to quote each other's postings in your Essays.

Online Citizenship

Online citizenship is: helping others online, keeping your temper online if you feel you are attacked, not talking about another person but about yourself (e.g. not "you are wrong" but "here is what I think is right"), not "hijacking" the conference, keeping your messages reasonably brief, and not quoting a whole lot of another's message, especially if your reply is only about one aspect, and doing your part in keeping the conference organized.

Changes to Syllabus

A course Syllabus is like a contract, but it is different in that the Syllabus is often changed during the semester (I once scheduled an exam for Thanksgiving Day!). For a face-to-face class, changes are simply announced in class. For an online class, you should always be sure where changes will be made officially. Here, official changes to the Syllabus will be announced in the News Forum on Moodle. Since everyone is automatically subscribed to this Forum, you will also get an email message.

What you should do in this course to get started:

• Get textbooks, especially Creativity by Csikszentmihalyi
• Set up Moodle account
• Three initial postings: "Introduce Yourself," "What about Creativity is interesting to you," and "Creative people we know."

What you should do in this course on a regular basis:

• Reading (both books and web pages) and writing as assigned.
• After the first week, check computer conference at least weekly (if it really gets cranking, two or three checks per week can be needed).
• Check course web site at least weekly.
• Check email at least weekly.
• For four-credit courses, work on the fourth book throughout the semester.

Grade Appeals

The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies has a clear policy in the event that a student should disagree with the Instructor's course (semester) grade. This policy is on the Departmental web site at www.is.wayne.edu/Policies/Grade Appeal Process.htm, and is summarized here. The grounds for a grade appeal may be (1) the application of non-academic criteria in the grading process, as listed in the University's nondiscrimination and affirmative action statute: viz, race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, marital status, or handicap; (2) sexual harassment; or (3) the application of criteria not relevant to course requirements. The policy involves first talking informally with the Instructor about the grade to see if the dispute can be resolved informally. This should be done within thirty days of the official notification of grades. In the event that it cannot be resolved informally with the instructor, the student can file a formal appeal with the Department Chair (currently, Stuart Henry – stuart.henry@wayne.edu or 313-577-0832). The Chair will consult with to the Departmental Academic Standing Committee. The student will be notified in writing of the Chair’s decision, and may then appeal to the Dean of the College (www.clas.wayne.edu/dean.htm). At any time, the student may also or instead go to the University Ombudsperson (www.ombudsman.wayne.edu) or to the Provost of the University (www.wayne.edu/provost/).

Educational Accessibility

If you feel that you may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability, please feel free to contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. Additionally, the Office of Educational Accessibility Services (EAS) coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. The Office is located in the Student Center Building, Room 583, phone: 313-577-1851 (Voice)/577-3365(TTY).

Dropping Classes:

Do not just stop attending this or any other WSU class. You will still owe tuition and will get a grade, such as E or X, that you do not want on your record. Always use a Drop form to drop a class. These forms are easily available through an Academic Counselor (call (313) 577-0832 for DIS Academic Counselors). If you have severe problems during the semester, ask the Instructor for an Incomplete (I) that you can make up afterwards, or consider a Medical Withdrawal from all classes.

Grading for Course withdrawals: 

Students who stop class participation, and do not officially withdraw from the course before the drop deadline, but do not request an I, and who have not completed approximately 50% of the course work may be given an X or an E. In order to request an I, you must set a completion date in consultation with the Instructor, and an agreed makeup plan for all work including missed class time.

PLAGIARISM 

Putting this topic at the end does not imply that I think it is unimportant, but instead that I think it applies to everything in this course. In academic work, plagiarism is treated as a serious breaking of the rules, but it has harmful effects on your education beyond this. Plagiarism basically means passing off someone else's work as your own, and includes reusing your own work from past courses. It does not matter whether this is done on purpose or by accident, by commission or omission, from one source or from many sources; it is still plagiarism, and it is still serious. The most obvious form of plagiarism is "copying" - using another author's words, without a hint that they are not yours. Changing one or two words in a sentence still results in plagiarism. On the other hand, using quotation marks and a reference to the source is OK, since you are not passing off the work as yours. Such references can even add to an impression that you have read the assignments! References to opinions can also be used to strengthen your arguments, since a reference makes clear that someone else feels the same way that you do.

The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies has a formal Plagiarism Policy at http://www.is.wayne.edu/policies/plagiarism.htm, which describes plagiarism in detail, and describes consequences. If you have any doubt about what plagiarism is, make sure to ask the instructor. To be safe, make sure that you give credit to any authors you borrow from.

In this course, the first work that contains any plagiarism will be ignored, as if it were never turned in. In order to receive credit for the assignment, another topic must be chosen, and the work completely rewritten. Note that at the end of the course, there may not be enough time to redo the work, or even to notify you, before grades are due. Therefore, plagiarism near the end of the semester can have a particularly serious effect on your grade. The second case will count as an automatic failure for that assignment, and the third case will result in failure for the course. In accord with the DIS plagiarism policy, in all cases, including the first, a memo will be sent to the Department Chair describing the plagiarism, and the action I have taken. The student has the right to see the memo before I send it, to have a copy of the memo, to add a comment to the memo if desired. The student will be offered the opportunity to countersign the memo, but the memo will be sent with or without this counter-signature.

The main consequence of plagiarism, whether or not it is detected, is that you will not have the confidence that you can do the course work. The ability to step up in the outside world and say with confidence, "I can do that" is surely one of the primary benefits of a college-level course, and is the source of the other benefits. You may "get away" with plagiarism once or even more than once, but the main cost is that your college education, which is one of the best things you can do for yourself, will not have the benefits you were looking for.