Course Policies

Learning Objectives

In this class, students will learn to:

1. Develop historical perspectives
2. Express themselves clearly
3. Locate relevant information
4. Identify key historical issues and debates
5. Support plausible historical arguments.

Attendance & Participation

Class attendance and participation are both required, though with some adaptations this semester owing to continued limitations caused by the global pandemic.  Our Tuesday classes will meet via Zoom.  Anyone who cannot participate live must email some thoughtful reflections on the reading assignment before the Zoom session begins.  Reflections should be about a paragraph or two in length and should focus on explaining what you consider to be the most significant insights or lessons from the reading assignment.    Everyone in the course must submit such emailed  reflections for our Thursday classes.  For those who are on campus, we will then meet at the HUB to discuss those short reflections in person.  After class, everyone, including those learning remotely, will receive a curated transcript prepared by Prof. Pinsker from those various reflections and his own comments.  All Zoom sessions will be recorded but those recordings are only intended for participants in the course and should not be posted or shared in any way.  The discussion sections at the HUB will not be recorded or broadcast.  Owing to the special conditions related to the pandemic, there will be extra flexibility for students regarding participation deadlines, but students must communicate their need for extensions clearly and repeated failure to contribute in a timely manner will result in a reduction in course grades. Participation grades will be determined largely on the basis of the quality of your Zoom discussion efforts and your weekly emailed reflections.

Sample Discussion Transcripts:

Electronics

No personal electronic devices such as phones, tablets or laptops can be used in this class except in rare cases with special permission in advance from Prof. Pinsker.

Accommodating Students with Disabilities

Dickinson values diverse types of learners and is committed to ensuring that each student is afforded equitable access to participate in all learning experiences. If you have (or think you may have) a learning difference or a disability – including a mental health, medical, or physical impairment – that would hinder your access to learning or demonstrating knowledge in this class, please contact Access and Disability Services (ADS). They will confidentially explain the accommodation request process and the type of documentation that Dean and Director Marni Jones will need to determine your eligibility for reasonable accommodations. To learn more about available supports, go to www.dickinson.edu/ADS or email access@dickinson.edu. If you’ve already been granted accommodations at Dickinson, please follow the guidance at www.dickinson.edu/AccessPlan for disclosing the accommodations for which you are eligible and scheduling a meeting with me as soon as possible so that we can discuss your accommodations and finalize your Access Plan.  NOTE:  test proctoring will not be needed for this class.

Writing Center Visit

All students should consider visiting the Norman M. Eberly Multilingual Writing Center to support their writing assignments for this course.  Writers of all levels and abilities need feedback in order to develop their ideas and grow as writers.  Dickinson’s trained writing tutors can help you generate ideas, begin drafting, revise a rough draft, figure out your professor’s preferred documentation style, understand and respond to professor feedback, edit your writing – among other things.   For more information about hours and procedures, visit the Writing Center online.

Plagiarism

See the Handout on Plagiarism at the Methods Center as well as the blog post on Plagiarism 2.0

From Dickinson College Community Standards (adopted 2006):

To plagiarize is to use without proper citation or acknowledgment the words, ideas, or work of another.  Plagiarism is a form of cheating that refers to several types of unacknowledged borrowing.

  • The most serious degree of plagiarism involves the wholesale and deceptive borrowing of written material from sources such as published authors, web sites, other students, or paper-for-hire services.  Students who submit papers or significant sections of papers that they did not write themselves are committing this type of violation.

 

  • Another serious degree of plagiarism involves less wholesale but still repeated and inappropriate borrowing from outside sources.  In some of these cases, students borrow several phrases or sentences from others, and do so without both quotation marks and proper attributions.  In other cases, students secretly collaborate on assignments in defiance of specific prohibitions outlined by their instructor.

 

  • Finally, there is a degree of plagiarism that involves the borrowing of specific words or phrases without quotation marks. In such cases, citations may be present, but they are inadequate. This problem most commonly occurs when students paraphrase sources by attempting to change a few words in a sentence or brief series of sentences.  It can also occur when students rely too heavily on parents or friends for ideas or phrases which they mistakenly claim as their own.