Lesson 10 Outline Nature of Symposium Discussions

      Once your group has selected a societal problem topic and framed a question (for instance, "What can be done to reduce the cost of higher education in the United States?") and by the due date in the Course Schedule, you should upload an outline of your presentation, along with a list of the sources on which you are drawing, to the instructor through this assignment. In the outline, you should include: 1. Your group number, group members, and framing question ("What can be done to reduce the cost of higher education in the United States?") 2. Have your group members listed in speaking order with the following information: 1. A brief summary of their findings on their individual subtopics - the content that will be discussed in each person's individual presentation during the symposium 2. A listing of all sources cited/consulted, in MLA or APA formats (a minimum of 3 sources per person is a good place to start) 3. A very brief discussion of the credibility of each source (see the Lesson 7 module for guidance on source evaluation) 4. Indicate the reasons for believing that it would help to solve the problem, and identify any factors or conditions that might limit the effectiveness of the solution Each individual group member is required to complete the content noted above. The group leader's job is to complete their own individual work, and then to compile the group's individual outline into one coherent document which will be submitted for the Lesson 10 assignment. We use this Lesson 10 outline for the Lesson 11 symposium, as it guides us through our first conversation. Do not submit your individual outline to the dropbox - only to your group leader so they can include it in the group's outline, which will be graded. Group members who do not respond to calls for information/complete their individual portion of the outline/communicate consistently with fellow group members may see reduced/zero scores for Lesson 10. Here was a mail that the instructor sent for the Lesson 10 : Hi everyone, I hope you’re doing well. This week marks a shift in the way our course runs. In the beginning of this class, the course was designed so that each student would learn the theory behind group communication. Now that you have that background, the assignments are geared around participation in group communication. I’ve found that most students really enjoy getting to know each other in a group format. Your assignment for Lesson 10 is simple, but it will require you to check the class Canvas discussion page often – I would recommend daily. In your specific group forum (located in Canvas under Courses and then Discussions. You can also reach the Discussion page by accessing the Lesson 10 module), you will participate with your fellow group members. If you find that you will not be able to log in every day to communicate with members, please let them know via post on the message board. The first step for each group/team will be to choose a leader. I do not make this decision – it’s up to each group. Most team leaders volunteer for the position, and I do look very kindly on those students who put time into facilitating leadership for their respective groups. Plan to have a team leader by Wednesday evening at the latest. After the leader is chosen, each group must find a topic to discuss for the symposiums (Lessons 11, 13, 15). This topic should be a problem that needs to be addressed in society. And then groups will break their topics into subtopics. Subtopics can include solutions, or just different angles on the overall topic. For example: Question: What can be done to combat obesity among children in The United States? John - Educational measures Ebony - Physical activity Susan - Dieting Hal - Counseling Jo - Surgery And so on. When your topic and framed question is defined, the group will then begin to work on a group outline via the discussion forum. In the upcoming symposium discussion, each team member should propose solutions to the problem you’ve identified, reasons that you believe the solution will help the problem, and factors or conditions that would affect the feasibility or effectiveness of the solution. As your team is discussing information, sources must be cited with the information. When discuss your research, be sure to include why the source is credible. Near the end of the week (I recommend Thursday or Friday), the team leader will compile the team’s information and sources. The information will be placed it in an outline, which is the Lesson 10 assignment for this week. The group’s graded outline will be due to me by this upcoming Sunday at 5:00 p.m. EST, just like any other assignment, but I have found that groups often make changes between when the Lesson 10 outline is due and the time of the symposium. So I’d like to propose this: If your group makes any updates to your outline after submitting it to be graded, just email it to me directly, and that will be the one that I provide feedback to the group on, though I will grade the original version. The group’s Lesson 10 outline submission will count as each group’s member submitted assignment for the week. There will be no individual submissions for Lesson 10, only one outline per group. If I receive more than one outline per group, or individual outlines from students misunderstanding the assignment, I will be displeased. The team leader will be the one to submit the team’s outline to me – and please email directly to me at eam24@psu.edu. Team leaders, if you have a member that doesn’t fully participate, please let me know and I will act accordingly. I realize this may seem very confusing, but I promise that you will get the hang of it. I've found that students really enjoy getting to know each other and work collectively on the group project. Be sure to participate and interact with your fellow group members often. Don’t be “that guy” or “that gal,” that is, the person who doesn’t participate. I will be observing your communications on the discussion forum as well. If you have any questions, re-read this email along with the information under this week’s lesson on Canvas. If you still feel stumped, contact me and I’ll be happy to clarify. I will have your team’s outline returned to you the day before your symposium (which will either be on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday next week – please check your group scheduling for more information). Thanks for reading. Get to work on the discussion boards! I will send out contact information (phone) for the symposiums later in the week. Have a lovely weekend and happy July 4th for those of us in the U.S.! Lesson 10: The Nature of Symposium Discussions ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES • Read Appendix B (pp. 396-397). • Participate in preliminary discussion on course discussion forum. • Prepare for symposium topic.