Connecting students to knowledge
and its application
Southern Utah University
Lynn White, Ph.D.
Brain and Behavior
Attendance and Participation
This class is not your typical university psych class. You will NOT come to class to hear a lecture. Before you get too excited - there will be lectures. It's just that they are pre-recorded and you will watch them "at home" according to a set schedule. These lectures will be divided up into "video segments" with a short multiple-choice quiz at the end of each. For every correct answer you get, you earn "bonus points" which can be redeemed at the end of the semester for "rewards".
Actual class time will be devoted to "studio class" - where we will work on reflections, activities, and projects in groups called a learning pod. Midway through the semester, pods will be reassigned so that each of you will belong to two different pods total. What a great way to make new friends, eh?
Studio class attendance is required. You cannot contribute if you are not there! Moreover, activities and most project work will be completed in class. If you are absent, you will not be able to do them. To sweeten the pot even more, you will earn 5 bonus points for attending. Note however, if you are tardy, you lose 1 point. If you leave early, you lose 1 point.
What happens if you are absent? I understand that you might have no choice but to miss a class or two. I do not deduct points from your grade if you are absent. However, you will not receive any bonus points that day. Please see my late stuff policy in the event you miss a "project work day" or a "project show and tell" day.
Learning Pods & Reflections
Sometimes, it's hard to participate in a classroom full of people you don't know. So to help with that, you will be assigned to a learning pod for the first half of the semester, and then re-assigned to a new pod for the second half. There will be 3-5 people per pod. At the beginning of every class, you and your pod will engage in a "mandatory 5-minute chit-chat" on the material in the assigned video lecture segments for that day. To prepare - before coming to class, identify one or two specific facts/findings/theories we talked about in the previous lecture or what you read about in your book. Choose something that you found particularly interesting. Think about why you found the topic so interesting. Was it because you have a personal experience that relates to this topic? Or maybe you thought of an interesting application for the material? At the end of the chit-chat, we will take a moment to share what we talked about.
Note that podmates will help each other in additional ways. You will complete 5 mini-projects (show & tell) together with your pod.
Time Commitment
As a two-credit class, we will have just 17 class meetings. The time required for work outside the class will obviously depend on the individual. My best guesses are outlined below. This means you will need to invest about 7 hours/week throughout the semester. This might seem like a lot, but it is less than the 9 hours per week expected from the Utah System of Higher Education and SUU policy 6.26. Plus, you will learn some real cool stuff!
Face-to-face class attendance 21 hours
video lectures and quizzes 25 hours
other video quizzes 2 hours
preping for the show and tell 10 hours
Book chapter readings 4 hours
Preparing for the final exam 5 hours
67 hours total
approximately 7 hours/week on average
