Course Syllabus


Welcome to CAMS 025: Greek Civilization


Overview

CATEGORY INFORMATION
Credits 3
Prerequisites None
Delivery Web (Canvas, https://psu.instructure.com)
Dates See the Calendar.
Instructor See the Orientation module under Modules.

Description

Welcome to CAMS 025: Greek Civilization on the Web! This course gives students an overview of Greek cultural, political, and social history. Covering roughly the time from the earliest complex societies in Greece to Alexander the Great and Hellenism. This course will focus on such topics as women in ancient Greece, the origins of democracy, the city-state, literary achievements, sexuality, war and warfare, philosophy, and more.

Students will encounter these topics and others through lectures and through primary sources. During our study of the ancient Greeks, students will see the importance of studying this fascinating and important culture, both as it relates to history and to our own day. 

Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

  1. Describe the development of ancient Greek society and explain Greece's place in the ancient Mediterranean at large.
  2. Describe and compare the major strains of ancient Greek thought, from theatrical presentation to philosophy, from attitudes toward war and honor to ideas of sexuality.
  3. Critically read and explain the significance of monuments of Greek literature, including Homer, Sappho, Sophocles and Plato.
  4. Identify major Greek figures both in ancient art (mostly vase paintings), as well as in Renaissance, modern and contemporary artworks.
  5. Recognize Greek architecture, use architectural vocabulary developed by the Greeks and appreciate the endurance of this architectural tradition around the world today, even on the Penn State campus.
  6. Critically analyze gender issues, social stratification and the often underestimated importance of class and wealth in democratic Athens.
  7. Place ancient Greece into a useful context for comparing the ancient world to our own.

Organization

This course is made up of TWENTY-FIVE lessons.

For a typical lesson, you will complete the following activities and assignments:

  • Read several assigned readings.
  • Explore online course content.

Throughout the term, you will participate in weekly discussions and take nine quizzes and two exams. Five quizzes are due prior to the Midterm Exam and the remaining four quizzes are due prior to the Final Exam.

In addition, you will write an analytic paper on a major topic or theme in Greek civilization studies.

Online Learning and Attendance

This course has been developed to promote asynchronous learning. The instructor and students do NOT meet on a designated day and time each week. For each lesson, there is a time frame to complete all activities and assignments, and you may work at your own pace within that time frame. However, you must adhere to the due dates outlined on the Calendar. (Due dates can also be viewed at the bottom of the Syllabus.) You should log into the course daily to check for updates, review lessons, and participate in activities.

Materials

Texts

The following texts are required:

  • *Aeschylus. (1998). Oresteia. (P. Meineck, Trans.). Hackett Publishing. [ISBN: 978-0872203907]
  • Aristophanes. (2003). Lysistrata and other plays. (A. H. Sommerstein, Trans.). Penguin. [ISBN: 978-0140448146]
  • Euripides. (2000). Medea. (J. Harrison, Trans.). Cambridge University Press. [ISBN: 978-0521644792]
  • *Homer. (1994). The essential Homer: Selections from the Iliad and the Odyssey. (S. Lombardo, Trans.). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. [ISBN: 978-0872205406]
  • Plato. (2001). Symposium. (S. Benardete, Trans.). University of Chicago Press. [ISBN: 978-0226042756]
  • Sophocles. (1999). Aias (Ajax). P. Burian & A. Shapiro. (Eds.). (H. Golder & R. Pevear, Trans.). Oxford University Press. [ISBN: 978-0195128192]
  • Sophocles. (2009). Antigone, Oedipus the king, Electra. E. Hall (Ed.). (H. D. F. Kitto, Trans.). New York: Oxford University Press. [ISBN: 978-0199537174]

There are electronic resources on reserve for this course that can be accessed through the Penn State Libraries. To access your Course Reserves, select Library Resources in the course menu.

For any questions you may have about searching, viewing, or printing your Course Reserves, refer to the Viewing/Printing Electronic Reserves page at https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/reserves/usingreserves.html.

*E-Book Option: An online version of one or more of your texts is available at no cost as a Penn State Libraries E-Book, which is indicated by an asterisk (*). You can access the E-Book through the Library Resources link on the course navigation menu. Some E-Books will only be available online, while others will be available to download in full or in part. You may choose to use the E-Book as an alternative to purchasing a physical copy of the text. For questions or issues, you can contact the University Libraries Reserve Help (UL-RESERVESHELP@LISTS.PSU.EDU). 

Notes on Online Texts

All readings in this course are available for free online, so purchasing the books listed above is not mandatory. I do, though, STRONGLY urge you to buy the Homer book.

  • Length: Many books listed above are shorter than the online texts. For example, the Homer book listed above is an abridged version of the Iliad and Odyssey, so if you use the online versions, you will likely end up doing more reading than you need to (and in some cases by a lot).
  • Readability: You will probably find it easier to read from the books listed above than from a computer screen. Also, the translations in the books listed above are newer and remarkably more readable than the online texts, which have English that sounds stilted and awkward to our ears.
  • Availability: The books listed above are reliable and look sexy on a shelf. In contrast, the online texts are hosted by organizations that are not affiliated with Penn State, so if they become unavailable for some reason, there is nothing I can do about it. If you find yourself in a pinch, you will need to seek out the readings at the library. You are always responsible for your reading assignments. "The server was down" will never be an acceptable excuse for not completing the reading.
  • Quality: The books listed above have high-quality, accurate translations. If you want to use an online version of a reading that is not linked out of the course, you should clear it with me first. Please do not assume that a text that you find online is acceptable.

Library Services

Penn State Libraries provides a wide variety of services and resources. To learn how to take advantage, refer to the Online Student Library Guide at http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/onlinestudentlibraryguide. This guide serves as your starting point for access to all that Penn State Libraries can offer you as an online student. Use this guide if you have questions on library services offered to you, how the library can help you, how to use the library, or what resources you can access via the library! The guide will connect you to important pages and resources within Penn State Libraries and save time from you searching for the information you need.


Grading

Final letter grades will be assigned based on the scale below.

Scale

LETTER
GRADE   
MINIMUM
PERCENT   
MINIMUM
POINTS
A 94 376
A- 90 360
B+ 87 348
B 83 332
B- 80 320
C+ 77 308
C 70 280
D 60 240
F 0 0

 

Notes on Grades

  • Rounding: I do NOT round up grade percentages. If a student has worked particularly hard, been an especially strong discussion contributor, etc., I might bump that student from, say, 93.6% to the 94% needed for an A, but I will never bump your grade more than 0.5%, no matter what. It's unfair to the students who worked hard to get the higher grade.
  • Extra Credit: I will NOT offer extra credit to anyone. This is an ideological issue for me, so please don't ask me whether there's any extra work you can do for that little extra push. If you're worried about your grade (and whether you're going to make a cut-off that is necessary for your scholarship, your parents' approval, etc.), do not wait until you've taken the final to contact me. I strongly urge you to check your grades weekly and email me early! If something is preventing you from being able to focus and succeed, let me know before it's too late. We can discuss study strategies, I can help you with your paper, etc. I want you all to succeed, but I also need to protect the integrity of this course.

Due Dates

Discussion and Paper assignments are due by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on the date indicated on the Calendar. (Due dates can be also be viewed at the bottom of the Syllabus.) Please be aware that Canvas follows the Eastern Time (ET) time zone. Assignment due dates adhere to this time zone, and it is your responsibility to submit assignments accordingly. If you are outside of the ET time zone, you can set your Canvas account to sync to it. Refer to the Set a Time Zone article in the Canvas Guide at https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-2891.

As a general rule, you will NOT be able to go back and make up missed assignments. It is your responsibility to keep up with your assignments. Students with an excused absence (hospitalization, jury duty, or family emergency) may be asked to produce proper documentation in order to make up graded work. All make-up work is at the discretion of the instructor.

Quiz due dates indicated on the Calendar dates as more of a guideline than a due date. Read the Quizzes description below for a thorough explanation.


Assignments

Basic information about each assignment group is provided below. For detailed directions about an individual assignment, see the assignment information under Modules.

You can expect meaningful feedback on assignments within SEVEN days of their due date.

ASSIGNMENT
GROUP
POINTS
Team Discussions 40
Paper 110
Quizzes 60
Exams (Midterm and Final)     190

 

Team Discussions

Value: 40 PTS total

Because we do not meet in a traditional classroom, we must rely on electronic discussion. You will be randomly assigned to a "team" after the end of the drop/add period. The teams are set up to divide the work and to reduce the anonymity of a large, online course. Once teams have been assigned, you must contribute to the team discussion forum each week. The idea here is to create, however small, a community for you to discuss the course material. Obviously you should not use the team discussion forum for anything other than class discussion. If you do, you will be warned and lose points. For example, the team discussion forum is not an appropriate place to ask questions about deadlines, paper expectations, etc. (These questions should be posted in the General Questions Discussion Forum.)

You must make all your own posts. There are no "team" posts. And while there is a weekly minimum (1 reply to the discussion and 1 reply to a team member reply), there is no maximum to how much you can post/reply. In fact, the more the better because the goal of the team discussions is to create ongoing and engaged conversations about the readings, lectures, and other relevant ideas. You are welcome to keep alive a discussion thread as long as you want, but do remember that a new reply is due each week, so contributing to an ongoing conversation does not excuse you from your weekly new reply post.

All of your messages, whether they are initial reply posts or replies to a classmate's post, should be well thought-out, well written and show that you are engaging in the course material. Three sentences to one paragraph is sufficient length. "Achilles is a brat; I prefer Brad Pitt" is not a good post. "I find Achilles to be a let down as a hero because of X, Y, and Z" is a good post. The team discussions should not dominate your life, but they should be thoughtful, critical, and show that you are taking the course seriously. About 10-15 minutes per week is a sufficient commitment to your team discussions.

Paper

Value: 110 PTS total

You must write an analytic paper of 3-4 pages on a posted topic. The topic and guidelines for the paper are here (Syllabus) as well as in Modules.

Note on Late Papers: Late papers will lose the point equivalent of FIVE PERCENT per hour, and Hour 1 starts one minute after the deadline. (See the Calendar.)

Quizzes

Value: 9 x 10 PTS, 60 PTS total

The quizzes are based on lectures and readings. Quizzes are found in ModulesBecause this is a self-paced course, for the most part, you can take quizzes when you want. BUT you must take Quizzes 1-5 before the Midterm Exam opens. These quizzes correspond with Lessons 1-14. Likewise, you must take Quizzes 6-9 BEFORE the Final Exam opens. These quizzes correspond with Lessons 15-25. There are reminders on the Calendar to prompt you to take the quizzes but that is not a due date and the quizzes are generally available after that date. No quiz may be taken after its deadline. When the deadline hits, the quizzes become disabled. 

The lowest three quiz scores will be dropped to determine total points for Quizzes. 

Midterm Exam

Value: 90 PTS

The Midterm Exam will cover all lecture and reading material through Lesson 14. The Midterm Exam will look like a large Canvas quiz, consisting of true-or-false, multiple choice, multiple-select and short answer essay questions. Please check the calendar for the exam period.

Final Exam

Value: 100 PTS

The Final Exam is cumulative with an emphasis on material covered after the Midterm Exam (Lessons 15-25). The Final Exam will look like the Midterm Exam. Please check the calendar for the exam period.


University Policies

Academic Integrity

According to Penn State policy G-9: Academic Integrity, an academic integrity violation is “an intentional, unintentional, or attempted violation of course or assessment policies to gain an academic advantage or to advantage or disadvantage another student academically.” Unless your instructor tells you otherwise, you must complete all course work entirely on your own, using only sources that have been permitted by your instructor, and you may not assist other students with papers, quizzes, exams, or other assessments. If your instructor allows you to use ideas, images, or word phrases created by another person (e.g., from Course Hero or Chegg) or by generative technology, such as ChatGPT, you must identify their source. You may not submit false or fabricated information, use the same academic work for credit in multiple courses, or share instructional content. Students with questions about academic integrity should ask their instructor before submitting work.   

Students facing allegations of academic misconduct may not drop/withdraw from the affected course unless they are cleared of wrongdoing (see G-9: Academic Integrity). Attempted drops will be prevented or reversed, and students will be expected to complete course work and meet course deadlines. Students who are found responsible for academic integrity violations face academic sanctions, which can be severe, and put themselves at jeopardy for other outcomes (see G-9: Academic Integrity).

Unless your instructor tells you otherwise:

  • Always include an in-text citation that includes the author(s) last name(s) and the year the source was published at the end of any sentence or below any image that includes words, images, or ideas you found in a source, always included quoted text within quotation marks, and always include a reference for any source at the end of your paper (ask your instructor about the format you should use).
  • All of your graded coursework must be created by you without help from anyone in the course or otherwise. If you have questions about this, you should ask your instructor before submitting work for evaluation.
  • All course materials you receive or access are protected by copyright laws. You may use course materials and make copies for your own use, but unauthorized distribution and/or uploading of materials without the instructor’s express permission is strictly prohibited. Students who engage in the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials may be held in violation of the University’s Code of Conduct and/or liable under Federal and State laws.

Disability Access

Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. Every Penn State campus has an office for students with disabilities. The Student Disability Resources website provides contact information for every Penn State campus at http://equity.psu.edu/student-disability-resources/disability-coordinator. For further information, please visit the Student Disability Resources website at http://equity.psu.edu/student-disability-resources.

In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation described at http://equity.psu.edu/student-disability-resources/applying-for-services. If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus’s disability services office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.

Counseling and Psychological Services

Penn State's Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) office offers residential and distance-based Penn State students non-emergency mental health services in the form of case management, community resource referrals, supportive listening, care giver support, and much more.

Students may request assistance from CAPS regarding a variety of common mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, and stress. CAPS services are designed to enhance students' ability to fully benefit from the University environment and academic experience. Call CAPS at 814-863-0395 (8 am-5 pm, Monday-Friday EST) or submit an inquiry online at https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/form/caps-contact-form to schedule an appointment with a mental health advocate, who can help you address mental health concerns that may interfere with your academic progress or social development. This appointment will include a one-on-one session that can be conducted via telephone, teleconference (Skype, FaceTime, etc.), or locally at Penn State University Park. For more information on services provided through CAPS, please visit the Penn State CAPS website at http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/counseling/. Students enrolled at the World Campus are also encouraged to visit its Mental Health Services page at http://student.worldcampus.psu.edu/student-services/mental-health-services.

Reminder: These services are for non-emergencies only. If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis situation, please call your local crisis center or 911.

Nondiscrimination

Penn State is committed to equal access to programs, facilities, admission and employment for all persons. It is the policy of the University to maintain an environment free of harassment and free of discrimination against any person because of age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, service in the uniformed services (as defined in state and federal law), veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, marital or family status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, physical or mental disability, gender, perceived gender, gender identity, genetic information or political ideas. Discriminatory conduct and harassment, as well as sexual misconduct and relationship violence, violates the dignity of individuals, impedes the realization of the University's educational mission, and will not be tolerated. For further information, please visit the Affirmative Action Office website at https://affirmativeaction.psu.edu/.

Reporting a Bias Incident

Penn State takes great pride to foster a diverse and inclusive environment for students, faculty, and staff. Acts of intolerance, discrimination, or harassment due to age, ancestry, color, disability, gender, gender identity, national origin, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, or veteran status are not tolerated and can be reported through Educational Equity via the Report Bias webpage at http://equity.psu.edu/reportbias/.

TEACH Act

The materials on the course website are only for the use of students enrolled in this course for purposes associated with this course and may not be retained or further disseminated.


University Emergency Procedure

In the event of a University-wide emergency, the course may be subject to changes. Exigent circumstances may require alternative delivery methods, class materials, and interactions with the instructor and/or classmates. In addition, there may be revisions to grading policies and the Calendar, including assignments and their due dates.

In the event of a University-wide emergency, please refer to the Canvas website at https://psu.instructure.com for specific information related to the course. For more general information about the emergency situation, please refer to the Penn State website at https://www.psu.edu or Penn State News website at https://news.psu.edu.

To register with PSUAlert, a service designed to alert the Penn State community when situations arise that affect the ability of a campus to function normally, please go to the PSU Alert website at https://psualert.psu.edu/. Subscribers can receive alerts by text message to cell phones, and also can elect to have alerts sent to an email address.


Syllabus Subject to Change

The class will likely adhere to the information outlined in this Syllabus and the Calendar, but adjustments may be made based on what actually transpires during the semester. Remaining in the course after reading this Syllabus will signal that you accept the possibility of changes and responsibility for being aware of them.


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Course Summary:

Date Details Due