Course Syllabus

Welcome to RLST 001: Introduction to World Religions

Here are a few pointers for navigating this page:

• See the Assignments Summary (Schedule) below. This table lists assignments by due date.
  Note: This table is similar to the Agenda view on the Calendar.
• Click the Jump to Today link at the top of the page to jump directly to today's date on the Assignments Summary.

Overview

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

Description

Welcome to the web version of World Religions at the Pennsylvania State University. The goal of this course is to enhance cultural literacy through study of the world’s major religious traditions and the phenomenon of religion in general. Note well that this course entails the academic study of religion, not the practice or advocacy of religion. This course overlaps with academic disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, literary studies, and psychology, but our primary approach is historical. We seek to trace the origins and development of the major religions over time. This approach provides an excellent foundation for further academic study of religion and for further study of the humanities in general. Moreover, study of the major religions will equip you to interact more effectively with people on a global scale. This course is ultimately about acquiring a better understanding of human beings.

Objectives

The main goal of this course is acquiring cultural knowledge.  In the process of reading, posing questions, and doing the work of the course, it is also likely that you will enhance certain skills such as evaluating evidence and critical thinking. 

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

1. Apply the knowledge learned in the course to explain the diversity of world religious traditions
2. Identify and discuss the major themes in world religious traditions and identify similar and different approaches to these themes
3. Trace and communicate the origins of major world religions
4. Identify and describe the core teachings of major world religions
5. Summarize and outline major social functions of religion
6. Develop cultural literacy by analyzing the historical, political, and social aspects of world religions

Organization

This course is comprised of 15 lessons, which fall into 5 broad areas. First, you explore the Dharmic Religions. Next are lessons about Chinese and East Asian religions. The third area is religious blending. The Abrahamic religions are next. Finally, we examine the broader topic of religion and science in the Western world before summing up in the final lesson of the course. 

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

• Explore course content on the course web site
• Read assigned chapter lesson and view video content
• Participate in lesson discussions
• Complete lesson You are the Expert activities or quizzes

Each week you will review the course materials for a lesson. The discussions are intended to help you explore the questions raised in the lesson and connect the ideas covered in the lesson to the broader topics in the course. The activities are an opportunity for you to consider what you are learning and apply those ideas to solve a real world problem or issue. The quizzes will assess your knowledge of the materials covered in the lessons. A comprehensive final exam is given for this course.

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 timeframe to complete all activities and assignments, and you may work at your own pace within that timeframe. However, you must adhere to the due dates outlined on the Calendar. (Due dates can also be viewed under the Syllabus tab.) You should log into the course daily to check for updates, review lessons, and participate in activities.

Materials

Texts and Other Materials

There is no required text for this course. All course readings and materials are supplied within the course website.

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 (Links to an external site.) 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.

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Grading

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

Scale

LETTER GRADE	MINIMUM PERCENT
A	92
A-	90
B+	87
B	83
B-	80
C+	77
C	68
D	60
F	0

Due Dates

All assignments are due by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on the date indicated on the Calendar. (Due dates can be also be viewed under the Syllabus tab.) 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 (e.g. hospitalization, jury duty, family emergency, or military service) may be asked to produce proper documentation in order to make up graded work.   If you do have a valid reason for missing an assignment, you need to notify the instructor by the assignment due date.  This means you cannot make up missed assignments later in the semester unless you email the instructor about each individual missed assignment within the proper time frame.   All make-up work is at the discretion of the instructor.

Veterans and currently serving military personnel and/or spouses with unique circumstances (e.g. upcoming deployments, drill/duty requirements, disabilities, VA appointments, etc.) are welcome and encouraged to communicate these, in advance if possible, to the instructor in the case that special arrangements need to be made.

Notes

• To Do List: Some assignments may not appear in the To Do list under the Home tab. Use the Calendar or Syllabus to ensure that you are fully aware of assignment due dates.
• Late assignments will not be accepted in this course. Allowances have been made within the grading scheme of the course to mediate for those occasions where unforeseen things might occur. 

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Assignments

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

An overview of assignment categories is provided below. Your assignments include:

Expert Case Activities
- there are 7, and the lowest score is dropped
Quizzes (you take each quiz ONCE)
- there are 7, and the lowest score is dropped
Participation in Discussion Forums
- there are 14, and the highest 5 scores count
Final Exam (you take the final exam ONCE)

More specific instructions about each individual assignment can be found in the appropriate area online. Be sure to take each type of graded assessment seriously because there is no “extra credit” or any other way to undo poor scores. The key to success is regular, disciplined study in advance of exams and assignments.

Note: Your participation in this course implies that you agree and acknowledge that ALL work done in this course is your own work and no one else’s.

ASSIGNMENT GROUP	PERCENT
Discussions	10%
'Expert' Case Activities	30%
Quizzes	45%
Final Exam	15%
Total	100%

Discussions

Value: 5 x 2%, 10% total

For minor variations during Summer Sessions, refer to the course Calendar.

You must participate in at least five discussion threads. Fourteen discussion topics will be offered (one for each of weeks 1-14). You may select any five (or more) of these in which to participate. Your highest 5 scores will be used to determine your course grade.

Discussion questions are posted in the Discussion Forum folder found on the Lessons tab. The questions are relatively broad, and are an opportunity for you to think about important topics within the context of the course, using material from each lesson in your response.  Please use your own words and do not use direct quotes or outside sources.  This is an exercise in clear thinking and writing, not research.

Participation in a discussion consists of TWO components: 1) a COMMENT on the discussion question for a particular lesson and 2) a REPLY to another student’s comment on the same question.  Check the course calendar to note the dates when Comments and when Replies are to be posted.

Your Comment will be a ‘post first’ writing. That is, you will not be able to see other students’ Comments until after you post your Comment. 

Then, after reading other Comments and considering what significant additions or observations you might make, consider your Reply. Your Reply should add something constructive to what someone else has already written. Do not merely agree or disagree. 

Each Comment-and-Reply, together, will be worth 2% of your course grade.  You must post BOTH a Comment AND a Reply TO THE SAME QUESTION (within the same lesson) to receive any credit.  Comments with no accompanying Reply (and Replies with no accompanying Comment) will receive NO points.

Be sure to check the course schedule for dates and times that the discussion forums become available, and for due dates for Comments and for Replies. Both Comments and Replies must be submitted prior to their respective deadlines to receive credit.  If one or the other is posted after the deadline, you will receive NO points for that discussion forum.

Discussion Comments should be about 200 words AND should include at least 2 specific examples to support your observations.  Your Replies should be about 100-words long AND include at least 1 specific example to support your observations.  Each Comment and each of your Replies will be graded as Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory.

That said, since the Comments and Replies will be quite short, your answers need to be concise yet substantive.   Like the Expert Activities, your answers should demonstrate clear thinking and concise writing within the word limit. The grade of “Satisfactory” is intended to apply widely to any acceptable response.  However, those postings that are significantly flawed will receive an “Unsatisfactory.” 

Meeting these minimum requirements is not sufficient for full credit for this activity. Your instructor will also assess the quality of your responses. The standards for this assessment of quality are:

• Is the response thoughtful?
• Does it reflect knowledge of the relevant material in the course?
• Is it constructive (especially in the case of responses to others)?

Expert Case Activities

Value: 6 [complete 7 drop lowest 1] x 5%, 30% total

For minor variations during Summer Sessions, refer to the course Calendar.

There are seven You are the Expert activities. They occur in Lessons 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. Your lowest expert activity score will be dropped.

These exercises provide an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the material from the course. Each exercise will present you with a “real world” scenario and a specific task. Completing the task well will require mastery of the relevant course content to the extent that you can apply it in a concrete, focused way.

The Expert Case Activities will not only demonstrate your knowledge of the subject matter, but also will provide you with practice in writing clearly and concisely. Getting directly to the essential points and explaining those points clearly in only a few words is a valuable skill in a world in which information everywhere competes for attention. Specifically, because the assignments are exercises in clear thinking and concise writing, the maximum words for the Expert Activities is kept to 400.

Please use your own words and do not use direct quotes or outside sources.  Also, be sure to adhere to the word limit or other relevant parameters. Finally, be sure to use a simple citation system (page number in parentheses) to refer to the pages in the main text of the course from which you get your basic information.

You instructor will evaluate what your write in the exercises based on the following questions:

• Does it follow the instructions, including giving citations to where in the lesson the information may be found?
• Is it within the word limit or other parameters?
• Is it thoughtful in the context of the assigned task?
• Does it reflect knowledge of relevant course material?

Quizzes

Value: 6 [complete 7 drop lowest 1] x 7.5%, 45% total

For minor variations during Summer Sessions, refer to the course Calendar.

There are seven quizzes during the semester. These occur in Lessons 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14. Each quiz covers material from two lessons. You may take each quiz only once.   At the end of the semester, the lowest quiz score will be dropped.

The main purpose of the quizzes is to assess your mastery of the basic course content. The secondary purpose of the quizzes is to help prepare you for the final exam, because final exam questions will be taken from quiz questions. 

The quizzes consist of multiple-choice questions, many of which will require analysis, not mere regurgitation of simple facts. Bear in mind the following important information about the quizzes:

• Taken online during the quiz period. See the course calendar for open/close dates and times.
• 20 multiple-choice questions; shuffled randomly from a database.
• 20-minute time limit; stopping the clock is impossible. Once a quiz is opened, the countdown timer begins. Exiting the quiz will not pause or stop the clock.   Thus, be certain that when you open the quiz you have a full 20 minutes and you are prepared to sit down and complete the quiz right then.
• Quizzes may be taken once.  After you take a quiz you will not be allowed to take it again.
• The system permits quiz taking at any time, but DO NOT take a quiz before you have completed the relevant unit of study.
• You will be able to see the detailed results of your quiz after the quiz period is over, but not during the quiz period.
• Please remember that if you do not take a quiz, you will not have access to the questions and answers for that particular quiz.  You must take the quiz to later have access to it.
• Technical problems are not excuses for re-setting a quiz. Use technological common sense. For example, use a wired internet connection, use an approved browser, do not take the quiz during a severe thunderstorm, and do not take a quiz just before the deadline.
• Avoid pushing the limits. For example, be certain you begin the quiz at least 20 minutes before the quiz closing time. The official system clock and other settings are final.

"Forgetting" or otherwise failing to take a quiz results in a score of zero, so set multiple reminders for yourself if you tend to be absent minded.

Final Exam

Value: 1 x 15%, 15% total

The comprehensive Final Exam is taken at the end of the semester. See the course calendar for open/close dates and times. The Final Exam covers material in units 1-14 inclusive. The parameters for this Final Exam are as follows:

• You will be able to take the Final Exam ONE time ONLY.
• There will be 50 multiple-choice questions randomly shuffled from the total questions in all of the databases for the course.  To be clear, this means that you might get questions that you did not have on your quizzes. This is because each quiz has in its test bank more than 20 questions. 
• There is a 50-minute time limit; stopping the clock is impossible. Once the exam is opened, the countdown timer begins. Exiting the exam will not pause or stop the clock.

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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).

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 https://equity.psu.edu/offices/student-disability-resources/campus-offices. For further information, please visit the Student Disability Resources website (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. 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 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. 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.

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 http://www.psu.edu/dept/aaoffice/.

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.

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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 http://www.psu.edu or Penn State News at http://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 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.

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 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. at http://equity.psu.edu/reportbias/.

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 (Links to an external site.) at http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/counseling/contact_form.shtml 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 (Links to an external site.) at http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/counseling/.

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.

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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.