Photo: Colleen Hayes / NBC.

This course challenges each of us to share in the difficult process of negotiation and conflict resolution. As a result, class attendance and participation are crucial in understanding class material and practicing the skills it seeks to impart.

1. Here’s What I Want You to Do
2. Here’s Why I Want You to Do It
3. Here’s How You’ll Earn Negotiation Experience Points
4. What If You Miss Class?

The more you are able to meaningfully engage in this class, the more you will learn and the better you may perform.

Photo: Colleen Hayes / NBC.

Here’s What I Want You to Do

First and foremost, arrive on time to each of our class meetings. Most days will have some form of activity where I have pre-assigned you a partner. (I try to assign you with as many different classmates as possible during the semester.) So if you are late or absent, you are not only falling behind on material but also denying your partner the opportunity to work with and learn from you.

In addition, do yourself a favor and find a notes buddy. A notes buddy is someone you can contact if you’d like to look over their course notes. This is extremely helpful if you are late or absent, or if you believe you might not have fully understood something that I presented during class. In any of those cases, reach out to your notes buddy and catch up on anything that you might have missed from class. Of course, as their notes buddy, you should be ready and willing to share your notes with them, as needed.

Notes buddies are not assigned. Instead, on the first day of class, I encourage you to exchange university email addresses with at least one of your classmates. That way you have someone you are comfortable contacting when you’d like to compare notes.

This is important because if you miss class for any reason, make sure you contact your notes buddy. If you have specific questions after you’ve completed the relevant reading and reviewed the relevant notes from your notes buddy, let me know!

Furthermore, most class meetings will have some kind of planned activity. You will find the most important of these activities, which include the in-class negotiations, are announced in advance and posted on the schedule. Meanwhile, there will also be many in-class activities that are not announced in advanced. In either case, come to class prepared to work with your classmates.

Make things easier for yourself—and for your classmates—by showing up on time to each of our class meetings.

Throughout all this, I also expect that everyone is mentally present during class, so do give each other our undivided attention. Out of respect for everyone else, please try to avoid distracting behavior like sleeping in class, chatting while I am trying to lecture, using a phone or laptop without permission, arriving late, leaving the room during class, and doing homework for another course.

There will be out-of-class activities for you as well. Whew! 🥵

Given the wide variety of these different sorts of activities, be sure to pay careful attention to what is being assigned and let me know if you have any confusions about what is expected from you.

Finally, two very important points to always keep in mind:

• Negotiation and conflict resolution are full-contact sports, but conducted as cooperative processes. You and your classmates must wrestle together with difficult problems and situations, while not attacking each other. Disrespectful behavior will not be tolerated.
• To get the most out of our class meetings, please do not confuse this cooperative style of learning with mere conversation or informal, organized chatting.

Photo: Justin Lubin / NBC.

Here’s Why I Want You to Do It

There are so many class participation activities for this course for the simple reason that negotiation and conflict resolution are activities. Activities are only learned through continual practice. That is why this course is structured around the principle of experiential learning, which demands a wide variety of activities for you to complete with your classmates.

In that way, class participation is an essential way for you to continually progress towards achieving all four learning outcomes for this course:

Photo: Colleen Hayes / NBC.

Here’s How You’ll Earn Negotiation Experience Points

The number of negotiation experience points you may earn from class participation activities with vary from activity to activity. Relatively simple activities will be worth a small number of points, while more the complex and intense activities will worth much more. However, if you are unable to fully participate in the activity—for instance, because you are late, absent, or unprepared—then you will earn 0 points.

Beyond that, anyone engaging in distracting behavior (sleeping in class, chatting while I am trying to lecture, using a phone or laptop without permission, arriving late, leaving the room during class, doing homework for another course, and so on) may have negotiation experience points deducted from their point total.

I estimate that it will be possible to earn a maximum total of around 2,000 negotiation experience points through class participation. Given the unpredictable nature of class participation in a course like this, I cannot be more precise about this until the end of the semester. However, if the actual total possible points for class participation adversely influences course grades, then I will update the course’s grading scheme accordingly.

Photo: Colleen Hayes / NBC.

What If You Miss Class?

Missing a class participation activity under any circumstances does not excuse you from that activity. However, keep in mind that this course’s grading scheme is extremely flexible in how you may earn negotiation experience points. Furthermore, each unused philosopher’s stone is worth 20 points. So occasionally missing class may not have significant impact on final course grades.

In any case, if you miss class for a reason that is excused according to the university attendance policy, you may have the opportunity to earn any missed negotiation experience points by completing a make up assignment. However, even if the absence is excused, you must reach out to me via email with your excuse within 72 hours of the absence. Otherwise, you will not be allowed to make up the missed class.