Photo: Colleen Hayes / NBC.
You initially have 3 philosopher’s stones to use during this course. Based on your performance on the weekly quizzes and unit exams, you will gain even more philosopher’s stones. You may then exchange your philosopher’s stones to unleash special philosophical powers!
Gaining Philosopher’s Stones
You will gain additional philosopher’s stones based on the philosophy experience points you earn on each unit exam.
| Points Earned on a Single Unit Exam | Stones Gained | |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 391 | 0 | |
| 392 to 573 | 0.25 | |
| 574 to 755 | 0.5 | |
| 756 to 937 | 0.75 | |
| 938 or higher | 1 |
Please note that any philosophy experience points earned through the Reverse Time power do not count towards gaining new philosopher’s stones.
You will also gain additional philosopher’s stones based the philosophy experience points you earn on each weekly quiz:
| Points Earned on a Single Week’s Quizzes | Stones Gained | |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 87 | 0 | |
| 88 to 115 | 0.0625 | |
| 116 to 143 | 0.125 | |
| 144 to 171 | 0.1875 | |
| 172 or higher | 0.25 |
Please note that any philosophy experience points earned through the Borrowed Knowledge power do not count towards gaining new philosopher’s stones.
You use your philosopher’s stones by emailing me. In your email, just be specific about what philosophical power you are using. Also don’t forget to specify the “area of effect”, that is, what exactly you are using that power on. For instance, your email might say that you are using 2 philosopher’s stones for Decipher Script on your Week 4 social annotations. Once I know all that, I will make it happen!
Using Philosopher’s Stones
As you earn philosopher’s stones, you may exchange them to unleash special philosophical powers!
Time Stop (Q)
Cost: 1 philosopher’s stone.Area of Effect: 1 set of weekly quizzes.
Duration: Up to 48 hours.
You give up 1 philosopher’s stone, and then you gain an extra 48-hour extension for completing a set of weekly quizzes. Please note that this is in addition to the automatic 36-hour grace period.
If you have enough stones, you may use this power multiple times for additional 48-hour extensions on the same set of weekly quizzes.
Time Stop (E)
Cost: 1 philosopher’s stone.Area of Effect: 1 unit exam.
Duration: Up to 24 hours.
You give up 1 philosopher’s stone, and then you gain an extra 24-hour extension for completing a unit exam. Please note that this is in addition to the automatic 36-hour grace period.
If you have enough stones, you may use this power multiple times for additional 24-hour extensions on the same unit exam.
Decipher Script
Cost: 2 philosopher’s stones.Area of Effect: 1 week of social annotations.
Duration: Instantaneous.
You select 1 week of class and give up 2 philosopher’s stones. You then gain the full 120 philosophy experience points for that week’s social annotations.
Gift of Gab
Cost: 2 philosopher’s stones.Area of Effect: 1 week of discussion posts.
Duration: Instantaneous.
You select 1 week of class and give up 2 philosopher’s stones. You then gain the full 120 philosophy experience points for that week’s discussion posts.
Borrowed Knowledge
Cost: 3 philosopher’s stones.Area of Effect: 1 set of weekly quizzes.
Duration: Instantaneous.
You select 1 week of class and give up 3 philosopher’s stones. You then gain the full 200 philosophy experience points for that set of weekly quizzes. (Please note that this does not give you the points for the quizzes in Module 0 and/or any of the supplemental modules. Those points must be earned by actually taking those quizzes.)
Reverse Time
Cost: 3 philosopher’s stones.Area of Effect: 1 problem on a unit exam.
Duration: Up to 1 week.
You give up 3 philosopher’s stones, and then you have up to 1 week—from when a graded unit exam was returned to you—to revise and resubmit your answer to 1 of the problems on that exam. You may earn up to the full points by redoing that problem.
If you have enough philosopher’s stones, you may do Reverse Time on multiple problems on the same unit exam. Reverse Time may only be done once for any given problem.
Finally, for each philosopher’s stone that you do not use by the end of the course, you will earn 20 philosophy experience points.
So use your philosopher’s stones wisely!