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My Teaching Philosophy

I believe that learning is a form of liberation. It sets you on the path towards greater independence, self-mastery, and success in life. When done with others (as is often the case), it also strengthens our relationships, creating communities of mutual respect and trust. I am truly humbled to serve you in that journey. For this particular course, I will work with you to cultivate your abilities for critical reflection and practical deliberation about moral issues. I do all this with a spirit of generosity, hoping that you too will freely share your gifts to better the lives of those around you.

 

Our Pact

What you can expect from me:

1. I will treat you with dignity and respect and be flexible to support your individual needs.
2. I will provide you with a clear, organized course that is designed to ensure you meet our learning outcomes in a meaningful manner.
3. I will be actively present in your learning.
4. I will provide a supportive and safe environment for you to share and discuss ideas with your peers.
5. I will reach out to you when I sense that you need support.
6. I won’t be perfect. I am human and will make mistakes at times. I will view mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow.

What I will expect from you:

1. You will treat me and your peers with dignity and respect.
2. You will strive to be an active participant in this course and aim to meet due dates.
3. You will maintain an open line of communication with me so I understand how to support you.
4. You will strive to regularly contribute to collaborative activities to ensure other members of the community have ample opportunity to read/listen, reflect, and respond to your ideas.
5. You will contact me if you have a concern with meeting a due date.
6. You will give yourself grace. Expect to make mistakes. You are human and mistakes are part of learning and growing.

(This pact comes from Michelle Pacansky-Brock. Generally speaking, this whole welcome page draws on many of her insights—she’s an inspiration!)

 

Social Media & This Course

For this course, you will be regularly visiting this course website along with the course on UB Learns. This course website is intended to act as your primary interface with course material, while UB Learns is in charge of keeping track of your philosophy experience points, access to Perusall, and weekly quizzes. Your unit exams will also be submitted to UB Learns.

In addition, there are two social media tools that we will be using to encourage your participation and engagement with the course material:

1. Perusall, which we will use for social annotation of the readings. (You should automatically have access, but let me know if you are having issues.)
2. Twitter, which we will use for general discussion posts. (Visit Twitter’s website for how to create an account. You can then start tweeting by including the course hashtag, #E22, in your posts.)

Perusall is an exclusive environment where only members of this class will be able to talk with each other. However, Twitter is public, meaning anyone can see your tweets. For that reason, I highly recommend that you create an anonymous, disposable Twitter account just for this class. I will need to know your account’s name for grading purposes, but I will not reveal that information to anyone.

However, if you reamin uncomfortable using Twitter, not a problem! I have organized the course so that there is no penalty if you choose to solely participate using Persuall. Similarly, there is no penalty if you choose to participate solely using Twitter. Choose the method, or combination of methods, that you are most comfortable with!

All that said, I strongly encourage you to try out both Persuall and Twitter for a couple weeks, just to see which you prefer.

 

Week 1 Success Kit

Online courses move quickly, and getting off to a good start is the best way to prepare yourself for success. Read this page carefully and you’ll have all you need to start this course on the right foot!

Due Dates for Week 1

Sunday, August 28 at 12:00PM (noon), Buffalo (Eastern Standard) Time
(Keep in mind that everything here qualifies for the 36-hour grace period for completion.)

• Complete all these introductory bonus tasks from Module 0 to earn some extra philosopher’s stones:

  1.	Watch all the orientation videos in the Watch This section, and complete their Panopto quizzes. You will earn 0.15 of a philosopher’s stone for each video you complete. There are 8 videos, so that's a total of 1.20 stones you may earn. Nice! (Some of these videos are the same as those posted on this page, but just open these up in Panopto so you can answer their quiz questions. Also, these quizzes should be super easy. And if you don’t know an answer, just rewind the video to find it!)
  2.	Fill out the introductory survey that is posted on Google Forms. You will earn 0.15 of a philosopher’s stone for completing this survey.
  3.	Read the Academic Honor Code for the course and “sign” the Honor Agreement. You will earn 0.15 of a philosopher’s stone for doing this agreement.
  4.	Load up the course syllabus on Perusall and leave one annotation on it. This can be a “fresh” annotation or a reply to someone else’s. This can be a question, a comment, or just a “hey, I'm here”. You will earn 0.15 of a philosopher’s stone for making that annotation.
  5.	After looking over the syllabus, explore this website. Then take the syllabus/website quiz. You will earn 0.15 of a philosopher’s stone for simply completing this quiz. (Based on your answers, you will also earn some initial philosophy experience points as well.)
  6.	Tweet me (@ProfessorDEG) that you have enrolled in the course. Don’t forget to include the course hashtag #E22 in your tweet! You will earn 0.15 of a philosopher’s stone for that tweet.

  The purpose of doing all these is to encourage you to get a jump start on the course. If you encounter any problems with this course website, UB Learns, Panopto, Perusall, or Twitter, let me know and I will be sure to fix them!

Saturday, September 3 at 12:00PM (noon), Buffalo (Eastern Standard) Time
(Keep in mind that everything here qualifies for the 36-hour grace period for completion.)

• Fill out the introductory survey (if you haven’t already). This is not graded. However, once the grace period ends, you will lose 50 philosophy experience points per day until it is done.
• Sign the Honor Agreement (if you haven’t already). Make sure you have read the Academic Honor Code for the course first. This is not graded. However, once the grace period ends, you will lose 50 philosophy experience points per day until it is done.
• Choose your method of participation! Are you more of a bookwork? Then head over to Perusall and start annotating the readings with your classmates. Or are you a social butterfly? If so, participate in more general discussions on Twitter about the readings, the videos, or even any current events related to ethics. Right now, I suggest trying out both, and seeing what is most comfortable to you.
• Complete the Panopto video quizzes for Module 0, Module 1, and Module 2. (Remember, you can always rewind the videos to find the answers.)
• Complete the syllabus/website quiz (if you haven’t already). Of course, make sure you are familiar with the course syllabus and this website before starting the quiz.
• Complete the module quizzes for Module 1 and >Module 2. Remember, you will find a link to these quizzes on each module’s page in the “Do This” section, which comes right after the “Watch This” section with the videos.

Success Tip! Start organizing your notes in preparation for the Unit 1 Exam—posted on Thursday, September 8 and due on Sunday, September 11.

Log into UB Learns now

Check out the Syllabus, too!