Each course module has assigned reading that you are expected to read and think about. Each module will also have posted reading questions to help you check your comprehension of the main claims and arguments within those readings.
To assist you in this process, you will work with your classmates on Perusall to collaboratively annotate the readings within each course module.
You are expected to complete 2 modules a week, according to the class schedule. So the annotations of their readings are due at the end of the week they are assigned. For these purposes, each week ends on Saturday at 11:59PM (midnight), Buffalo (Eastern Standard) Time.
However, keep in mind that you also have an automatic, additional 24-hour grace period for completing all your social annotations for the week. That means there is no penalty if you complete a week’s annotations by that Sunday at 11:59PM (midnight), Buffalo (Eastern Standard) Time.
- Here’s What I Want You to Do
- Here’s Why I Want You to Do It
- Here’s How to Do It
- Here’s How You’ll Earn Philosophy Experience Points
- Using Philosopher’s Stones
- Considerations for Your Perusall Account
Here’s What I Want You to Do
Make at least 5 annotations to the reading for each module. 2 modules are assigned each week, so that is a total of at least 10 annotations per week.
Substantive responses to the annotations of your classmates will count as annotations of your own. Indeed, this is meant to be a real social experience for us, so I would strongly prefer that at least half of your annotations are in response to those of a classmate.
Here’s Why I Want You to Do It
The purpose of social annotating is pretty straightforward: it has you practice with your classmates the skills necessary for critically reading philosophical texts about ethics while also connecting that material to your own interests and experiences.
As such, social annotating will continually push you towards achieving the last 4 learning outcomes for this course:
| 2. | Explain and summarize arguments within philosophical texts, |
| 3. | Apply important ethical concepts and theories to various hypothetical and real-world situations, |
| 4. | Assess competing claims concerning the demands that morality places on your actions and decisions, and |
| 5. | Reflect on your own assumptions and form more considered judgments on moral issues. |
To these ends, work with your classmates connecting the readings to current events and your experiences, assessing the positions those texts try to establish, and reflecting on what it is you believe about all of this.
Here’s How to Do It
In general, each of your annotations must do at least 1 of these 4 tasks:
- Highlight text that you find particularly interesting, profound, and/or controversial—and then explain why you highlighted that text (that is, why do you find it interesting? or why do you think it profound? or why might it be controversial?);
- Highlight text that resonates with either your own personal experiences or what you see going on in current events—and then explain why you highlighted that text (that is, what resonates here with your personal experiences? or how is this related to current events?);
- Highlight text that you believe helps us answer the reading questions, give the number(s) of the reading question(s), and explain why you believe the highlighted text helps answer the question(s); and/or
- Respond to the annotations made by your classmates, expanding in a substantive way on whatever it is they are saying.
Your annotations may do any combination of these task. The choice is yours.
No matter what task you choose, though, all your annotations must be…
- Relevant,
- Substantive, and
- Respectful.
By relevant, I mean that your annotations are clearly doing at least 1 of the 4 tasks above and not going off topic.
By substantive, I mean more than generic commentary, simply repeating whatever the text or a classmate says, or giving a thoughtless “I agree”. No matter which task(s) you choose, I want to see you presenting your own careful reasoning by substantiating your claims and providing concrete examples.
By respectful, I mean that you critically assess the claims the readings and your classmates are making while not attacking the person(s) making those claims. It is fine to disagree with the reading and your classmates—and even with me!—but it is disrespectful to besmirch the integrity or character of another person. Indeed, personal attacks suggest it is your position that is weak and unsound. So please no flame wars, no bullying, and no being a jerk!
Here’s How You’ll Earn Philosophy Experience Points
You will earn up to 100 philosophy experience points for each module’s social annotations. With 2 modules a week, that is 200 possible points per week.
The number of points you earn will be based upon the Perusall autoscoring algorithm. This works by first evaluating each of your annotations as “deficient”, “improvement needed”, or “meets expectations”.
After that, Perusall takes into other considerations for determining your score. For instance, Perusall gives a penalty if your annotations are not distributed throughout the reading. The idea is that you should be reading the whole text and not just one small part of it. Your score will also be slightly modified by other considerations as well, such as how many people are responding to your annotations.
The good news is that Perusall itself will encourage and help you make better annotations to improve your score. Because of that, I have found that this autoscoring algorithm works quite well. Even so, I will still regularly check its results, making sure that the points it awards are reasonable. Of course, if you feel that your annotations are not being fairly scored by Perusall, let me know and I’ll gladly assign your points myself!
Using Philosopher’s Stones
You may exchange 2 philosopher’s stones for the Decipher Script philosophical power:
Decipher Script
Cost: 2 philosopher’s stones.Area of Effect: All the social annotations for 1 module.
Duration: Instantaneous.
You select 1 module and give up 2 philosopher’s stones. You then gain the full 100 philosophy experience points for all that module’s social annotations.
Please note that this does not give you the points for the social annotations in Module 0 and/or any of the supplemental modules. Those points must be earned by actually making those annotations.
You may do Decipher Script at any time during the semester. For example, in week 10 you may use your stones on the social annotations for module 3. For that reason, I encourage you to save your philosopher’s stones until the end of the semester. At that point, you may then decide whether to use them on the annotations for any module.
Considerations for Your Perusall Account
This means that you need a Perusall account. The good news is that this should be set up automatically when you start clicking on the Perusall links I have posted on this website.
The first time you use Perusall, please be sure that you are using your real first and last name, so I can identify you. I also recommend making sure that it is linked to your UB email. (When someone tags you on Perusall, you get an email message letting you know.) You may also need to enter your student ID. To keep things simple, please use either your UB Student ID Number or your UB email for that ID.
Keep in mind that you cannot be anonymous on Perusall. However, only people enrolled in the course will see your annotations. No outsiders are allowed!
If you have any trouble setting up or using Perusall, please do not hesitate to seek help from me.
Photo: Colleen Hayes / NBC.