Photo: Justin Lubin / NBC.

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 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 the social annotations, the weekly quizzes, and the unit exams.

In addition, there is one social media tool that we will be using to encourage your participation and engagement with the course material: Perusall. We will be using this for social annotation of the readings. You should automatically have access to Perusall whenever you click on a reading link, but let me know if you are having issues!

Do keep in mind that you are not anonymous in your Perusall annotations, and so everyone will be able to see your name on your posts. However, Perusall is an exclusive environment where only members of this class will be able to talk with each other. No outsiders allowed! However, if you ever feel uncomfortable with or bullied by a classmate, please reach out to me and I’ll work with you to resolve the issue.

 

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

Tuesday, January 23 at 11:59PM (midnight), Buffalo (Eastern Standard) Time
(Keep in mind that everything here qualifies for the 24-hour grace period for completion.)

• Complete all these early-bird activities from Module 0 and you’ll earn some bonus 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. You’ll also earn some bonus philosophy experience points as well—nice! (Some of these videos are the same as those posted on this page, but still open these videos up in Panopto so you can answer their quiz questions. Also, all 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 posted on UB Learns. 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”. In any case, you will earn 0.15 of a philosopher’s stone for making that annotation. Oh, you’ll earn some bonus philosophy experience points as well!
  5.	After looking over the syllabus, explore this website. Then take the Module 0 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 bonus philosophy experience points as well.

  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, or Perusall, let me know and I will work to fix them!

Saturday, January 27 at 11:59PM (midnight), Buffalo (Eastern Standard) Time
(Keep in mind that everything here qualifies for the 24-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 10 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, you will not earn any philosophy experience points in this course until you have signed this agreement.
• Start participating! Begin annotating the readings for Module 0 and Module 1 with your classmates.
• Complete the Panopto video quizzes for Module 0 and Module 1. (Remember, you can always rewind the videos to find the answers.)
• Complete the module quizzes for Module 0 and Module 1. 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.

Log into UB Learns now

Check out the Syllabus, too!