EC Contemporary Middle East History

[Scholar Interrupted]

Whew. Just finished this CD-ROM course and thought I'd pass along what I learned for the benefit of others considering taking it. (What I learned about the course, not the subject matter.)

Bottom line: The instructor, who shall remain nameless here, is not a good communicator, and this will require extra effort from you, the student, to figure out WTF he is looking for in the essays.

Project 1 is a summary of what the Koran has to say about a list of key topics, with citations to specific suras. I learned after turning in the essay that he also wanted historical context on the topics. This was not even hinted at in the syllabus.

Project 2 is a detailed, critical book review of Huntington's Clash of Civilizations. If you trust the syllabus, you will think this is all there is to the assignment, but you'll be wrong. In addition to the review, you also have to analyze one current news topic regarding the Middle East and apply Huntington's thesis to it.

As far as answering questions about assignments, the great thing is he responds very quickly. The bad thing is his responses are not all that helpful. I believe he does this deliberately in order to make you work harder and learn more. I think his heart is in the right place, but it's still very frustrating -- like asking a certain collie if her beloved owner has tumbled into a deep, manmade vertical tunnel.

Don't worry if you exceed the upper page limit for any of the essays. Also, while you need to write coherently, don't obsess over your prose style. Here's why: It's not possible to give this guy what he wants without exceeding page limits -- by a mile. Because you go into the assignments without a clear idea of what he's looking for, you have to throw a lot of stuff at the wall so as to have a decent amount of it stick. He didn't bat an eye when my "5-to-8 page" Project 2 clocked in at 23 pages, or for my midterm and final exam essays that ended up slightly shorter than War and Peace. I don't believe he reads the essays; grades come back way too fast for that. I'm sure he just scans them for key words and phrases. You know, kind of like a Googlebot.

Finally, work ahead, and I don't mean maybe. At the last minute, he moved up the deadlines for Project 2 and the final exam essays by a week. I would like to think he did so by mistake.

Despite all the aggravations, I have to admit I learned a ton about an extremely important topic that most Americans are rather ignorant about -- me included. The course is very well designed, which is a compliment to the instructor, since he designed it.

[TMW2010]

I think his heart is in the right place, but it's still very frustrating -- like asking a certain collie if her beloved owner has tumbled into a deep, manmade vertical tunnel.

Timmy was always very bad about that.

But on the more serious note, what do you think about whole CD-ROM course process? I've elected to take my Science & Religion course via CD-ROM instead of Online, because I found you have the opportunity of getting the class done earlier than the 15 weeks for which it calls.

[Scholar Interrupted]

But on the more serious note, what do you think about whole CD-ROM course process? I've elected to take my Science & Religion course via CD-ROM instead of Online, because I found you have the opportunity of getting the class done earlier than the 15 weeks for which it calls.

I like it much better than the online class structure. It is more self-paced, and you don't have that onerous discussion board requirement -- which ruled my life when I took HIS440 online.

But there are caveats. Because you aren't interacting regularly with the instructor by way of structured discussions, you don't get that same feel for what he thinks is most important about the material. Couple that with an instructor who doesn't answer questions fully, and you end up writing a lot more than you otherwise would, just to make sure you cover what he wants to see. Contrast that with HIS440 online, in which I studied the instructor's discussion board posts in preparation for the exam essays and knocked them out of the park with a very reasonable amount of effort.

I'd love to compare my syllabus and exam essay questions with someone who has recently finished the same course online, because I have a theory that the CD-ROM course is designed to require more work from the student in order to make up for the absence of the discussion board chore. The exam essays in particular were very broad.

All that said, I learned a lot in this experience that I'm sure will help me in the other two CD-ROM courses I plan to take. I'll be able to work a lot smarter than I did on the first half of this course.

Also, bear in mind I'm in liberal arts. In business, nursing, or some other area, your mileage may definitely vary. I doubt, for example, that business majors are required to write as much as liberal arts majors, which would make a CD-ROM course a very different experience.

[TMW2010]

Thanks for the Info... I'm an LA (Psych) Major... I guess I have to get my writing skills tuned up.. Bleh.

I'm taking the Science & Religion on CD ROM and Social Sciences Research online, so I figure by getting a taste of both, I can figure out which I actually prefer if I need to take more classes.

Thanks again!