TEL Learning - American Government HELP!!

[Shorn27]

Hi guys 

Because of the new credit policies at TESU I'm taking a few courses wit TEL for my RA credits, the first being American Government. Has anyone else taken the course here? Got to the first mastery assignment and hit a massive brick wall, really struggling to find decent sources.
Not sure if this course is similar to that taken at Instantcert, but I have to write a bibliography of 5 sources and then an essay about the balance of power between federal and state governments. I'm from the UK so really in the deep end here

Have to choose one of these:

(1) The Constitution specifies the delegation of power between the federal and state governments - a balance that was argued from the very beginning by the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. Compare the modern delegation of powers to those argued for and against in 1787.
(2) Compare the powers of the House and the Senate as well as the balance of power of the states within Congress. Think about which are the most powerful and how they impact both state and federal politics and policy.
(3) Look at the major political parties of the United States, both past and present. Think about how the platforms of the various political parties have evolved over time and how older parties became the modern political parties of today.

[rachel83az]

I have not taken that course so I don't know how much help I can be. But I did grow up as an American.

1) Something about how federal vs. state wound up leading to the civil war because the states were more loosely affiliated and the southern states wanted to continue to allow slavery.

3) Go to the Wikipedia page about US Presidents and use that to get the names of political parties for further research. This might be a bit more work but could wind up being easier for a foreigner. The US only ever has two or three "main" political parties at one time so tracing their histories ought to be easier than tracing the histories of non-American political parties.

[Murdockb]

Hi guys 

Because of the new credit policies at TESU I'm taking a few courses wit TEL for my RA credits, the first being American Government. Has anyone else taken the course here? Got to the first mastery assignment and hit a massive brick wall, really struggling to find decent sources.
Not sure if this course is similar to that taken at Instantcert, but I have to write a bibliography of 5 sources and then an essay about the balance of power between federal and state governments. I'm from the UK so really in the deep end here

Have to choose one of these:

(1) The Constitution specifies the delegation of power between the federal and state governments - a balance that was argued from the very beginning by the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. Compare the modern delegation of powers to those argued for and against in 1787.
(2) Compare the powers of the House and the Senate as well as the balance of power of the states within Congress. Think about which are the most powerful and how they impact both state and federal politics and policy.
(3) Look at the major political parties of the United States, both past and present. Think about how the platforms of the various political parties have evolved over time and how older parties became the modern political parties of today.

You may also consider reaching out to your instructor for the course. According to their website, "TEL's experienced instructors are active participants in your learning. They will hold regular office hours and make themselves available for any questions on the material." From my conversations with Tel, I know that the instructors must have a master’s degree in the subject area or a master’s degree in a related field plus 18 hours of graduate work in the subject area. I would think they could point you in the direction of decent sources.

[ReyMysterioso]

Forgive me if I mansplain here but as a non-American I'm not sure how much you know about Congress, our legislative body.
For #2, Congress has a House of Representatives and a Senate. The biggest difference between the two is that in the House, the number of representatives (congressperson) each state has is determined by the state's population. So Mississippi has 4 representatives in the House. Texas, which is much much larger and has WAY more people in it has 36 representatives!
In the Senate, each state has two Senators. Period. Doesn't matter how much population each state has, they all have the same amount of Senators.



In the Senate, arguably all states have equal voting power/influence in general. In the House, Texas has WAY more voting power than Mississippi. So the balance of power of each state in the Senate is a lot different than it is in the House. The amount of power an individual Senator has is a lot larger than an individual Representative/Congressperson. 1/100th of a share of power is a lot more than 1/435th of a share of power. Of course that's on paper.
In real life they can form partnerships and make deals and build a caucus or a coalition of people who are all passionate about the same issue and sort of unite for a larger share of power.

So you could do a paper comparing how power is split up differently in the Senate than it is in the House. I'd have to think more on academic sources for it.

For #3, we basically have had the same two parties for about 200 years now. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party. They were originally a single party called the Democratic Republicans. Their opposition party well over 200 years ago were called the Federalists. Once the Federalists collapsed, people in the Democratic Republican Party did not have a common "enemy" to be united against and eventually in-fighting led to a split in 1824. They've been two parties since and have sort of switched values over the years. It used to be the Republican Party was the more progressive party championing human rights and big expansion of government whereas the Democratic Party was the staunch traditionalist party that really resisted change and favored less government. Between the late 1860s and early 1900s they gradually switched to the opposite stance. From the 1930s to present day, Republicans have been the party of generally less government programs (with some exceptions like expanding national security agencies and more military), and resistant to progressive social change. Democrats have generally favored more government programs and push more progressive social policies.

So a paper on political parties could talk about why they completely flipped their values, or "the switch" as it is sometimes called informally. Or you could do a paper on why they went from a single party to splitting into two parties in the 1800s.

Hope this is helpful.

[jch]

I would recommend reviewing selected videos from the crash course Government and US history courses at https://thecrashcourse.com/courses/usgovernment

[ctcarl]

Best of luck to the OP, and there has been some great food for thought in this thread.

Now, I'm off to my favorite house of worship to light a candle and thank my preferred diety that the relative I'm helping with her degree chose to get her RA credits from ASU instead of Tel.

[schlocker]

Best of luck to the OP, and there has been some great food for thought in this thread.

Now, I'm off to my favorite house of worship to light a candle and thank my preferred diety that the relative I'm helping with her degree chose to get her RA credits from ASU instead of Tel.

Good luck. Does anyone know if the final is open book? About to start eight RA classes with TEL.

[rachel83az]

Best of luck to the OP, and there has been some great food for thought in this thread.

Now, I'm off to my favorite house of worship to light a candle and thank my preferred diety that the relative I'm helping with her degree chose to get her RA credits from ASU instead of Tel.

Good luck. Does anyone know if the final is open book? About to start eight RA classes with TEL.

Pretty sure the finals at TEL are not open book.

[Shorn27]

Thanks for all the tips. The material at TEL is actually ok and they point you in the direction of a lot of good videos like CrashCourse as well, I mostly just needed advice on the writing side.
And no it isn't open book for the exam, but I'm sure by reviewing flashcards of the previous quizzes is good enough to pass them

Sent from my CPH1825 using DegreeForum.net mobile app

[ss20ts]

Here's a little more help if you need it for American Government. Khan Academy is free.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/u...and-civics

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/a...d-politics