Discussion Board

CQRs: guide to the discussion forum exercises

PHIL 385: Engineering Ethics

1 Description of the exercise

This is your guide and rubric for the discussion exercises in this course.

Discussions take place on Blackboard in the forums. Discussions are asynchronous, meaning students do not have to be online at the same time, or having discussions in real time. You can post, come back later, read someone else’s post, reply later, etc..

I will create a new forum every unit, at which point I will grade the previous forum. All the forums will stay open, as you may want to continue the discussions, but only your posts up until the end of the unit will count toward your discussion grade.

The topic and any readings for the forum will be posted at the same time as the forum is created. The forums and forum materials will “roll out” during the semester to give you a schedule and to help you stay on track with the rest of the material.

2 Goals of the exercise

The goals of these exercises are two.

One is to gain practice applying the terms and concepts explained in the quads: to connect those concepts together, and to real-world examples.

The second goal is to improve you skills in making arguments. There are two kinds of arguments in particular which we focus on: explanations and justifications.

2.1 3-sentence format for arguments and justifications

This short-answer tests given in the course require you to use a specific 3-sentence format. I recommend also practicing that format in the discussion. Not that every post

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has to be 3 sentences long. But try to give your explanations and justifications in 3 sentence forms.

Read the Short-answer guide to learn about the format and tips for using it.

3 Grading Rubric: the CQRs

Your grade in the forums will be measured by what I call the CQRs.

C: positive contribution. A substantive post to the forum which is not an identifiable Q or R, and applies a course concept from the glossary.

Q: query. A post to the forum which poses a thoughtful, charitable, and informed question to the post of another student.

R: response. A post to the forum which gives a thoughtful, charitable, and informed answer to the query of another student.

There is 1 point given for each C,Q, or R a student makes, up to a maximum of 3 for each, or a maximum of 9 pts per forum. There will be 4 forums, 36 pts overall total.

Half-points may be awarded to posts that do not fully satisfy the criteria described for the CQRs. I.e. a query that is not fully charitable because the poser of the query has failed to understand something obvious about the original post; or a contribution which shows a slight error in understanding of the concept being applied.

To get any part of a point, a post must show some merit and worthiness, and some effort.

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