7.5 Week Online Music Class
**Disclaimer** This syllabus is to be used as a guideline only. The information provided is a summary of topics to be covered in the class. Information contained in this document such as assignments, grading scales, due dates, office hours, required books and materials may be from a previous semester and are subject to change. Please refer to your instructor for the most recent version of the syllabus.
MUS 231: Laughing to Music 3 credits Online, Fall 2014 (Session A) Course Website: https://herbergeronline2.asu.edu/laughingtomusic SYLLABUS: This document contains very important information about course procedures and policies. Please read it carefully and be sure you understand it before proceeding with the course. Staff:
Course Administrator: David Schildkret
Course email (for ALL questions regarding content, grading, etc.): [email protected]
Computer Support: Visit https://herbergeronline.asu.edu/help to submit a support ticket for ALL questions regarding technical issues
Because this is an online course, all communication will take place via email ([email protected]). Technical support is available Monday – Friday, 8am to 5pm. If you send the message outside of these hours, you may have to wait until the next business day to receive a response. Please allow adequate time for Herberger Online to respond to your message. Course Description: Laughing to Music explores the relationship between music and comedy. Beginning with an exploration of the roots of modern-day comedy in commedia dell’arte, the course covers comic opera, operetta, musicals, and other musical forms of comedy. The main works, which function as case studies, are Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, A Night at the Opera with the Marx Brothers, Top Hat with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Young Frankenstein. Course Objectives: To acquaint students with important examples of comedy in music; to give students an opportunity to understand comic theories and their application; to give students an opportunity to look at various kinds of material (written, film, music) and articulate their views about the work; for students to base their views on solid understanding of basic theories, history, and the content of the work. Workload: Students should expect to devote at least 8 - 10 hours per week to this course during the 7-week half-semester. Assignments, which include video lectures, film screenings, quizzes, exams, and participation in discussion boards, are noted below. Required Materials: The following items are required for this course:
● Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Johanna M. Smith, editor) o Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's; 2nd edition (April 14, 2000)
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o ISBN-10: 031219126X o ISBN-13: 978-0312191269 o Available from Amazon and other online book sellers
● Young Frankenstein (DVD) o Available at Amazon and many other online retailers o Multiple copies are of the DVD are on reserve for this course at Hayden Library
on ASU’s Tempe campus The Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts is committed to making our online class offerings as cost-effective and pedagogically sound as possible. However, we are required to adhere to the TEACH Act (Section 110(2) of the U.S. copyright law) which specifies conditions under which educators may perform or display copyrighted works in distance education or online environments. Whenever possible, we obtain and pay for film licenses to make the films available on our course websites. For the films shown in this course (except Young Frankenstein), we have obtained such licenses through a third-party licensing company called Swank. You will be able to view those films by clicking a link within the appropriate unit to access the Swank film page. Please note: you will need the Microsoft Silverlight player installed in order to view these films. You can obtain this player at http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/ Course Structure and Grading: The course consists of six units, to be viewed and completed sequentially—with one important exception: you are strongly encouraged to begin reading Frankenstein early in the course (specifically, after Unit 1). You must take the quiz on the novel before you can proceed with Unit Six. Each unit contains one or more assessments. In addition, there is a series of discussion forums in which you are required to participate. Assessments:
Unit Quizzes Exams Total Points
1: Introduction 3, worth 5 points each 1, worth 15 points
30
Reading Frankenstein 1, worth 15 points 15
2: Marriage of Figaro 3, worth 5 points each 1, worth 20 points
35
3: A Night at the Opera 1, worth 10 points
10
4: The Pirates of Penzance
1, worth 10 points
10
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5: Top Hat 1, worth 10 points
10
6: Frankenstein 2, worth 10 points each
1, worth 20 points
40
Total
150
Note: You must complete the Reading Frankenstein quiz before you get to Unit 6. We suggest you start reading Frankenstein early in the course.
Discussion Board: There are 5 short discussion topics posted within the Discussion Board section of the course website.
● Where’s Lazzo? ● Comic Strategies ● Wait… What?! ● Hang On! That Doesn’t Fit! ● Open Forum
You will need to participate a total of at least 5 times in this category, either by posting an original response to the prompt of a topic or by replying to one of your classmate’s responses. You will receive 2 points for each participation for a total of 10 points. Then, there are three Discussion Board Assignments that are a little more involved than the general discussion of the short topics. For these Assignments, you must follow all of the instructions within the assignment to get the available points. The breakdown is as follows:
● No. 1: 1 post worth 7 points, 1 reply worth 3 points; 10 points total ● No. 2: 1 post worth 10 points, 1 reply worth 10 points; 20 points total ● No. 3: 1 post worth 7 points, 1 reply worth 3 points; 10 points total
Please note: For these Discussion Board Assignments, your posts and comments will be reviewed by the instructor and points deducted for posts that are incorrect, irrelevant, or superficial. 150 points total for quizzes and exams + 10 points total for discussion participation + 40 points total for Discussion Board Assignments 200 total points for the course Deadlines: You complete the units and assessments AT YOUR OWN PACE. One unit per week is strongly recommended.
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ALL WORK MUST BE COMPLETED BY OCTOBER 10, 2014. There are no exceptions possible to this rule. Note that the first Academic Status Report is due in early September. You are strongly encouraged to have completed at least a couple of units by this time so that we can be alert to any issues.
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Grading Scale:
Numeric grade Letter grade
Numeric grade
Letter grade
195-200 A+ 160-165 B-
188-194 A 154-159 C+
180-187 A- 140-153 C
173-179 B+ 120-139 D
166-172 B 119 or less E
Exam and Quiz Policies: All exams and quizzes will be taken online through the course website. Please follow the below guidelines for taking an online exam or quiz.
● You need to have reliable non-wireless Internet access to take exams and quizzes. ● Exams and quizzes must be your own individual work rather than a group effort or with
any other form of collaboration. ● Please refrain from opening any additional tabs/windows on your browser while taking
an exam or quiz, as this could cause your submission to be unsuccessful. ● The system logs all browser activity. Accessing course content while taking an exam or
quiz will result in a failed quiz session. ● Exams and quizzes that have been submitted CANNOT be reset (see below). Grades
must stand as posted. ● If you experience computer or technical problems during an exam or quiz, DO NOT
SUBMIT the assessment. If you suspect a technical error, exit the browser immediately and address the problem by trying to take the assessment again on a different computer, or by contacting technical support at https://herbergeronline.asu.edu/help
● Please give yourself adequate time to complete all assessments by working consistently through the semester. Waiting until the last day or two of the semester to complete all exams, quizzes, and discussion posts is not recommended.
Exam Resets: A reset for an exam or quiz is an action usually taken by a student prior to contacting technical support. If you experience technical difficulty during an exam or quiz, click the course logout button and close your browser. When you attempt to restart the assessment, the system will ask you to confirm the reset. Some important facts about resets:
● Resetting an exam or quiz means the system will create a new exam/quiz for you. Any answers you previously provided are already lost; you will be starting over again.
● Only one online reset is allowed per assessment. ● In total, only two online resets of assessments are allowed in any given semester.
Exam and Quiz Receipts:
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You will be issued a unique receipt number for every successfully submitted exam or quiz. Please retain that number as proof of your successful completion of that assessment. If you do not receive a receipt confirmation number for an exam or quiz, that submission has NOT been successful, and you should contact Computer Support immediately at http://herbergeronline.asu.edu/help. Your score will be posted on the Grades page upon successful submission, but that unique receipt number will help Herberger Online to locate your submission should an error occur. Technical Requirements: Access to a high-speed Internet connection is required to take this course. There are numerous video lectures and film clips that will depend upon such a connection for proper playback. Access to a non-wireless, high-speed Internet connection is required for test taking. Because this course is entirely delivered via the Internet, you are responsible for making sure that the computer you use to access all course materials can adequately handle those materials. You should also ensure you are using the most up-to-date version of your preferred Internet browser. For more information on requirements, please see the course Help page. Offensive Materials Disclaimer: We have made every effort to be sensitive in the choice of the materials for this class, but some people may find some humor objectionable. In this course, you will be required to listen to, view, and analyze materials that you may consider offensive. We do not set out to offend, nor do we as the content and technical team, the School of Music, the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts, or Arizona State University share in the opinions of the artists and their humor that may offend. Likewise, some of the material raises sensitive social issues, though all of it is germane to the discussion. By continuing with this course, you are agreeing to be held academically accountable for all required materials in the syllabus, regardless of their potentially offensive nature. If you are concerned about this, you may wish to consider dropping the course. Student Conduct: All students are expected to abide by the ASU code of student conduct, which is available at: https://eoss.asu.edu/dos/srr/codeofconduct, and the Student Academic Integrity Policy, which can be found at: https://provost.asu.edu/academicintegrity. No collaboration or use of outside sources of any kind is allowed on any tests, assignments, etc. This includes viewing the course website while taking an assessment, reading questions on another student’s assessment, discussing an assessment with another student before taking it, and other such behavior. Assessments are not open-book or open-note. Do not share your course ID and password with anyone. Log out of the course website when you are finished with it. Do not allow another student to use the course website under your username, even if s/he is also in the course. Each student is fully responsible for all activity that takes place on the course website under his/her username.
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Any violation of this policy will result in sanctions and may result in further disciplinary action. Sanctions may include failure of the course (E), failure by reason of academic dishonesty (XE), and others as outlined by the ASU policy. All violations of the Code detected during the term will be sanctioned, even if the assessment has already been graded and points assigned. Academic Integrity: All necessary and appropriate sanctions will be issued to all parties involved with plagiarizing any and all course work. Plagiarism and any other form of academic dishonesty that is in violation with the Student Code of Conduct will not be tolerated. For more information, please see the ASU Student Academic Integrity Policy: https://provost.asu.edu/academicintegrity Course Withdrawal: If you wish to withdraw from this course, it is your responsibility to do so. Course registration changes are processed through My ASU: http://my.asu.edu. Please visit http://students.asu.edu/drop-add or speak with your advisor or college major office for complete information regarding Withdraw dates and policies. Disabilities and Accommodations: To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact the ASU Disability Resource Center immediately:
Website: http://www.asu.edu/studentaffairs/ed/drc/# Phone: 480-965-1234 TDD: 480-965-9000).
This is a very important step, as accommodations may be difficult to make retroactively. In order to assure that you receive your accommodations in a timely manner, please present any documentation from the ASU Disability Resource Center to David Schildkret, the course administrator, via the course email address ([email protected]) no later than the end of the first week of the semester. Note that quizzes and exams in the course are timed; there is a grade penalty for going over the time limit. If you have a disability that means you need extra time, please be sure to document this through the ASU Disability Resource Center immediately. Questions?
● If your question concerns course content or policies, contact David Schildkret via the course email address, [email protected]
● If your question concerns technical matters (for example, is my Internet connection adequate for the course?), contact Computer Support by submitting a support ticket at https://herbergeronline.asu.edu/help
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