Professor Philip MacEwen

pmacewen@yorku.ca

Virtual office hours: Students may access the Course Director with questions about the course anytime at my email address, pmacewen@yorku.ca  If students want more opportunity for consultation, please send me your phone number and a time when I can call you.

This course aims to equip students with the ability to identify and critically analyze the four major techniques of persuasion: a) argument, b) advertising, c) propaganda, and d) ideology.

Technical requirements for taking the course: This is a fully asynchronous, on-line course. In other words, there are no lectures times and no classes to attend. All course activities are conducted remotely; no activities meet, or are held, on campus.

In order to take the course and fully participate in it, students need the following: 1) an email account, 2) access to the course Moodle site, and 3) access to the Zoom lectures, which are posted on the course Moodle site.

Students are invited, but nor required, to access the Zoom lectures live. They can do so via a live image of themselves, a picture of themselves, or by name only. At the end of each Zoom lecture, there will be a question-and-answer (Q & A) period. Students are invited to participate in the Q & A periods visually, audibly, and/or by sending text messages.

Here are some useful links for students regarding computing information, resources and help:

Student Guide to Moodle

Zoom@YorkU Best Practices 

Zoom@YorkU User Reference Guide

Computing for Students Website

Student Guide to eLearning at York University

To determine Internet connection and speed, there are online tests, such as Speedtest, that can be run.

There are no required texts for the course. It is entirely self-contained. All required readings come as part of the course.

To facilitate interaction among students, the course is weighted on completing and submitting five short, small-group writing assignments, each worth 20% of the final grade (20% x 5=100%). There are no tests, exams, or other types of assignments for the course.

Times and locations: Please note that this course depends on remote teaching and learning. There will be no in-person interactions or activities on campus. Instead, the course will operate remotely on a weekly basis. The written lectures will be posted on the course Moodle site week-by-week in advance of the Zoom lectures. The Zoom lectures will be accessible from the course Moodle site and posted there on a weekly basis. Students may access the Zoom lectures either at the time they are given (to be announced) or after they have been posted.

The objectives of the course are  threefold: to help students i) understand the nature of argument and reasoning, its role at the university, and its significance in academic and professional life, ii) understand the nature of advertising and enable them to analyze it critically; iii) understand the nature of propaganda and enable them to analyze it critically, and  iv) understand the nature of ideology and enable them to analyze it critically.

Course Policies:

The writing assignments must be submitted during the relevant weeks indicated in the Course Outline. The Course Outline will be posted as a file on the course Moodle site and delineated on its main page.

Each student will be assigned to a small writing group during the first week of the Fall Semester.

Please complete your writing assignments with the other members of your writing group. You will be sent the contact information of the other members of your writing group during the first week of the Fall Semester.

If you are unable to submit your writing assignments on time, please contact me by e-mail before the assignments are due, giving the reason/s why you are unable to do so.

Please note that the Course Director holds the copyright on all the material used in MODR 1770 6.0N. Students must obtain the express, written permission of the Course Director if they wish to use any of this material outside this course