Introduction to Romance in the Middle Ages

Introduction to the Course

Welcome to “Romance in the Western Middle Ages.” This course will include student collaboration in it but it will also require you to be able to work independently. To succeed in this course you need to be internet-proficient—and this will mean being proficient in Moodle, our course venue (you may have to learn how this system works, but it is really not that difficult after a short while, and there are some tutorials at http://moodle.njit.edu). Your responsibility involves being able to use Moodle to do all asked of you in the course, so do learn the system early on in the process (see note* at bottom of this page). While learning how to use Moodle through tutorials at the Moodle site, you should also take a tour of this course's Moodle homepage; the link for the tour can be found in the top section of our homepage titled Course Basics.

You should also think seriously about the fact that this course will be run in a "distance" format. Distance learning is definitely not for everyone. Some people prefer it but others have a really hard time with it. Again, you will need to be able to work independently and otherwise to be self-directed.

Lastly, please note that "Romance in the Western Middle Ages" is a literature course (literature is but one of several disciplines comprehended by the term humanities—as is history, philosophy, etc., but this course involves primarily the study of literature, so please keep this fact in mind when deciding if this is the course for you); the literary texts to be read and analyzed in the course have been translated into English, and of course the writing about them is to be done in coherent English. If you are not adept at reading literature and being able to analyze it, and if you are not adept at writing in English, then you should not sign up for this course—instead you might enroll in a senior seminar that is not concerned with literature. So, please, make a sober decision about this course before it is too late. This course may not be right for you.

How The Course Will Work

Below I’d like to sketch out in more detail for you how this course is going to proceed, what is expected of you, and what you can expect from me, your course instructor. Let me begin by saying that you can easily do well in this course; but in order to do well you will have to follow the course guidelines very carefully and especially the course schedule. Because this is a distance course, the course structure becomes especially important. Success usually comes to people who are proactive, that is, who look ahead at what is coming and prepare for it. This strategy is especially key to succeeding in a course that operates on-line, in a "distance" format, and particularly in what is known as an "asynchronous" format. That is, you have the freedom of “attending class” at your convenience, not at a specified time—yet that freedom can turn out to be a burden if you are not going to be responsible, if you are not going to be disciplined; and, if you do not "attend" class regularly, your work in the course will be disqualified—this will mean you will fail the course (see the comments in this regard at the course website: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/hss403romanceDL.html).

There are a number of texts assigned for this course (listed on the course syllabus—accessible from the Moodle course page and to be found at the course website: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/hss403romanceDL.html). I hope these texts will provide you with a fertile reading and thinking experience. Besides reading, we will also be doing a lot of writing.

If you wish to succeed in this course you will need, as I have already suggested, to adhere strictly to the course schedule by getting your reading and writing assignments done in time; indeed, you would be smart to start reading ahead of the scheduled class activities—moreover, as soon as possible, you should begin to think about your term research project and to start writing about what you want to do in the forum space set up for this purpose.

As I've just hinted at above, I have tried to anticipate your needs as well as the needs of the course by setting up a number of venues for us to communicate among ourselves, as you will see, for example, by the topic headings in Discussions (on our course Homepage in Moodle—look on the navigation bar on the left or for the Discussions icon to the right of the bar there). Please place comments in the appropriate topic sectors (such as you find them indicated in Discussions, when you click there). Check for new postings in this bulletin board and elsewhere at least once daily (more frequent participation will serve you as well as your classmates better), and respond to them as required or otherwise as you wish, with your comments or questions (note that daily/weekly classwork makes up a major portion of your course grade—cf. the course website). Overall, you will need to familiarize yourself with all the various functions—which allow us as a class several ways in which to communicate—the Moodle class conferencing system provides. There is also a “Chat” venue that you can use with others in the class or with me, and, of course, you can always write to me in Moodle—see the appropriate icons on the course homepage (and you can find me in the "Participants" section of Moodle and so can send me a message from there). But for doing group work you may find that the Chat venue has its downside, insofar as I won't be able to participate with you and, too, I won't have a record of your participation—such a record will exist in Discussions, and I can have recourse to it when making up your weekly and final grades.

Every number of days you will have some reading to do. You will do the reading, and then you will post comments and/or questions about it. You'll start by posting your own, original comment or question (100-150 words) and then later you'll reply to at least two of the intial postings for the week by your classmates (50-100 words). You can then, if you wish, in a different forum designated for this, post follow-up comments, and you can answer follow-up questions posed by members of the class, including me. Please note that you are not to summarize the reading; we will all have read it and so will know what it is about. Rather, you are supposed to analyze the reading; try to say something interesting or illuminating about it, and if you are asking a question about it make it a question that creates opportunities to think about what is below the surface, so to speak, of the literary work that would be the subject of your post. In any case, mere summary will not earn credit.

Please also note that failure to participate in class discussions (i.e., the posts as described above) at a minimally acceptable level will result in disqualification of end-of-term assignments such as the term paper, final exam, etc.; such disqualification must inevitably spell failure in the course. In order to pass this course a student must be consistently active in daily/weekly class work starting from the beginning of the course term.

This course will have a lot going on in it, and trying to take it all in will be easier if you participate often and in a forthcoming manner. Because a lot will be going on, it is important that we do things in an orderly way, such as by specifically replying to postings so that a bulletin board discussion thread is formed for future reference, and such as by making sure that all messages you send are spell-checked and proofread for grammar and otherwise for clarity (in a distance course this is especially important—we want to prevent unnecessary “noise" that can be very debilitating—doing things on-line is a unique experience, as you may know already).

It is best to compose your messages in a word-processing program and then copy and paste them into Moodle when you are ready to send them, after you have spell-checked and proofread them (please keep in mind, however, that text composed in a word processor and then pasted into Moodle will end up as being preceded by a lot of programming code—i.e., textual "garbage"-—showing up in the Moodle text window, and so you will have to reenter the window, by clicking on "edit" to do so, and to remove that "garbage" coding). All postings to the class must be spell checked before sending; check for grammar problems too. CLARITY and ORDERLINESS is VERY IMPORTANT in an on-line course.

Furthermore, all postings to the class must be in standard English and in standard writing format and formal language. Different communication venues allow, perhaps, or demand, different forms of language or writing. How you might write when sending a text message with your telephone or in, say, Twitter, may be acceptable in those venues but may not be acceptable for our formal class discourse that will take place when someone posts a message to the class as a whole. In your group discussion space, if your group mates don't mind your using informal language and writing, then informal writing will be alright with me; but informal, or for that matter careless, language and/or writing will not be tolerated in messages meant for the entire class. Needless to say, perhaps, writing assignments submitted to me must be in formal language and must obey formal writing protocols. (There is more about all this at the course website.)

The final exam will be "open-book" (but don’t kid yourself that you won’t have to study for it) and in essay format—all the same, if you've been keeping up with the readings and have been posting regularly then you will be in good shape to take the exam. Again, please note that all your writing must be spell-checked and to the best of your ability grammar-checked for the exam. If it is not, then you will not receive credit for it.

What you can expect from me is that I will be fair and helpful. But please keep in mind that on-line courses operate according to a different paradigm than the warm-body variety. In the real-time, on-site, physical classroom the course instructor is more the “sage on the stage” than, in our case, the “guide on the side.” This course is YOURS, not mine. Take control of it. Use it and it will pay off for you. When you are asking questions or volunteering your opinions, you are allowing the process of understanding and appreciation to go forward. The end result of this process, if you allow it to happen, is well thought-out exam essays and papers that earn high grades. If you are “silent” in this course, that is, if you don't participate, then the great likelihood is that you will do poorly in it and may even fail it.

What have I left out? How about plagiarism? Okay, then, here’s the deal: If I find you have plagiarized something, I’ll fail you for the course. Blatant plagiarism will be reported to the Dean of Students. Please see here and its linked pages: http://integrity.njit.edu. If on occasion you are to make use of the ideas or words of someone else in your writing, then the source(s) of those ideas and/or words must be cited; that is, when appropriate, papers must be fully documented (you must cite sources—using footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical documentation, which include when possible specific page numbers keyed to particular passages in one's text, and complete bibliographical information). If you are not sure about documentation principles and/or procedures, you should consult a freshman English textbook such as The Beacon Handbook or better yet The MLA Handbook. Both Writing and Documentation help can also be found at the course website, or at my website (http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/) by clicking on "Writing Guide" (http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/writing.html) and "Documentation Guide" (http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/documentation.html).

Are you ready for this? Well, if you really, seriously, think that you are, then the very next thing I hope you'll do, now, once you have closed out this message from me, and then have familiarized yourself with Moodle, is to introduce yourself to the class, in the Discussions topic sector called "Introducing Ourselves." Tell us about your likes and dislikes, about why you have signed up for this course, about what you hope to do in the future. What year of school are you in? What is your favorite book, movie, song? Do you have a hobby, a job? What is your impression of the Middle Ages?

Personal or private questions? E-mail me from within the Moodle system. DO NOT E-MAIL ME AT MY CAMPUS EDDRESS unless it is a real emergency. By the way, I will normally be e-mailing you if necessary from within the Moodle system, which means I will be e-mailing you at your NJIT eddress (so, if you do not regularly check your NJIT mail then you had better be sure that any mail going there gets forwarded to you at the eddress you use regularly).

One final caution: Please MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT ALL COMMUNICATIONS YOU INITIATE ARE VIRUS-FREE.

I look forward to getting to know you, to our exchanges, and otherwise to our sharing of our reading experiences that I think you will find enriching and enlightening.

Oh, one final, final thing: We all must be aware of how we conduct our virtual selves on-line. Perhaps you have heard the term “flaming”; it means the verbal abuse of someone who is receiving your on-line message. People, if they don’t watch themselves, can end up flaming someone even without fully realizing what they are doing. Working on line has its frustrations, but that does not mean they should be taken out on anyone. Below are some “Netiquette” concepts I ask you to adhere to when participating in this course.
- Respect. Treat all participants with respect and in a professional and courteous manner in e-mail, chat, and in discussions.
- Kindness: Refrain from using profanities, insults, or other disparaging remarks.
- Truth: Endeavor to cite only the truth and not knowingly misrepresent, mischaracterize, or misquote information.
- Responsibility: Take responsibility for your own actions instead of blaming others.
- Cooperation: Work together with other students and the instructor in cooperation toward our common goals of seeking
and providing a quality education.
- Nondiscrimination: Respect the differences in people and their ideas and opinions.
- Civility: Always treat your fellow classmates and instructor civilly.

Oh, Oh, one final, final, final thing: Please e-mail me (using the Moodle function) to let me know that you have read all of the above and that you understand it completely. Thanks so much. (And, please see the P.S. below.)

P.S. Matters related to the above course introduction, which are meant to augment it, can be found at the course Website. Please make sure you read the material there before going any further in this course. The course website is: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/hss403romanceDL.html.

* Once you’ve found your way around our course in Moodle, I recommend you do two things to make your life easier and also more functional, and so that you optimize (at least, I believe doing this will be an optimization for you) your chances of doing better in the course. First of all, click on “Participants”in Moodle (left side of the screen) and then click on your name. Then click on "Edit Profile.” Then select “Yes: Highlight new posts for me” in the box next to “Forum Tracking” (this is about halfway down the list of options in Edit Profile). Secondly, go to moodle.njit.edu and click on "Student Tutorials." Then click on number 12, “Email Digest Type,” and follow the directions you will then be presented with in a pdf file. Following these directions will allow you to receive email notifications of forum posts in a "digest" form. If you receive your Moodle notifications in a Digest form then you will be receiving the emails all at once but only once a day. This may be a better option for you, since you will be able to set time aside to prioritize your responses to the posts in Moodle, and you won’t feel overwhelmed by emails from the course constantly coming at you and perhaps distracting you.