In order to successfully complete this course, students must demonstrate their understanding of the course materials by:

• participating actively in the discussion activities,
• completing the chapter response assignments,
• submitting a paper,
• earning a combined average of at least 60% on the proctored assessments.

Here is an overview of all of the different types of assignments in the course. Pelease find detailed directions for the assignments and the grading rubrics in the module where they are assigned.

Discussions

There is a discussion for each chapter. The discussions allow students to evaluate relevant arguments and issues concerning the concept addressed in each chapter and provide evidence from the course text to support their arguments and opinions. There are no right or wrong answers to the discussion questions. Students are merely required to apply the concepts learned to real-life examples.

Chapter Responses 

The response assignments allow students to reflect on what they learned in each chapter and write a 500-600 word essay to:

• Discuss how political scientists attempt to quantify data, manipulate data statistically, and validate hypotheses.
• Explain how political science is an empirical discipline.
• Discuss how political scientists build scholarship based on reason, balance, and supporting evidence, and that much of this scholarship is based on theory.

Students should use proper sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Sources should be cited properly.

Thinking Piece Paper

Students will choose a topic of interest from a list provided to them and write a 3-4-page paper. The paper should demonstrate clear organization and ideas that follow a logical order with evidence. Credible sources are required.

Proctored Assessments 

There are two proctored assessments in this course. Each assessment has 100 objective questions. Students are required to complete them in two hours.

Please find the information on how to take a proctored assessment in the Taking Proctored Assessments section below.