Syllabus for LDR-324

LEADERS IN HISTORY


COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course focuses on historical perspectives on leadership: first, on real leaders over thousands of years who demonstrated leadership within multiple contexts (including politics, reform movements, diplomacy, military, business, church, sports, and art); second, on writers/scholars/leaders from different historical eras and contexts who wrote about leadership and whose writings provide a means of understanding leaders acting in history. Together, these two elements of the course reinforce each other and provide students with the opportunity to reflect on links between leadership practices and leadership concepts across a broad spectrum of world history. The course introduces a diverse group of historical leaders: both men and women; leaders of different races and ethnicities; and persons of different national/cultural backgrounds.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

After completing this course, you should be able to:

  1. Discuss how particular leaders from varied historical periods and contexts practiced leadership.
  2. Describe how concepts about leadership developed over time and how they affected leadership practices during various historical periods and within particular historical contexts.
  3. Assess the ways in which leaders in history exemplified leadership concepts.
  4. Analyze how leadership practices have changed over the course of history, and how leaders have challenged, shaped, and/or changed history.
  5. Draw conclusions about why a consideration of history and leaders in history is important to an understanding of leadership today.
  6. Analyze the ways in which the characteristics/qualities of leaders interact with the culture/social mores of their historical periods.
  7. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of leaders in their historical periods and contexts, and explain why strength or weakness in one period or context may not be strength or weakness in another.
  8. Connect components of leadership practices and leadership concepts that may be common across all periods of history, and contrast those that are distinctly different from one period to another.
  9. Analyze ways leaders in history differ because of factors such as gender, race, or national/cultural background.
  10. Assess how the notion of "followership" has changed over the course of history.
  11. Write cogent, coherent, and substantially error-free essays or papers.

COURSE MATERIALS

You will need the following materials to do the work of the course. The required textbooks are available from the University's textbook supplier, MBS Direct.

ISBN-13: 978-0684801384

ISBN-13: 978-1843761518

Online Writing Sources and Tutorial Options

Leaders in History is a writing intensive course that places great emphasis on helping you to further develop your writing skills. Listed below are helpful writing resources and tutoring options:

COURSE STRUCTURE

Leadership in History is a three-credit online course, consisting of five modules. Modules include learning objectives, study materials, and activities. Module titles are listed below.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in online discussion forums, complete written activities, and complete a final project. See below for more details.

Consult the Course Calendar for assignment due dates.

Promoting Originality

One or more of your course activities may utilize a tool designed to promote original work and evaluate your submissions for plagiarism. More information about this tool is available in this document.

Discussion Forums

In addition to an ungraded Introductions Forum, Leaders in History requires you to participate in graded class discussions, one in each module.

Communication with the mentor and among fellow students is a critical component of online learning. Participation in online discussions involves two distinct activities: an initial response to a posted question (discussion thread) and subsequent comments on classmates' responses.

You will be evaluated both on the quality of your responses (i.e., your understanding of readings, and concepts as demonstrated by well-articulated, critical thinking) and quantity of your participation (i.e., the number of times you participate meaningfully in the assigned forums). Responses and comments should be properly proofread and edited, professional, and respectful.

Meaningful participation in online discussions is relevant to the content, adds value, and advances the discussion. Comments such as "I agree" and "ditto" are not considered value-adding participation. Therefore, when you agree or disagree with a classmate, the reading, or your mentor, state and support your agreement or disagreement.

Deadlines for posting responses to the discussion questions are given in the Course Calendar.

Written Assignments

Leaders in History has two types of written assignments. Each of these is described more fully in the module details.

For the assignment topics and questions, see the module details in the topic list of the course Web site. Due dates for each assignment are listed in the Course Calendar.

Your answers to the assignment questions should be well developed and convey your understanding of the readings and concepts. They should also adequately answer the questions posed. If you need help in writing, consult the writing resources listed under Course Materials.

Also, formulate responses in your own words. Do not merely copy answers from your reading materials. When quoting or paraphrasing from the text or other sources, be sure to cite the source of information properly according to APA guidelines. If you have further questions, your mentor will guide you in accordance with the correct style of documentation.

Prepare your written assignments using whatever word processing program you have on your computer. Include your name at the top of the paper, as well as the course name and code and the semester and year in which you are enrolled.

Before submitting your first assignment, check with your mentor to determine whether your word processing software is compatible with your mentor's software. If so, you can submit your work as you prepared it. If not, save your assignment as a rich-text (.rtf) file, using the Save As command of your software program. Rich text retains basic formatting and can be read by any other word processing program.

Final Project

This course does not have a midterm or a final examination. Instead you will be required to write and submit a final paper to your mentor. This paper incorporates readings from throughout the course and will describe how you, as a contemporary leader who learns from the past, can challenge the status quo today (at work, in the community, or otherwise) and make a positive difference.

A full description of the paper and the requirements for completing it are found in the Final Project section of the course Web site.

Your final paper should be well developed and convey your understanding of the readings and concepts. Your paper should be organized, coherent, and unified; it should also be free of spelling and grammatical errors. If you need help in writing, consult the writing resources listed under Course Materials.

If you have questions about the requirements of the paper, be sure to discuss them with your mentor well in advance of the final submission. Consult the Course Calendar for this paper's due date. It must be submitted by the last day of the semester.

GRADING AND EVALUATION

Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:

All activities will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:

A

=

93–100

C+

=

78–79

A–

=

90–92

C

=

73–77

B+

=

88–89

C–

=

70–72

B

=

83–87

D

=

60–69

B–

=

80–82

F

=

Below 60

To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or better (for an area of study course) or D or better (for a non-area of study course), based on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., exams, assignments, discussion postings, etc.).

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

First Steps to Success

To succeed in this course, take the following first steps:

Study Tips

Consider the following study tips for success:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Students at Thomas Edison State University are expected to exhibit the highest level of academic citizenship. In particular, students are expected to read and follow all policies, procedures, and program information guidelines contained in publications; pursue their learning goals with honesty and integrity; demonstrate that they are progressing satisfactorily and in a timely fashion by meeting course deadlines and following outlined procedures; observe a code of mutual respect in dealing with mentors, staff, and other students; behave in a manner consistent with the standards and codes of the profession in which they are practicing; keep official records updated regarding changes in name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address; and meet financial obligations in a timely manner. Students not practicing good academic citizenship may be subject to disciplinary action including suspension, dismissal, or financial holds on records.

 

Academic Dishonesty

Thomas Edison State University expects all of its students to approach their education with academic integrity—the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception. All mentors and administrative staff members at the University insist on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Academic dishonesty undermines this objective. Academic dishonesty can take the following forms:

Please refer to the Academic Code of Conduct Policy in the University Catalog and online at www.tesu.edu.

 

 

Plagiarism

Using someone else’s work as your own is plagiarism. Thomas Edison State University takes a strong stance against plagiarism, and students found to be plagiarizing will be severely penalized. If you copy phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or whole documents word-for-word—or if you paraphrase by changing a word here and there—without identifying the author, or without identifying it as a direct quote, then you are plagiarizing. Please keep in mind that this type of identification applies to Internet sources as well as to print-based sources. Copying and pasting from the Internet, without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources, constitutes plagiarism. (For information about how to cite Internet sources, see Online Student Handbook > Academic Standards > “Citing Sources.”)

Accidentally copying the words and ideas of another writer does not excuse the charge of plagiarism. It is easy to jot down notes and ideas from many sources and then write your own paper without knowing which words are your own and which are someone else’s. It is more difficult to keep track of each and every source. However, the conscientious writer who wishes to avoid plagiarizing never fails to keep careful track of sources.

Always be aware that if you write without acknowledging the sources of your ideas, you run the risk of being charged with plagiarism.

Clearly, plagiarism, no matter the degree of intent to deceive, defeats the purpose of education. If you plagiarize deliberately, you are not educating yourself, and you are wasting your time on courses meant to improve your skills. If you plagiarize through carelessness, you are deceiving yourself.

For examples of unintentional plagiarism, advice on when to quote and when to paraphrase, and information about writing assistance, click the links provided below.

Examples of Unintentional Plagiarism 

When to Quote and When to Paraphrase

Writing Assistance at Smarthinking

 

Disciplinary Process

First-time incidents of academic dishonesty concerning plagiarism may reflect ignorance of appropriate citation requirements. Mentors will make a good faith effort to address all first-time offenses that occur in courses. In these cases, the mentor may impose sanctions that serve as a learning exercise for the offender. These may include the completion of tutorials, assignment rewrites, or any other reasonable learning tool including a lower grade when appropriate. The mentor will notify the student by e-mail. Decisions about the sanctions applied for subsequent plagiarism offenses or other violations will be made by the appropriate dean’s office, with the advice of the mentor or staff person who reported the violation. The student will be notified via certified mail of the decision. Options for sanctions include:

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