Discussion Board Posts: Instead of having you answer specific homework questions individually, I have decided to have you post discussion board posts regarding the texts we read and the films we watch.

Rationale Behind the Change: If I assign homework questions, then everyone has to answer them individually and I have to set up the discussion board so that it doesn't show your answers. As a result, there is little to no interaction among students. I think a discussion forum will be just as educational and much more fun.

What Do I Put in My Post? Post your observations, your opinions, your questions, etc. My goal is to have the class engage in actual discussion about the texts and/or films. So if you want to talk about the cinematography in Double Indemnity or how the character of Phyllis changes from the book to the film, or whether either the book or the film is literature, start a discussion.

How Many Posts do I need and how long must they be? You should make, at least two, substantial posts per week whenever you see Discussion assigned that week on the syllabus. Again, I want this to be real discussion, so I'm hoping that people will read each others posts and respond.

It's fine to post more than twice. Just make sure that you have two substantial posts by the required due date. What do I mean by substantial? Something with some meat to it. Not just "I liked the cinematography in the film." If you're going to talk about the cinematography in Double Indemnity, be specific. What did you like? What do you think it added to the film? How did it affect what we expect from film noir? etc.

But I already started working on Homework 1: If you have already started on writing a response to Homework 1, simply use what you had written for one of the answers as one of your posts for this week's assignment.

How Much does my Discussion count toward my grade? Discussion/Homework will account for 25% of your final grade. Since I don't anticipate any homework assignments at the moment, your grade for this part of the course will be dependent upon the quality of your discussion posts.

So what's this week's assignment again? Post, at least, two substantial entries before midnight Saturday that deal with Double Indemnity. Try and limit your post to a single topic, though it's fine if you discuss both the film and the text in the same post. Give us your opinion and back it up with some support. Also, feel free to raise questions in your posts.

Finallly, I'd prefer that you began posting sooner rather than later, so that we get the discussion going.