ClassInfo

GPH 205 Historical Foundations of Visual Technology

Winter 2014-2015
Class number: 20198
Section number: 520
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Online Campus

Summary

This course is a survey of the development, application and meaning of visual technologies in a wide range of world cultures from pre-history to the present. It traces the unique intersection of mathematics and physical culture that marks design science as it has been realized in a variety of human societies. The course includes works of art that emphasize mathematical, geometric and physical elements antecedent to contemporary graphic technology. This course carries Liberal Studies credit in the Understanding the Past learning domain. It belongs to the geographical category of "Intercontinental." Students may not take more than one Understanding the Past course in any given geographical category. The central Understanding the Past learning goal is to help you become literate about the past and the methods used to understand it. DePaul considers that this learning goal is achieved if you are able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes in your written work, exams, and/or contributions to discussions:

1. You have acquired knowledge of prehistoric or historical events, themes, and ideas

2. You can reason through analysis, evaluation, and/or synthesis of a range of primary and secondary source evidence

3. You understand that there are different perspectives on the past, whether those be historical or methodological in nature

4. You can express knowledge and reason effectively in written work.

This syllabus gives you an overall description of the course, required texts, prerequisites, grading scheme, and how the course is organized. FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION EXPLORE THE COURSE WEB SITE AT http://gph205.getclass.info. This syllabus was last revised November 20, 2013.

Learning Domain Description
GPH-205 Historical Foundations of Visual Technology is included in the Liberal Studies program as a course with credit in the Understanding the Past (UP) domain. This Learning Domain studies human life in past societies (primarily pre-1945) as a process of continuity and change over time. It includes courses offered in a range of scholarly fields concerned with historical questions, including but not limited to History, Archaeology, Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Literature, and Sociology. Courses in this learning domain are distinguished by their interest in reconstructing the past through the analysis of primary evidence, in critically reflecting on the ways the past has been explained and understood, and in examining the ways human experience is shaped by diverse geographies and chronological periods.

Changes to Syllabus
Every attempt will be made to make no changes to this syllabus once the course has started, but if necessary this syllabus is subject to change during the quarter. If a change occurs, it will be thoroughly addressed in class lecture videos and sent to each enrolled student via email.



Texts

Two printed books and a free downloadable handout entitled the Essay Guide are required at a total cost of under $60:

The Story of Art, 16th edition (1995, by E. H. Gombrich,). ISBN 0-7148-3247-2. It's less than $30 new at Amazon.com and well worth the very reasonable cost. Earlier editions may be used but will handicap you with fewer color illustrations.

The History of Visual Technology, 3rd edition, ISBN 978-1-60904-160-1 by James Janossy (2012). This workbook is fully multimedia enabled through the use of a page index providing access to video lecture and other resources. The workbook contains all materials for course assignments as well as study aids and assignment worksheets to help you do the assignments, all of which are submitted electronically.

See link "B" at the course web site at http://gph205.getclass.info for direct links to the Amazon.com web pages for the books for this course. The Essay Guide is downloadable from the Unit 5 link at the course web site, which is accessible via the course landing page at http://gph205.getclass.info. IMPORTANT NOTE: The Essay Guide for this course IS NOT just a formatting guide! It contains a detailed description of the intended content of the required reflective essay for the course, and the focus of the conclusions it is intended that you develop. Students should download and review this no later than the first week of the term since some of the work throughout the course consists of building factual notes that serve as the basis for the essay.

As a study aid, the course web site provides short URL alias links to the slides on which lectures are based, in downloadable 3-up .pdf form suitable for electronic note-taking or printing. You may use any word processor you wish to complete the assignments in this course.



Grading

Although this course in visual technology is conducted online, it makes essentially no use of Desire2Learn instead providing access to web resources via the page index at http://gph205.getclass.info that gives open access to web resources supporting smart cell phones, iPods, iPads, and other tablet computers. Using workbook page numbers to provide access to supporting video resources places such resources in context and avoids the need for excess system navigation.

This course is divided into five segments named "units". Each unit requires readings and video viewing as indicated in the course e-book and the completion and submission of these assignments:

* a short repeatable online exercise

* a written summary homework assignment supplied as a turnaround document

* a hands-on project.

Exercises are graded automatically and each is a repeatable learning device, not a "quiz". Project work and homework are graded by the instructor upon submission and written feedback is given, after which students have the opportunity to revise and resubmit the work for re-grading and (possibly) higher score. This course does not make use of discussion boards, but frequent communication between the student and the instructor is encouraged in a "mentoring" capacity.

The coursework in units counts for 75% of the course grade. A reflective written assignment (25%) accounts for the remaining 25% producing a course score in a range 0 to 1000. Your course score is divided by 1000 to convert it to a percentage. The letter grade for the course is assigned from that percentage using this scale:

94 and above = A
90-93.9 = A-
87.5-89.9 = B+
83.5-87.4 = B
80-83.4 = B-
77.5-79.9 = C+
73.5-77.4 = C
70-73.4 = C-
67.5-69.9 = D+
60-67.4 = D
less than 60 = F

The repeatable online exercises, project and homework feedback and opportunity to revise and resubmit work provide much more frequent and timely feedback than would a midterm exam so there is no midterm exam in this course. The end of the term is focused on the reflective essay and there is no final exam. A detailed course grade "transcript" with feedback is provided to each student at frequent intervals during the course. Grades are not "curved." Every student can earn an A or any other grade; you are not competing with anyone else in this course. Your grade results entirely from your own efforts judged objectively. Optional extra credit is available in each of the four units of the course. This class is designed to take advantage of modern electronic technology and the web. All work is submitted electronically online. You need to do the reading assignments and video viewing for which links in the course e-book are provided since the exercises, projects, and homework are based on these. Work for each unit is due on the date the student has committed to in their declared work submission schedule. Each student has a grace period of seven days (total) they can apply any way they wish, if needed, during the term, to avoid a late penalty. In addition, students can re-plan their declared work submission schedule until the withdrawal date for the term is reached (see the official academic calendar or link "A" at the course web site at http://gph205.getclass.info for the specific withdrawal date). Official CDM policies regarding incompletes, grade/GPA effects of re-taking a course, and grade challenges are located at http://www.cdm.depaul.edu/Current%20Students/Pages/Grading-Policies.aspx.



Prerequisites

The only prerequisite for this course is that you can access videos such as that using a desktop, laptop, smart cell phone, iPad, iPod, or other tablet computer. This course supports all of these devices. If you don't have convenient internet access on one of these types of devices, you may not have what you need in terms of infrastructure to attempt a fully online course!


How this course meets Liberal Studies content and writing requirements

GPH-205 satisfies a Liberal Studies "Understanding the Past to 1800" requirement through the use of carefully designed reading and viewing assignments focused on the progression of human expression through artworks from prehistoric times to approximately the end of the initial Impressionist era in about AD 1900. The course addresses the progression of art using a classic art history textbook combined with supplemental readings and viewings exploring the technologies used to create art, from primitive natural earth colorants and geometry to the scientific perspectives and the science of human color vision and capture and reproduction of color images through photographic and electronic means. The development of art in Europe, the Middle East, Egypt, Greece and Rome, Asia, Africa, South America, and India are covered to a depth typical of introductory "survey" courses. Carefully designed low-overhead but effective hands-on assignments employing simple tools such as straightedge, compass, and household items are used to explore art geometries such as the perfect solids, the Golden Ratio and Golden Rectangle, rose windows, Celtic knots, and egg tempera as a binder with colorants and lakes. These assignments are integrated with repeatable online exercises to foster experiential learning that applies facts acquired from readings with hands-on work and uses modern technology to assess learning accomplishment. A visit to an online archive of artifacts from the Middle Ages is incorporated into an assignment focusing on historiated initials in illuminated manuscripts of the 9th to 15th centuries. Visits to four online art museums are incorporated into a capstone project requiring students to identify artworks from the Renaissance and Baroque eras in which the artists applied each of the scientific perspectives. Students accomplish in excess of the minimum 10 pages of original writing required of Liberal Studies courses through brief narrative writings required in each of the four hands-on projects, and in the 2500-word (minimum) reflective essay and conclusions work that takes the place of a traditional final exam. The conclusions work is unique in that students do not form conclusions, but instead must use critical thinking to form sound arguments substantiating or refuting three conclusions provided by the instructor, employing and formally citing facts from their own reflective essay, which functions as an oral history.


Individual coursework scheduling; optional teamwork

Online courses need not be constrained to have each student proceed at the same pace. The timespans for each segment of the course shown below are just my suggestions. In this course each students decides, within some simple guidelines, on the date they will commit to complete each of the five units of the course. The schedule is declared using the Confirmation of Participation form you download from the course web site and complete and return. You can adjust this schedule as your own circumstances dictate during the first seven weeks of the term (10-week quarter) or first 3 weeks of the 5-week summer term or first half of the 3-week December intersession term.

It's possible for students well-acquainted with each other to work together in this course in a team of two. This is entirely optional, but any such arrangement must be confirmed in the first 20% of the term by the instructor, and the arrangement must last for the entire term. Working in a team-of-two can be a productive collaboration but an additional item of documentation is required for each assignment indicating how the work has been split up such that each member of the team-of-two receives the full benefit of the exercise, written assignment, or hands-on project work. Review link "F" of the course web site at http://gph205.getclass.info for more information on team-of-two work.


Unit 1: Prehistory, the ancients, and Rome to 600 AD.
The Story of Art, introduction and chapters 1 through 5; Workbook chapter 1
Video viewings and assignments as indicated in the course workbook.

Unit2: The Middle Ages 600 AD to 1300 AD.
The Story of Art, chapters 6 through 11; Workbook chapter 2
Video viewings and assignments as indicated in the course workbook

Unit 3: Renaissance and Reformation 1300 AD to 1650 AD
The Story of Art, chapters 12 through 18; Workbook chapter 3
Video viewings and assignments as indicated in the course workbook

Unit 4: Baroque and beyond 1650 AD to 1900 AD;
The Story of Art, chapters 19 through 25; Workbook chapter 4
Video viewings and assignments as indicated in the course workbook

Reflective essay.
The course web site at http://gph205.getclass.info provides complete information about the unique creative writing reflective essay in the Essay Guide that you can download from its link for Unit 5.

School policies:

Changes to Syllabus

This syllabus is subject to change as necessary during the quarter. If a change occurs, it will be thoroughly addressed during class, posted under Announcements in D2L and sent via email.

Online Course Evaluations

Evaluations are a way for students to provide valuable feedback regarding their instructor and the course. Detailed feedback will enable the instructor to continuously tailor teaching methods and course content to meet the learning goals of the course and the academic needs of the students. They are a requirement of the course and are key to continue to provide you with the highest quality of teaching. The evaluations are anonymous; the instructor and administration do not track who entered what responses. A program is used to check if the student completed the evaluations, but the evaluation is completely separate from the student’s identity. Since 100% participation is our goal, students are sent periodic reminders over three weeks. Students do not receive reminders once they complete the evaluation. Students complete the evaluation online in CampusConnect.

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

This course will be subject to the university's academic integrity policy. More information can be found at http://academicintegrity.depaul.edu/ If you have any questions be sure to consult with your professor.

All students are expected to abide by the University's Academic Integrity Policy which prohibits cheating and other misconduct in student coursework. Publicly sharing or posting online any prior or current materials from this course (including exam questions or answers), is considered to be providing unauthorized assistance prohibited by the policy. Both students who share/post and students who access or use such materials are considered to be cheating under the Policy and will be subject to sanctions for violations of Academic Integrity.

Academic Policies

All students are required to manage their class schedules each term in accordance with the deadlines for enrolling and withdrawing as indicated in the University Academic Calendar. Information on enrollment, withdrawal, grading and incompletes can be found at http://www.cdm.depaul.edu/Current%20Students/Pages/PoliciesandProcedures.aspx.

Students with Disabilities

Students who feel they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss their specific needs. All discussions will remain confidential.
To ensure that you receive the most appropriate accommodation based on your needs, contact the instructor as early as possible in the quarter (preferably within the first week of class), and make sure that you have contacted the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) at:
Lewis Center 1420, 25 East Jackson Blvd.
Phone number: (312)362-8002
Fax: (312)362-6544
TTY: (773)325.7296