Welcome Message
Welcome to the course COMM 410 Public Opinion.
First of all, this is a hybrid course (half online, half onsite). We will meet face-to-face in the official classroom (RVAC 306) Wednesdays from 9 to 10:35 am. The online part of the course will be asynchronous. In case you do not know, asynchronous means, in the context of online teaching, that we will NOT meet at regular times as a group. In the online section of this course, you will have to work independently.
The first onsite meeting (RVAC 306) is Wednesday, August 28.
In this Welcome Message, I will discuss the contents of the course, the readings and other learning material, as well as the grading elements. You will find online all the material you need to success in the course. You will have the flexibility to work whenever you can plan it in your schedule. It is, thus, very important that you regularly (at least once a day) log in to Blackboard Learn in order to keep up to date.
This course will give you a deep insight into the social psychological phenomenon we call Public Opinion. We will discuss the role Public Opinion plays as one of the columns of social control and analyze the relevance of the term in contemporary democratic societies.
The first step should be to carefully read the syllabus of the course (available in the course’s main menu) and to start exploring the learning units in the course contents area.
I have created a Web-site with all the contents of the course, as well as all necessary resources.
You should keep the link in your favorites. You can access it directly from any device since it is not within the Blackboard Learn environment.
Personal Introduction
My name is Jose Carlos del Ama.
Although I originally come from Spain, I have spent the most important part of my life and academic career in Germany. I received my PhD from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Before I came to the United States in 2003, I had been teaching and researching in Spain at the Universidad de Navarra (Pamplona) and in Germany at the above mentioned university. My emphasis areas of teaching and research are, in addition to strategic communication, Mass Media effects research, public opinion, persuasive communication, new technologies and Web publishing.
More information about the instructor, you can find out in this link:
Jose Carlos del Ama
Course Contents
In the course’s main menu (in Blackboard Learn), you can find a link that takes you to the Web-site’s homepage. In the main menu, you can find the course contents
The drop down menu in this tag will show you all the course’s learning units
I will post every week the learning unit we will be working with.
You should start exploring the contents as soon as possible. Since you have to start immediately doing research for your case studies.
As I said in the syllabus, this hybrid course is reading intensive. You will find the contents in three main formats:
Online Lectures (HTML documents and audiovisual files)
Readings (mostly PDF documents)
Streaming Media (videos)
There will be no textbook in this course
ALL THE CONTENTS OF THE LEARNING MODULES ARE RELEVANT FOR THE COURSE AND WILL BE RELEVANT FOR THE WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND THE EXAMINATIONS.
Grading
Grading in the class will be based on a number of elements. They are
Midterm Exam 30%
Public Opinion Research Paper 25%
Participation 10%
Final Exam 35%
You can find a detailed description of every grading element in the “assignments” page, as well as the due dates for the exams and the paper.
Extra Help
You will receive extra grading points if you present to the class one case study based on your own research. These presentations will NOT be graded and will just have a positive effect on your final grade. Only if the student DOES NOT APPEAR the day scheduled for the presentation, it will negatively reflect on the final grade.
Interaction with the Instructor
Please, use the “Contact the Instructor” area in the course’s main menu to ask questions related to this course. I am in Blackboard Learn several hours every day and check regularly your messages.
I will also hold office hours for those students who want/need a face-to-face interaction with the instructor – or also virtual online meetings.
Office hours:
- T: 1:30 – 3 pm
- W: 12:10 am – 1:40 pm
- R: 8:30 am – 10:30 am
You can contact me anytime to make an appointment if you cannot make it during the office hours.
Please, check the announcements every day.
Good luck!
Technical Issues with Blackboard Learn
If you have any technical issue with the online learning system, please contact the help-desk at CCSU (860) 832 1720.