all right let's go ahead and begin welcome to government 2306 Texas government I am Lee rpen I'll be your instructor for this semester uh you'll have to forgive me this is my first time uh teaching an online course so this is kind of new and exciting and I'm still trying to learn how to record myself on this thing so if it looks like I'm looking down on the screen um it's just that I'm looking at the screen and the PowerPoint slides and the webcam is up top so it probably looks like I'm looking off screen the entire time but I'm really just looking at the slides I'll go ahead and introduce myself uh like I said my name is Lee rapen um I Lee rman I come from Ellsworth Kansas um I've actually only been in Texas for three years so teaching Texas government will be new and exciting and I'm right there right alongside you guys learning um learning new things about about Texas and politics and so forth um I'm only 24 years old I got my bachelor's from Kansas State University in Manhattan in Kansas um my masters is from University of North Texas uh so that was the two years that I spent here in Texas this is my third year here in Galveston uh it's only I've only been here for a few months in galvaston so if any of you have anything to recommend uh restaurants or things to do around here I definitely welcome that uh and being from Kansas moving to Galveston was quite the experience uh obviously in Kansas we just have a lot of farms and and things so and so being introduced to palm trees in in the ocean was definitely something new for me as well um so some of my interest uh my research interest things that I stud the thing the thing that I specialize in and the thing that I study uh in grad school is international political economy um so it's kind of a far stretch going teaching Texas government to studying International political economy um but I'll try to include some economic explanations and things like that uh during my lecture so we'll see how that goes um outside of teaching I love baseball I love to talk baseball um love watching it anything about baseball um so if you guys want to start a discussion board uh about sports or whatever feel free to do so I definitely welcome uh getting a chance to talk to you guys about that sort of thing uh my other interest is music uh when I'm not teaching during the week I'm actually a wedding DJ uh and I also do special events um high school dances military balls and but mainly specialize in weddings so uh DJing has been a great opportunity for me in college um I got to study during the week and and go ahead and work on the weekends and so DJing has always been really special for me I've been doing it for about 7even years now I also love teaching uh this is being 24 being 24 being really young this is only my second semester of teaching um but it's definitely been quite the experience and I'm really glad for this opportunity here at Galveston college so looking forward to teaching you guys uh even if I can't see you face to face I'm just talking to you through the through the camera here but I'm definitely definitely looking forward to gaining more experience today we're just going to do a simple uh kind of this video is just a simple introduction to the course in general uh we're going to look through the syllabus and the course schedule and we're also going to look at angel and see how that see uh see how to operate the main website for this course I'll go ahead and open Chrome um and then I'll go ahead and show you how to log into Angel to log into Angel it's just real simple uh you go ahead and type in G c.edu and then you click at the very top of this web page here e-learning it'll ask for your password uh so or your username and password so go ahead and type that in real quick and then you guys are the uh Texas government course I'm also teaching a federal government course so I'll try to keep everything straight but right here uh when you log in and you click on Texas government you will see the main web page of the homepage and click on this lesson lessons tab up here at the top on this lessons tab you're going to find everything that you need uh week to week and for the course in general so your course syllabus your course schedule your extra credit Dropbox which we'll talk about later the help discussion board the help discussion board is just a place where if you have any questions about assignments about material uh about due dates anything like that click on the help discussion board post post your question on the help discussion board and then I will try to answer it or your peers will answer it if you as the student want to go ahead and answer questions from other from your peers feel free I'll go ahead and offer extra credit if you go ahead and help out uh your fellow students I'll considered a good citizen type of award for taking the time uh out of your schedule to help other students and then also down below you're going to see week by week I'm going to post the lecture and the and the discussion board for that week under that week's folder so also the slides so if you need the slides the lecture video or the discussion board just go to that week's folder and you're good to go so let's go ahead and talk about this very first one here the syllabus the syllabus is probably the most important let me find it down here on the taskbar here we go all right so this is your syllabus for the semester uh this will just kind of tell you basically the rules of the course not anything uh not necessarily the dates of when stuff is due that's reserved for the course schedule so let's go ahead and look at the syllabus first uh syllabus is very simple I have my contact up uh contact info up here at the top uh like I said my name is Lee rapman if you need to email me please use this email address right here lman gc.edu that'll be the best way to get a hold of me send me an email uh from your Gmail account or your white cabs account however you want to get a hold of me just please send me an email um I check it pretty constantly so I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can I also have my phone number there 785 5311 1288 if you need to get a hold of me if you have an emergency reason or if you also uh also this is an online course so I embrace all embrace all forms of technology so if you want to just shoot me a quick text message with you with a quick question anything like that I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can just please don't blow up my phone with text messages um but that is my phone number if you if you do need it uh my office is m314 that's where I'm going to be recording all these videos uh so you'll see the lovely file cabinets um behind me to the right here um but I'm an m314 if you are on campus and I'm on campus as well uh drop by ask me a question anything that you need my office hours are um two to two to two um or 12 sorry 12 to 2 not 2 to two 12 to 2 on Tuesdays and um I'm also I'm going to be logged into Skype uh from 12: to 4:00 Monday through Thursday um I have my Skype username on the course schedule so if you want to log into Skype uh you can just chat me real quick there with the question or we can review the material if you need review for the test or anything like that uh just please let me know so you can go ahead and read through the catalog description uh we're basically just going to be studying the institutions of government and their functions from the local level to the National uh with particular emphasis on the city county and state governments so we just really want to examine in in detail the processes of government and the politics that are going on in Texas and in the local governments as well uh the required book uh the required book is called Lone Star politics it's written by Coler gastas and harelson it is available in the bookstore here on campus uh do I do also believe you can find it on Amazon and online so if you're looking for cheap deals online on Amazon uh go ahead and do that as well but the book is required uh I like I said I'm going to be learning alongside you guys about Texas politics so I'll definitely be doing the readings and I might off I might often draw uh questions on the exam from the book so learning outcomes you can read through those I just really want you guys to know these Stu this know this stuff by the end of the semester um and we'll definitely be covering all these topics course requirements um students will be expecting to attend class take notes do the assigned textbook readings make an honest attempt at completing extra credit I offer lots of extra credit in this class we'll go ahead and cover that just a little bit here in just a little bit uh participate in class discussion and do the required uh projects as assign so please really with an online course all it really boils down to is just logging on do re watching the weekly lecture video and then posting your discussion boards uh complete extra credit you guys as an online course you guys should have plenty of time to complete some extra extra credit do the readings and just do any project that may be due that week so let's go ahead and talk about evaluation criteria uh before we go ahead and talk about this I want to go ahead and talk about my grading philosophy just a little bit um I'm I'm a new teacher this is only my second semester but I I still have a very uh optimistic view I guess on on grading it's really just the fact that I want you guys to listen to the information through the lecture video and then I want you guys to relate it to something that you know or to relate it to a personal view or a personal opinion maybe even a personal experience that you guys have had that can relate easily to the material grades represent a standard of achievement and understanding so it's not just memorization and reg regad of the information it is necessary to have that basic knowledge of the information or facts associated with the subject uh and the purpose of an education is to be able to utilize uh the information you have acquired in the course I want you to ize this and relate it to something that you may know um so to this end uh the fact that I want you to understand the information then the fact that I want you to relate it to something that you know um I've kind of designed this course to allow you to do that so to this end uh the assignments and exams uh seek to balance those two objectives you will be required to participate in class discussion through the discussion boards each week in order to demonstrate that you are able to relate this information to personal experiences or opinions and moreover the exam should demonstrate that you understand the information that is presented in lecture and also in the textbook uh and then also you will be you will complete writing assignments uh in order to show a deeper understanding of the material related to your own opinions or views on the topic um I luckily for you you guys are taking Texas government there's only one paper my federal government requires two papers but still this writing assignment should allow you to express your opinions on a particular political topic or political view that you may have now so let's go ahead and talk about exactly what you're going to do to earn that grade or or what you're going to to do for that grade throughout the semester so first of all uh as with any course you have tests um we have three multiple choice exams in this in this class and they comprise of approximately 60% of your grade so uh you have three test 60% worth of your grade so every test every test you take is worth 20% of your grade so it's really important you don't slack off on on just one test because one test one bad grade could really hurt you in this course uh being worth 20% of your overall grd each exam is worth 100 points so these are three closed book exams now I understand this is an online course so I can't really stop you if you do look look through the book um however these are timed exams so I would I would not advi not advise not preparing uh don't spend your entire two hours that I I allow you for the test just looking through the book for the answers um you you can look through the book obviously I can't see you if you look through if you look through the book or not um but I would just advise to prepare beforehand the exams are 100% multiple choice with 50 questions so you have 50 questions all multiple choice and you'll have the entire exam week to complete the test so when it comes around to exam week I'm going to go ahead and post a review lecture and then I'm going to go ahead and post the exam itself as soon as you click that exam or once you begin in that exam uh there will be a 2hour time limit so be sure to prepare for the exam before you start exams are non cumulative so whatever we cover in unit one will be on the unit one test whatever we cover in unit two will be in the unit two test whatever we cover in unit three will be in the unit three test the exam is drawn from about 75% of these video lectures and about 25% from the reading so it's still kind of important to read and it's important to to know the information in the book as I may ask a question on it uh the second part of your grade is that we do have one analytical essay so this will be one basically just term paper for the for the whole semester um each each student will complete a research paper uh being at least five pages in length students will be graded on originality content spelling grammar and application to the course material so it's really important that you understand the the course information that you relay that to me in the essay and also please use proper spelling in grammar also use proper citation either MLA or APS style within text citations now I know that may sound like ating task or you're not quite sure exactly what Intex citation is or MLA or apsa style may be uh no worries I'm going to go ahead and post a lecture about how to write and how to write properly at the college level um I've been in college I guess for seven years now so it's really important to me that you guys learn this because the reason why is because writing is not just a skill that you're going to use in school writing is a lifelong skill no matter what job you have you'll probably have some aspect of writing in your in your job and it's important to communicate effectively through writing so it affects your personal development it affects you as a scholar as an academic and it also affects you as a citizen just in everyday life it's important to write and be able to articulate your thoughts through writing it is important that you take your time to develop your essays and to demonstrate an understanding of the content and improve writing skills overall so uh consult your course schedule for due dates and times we're going to go ahead and review that later on but here's the topic of your research of your research paper I'll go ahead and highlight that so you can see it just a little bit better here all right um actually I'll go ahead and highlight it with the Highlight tool all right there we go um so um as we I guess you I expect you to be reading this later on as we have discussed during lecture in class and read in the book um Texas has experienced changing demographics the influence of new cultures and an involv an involving political landscape so looking forward to Texas's future what do you believe will be the determining that will be what do you believe will be the defining issue of Texas politics in the years to come pick one policy debate that you believe is the most important issue that Texas must address explain both sides of the debate provide your opinion on the issue and also do you believe that this issue should receive more or less attention what interest groups are involved regard regarding the issue and what can you do as a citizen to to contribute to its debate or its resolution so this is pretty wide open you can talk about any number of topics whatever you think is most important that Texas absolutely must address right now because it is the most important issue um I have an example here uh this is just a hypothetical it's nothing that I believe personally or anything like that uh but I just want to give you an example so that you can maybe see uh what to write about so the example I I provide here on the syllabus is that I believe that Texas must address the building of infrastructure such as roads such as roads and bridges I meant to say roads and bridges there that's embarrassing uh roads and bridges because the population is growing at a rapid rate the building of infrastructure will ensure the safety of all citizens and improve the economy so uh in this hypothetical situation I'm advocating that Texas should build more roads and bridges because the infrastructure around here is not that great um in all honesty being from Kansas Texas roads aren't aren't that great to begin with so um guess it is kind of important to me in many ways but you can write about any number of topics you can write about marijuana legalization you can write about immigration uh you can write about how um there's only one party that really dominates the state anything like that anything that you feel is important uh gun control would probably be a really popular issue here in Texas as well uh so anything you want to write about it's a wide open term paper um and so I just want to know your guys's opinion black white or otherwise uh no there's there's no limits to what you what you can write on here so the third part of your grade um will be the weekly discussion boards and this will basically just be your weekly assignment to let me know that you guys actually watch the video lecture and and can relate it to some questions that I will ask you so as part of an online course um oh sorry the discussion boards are uh 20% uh 20% of your of your overall grade and it's worth 100% total or 100 points total so your weekly discussion boards as part of an online course it is necessary to demonstrate that you have listened to the lecture and can address particular questions relating to the material so each week I will post a discussion board on Angel under the specific week's folder the questions will be contained within the video video lecture usually at the end it is the student duty to uh find these questions and answer them on the discussion board you are encouraged to respond to other students posts while addressing the questions yourself with a possible different view or opinion I really encourage debate um like I said I don't really care exactly what your opinion is um just don't be too extreme in your opinions uh so I'm really hoping for a civil discussion on the discussion boards about the questions that I ask um debate and discussion is encouraged please be civil um this grade is either a pass or fail um so either you get 100% on this portion of your grade or you get a zero so if you participate and post something each week you will receive 100% uh for for this portion of your grade missing more than two weeks of discussion boards will result in zero I understand that things happen that you may you not might not be able to log on um every week and and post something meaningful and I understand that so if you want I'll go ahead and allow two excuse two uh two absences from the discussion board basically if you miss if you if you miss one week that's completely fine you miss two weeks that's completely fine but if you miss three weeks of discussion board uh you will result it will result in a zero for this portion of your grade I'll also be participating in the discussion boards because I really do care about having a civil debate and a civil discussion um so I'll try to stimulate the conversation and participate in the discussion board alongside you guys uh participation in the discussion boards beyond what is required will result in extra credit so if you respond and you actually contribute meaningfully to the debate or you maybe provoke a better question um something that's more important to address then um I will go ahead and assign extra credit for being a good citizen and contributing and really caring about the course so be sure to be active students be sure to actually discuss and debate these kind of these these meaningful questions so that we can uh have a good debate and also get some extra credit in the process uh course evaluation scales and percentages is pretty pretty standard uh 90 or above is an a 80 or above is a b 70 or above is a c 60 and above is a d I really hope that none of you get Fs but FS are 0 to 59% um but I don't participate meaning of you having an F being in an online course uh the course outline um there's nothing there it's it's just a brief outline of the course schedule so I'll go ahead and skip that um and we'll go ahead and talk about the course schedule later on attendance policies um being an online course I don't really I just have this for my in-person classes but just please just just log on and watch the watch the lectures and so forth that's all I really ask that's the most important thing about being um in attendance in an online course I guess um we'll go ahead and Skip to academic integrity um just please academic Integrity just please don't cheat I know it's an online course and I know that you guys can collaborate together um but I just ask that you do it for yourself to not do so um it'll be better for yourself it'll be better for me I don't have to deal with the the administration here at the college or anything like that so uh just please don't plagiarize please site everything properly and please don't cheat off each other on the test um and I guess I guess if you guys do submit a test at the same time it would look a little suspicious as well so I would advise against that also um so academic Integrity just follow the rules don't don't sheet um and don't play JS computer usage if you need a computer to watch this lecture um gison College provides plenty of Computer Resources in the library or elsewhere um disclaimer students with disabilities if you have a learning disability please let me know uh within the first few weeks of this class so I can get in touch uh with the office of St uh with uh the office down here at the college if also if you need help I do have the number for uh academic Affairs um so that you can can seek help that way um if you need extra time for a test or anything like that late work um late work if you guys happen to miss an exam week uh you have the entire week to take it so I hope you don't miss an exam week but if you do um I understand there's emergencies and things like like that if you do please let me know beforehand or let me know in a timely manner um and we'll try to make up we'll try to get a makeup exam schedule makeup makeup exams unfortunately are two to three essay two to three essay questions not the multiple choice like the regular exams so essay questions I don't know about you but when I was a student I hated writing essays so if you miss the exam if you missed the exam week you're gonna have to take an essay exam which will probably be a little bit harder and a little bit more time consuming so um but I do understand emergencies happen that's just my policy on L exams Library usage if you need Library definitely one here on campus um accessing and using angel um I hope I've seen a lot of emails from all of you so I have no worries about you not knowing how to use angel I think you guys will be fine there um so that's basically the course syllabus um nothing too nothing too much uh just if you have questions about the rules or what you need to do for grade or anything like that just consult consult the course syllabus so that's basically the rules let's go ahead and talk about the schedule itself uh what are we going to be doing this semester um so up here at the top of the the course schedule if you have it have it there you can follow alongside me um at the very top once again just my contact information Le rafen if you're going to email me once again please use elraen at gc.edu office ISM 314 my office hours are 12: to 2 PM Tuesdays um Skype I'm on Skype from 12:00 to 4 pm Monday through Friday uh Monday through Thursday I suppose that should say um but if I'm ever on Skype just just go ahead and and you can contact me my username for Skype is uh L R KSU 27 once again just a name I made up in college because I went TOA I went to Kansas State so KSU is pretty special to me uh and then my phone number so let's go ahead and talk about the official course schedule uh this first week is January 19th I already I know it's January 21st already so forgive me I'm just learning how to record myself and stuff but uh for this first week the F the weeks are outlined by the first Monday so that date that you see on each week is the first Monday and that's when I'll be releasing the lecture videos hopefully from now on so this first week is just intro and then I'm going to record lecture one later on lecture one is just a basic approach to politics but what you're going to see on this course schedule is you're going to see what we're lecturing about each week and then you're going to see what the readings I expect you to do and then each week you have an extra Credit Opportunity some of these are worth one point or some of these are worth two points and I outlined the rules uh or the guidelines for what you need to do for extra credit that week so they're either worth one point or they're worth two points and there's 16 weeks so there's an opportunity for about 35 points of extra credit in this class 35 points is a huge difference the fact that 50 points 50 points is what determines a be from an A and A C from a b so 35 points of extra credit can really boost your grade from from a c to a b or a B to an a if you're ever On The Fringe and you're questioning whether you should do extra credit do extra credit it'll definitely get you over the hump onto the next o onto the next grade level and 35 points is is a lot of extra credit to have um also if you do extra credit I'm more likely to bump your bump your grade at the end of the semester let's say if you're at an 89.5 uh I'll look at how much extra credit you did and how much effort you actually put in this course and it's an unweighted factor into into bumping your grade up so the more you participate this the better off you are in my course that's just the that's just how simple it is so enough about that week one uh your extra credit for this week some of you have already submitted it I'm really proud of you guys that that already have um but this week for one point extra credit you just go ahead and take this political ideology quiz it's just a quiz that'll ask you some beliefs about politics or what you believe should happen with politics and then it'll put you into to an ideological group conservative liberal libertarian or populist um and so it'll be really interesting really interesting to see what ideology you may have if you're unsure or if you want to reinforce your ideas go ahead um and also with that whole ideology thing uh whether you're liberal or conservative or libertarian or populist I just don't really care uh and and something I don't care because because I I do care in the sense that like I I appreciate that everyone has an opinion I just want you guys to have an opinion in order to care about politics in some fashion so that's why it's it's really important for me for you to have uh an ideology whatever whatever it may be so week two uh next week uh January 26 we're going to we're going to go ahead and do an introduction to Texas politics and history uh history is really important because it's where we came from and that's why it's very important for me to understand uh where where Texas is today and how how it grew up basically so the reading will be chapter one and then you can see the extra credit we're going to move through this rather quickly now um week three we're going to talk about the con the Constitution Texas Constitution it's very important and then week four we're going to talk about uh federalism in Texas Federalism is an idea from American government courses but it's very important because it has a has a unique effect on Texas uh week five February 16th the week of February 16th will be your first exam week so what's going to happen on that week cuz I'm going to post a review lecture I'm going to record a review lecture you guys can watch that review with your own notes and follow along um it'll be good to watch it because there'll be a lot of hints about what's going to be on the test and then um you guys can watch that review lecture and then you guys can go take the test at any time during that week there's no other things to do there's no discussion boards there's there's no um video lecture to watch uh about a certain topic or anything like that so the test will be released on February 16th there's no extra credit on exam weeks because I really want you guys to focus on that test February 23rd 2 unit we're going to be talking about the Texas legislature reading chapters 1 and four March 2nd will be uh the governor we're going to talk about the Texas governor um and then we're going to read chapter 5 March 9th uh campaign uh we're going to talk about campaigning and elections in Texas te Texas elections are very unique and I had to I got to experience my very first one uh this last year in 2014 so that was very uh very exciting time and Texas certainly has a unique uh setting for campaigning and elections read chapter N9 for Mar the week of March 9th and then week nine uh after the week of March 9th week nine is spring break there's no classes um I got some emails about how some of the um High School some of the high school students in this course some of their Spring Breaks mismatch with ours so uh we might have to work something out there or if you want to work something out please let me know um but during spring break I just really want you to review for any exams or possibly even start working on your paper uh this will be a good week to take that off and also that week we have I do offer extra credit during that week so if you're doing nothing during spring break week I would advise maybe doing some extra credit at least two points of extra credit and it's a really fun one it's just making a list of 10 songs with political meanings backgrounds or lessons week 10 uh when we get back from break we're going to be talking about political parties and reading chapter 10 and then week 11 will be your second week 11 the week of March 30th will be your second exam uh once again I'll post a review lecture and you can take the exam anytime during that week unit three will begin April 6th we'll talk about the Texas Judiciary and we'll read chapter 8 April 13th week 13 uh we'll talk about the bureaucracy and read chapter 6 week 14 April 20th we'll be talking about some te Texas fiscal policy uh fiscal policy meaning economic policy and what to do with taxing and spending and things like that so me studying International political economy I'm very interested in in reading about the Texas fiscal policy and how how taxing and spending is handled in this state so I'll definitely be probably including some economic explanations in that week um April 27th your research paper your research paper is due that week so um you have the entire semester to to write this paper I was in college once too though so I understand that you may not begin it until April 27th um but I really I really encourage you to write it beforehand but anyways that week your paper is due at the end of the week and we'll be talking about Texas social uh social and economic policy so uh we'll also probably be including some economic explanations on that week as well and we'll skim through chapter 14 and 15 it's two chapters I don't expect you to read it in too much detail but please do skim through those chapters that week um so uh that week will be our fir our last week of actually talking about a specific topic and then on May 4th uh May 4th I'll go ahead I'll go ahead and have the last exam week this will be your last thing to do for the course your research paper will be du the week before and then we're going to have a test the next week um and then you guys are done with this course so week 16 on May 4th uh we'll just wrap up and review and that'll be the end of the course unfortunately but um that's pretty much that's pretty much just the entire course schedule right there so if you have any questions um if you have any questions about the course schedule or how to navigate angel or any of these things please please let me know you can there's a number of ways to contact me as I've laid out you can email me you can Skype me uh you can send me a message on Angel you can you can send me a text message if you have anything really quick or you can use the help discussion board and utilize your peers and all your resources so uh my name is Lee rafen I'll go ahead and to say that one last time uh really looking forward to a good semester learn looking forward to learning about Texas government and uh the state that we live in um and so uh just on a just on a final note uh if the key to this course is really just being active and logging into Angel and watching these videos and participating in the discussion boards so it should be really easy to pass my course if you guys are really struggling though let me know and let me know early uh about your grades it's always easy to correct a mistake really early on then wait till the end of the semester and wonder why you got an F or a d so I'll go ahead and end this recording um have a good week and I'll go ahead and record week one be sure to watch that video after this