This semester, for the first time ever, we are going to use the PackBack Questions platform to facilitate online discussion among students of class-related topics.  Basically, every week you will post a questions or questions and provide answers to other student's questions.  My hope is that this will help you to develop and strengthen your writing and critical thinking skills and deepen your understanding of course content.  Improved understand of course material should result in higher quiz scores.

Participation is voluntary.  If you do participate you can do so in a couple of ways:

(1)  Every week you will be required to ask at least one open-ended question (i.e. a question with many possible answers) and respond to two questions from your fellow students.  Your weekly score will be largely based on participation but also on the quality of your questions and answers.  Your PackBack score will count toward 10% of your pre-Final Exam grade.

(2)  You will need to go online at least once every week and read through the questions and answers that other students have posted.  This indirect participation should be valuable because you'll be able to judge how your understanding of class material compares with other students.  Your PackBack score in this case will count toward 5% of your overall pre-Final Exam grade.

Note: for Option (2) to be viable, a significant number of students must choose Option (1) in order for there to be a substantial number of questions and answers for the Option (2) people to read.

Early in the semester, I'll send a list of student names and UA email addresses to PackBack.  You then should receive an email from holla@packback.co explaining how to complete your registration.  The reason I am making participation voluntary is that there is a $25 registration fee.  Once you're enrolled there is a short tutorial that explains better how the online discussion works.  Be sure to pay particular attention to the Community Guidelines because there are rules about what you can what you shouldn't post.  There are situations where something you post will be removed.  In that case you'll generally receive an email explaining why that happened and what you can do to make your post acceptable.

I'll plan on allowing a two-week trial period to work out "all the bugs" and make sure everyone understands and feels comfortable with how the online discussion works.