GC 03 Welcome!

Welcome!

General Orientation to the Course

I’m looking forward to Getting Underway.

A Reminder about the Text . . . and a Note on the Exams

By now I hope you have seen the other pre-term memos (located in the Canvas Announcements menu), reminding you to order your textbook; see Step 4: Getting Started Module. Keep in mind that, the exams will be open-book essays constructed from a list of study questions that you help create, so it would be a good idea for you to have your own copy of the text to use in the exams.

For the exams you should normally just need to read the books carefully and be able to discuss them intelligently. That is, you should read these as if you had picked it/them up at an airport or neighborhood bookshop because you were interested in the subject and wanted to know more about it, like literally millions of people are doing in everyday life.

Some students are used to principally memorizing facts in classes. This class is not one where that is the focus. It is about investigating new topics, reading, listening, synthesizing ideas, thinking, exploring, and becoming familiar enough with the various subjects, peoples and places to carry on an intelligent conversation in modern-day society. In short, this class aims to give you practice in critical thinking, and even creativity, avoiding rote memorization if possible.

Familiarize Yourself with the Course Basics . . .

It would also be a good idea to become familiar with the course Syllabus and look at the other items in the Getting Started Module. Please do that as these items contain useful and important information about the course that should make your life much easier. You might also want to introduce yourself at this time, and take the self-assessment.

Before we get started next week it would be a good idea to have a look at the basic way course materials will appear in your Canvas Modules. The best, and easiest, way to do that is to simply look at the items in your WEEK 1 Module.

We’ll be exploring many aspects of global cultures—cultural, spiritual, social, political, psychological, historical, prehistorical, recreational, economic, technological, ethical, and the like—so stay tuned.

If you have any questions or comments right now, please do not hesitate to let me know. My troufs e-mail and stable troufs ZOOM Links to an external site. links are conveniently located throughout the course materials for your convenience. Use them. (E-mail is fastest, and most generally best as quite often URLs need be sent.)

Best Wishes,

Tim Roufs

<http://www.d.umn.edu/~troufs/>
<https://umn.zoom.us/my/troufs Links to an external site.>
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