Welcome to Dance in World Cultures!

My name is Joan Walton and I am eager to work with you over the coming semester.

This is the 11th semester that I've taught fully online Canvas courses, though I taught a Hybrid version of this class for 8 years, and an in-class version for 19 years.

For anyone wishing to know what else I do with my life, I teach Social Dance and Tap Dance at the College of San Mateo, as well as Dance Appreciation courses, and Tap dance at Dance Connection studios in Palo Alto. One of my favorite jobs is teaching and choreographing Vintage Dance, or historical social dances, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, as well as around the country and the world. I also volunteer as a cat and kitten cuddler for the Nine Lives Foundation!

Here is some information to get you started:

Course Format: This is a fully online, asynchronous course. You are responsible for checking in frequently each week, and fulfilling each week's assignments/activities before the week ends at midnight on Friday. You can work ahead into future weeks to stay on target, if you like. Be sure to regularly check with the messaging system through CANVAS and MySJSU to learn of any updates and to stay on top of the calendar.
Course Description: This course is designed for those interested in discovering how, and for what reasons, people dance and have danced since pre-historic times. It is a survey of dance in selected world cultures, examining the role of dance in society, the style, the historical background and religious/cultural influences. Explore what dance reveals about cultural, national and ethnic identity, class and gender, and the invention and perpetuation of community. Investigate the current world dance movement, and discover the ethnology of dance through readings, videotapes, watching dance, interviews, your own writings, and written lectures.
Prerequisite: Completion of core GE, satisfaction of Writing Skills Test or ENL/LLD 100A with a C or better, and upper division standing. Completion of, or corequisite in, a 100W course is strongly recommended.
Organization & Structure: Each Module will represent one week of classes at SJSU. Some of your work will be receptive (reading, watching dance videos) and some expressive (writing, responding to others' writings, taking quizzes). With some rare exceptions, you will have something due by 11:59pm every Friday.

Contacting the Instructor: Email to Joan.Walton@sjsu.edu is best! I check it most often. In general, your e-mail should get a response within 48 hours during the weekdays (set boundaries! self-care!).

My preferred e-mail for this course is Joan.Walton@sjsu.edu. I used to teach on campus and hold office hours, however that happens online or on Zoom for now.

Dates and Time Commitment: Each written assignment has a Reveal date, a Due date, and the larger assignments (the papers) have a Grace Period with no points taken off; after that the score goes to zero. Use of AI in writing also earns you a zero. Discussion Forums and quizzes have no Late Date; they are always due on Friday.
SJSU classes are designed so that in order to be successful, it is expected that students will spend a minimum of forty-five hours for each unit of credit (three hours per unit per week on average), including preparing for class, participating in course activities, completing assignments, etc.

Textbook: Required textbook is Dancing: The Pleasure, Power, and Art of Movement, by Gerald Jonas, and available at the campus bookstore, or on Amazon.com and similar websites. ISBN 10: 8109-2791-8. This was not originally written as a textbook, it was written to accompany the 8-part documentary broadcast on PBS, therefore it has a much more user-friendly design and is much less expensive. Used books are recommended, and either soft cover or hard cover are fine. Approximately 1/3 of the quiz questions come from the textbook.

Course Technology: Be familiar with Canvas Learning Management Systems, and your SJSU e-mail. You'll be using Turnitin for two of your written assignments, and all quizzes and discussion forums will be on Canvas. FYI: Canvas assignments do not work well on phones, so please use laptops and desktops for all of your Canvas assignments.
How to Access the Course: https://sjsu.instructure.com will reveal all of your courses. Be sure to set your Notifications under the Account tab on the left, so that my Weekly Announcements and e-mail go to a place where you can easily find them.
Support & Troubleshooting: There are online Help guides for each page that I have found to be (surprisingly) actually helpful.
Tips for Success: Showing up every week online at least three times, interacting online with me and with others, putting the turn-in dates on your calendar, and starting EARLY for each assignment will enable you to get your best grade in this course. Part of online learning is the lesson of Meeting Deadlines; The biggest reason for low grades isn't poor work, it's not turning in any work for a specific assignment.
There will be monthly Zoom sessions for students to earn extra credit, ask questions, answer my questions, or just say HI to me and your colleagues.

Let's Get Started

Because this will be a completely online course, we will need to spend time becoming accustomed to the online platform and learning environment. This "Start Here" introductory section of the module will walk you through a variety of course materials, activities, and steps to ensure that you understand how this course works and ensure your computer is properly set, and that you can use the elements of Canvas needed for this course. Some of you are Canvas experts by now, and can skim over several of these.

Let's do these things first.

Activities

Because this is the first week please complete the following activities before Sunday, August 28: after that things will be due on Fridays

Before you start it's always a good idea to clear your browser history and cookies (fixes all sorts of woes in Canvas and any tech in general). Here are two guides to walk you through that process:

How do I clear my browser cache on a Mac?

How do I clear my browser cache on a PC?

Read the content pages in "Start Here" module. For those of you who've done a Canvas online course before, some of this may not be necessary, but take a look at the Discussion Forum, Assignments, Quizzes, and Files in Canvas. NOTE: Go through the Modules in order, page by page! If you just click on the assignments you won't know how to complete them. All the information you need to succeed is in the Module Pages that lead up to the assignment.

Set your notification setting in Canvas so you can see my Weekly Announcements and email (Guide)
Watch a (very cool) dance video to welcome you to this course:
Introduce yourself in the Discussion Forum Intros: Getting to know you and respond to one other post.

I look forward to working with you this semester and getting off to a strong start!