^{To begin the course, familiarize yourself with this Syllabus (i.e., this document) and follow its instructions. This Syllabus is a general plan for the course, deviations may be necessary. The Appendix is part of this Syllabus. (Last updated January 7, 2024.)}

CRJU 4900: OPEN CRIMINOLOGY

• Department of Criminology, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University

• CRN 21194, Spring 2024, Online Asynchronous

• Scott Jacques, [email protected]; not [email protected]

Description

This course uses a criminological-lens to explore why, how, and to what effect there is (not) open access to academic outputs—things like articles, books, datasets, software programs, and educational resources. Emphasis is placed on open (and closed) access as a matter of law, crime, criminal justice, and security. Substantial attention is also given to access as a matter of technology, business, and communication/media.

Goals

After finishing this course, you should be able to:

1. Define and identify types of access to scholarly outputs.

2. Distinguish between types of said-access.

3. Analyze said-access as a criminological issue.

4. Critically evaluate laws, ethics, and security-measures of said-access.

5. Direct your own learning with time-management, self-motivation, and independent engagement.

6. Discover and act on your curiosity by exploring topics in depth and connecting them to your interests and goals.

Materials

This course aims to be one big open educational resource (OER): a package of learning materials that are open access: “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.”1 The goals are to increase, one, student success by removing a cost-barrier to knowledge and, two, the course’s impact by enabling other instructors to use and adapt it. What parts of this course are OER? This Syllabus, which is part of my Open Access Reader, which is a compilation of open-access excerpts from open-access books.

• Jacques, Scott (ed.). 2024. Open Access Reader. Preprint edition. doi.org/10.21428/93b40405.fd2836f0

To be clear, you don’t purchase anything for this course.

Platform

I’ve uploaded our materials to Perusall, a platform to “Amplify student engagement, collaboration, and community with the social annotation platform that works with all types of content, including books.” Though Perusall is not OER per se, it is free for students and instructors to use. All work is done and graded on Persuall: communally to annotate and individually to reflect. The Appendix has help-resources to get you started with Persuall.

Activities

This course emphasizes reading-and-writing with two activities: Annotation and Reflection. For each reading, you’ll “annotate” by highlighting its text to add comments, questions, replies, discussion points, et cetera. For the sum of readings in a module, you’ll “reflect” by writing about their connections to your personal experiences and views. You can think of this course as a “book club,” like those in The Maximum Security Book Club, The Prison Book Club, and The Soul Knows No Bars, for example. By participating in our book club,2 you’ll know more about and better understand open criminology, specifically. You’ll generally improve your vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension; become a better (critical) thinker, writer, and communicator; develop intercultural competence, perspective-taking, and persuasion; and, better understand human experiences and connections.

Assignments

Those activities are performed and evaluated (i.e., graded) as part of three assignment-types:

1. Excerpt-Annotation: you’ll focus on a reading in the Open Access Reader. There’s a total of 14 excerpts and thus 14 Excerpt-Annotations. With this assignment, I force your attention to aspects of the course-topic (open criminology) that I want you to know (i.e., the readings’ lessons).

2. Book-Annotation: you’ll expand to the reading’s whole book. There’s a total of 12 books and thus 12 Book-Annotations. With this assignment, you explore whichever aspects of open criminology (in any given book) are personally most interesting.

3. Module-Reflection: you’ll draw on all the readings in a module. There’s a total of 7 Module-Reflections. With this assignment, you explicitly connect the excerpts and books to your life, such that the former informs the latter and vice versa.

Final Grade

Your final grade is calculated thusly:

1. Excerpt-Annotation: 30% of final grade; each is worth ~2.14%.

2. Book-Annotation: 55% of final grade; each is worth ~4.58%.

3. Module-Reflection: 15% of final grade; each is worth ~2.14%.

The Appendix has more information on grading.

Scoring Criteria

In addition to OER, this course emphasizes Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILTed)…

• Annotation-work is scored through the Perusall algorithm based on predetermined scoring metrics and points, as shown below. Using this tool ensures that all students are objectively evaluated based on the same standards. Your “credit” is determined on an all-or-none basis, meaning you will either receive full points or no points for each assignment. You will receive full credit—in Perusall and automatically synced with iCollege—once you reach or exceed 100% on an assignment, as auto-graded by Perusall. Until you reach 100%, your score will be a 0 in Perusall and in iCollege; no partial credit is given. It is possible to reach 140% because the scoring metrics add up to this amount; see the following table. This gives you some discretion in where to focus your efforts and leeway in completion.

• Reflection-work is more straightforward: you need to answer each question (there’s usually four) with 100 words or more.

• For Annotation- and Reflection-work, there are no “right” or “wrong” answers here, though they should be informed by the readings. The only rules are you must (1) seriously interact with the readings and your peers, (2) not quote, but rather always use your own words, and (3) behave with academic integrity. Breaking a rule is punished with a score of zero on the assignment, and, for the third rule, possibly other sanctions; for details, see “Academic Integrity” in the Appendix.

Platform Rejoinder

You need to always access Perusall assignments via their respective links on our iCollege homepage. Otherwise, your grades won’t transfer automatically and that’s bad for your grade.

Course Outline

There are eight modules (sections) in this course, starting with Module 0 and ending with Module 7. Module 0 is introductory. Modules 0-6 are two weeks each, with work due on their last-Friday at 5 pm. Module 7 is a single week for make-up work. This table lists the course’s modules (0-7) with their respective pattern of emphasis, timing, assignments, and readings. Module-to-module, we have the same sequence of activities: read; as you go, annotate (including discuss); at the end, reflect. The work is consistent so you can focus on the lessons. To be clear, there are no tests, large exams, or final projects. Rather, your performance is evaluated throughout the semester. This means you can provide a reasonable, steady level of effort. The workload is manageable if you budget your time well. Everyone processes information at different speeds, so you will have to figure out for yourself how much time it takes. As a general rule, a 3 credit hour course should require 7-8 hours of work per week (in a fall/spring semester).

Module 0

The first two weeks of the semester are for Module 0. The objective is to familiarize you with the course structure, activities, and learning platform Perusall.3 This work is graded and due at the module’s end; refer to the Course Outline for the exact date. There are two readings in Module 0, both in the Open Access Reader: this Syllabus and the Introduction. You’ll annotate both readings and complete your first Reflection. You should begin this work after you finish reading this Syllabus (on oar.pubpub.org) and the Appendix (on scottjacques.pubpub.org). Once you’re ready, complete the assignments in this order by following these steps:

Module 1-6

After Module 0, in addition to excerpts in the Open Access Reader, you’ll annotate and reflect on the books from which they’re drawn. The objective is to fulfill the Course Goals. This work is graded and due at each module’s end; refer to the Course Outline for exact dates. In EACH Module, 1-6, there’s FOUR documents to annotate: two excerpts from two books. Each excerpt and each book is its own document in Perusall. You’ll annotate each document and, in turn, complete the associated Reflection. When you’re ready to start any of Modules 1-6, complete the assignments in this order by following these steps:

For example, the above table means this for Module 1:

Modules 1-6 emphasize different patterns: geographic, economic, legal, historical, social, and political. You’ll be asked to analyze how these factors (“variables”) affect, and get affected by, access to academic outputs.

Module 7

There’s no new work during Module 7. You have until its end to earn full credit on earlier assignments that are incomplete.

Now what?

After you finish the Appendix, refer back to the instructions in the subsection, Module 0, under Course Outline. That’s where you’ll see what (graded) work to do, by when.

Appendix

The Syllabus continues with this Appendix…