ExoTerra Assignment Options

One way to use ExoTerra is with an active research component. Students conduct independent research on a topic related to the course themes, and use that research to propose a design for some aspect of the new world.

These are are rigorous research assignments centered on the creation of a Proposal, describing an element of the new world which the student has been tasked to design.

Early in the quarter, ideally via a group discussion, students divvy up which aspects of the topic to research. For example, in an architecture course students might divide up different aspects of architectural design to research (insulation, foundation materials, roofing, heat index), while a course on democratic systems might divide up institutional approaches (range voting, geographic representation, institutional representation), and/or theorists (Aristotle, Tocqueville, Robert A. Dahl etc.). Students can pick their topics independently, but a discussion in which students divvy up sub-topics can be very valuable in itself, since, for example, in a class on forest animal ecosystems they might discuss whether to divide up by types of animal (rodents, raptors, marsupials, ants), by dwelling place (burrowing, shrub dwelling, lower canopy, upper canopy), by food source (leaf-eaters, grass-eaters, insectivores), discussing the merits and flaws of each subdivision.

Once their topics are chosen, students each research their topic, produce a Research Summary summarizing their findings (length determined by the instructor), effectively identical to a literature review of the topic.  Either as part of the same assignment, or as an expansion completed the following week, students also add a brief conclusion making one or more suggestions for how this knowledge should shape actions taken on the new planet (in the format “we should do A” or “we should not do B” or “we must plan for X and Y”). To use our earlier examples, in the architecture class this might mean a plan for insulation, in the democracy class a plan to implement Tocqueville’s three-part division of powers, or in the forest ecosystem class a plan for the introduction of ants.  Since the research component of these papers is the element most tied to the course material (and since excited students may be tempted to make the speculative parts of their papers quite extensive), instructors should specify the length requirements in terms of the number of pages that address the research, not the total length, i.e. “The Research Summary must contain [X] pages summarizing your research, followed by [two or more] pages describing your recommendations for the exoplanet.”

One option is for each student to conduct this research separately, and turn in a separate final paper, synthesizing their research (much like a term paper), with a recommendation for the exoplanet at the end.  But ExoTerra is optimized for collaborative research, so another model is to have students combine their research to create a group recommendation (i.e. a comprehensive plan for many aspects of building design, for a democratic system combining ideas from many thinkers, or for the order of introduction of a whole sequence of animals).

Below are two skeletons of how such assignments might fit into a quarter, one for solo work and one for group work. In both versions, assignments can be reordered, or smaller ones (like the graded bibliography) omitted in favor of other assignments.

Individual Work With Research Component:

• Week 1 (Sept 29): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 2 (Oct 5): Students choose research topics
• Week 3 (Oct 12): No ExoTerra work due
• Week 4 (Oct 19): Bibliography for Research Summary due, requiring a specified number of sources
• Week 5 (Oct 26): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 6 (Nov 2): Individual Research Summary Draft due (major assignment)
• Week 7 (Nov 9): Individual Proposal Draft due, i.e. an expanded version of the Research Summary proposing something to implement on the new planet; students post these in the online community to solicit peer feedback
• Week 8 (Nov 16): Students comment on others’ proposal drafts, and gather feedback on theirs
• Week 9 (Nov 23): Break & Study Week 
• Week 10 (Nov 30): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Exam Week: Final Individual Proposal Due, incorporating peer feedback (major assignment)

Group research proposal model.  You can find more detail about the suggested structure for the group proposal in the discussion of Decision #2, Collaborative vs. Individual Work.

• Week 1 (Sept 29): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 2 (Oct 5): Students choose research topics
• Week 3 (Oct 12): Bibliography Due, requiring a specified number of sources
• Week 4 (Oct 19): Individual Research Summary Draft Due (major assignment)
• Week 5 (Oct 26): Students read classmates’ summaries, no Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 6 (Nov 2): Students divide up who will write which part of the “connective tissue” of the group proposal, i.e. grouping the proposals into sections, planning out an intro and conclusion for each section, as well as a a group abstract, intro, and conclusion; together these elements will knit the individual Research Summaries together into a single Group Committee Proposal
• Week 7 (Nov 9): Group Committee Proposal Draft Due (major assignment), students post the proposal online to solicit feedback from peers in other courses
• Week 8 (Nov 16): Students comment on others’ proposal drafts, and gather feedback on theirs
• Week 9 (Nov 23): Break & Study Week
• Week 10 (Nov 30): No Written ExoTerra Work Due n/a
• Exam Week: Final Group Committee Proposal Due, incorporating peer feedback (major assignment)

For detailed examples of the contents and “connective tissue” of the Group Committee Proposal, see the following discussion of Decision #2: Collaborative vs. Individual work.

In this model, the exoplanet setting is used to invite students to apply their knowledge to a specific context. This works well when instructors want all the students to be doing the same readings and engaging the same set of sources. In this model, ExoTerra enters into class discussion via the instructor inviting students to speculate about how the subject in question could apply to the new world, and enters into written assignments as a speculative element at the end of traditional assignments.  At the end, as a final project, students could be asked to draft a group proposal for some aspect of the new world based on their overall reflections, or they could produce short individual proposals applying their individual course knowledge to some specific component of the new world’s design. With this approach, it is up to the individual instructor to decide whether to have any graded ExoTerra assignments at all, or simply use it in discussion, or as part of a participation grade.

For example, in an architecture course where most readings explore specific architectural elements, and most written assignments call on students to analyze and describe a sample artifact (an image of a building, or an archway, or a beam), students could be asked to add half-a-page or a page at the end of the written analysis in which they discuss what it would mean to use that architectural element on the new world, what functions it would serve, cultures and meanings it would invoke, and how that might shape the new culture.  The instructor could let students periodically bring up the exoplanet setting when discussing architectural elements in class, talking about how a particular design might mean one thing in one context but another in another, or the instructor could reserve a specific portion of the class (for example the second half of each Thursday discussion in a Tues/Thurs class) to talk about how the elements they have examined so far could be used on the new planet, and what kind of meaning they would convey.  As the final project, students could work together to write a group proposal for a set of interrelated architectural designs to be used for the capital building and other important buildings for the new world, or each student could turn in an individual final paper proposing one specific design (one student designing a farm house, another a factory, another traffic barriers, another school rooms, etc.)

To give a different example, in a Core course focusing on classic texts and big ideas, ExoTerra could manifest in written assignments via the instructor asking students to add a page to the end of each week’s response paper saying how the ideas in that week’s text would apply to the exoplanet setting, what that author would advise, what fits, what doesn’t. The ExoTerra setting could have a reserved time in the week’s discussions, or be allowed to crop up throughout.  At the end, the students could compose a group final proposal, such as a draft of a proposed foundational document for the new civilization, similar to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, or each student could write an individual paper reflecting on the ideas explored in the course and their application to the new world.

Meanwhile in a STEM course or Economics course where the assignments consist mainly of standard problem sets, students could again be asked to write a one-page reflection applying that week’s new knowledge to the ExoPlanet setting, or the instructor could pose a specific problem which asks students to apply their knowledge to that setting. The students could produce a unified final proposal for an aspect of the new world, discussing and divvying up the subcomponents of such a proposal, or they could produce short individual final assignments suggesting some application of the course material to the new setting.  Alternately in such a course, ExoTerra work could be reserved only for exams, which could have questions which use the exoplanet setting, or the ExoTerra work could be a self-guided extra-credit track.

In this third example, ExoTerra is used to structure discussions and a final essay in a course without a research component and with a fixed syllabus, like many Humanities and Social Science Cores.  ExoTerra components appear in red, while assignments in black are part of the standard syllabus.

• Week 1 (Sept 29):      Introductory readings
• Week 2 (Oct 5):         Readings, on Tuesday spend 45 minutes of class time discussing the week’s reading in the context of founding a new world, then on Thursday they turn in a short reflection on what that week’s author would advise for the new planet.
• Week 3 (Oct 12):       Readings, traditional short response paper (graded)
• Week 4 (Oct 19):       Readings, on Tuesday 45 minutes of class time discussing the author’s ideas in the context of the new world, on Thursday students turn in a short reflection on what that week’s author would advise for the new planet.
• Week 5 (Oct 26):       Readings, traditional short response paper (graded)
• Week 6 (Nov 2):        Readings, on Tuesday 45 minutes of class time discussing the author’s ideas in the context of the new world, on Thursday students turn in a short reflection on what that week’s author would advise for the new planet.
• Week 7 (Nov 9):        Readings, students write a short synthesis of their ideas for the new world from they authors they have read so far, and upload it to the ExoTerra community; these could be done individually (each student producing one) or in small groups, or as a whole group project (organized via a Google Doc, for example).
• Week 8 (Nov 16):      Readings, traditional short response paper (graded)
• Week 9 (Nov 23):      Break & Study Week, students look at the responses to what they uploaded and think about peers’ suggestions and ideas.
• Week 10 (Nov 30):    Readings, traditional assignment (graded), 45 minutes of class time spent discussing all the authors they read this quarter and the light they shed on problems in founding a new world.
• Exam Week:              Final paper could be a traditional individual paper, an individual polished version of the student’s thoughts applying the texts they have read to the new world, or a team-drafted proposal or foundational document for the new world.

In this sample, approximately 1/4 of class discussion time applies ideas from the readings to the thought experiment setting.

ExoTerra is optimized for collaboration, both among students within a course, and in the larger online community which unites multiple courses. The basic model for collaborative work taps both these communities as students create a Group Proposal, describing an element of the new world which the group has been tasked to design.

At some point in the quarter (early in research courses, later in fixed syllabus courses), students divvy up which aspects of the topic to focus on. In an architecture course students might divide up different aspects of architecture (insulation, foundation materials, roofing, heat index). Students can pick topics independently, but a group discussion can be very valuable, challenging students to consider different ways to subdivide (architectural methods by part of building, by regional style, by type of building, etc.)

Once their topics are chosen, students each write a short overview of it; in a research course they do individual research, while in a course without a research component they synthesize material from the syllabus.  Either as part of the same assignment or as an expansion, students also add a brief conclusion proposing how this knowledge should shape actions taken on the new planet.  Since the research or synthetic component of these papers is the element most tied to the course material, instructors should specify the length requirements in terms of the length of this portion, i.e. “[X] pages on the topic, followed by [two or more] pages on your proposal for the exoplanet.”

After they are turned in and graded, these research summaries will become the subsections of the Group Committee Proposal.  Students will assemble them together and write the “connective tissue” of the proposal, i.e. an overall abstract, introduction, subsection introductions and conclusions, and a multi-part concluding section outlining the proposed actions to be taken on the exoplanet.  The finished proposal will resemble (and develop the skills needed to produce) a real proposal for a major project, such as founding a new city, writing a constitution, or undertaking the rehabilitation of a devastated ecosystem, but the imagined exoplanet setting offers students a space where many areas of research from many fields can intersect.  Each class will share its proposal draft in the online community, provide and receive feedback, and turn in submit a final revised Group Committee Proposal at the end of the quarter.

Below are two examples of Group Committee Proposals which different courses might produce.  In each case, each student first writes an individual sub-component focusing on a particular topic or theme, after which the students work together to combine these into a unified document.  The first example also includes the full outline of the Group Committee Proposal.

Below are three examples of Group Committee Proposals which might be produced by two different courses doing the research version of ExoTerra.  In each case, each student first chooses a sub-topic to study for the Research Summary, and then the students work together to produce the unified document.  The first example also includes the full outline of the Group Committee Proposal.  Each example could be a research course (in which case students are conducting additional research on their topics), or a course where students are synthesizing material from standard readings.

Example 1: Ocean Biosphere Course, research topics chosen by a class of 19:

1. Ocean Geography: Currents and Circulation
2. Ocean Geography: Inland Seas
3. Ocean Microbes: Photosynthetic Microbes
4. Ocean Microbes: non-Photosynthetic microbes
5. Ancient Filter Feeders: Fronds and Jellies
6. Primordial Ocean Chemistry: Earth vs. New Oceans
7. Transformation of Earth’s Oceans: the Cambrian Explosion
8. Food Chains and the Trophic Pyramid
9. Earth’s Modern Ocean Food Chain Part 1: Pre-Anthropocene
10. Earth’s Modern Ocean Food Chain Part 2: Anthropocene
11. Marine Mammals
12. Human Use of Ocean Microbes
13. Human Use of Smaller Ocean Animals
14. Human Use of Large Ocean Species (Predators)
15. Aquaculture (mainly fish farms)
16. Impact of Human Recreational Use of Oceans
17. Introducing Species Case Study: African Rift Lakes
18. Introducing Species Case Study: something invasive introduced pre-modern
19. Introducing Species Case Study: something we use now to combat invasive species

Students then combine these nineteen individual papers to form the Ocean Biosphere Committee Proposal, using the weekly ExoTerra discussion sections to develop their outline and divvy up tasks.  Note how some topics have been refined or moved, reflecting discoveries the students might make along the way which might change how their topics fit together. Bold indicates new material students write as “connective tissue” for the unified document:

Ocean Biosphere Committee Proposal Abstract

1. Introduction: Coming From a Blue Planet
2. Section 1: Geography of Oceans
   1. Introduction
   2. Ocean Geography 1: Currents and Circulation
   3. Ocean Geography 2: Interdependence of Ocean & Inland Ecosystems
   4. Conclusion
3. Section 2:
   1. Introduction
   2. Ocean Microbes Part 1: Photosynthesis
   3. Ocean Microbes Part 2: Micro-Biodiversity
   4. Ancient Filter Feeders: Fronds, Jellies, and Sponges
   5. Primordial Ocean Chemistry: Earth vs. New Oceans
   6. Conclusion
4. Section 3: Food Chains and Evolution
   1. Introduction
   2. Food Chains and the Trophic Pyramid
   3. Transformation of Earth’s Oceans: the Cambrian Explosion
   4. Earth’s Modern Ocean Food Chain Part 1: Pre-Anthropocene
   5. Conclusion
5. Section 4: Altering Food Chains
   1. Introduction
   2. Altering Food Chains Case Study 1: The African Rift Lakes
   3. Altering Food Chains Case Study 2: Sea Walnut (Mnemiopsis leidyi)
   4. Altering Food Chains Case Study 2: Herbivorous Asian Carp
   5. Conclusion
6. Section 5: Humans and the Ocean, Exploitation vs. Custodianship
   1. Introduction
   2. Human Use of Ocean Microbes
   3. Human Use of Smaller Ocean Animals
   4. Human Use of Large Ocean Species (Predators)
   5. Aquiculture Successes and Failures
   6. Impact of Human Recreational Use of Oceans
   7. Earth’s Modern Ocean Food Chain Part 2: Anthropocene
   8. Marine Animal Cultures: Dolphins, Sharks, Octopus
   9. Conclusion
7. Summary of Proposed Actions on the New Planet
   1. Order of Species Introductions into ExoTerra’s Oceans
   2. Ocean Usage Policy: Living on a Blue Planet
   3. Blue Technologies 1: Extant Technologies
   4. Blue Technologies 2: Development Goals
8. Ocean Ethics: Thinking on a Blue Planet
9. Group Bibliography

The long document outlined above mixes real world information with speculative content, most of the speculative part appearing in the conclusions to each subsection and the final proposal summary.  Thus, imagining that each student in this class began by producing ten pages of primary source research, that each of the new connective tissue sections is about five pages in length, and that each student contributes twenty-five items to the final bibliography, the final proposal produced by these nineteen students, if double-spaced, would contain about 160 pages focused on the real world information (which would also be the focus of the grade), plus a 40 page group bibliography, and about 40-50 pages in which the students apply their findings to the speculative exoplanet setting, these being mainly in the final section of the document. This structure makes it easy to differentiate the research component from the speculative application component as instructors sit down to evaluate work. Students could receive a single group grade and/or individual grades reflecting the quality of their individual components, and the instructor would be aided in grading by the ExoTerra course assistant.

This skeleton shows how these assignments could fit into a syllabus:

• Week 1 (Sept 29): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 2 (Oct 5): Students choose topics via group discussion (group, ungraded)
• Week 3 (Oct 12): If this is a research course, Individual Bibliographies Due, requiring a specified number of sources; if this is a fixed syllabus course, students might instead write a response paper addressing readings (individual, graded)
• Week 4 (Oct 19): Individual Research/Synthesis Draft Due (major assignment, individual, graded)
• Week 5 (Oct 26): Students read classmates’ syntheses/summaries, no Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 6 (Nov 2): Students divide up who will write which part of the “connective tissue” of the group proposal
• Week 7 (Nov 9): Group Committee Proposal Draft Due (major assignment, group though with individuals responsible for specific subsections, graded), students post the proposal online to solicit peer feedback
• Week 8 (Nov 16): Students comment on others’ proposal drafts, and gather feedback on theirs
• Week 9 (Nov 23): Break & Study Week
• Week 10 (Nov 30): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Exam Week: Final Group Committee Proposal Due, incorporating feedback (major assignment, group, graded)

Example 2: Social Safety Net Public Policy Course, topics chosen by a class of 28:

1. Role of Unemployment in Economies
2. Microeconomic analysis of labor markets
3. Macroeconomic analysis of labor markets
4. Unemployment Benefit Schemes 1911-1922
5. Unemployment Benefit Schemes 1933+ (New Deal)
6. Marxist Approaches
7. Monopsony (single-employer economies)
8. Example: Social Security in Australia
9. Example: Social Security in Canada
10. Example: Social Security in Israel
11. Example: Social Security in the European Union
12. Example: Social Security in the USA
13. The Social Insurance Model
14. Means-Tested Benefits
15. Pensions (Public vs. Employer)
16. Universal Non-income Benefits
17. Universal Basic Income: Theories and Proposals
18. Universal Basic Income: Real Experiments
19. Guaranteed Work Schemes
20. Discrimination and Unemployment
21. Gender and Unemployment
22. Social Security and Racial Justice
23. Social Security and Environmental Factors
24. Children’s Rights Issues
25. Migratory Labor
26. Rural Unemployment
27. Urban Unemployment
28. Vocational Re-Training

The topics above would then be sorted into sections for an overall group proposal, and connecting sections added, as in the example given for the oceanography course.  Given the larger number of students in this course, they might be subdivided into two groups to produce two different final proposals each focused on one aspect of the social safety net question.

This skeleton shows how these assignments could fit into a syllabus:

• Week 1 (Sept 29): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 2 (Oct 5): Students choose topics via group discussion, and discuss which topics should probably be grouped together into each of the two eventual Group Committee Proposals (group, ungraded)
• Week 3 (Oct 12): If this is a research course, Individual Bibliographies Due, requiring a specified number of sources; if this is a fixed syllabus course, students might instead write a response paper addressing readings (individual, graded)
• Week 4 (Oct 19): Individual Research/Synthesis Draft Due (major assignment, individual, graded)
• Week 5 (Oct 26): Students read classmates’ syntheses/summaries, no Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 6 (Nov 2): Students divide up who will write which part of the “connective tissue” of the group proposal, and revisit the question of which topic should be put into which group proposal, possibly relocating one or more students from one group to the other
• Week 7 (Nov 9): The two Group Committee Proposal Drafts Due (major assignment, two different group assignments though with individuals responsible for specific subsections, graded), students post the proposals online to solicit peer feedback
• Week 8 (Nov 16): Students comment on others’ proposal drafts, and gather feedback on theirs
• Week 9 (Nov 23): Break & Study Week
• Week 10 (Nov 30): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Exam Week: Final Group Committee Proposals Due, incorporating feedback (major assignment, group, graded)

Example 3: Classics of Social and Political Thought I, topics chosen by a class of 18:

This is a fixed-syllabus Core course, so would not use a research component, but would instead call on students to choose some topic to synthesize, likely having the individual contribution be due later in the quarter than in a research course, to draw on more of the texts.  Since this course focuses on four standard authors (Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, and Machiavelli), students when discussing how to subdivide topics might consider whether to divide by author (four or five students discussing each), or by topic. The outline below imagines them choosing to divide by topic:

1. Does Justice Bring Happiness?
2. Does Goodness Bring Happiness?
3. Does Justice or Goodness Bring Happiness more effectively?
4. Does Justness/Goodness Bring Happiness to Groups but Not Individuals?
5. Relationship between Law and Justice
6. Goals of Human Ethical Codes for the Individual
7. Goals of Human Ethical Codes for Groups
8. Goals of Human Law for the Individual
9. Goals of Human Law for Groups
10. Real Effects of Human Law on the Individual
11. Real Effects of Human Law on Groups
12. Human Law vs. Natural or Divine Law
13. Natural Law vs. Divine Law
14. Can Unjust Action Have Good Consequences?
15. Can Action with Good Consequences Be Unjust?
16. How Consequentialism Affects our Efforts to Define Goodness
17. How Consequentialism Affects our Efforts to Define Justice
18. Does the State Have a Duty to Seek Justice?

Students could then combine these into a long Group Committee Proposal with connective tissue, like the Ocean Biosphere course above, whose conclusion makes a suggestion for the way the government of the new planet should arrange its laws and frame its concept of citizenship relative to the goals of advancing happiness and ethical behavior. Or the course could skip the “connective tissue” stage, and instead the students could discuss and write a shorter group document (perhaps collaboratively composed in a google doc) proposing some ways the new planet should arrange its laws, equivalent to the concluding section of the longer document; this short final document could constitute a final grade for all students involved, or each student could also write a short paper with their personal thoughts on the group document, what they agree with and what they would have done differently if they had not needed to compromise with others.

This skeleton shows how these assignments could fit into a syllabus. Note that the instructor can decide whether to weight the ExoTerra assignments less, equally, or more than the more standard response papers.

• Week 1 (Sept 29): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 2 (Oct 5): No written work due
• Week 3 (Oct 12): Plato response papers due (individual, graded)
• Week 4 (Oct 19): No written work due
• Week 5 (Oct 26): Aristotle response papers due (individual, graded)
• Week 6 (Nov 2): Aquinas response papers due (individual, graded)
• Week 7 (Nov 9): Machiavelli response papers due (individual, graded); in discussion (either in class or asynchronously on the discussion forums) students choose the topics of their individual syntheses
• Week 8 (Nov 16): Students’ individual syntheses of their topics due
• Week 9 (Nov 23): Break & Study Week, students read each others’ syntheses and begin sharing suggestions for the group proposal
• Week 10 (Nov 30): Group Proposal Draft Due (major assignment, group with individuals responsible for specific subsections, graded), students post the proposal online to solicit peer feedback
• Exam Week: Final Group Proposal Due, incorporating feedback (major assignment, group, graded), with or without students also sharing their individual thoughts about the group proposal.

ExoTerra is optimized for collaboration, but students can complete solo work (without the complexity of group work) and still benefit from the larger online community as a source of peer feedback.

When doing solo work, students could choose their topics entirely independently (with risk of overlap), or still have a group discussion, either in class or on the text forums, in which they divvy up which aspects of the course topic to focus on. In an architecture course students might divide up different aspects of architecture (insulation, foundation materials, roofing, heat index; or Chinese Buddhist monumental architecture, Chinese domestic architecture, Indian Buddhist monumental architecture etc.).

Once their topics are chosen, students each write a paper on the topic; in a research course they do individual research, while in a course without a research component they synthesize material from the syllabus.  Either as part of the same assignment or as an expansion, students add a brief conclusion proposing how this knowledge should shape actions taken on the new planet.  Since the research or synthetic component of these papers is the element most tied to the course material, instructors should specify the length requirements in terms of the length of this portion, i.e. “[X] pages on the topic, followed by [two or more] pages on your proposal for the exoplanet.”

This approach is simpler than the group project, since it does not require assembling the work together and drafting “connective tissue”; thus, while the group work teaches collaborative and synthetic skills, this approach is compatible with a greater number of additional assignments unrelated to ExoTerra.

This skeleton shows how these assignments could fit into a research course. Note that the topics are chosen early, to give plenty of time for research. In a course without a research component, where the students are instead synthesizing information from the readings, the topics could be chosen later:

• Week 1 (Sept 29): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 2 (Oct 5): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 3 (Oct 12): Students choose topics for their individual work, either on their own via group discussion
• Week 4 (Oct 19): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 5 (Oct 26): No Written ExoTerra Work Due (if this is a research course a bibliography could be due)
• Week 6 (Nov 2): No Written ExoTerra Work Due
• Week 7 (Nov 9): Individual Research/Synthesis Draft Due (major assignment, graded)
• Week 8 (Nov 16): Individual Research/Synthesis Draft Proposal Appendix Due, proposing an application on the exoplanet. Students post the proposal online to solicit peer feedback.
• Week 9 (Nov 23): Break & Study Week, students give and gather feedback online
• Week 10 (Nov 30): Students continue to comment on others’ proposal drafts, and gather feedback on theirs
• Exam Week: Final Individual Research/Synthesis Proposal Due, incorporating feedback (major assignment, graded)

Student discussions are essential to the collaborative, interdisciplinary, and community-forming elements of ExoTerra.  Some ExoTerra assignments require discussion, to divvy up topics within a group project, while it can also be very valuable having additional discussions, engaging with the thought experiment of the exoplanet setting.  These discussions can be organized several ways.  All classes will have the means for students to lead their own asynchronous text and self-scheduled voice and video discussions, but it can be valuable to organize group discussions more formally: 

• You can reserve a certain portion of class time for the whole class to discuss the ExoTerra imaginary setting together, for example reserving the last 45 minutes of every Thursday class, or every alternate Thursday class, or just a few classes specified in your syllabus.
• You can reserve a portion of class time to divide the class into sections for discussion, using separate groups or Zoom’s breakout room feature to have some students have a standard discussion with one instructor or TA while others have a discussion of ExoTerra with an instructor, TA, or ExoTerra staffer. This works well in classes where ExoTerra is an optional track which only some students are doing, and in larger classes in which you wish to subdivide discussion, alternating each class which subsection of the students discusses ExoTerra or something else.  Students this spring indicated that small group discussions of fewer than 20 students (ideally 12 or fewer) were a highlight of their online learning experience.
• You can have no reserved discussion time for ExoTerra, but allow students to bring up the thought experiment setting in regular discussions when they feel it is relevant; this works well in courses oriented toward freeform or socratic discussion, but at times students can be a little too excited by game settings, so you will need to get the feel with each individual group of students whether this will work or whether you need to restrict conversations about ExoTerra to specific times.
• You can require the students meet outside of normal class time for self-scheduled or formally scheduled group discussions to plan ExoTerra things, either on their own, or lead by a Teaching Assistant or Course Assistant provided, either by your department or program, or by ExoTerra. 
• You can have no required synchronous ExoTerra discussions, but make use of Discord’s text channels (discussed below) to require asynchronous text-only discussion. You yourself, and/or your Teaching Assistant(s)s or Course Assistant(s) can participate in said discussions as much or as little as you like.
• Or you can have no formal requirement in the syllabus about ExoTerra discussions, and leave it to your students to organize and discuss asynchronously as much or as little as they wish.

For asynchronous discussion, all ExoTerra classes will have dedicated text discussion forums set up for them using Discord, a free program similar to Slack, which runs on both computers and smartphones.  Discord provides an invitation-only, integrated group online space (called a “Discord Server”) where text-based discussion, group audio calls, and group video calls can all happen via the same program, effectively combining the discussion post options of Canvas with the videoconferencing abilities of Zoom. Unlike Canvas, which segregates each class’s page, Discord makes it possible for multiple separate courses to have a shared conversation.  In Discord one can control who has access to which discussion thread, and create both public and private discussion threads in the same area.  Thus students in each course can use one program to access (A) a private discussion thread visible only to members of that course (like Canvas), (B) a separate public discussion thread dedicated to their topic (for example climate change, or health care) where your students can post their ideas and drafts and peers from any class can respond, and (C) larger group discussion threads where all the students doing ExoTerra across all disciplines will discuss big questions like what system of government to create. Discord also makes it effortless for students to spontaneously organize audio or video meet-ups without planning ahead to create an invitation, as Zoom requires.  Discord is very easy to learn, keeps an automatic searchable archive of past text discussions, and many students already use it (since it is optimized for gaming).  ExoTerra staff will moderate the Discord forums, offer training sessions for participating instructors, and help watch the asynchronous text-based discussion that takes place, passing on reports to those instructors who wish to give students class participation credit. You can learn more about Discord here.

While all courses will have Discord threads set up, it will be up to each instructor how much you want to use Discord, and how much you want to use other discussion options.  You can offer class participation credit for Discord discussions, exactly as you would for Canvas discussions, or you can simply make them an optional component which students may use to organize and discuss their work.  You can have Discord be the only space where students discuss ExoTerra, or you can have in-class discussions as well.  You can also organize small group voice or video discussion meet-ups via Discord, though Zoom is often slightly better for larger group videoconferencing. If you have students who are struggling to use Zoom due to low internet bandwidth in their areas, switching discussions to an audio-only Discord channel can help.

If you wish, you can make ExoTerra assignments one of several optional tracks of assignments within a course, so students choose between developing an ExoTerra proposal and, for example, writing a traditional term paper.

This sample assignment skeleton shows a course focused on researching and writing a traditional research term paper, whose instructor wants make ExoTerra an alternative track, so each student in the course chooses individually whether to do the ExoTerra track or the Term Paper track. ExoTerra assignments appear in red.

• Week 1 (Sept 29):     Introductory readings, short written assignment (graded)
• Week 2 (Oct 5):         Readings, Term Paper track students turn in a short write-up of their proposed research topic (ungraded), students in the ExoTerra section choose their topics and turn in the overall list of topics (ungraded).
• Week 3 (Oct 12):       Readings, both students in the Term Paper track and those doing ExoTerra turn in an Individual Bibliography listing at least 20 sources.
• Week 4 (Oct 19):       Short readings to promote discussion, students in both tracks are concentrating on research and writing.
• Week 5 (Oct 26):       Term Paper track students turn in ten pages representing the start of their papers (graded), ExoTerra students turn in their Individual Research Summaries consisting of ten pages of research (graded) plus the speculative conclusion. Here we imagine the instructor has chosen to push the deadline a week later than the ExoTerra outline, in order to match the term paper.
• Week 6 (Nov 2):        Readings for discussion, students in the Term Paper track work on developing their papers, students in the ExoTerra section plan and divide up the writing of the connective tissue (ungraded)
• Week 7 (Nov 9):        Readings, students in the Term Paper track turn in 20 page Rough Draft, students doing ExoTerra turn in group Committee Proposal Draft (graded)
• Week 8 (Nov 16):      Term Paper students peer review each other’s papers (graded), ExoTerra students peer review other teams’ proposals (graded).
• Week 9 (Nov 23):      Break & Study Week                                                      
• Week 10 (Nov 30):    Final short reading for group discussion.
• Exam Week:              Term Paper students turn in 25 page Term Papers (graded), ExoTerra students turn in the final Group Committee Proposal (graded)

It is also possible to make ExoTerra assignments an extra credit option supplementing, rather than substituting for, traditional assignments; in such a case it is recommended that you make sure to help the students in the class who are doing the optional track get in touch with each other so they can plan the collaborative elements, and that you keep the length requirements short and omit secondary graded assignments such as requiring a bibliography or graded peer review.

ExoTerra assignments can also be compressed into a single module within a longer course. For example:

• This skeleton shows how these assignments could fit into a syllabus as a three week module (which could also be moved to a different portion of the quarter):

  • Week 1 (Sept 29): No ExoTerra
  • Week 2 (Oct 5): No ExoTerra
  • Week 3 (Oct 12): No ExoTerra
  • Week 4 (Oct 19): No ExoTerra
  • Week 5 (Oct 26): No ExoTerra
  • Week 6 (Nov 2): Group ExoTerra discussion, students choose their individual ExoTerra subtopics
  • Week 7 (Nov 9): Short Individual Research/Synthesis Draft Due. If you are using the group model, students discuss and divide up who will write which part of the “connective tissue” of the group proposal; if you are doing the individual model, students discuss their findings and post their drafts, giving each other feedback.
  • Week 8 (Nov 16): If doing the group model, Group Committee Proposal Due; if doing solo assignments, students turn in revised versions of the individual Research/Synthesis paper with a personal Proposal for implementation on the new world.
  • Week 9 (Nov 23): Break & Study Week
  • Week 10 (Nov 30): ExoTerra serves as a point of discussion, but has no further required assignments.
  • Exam Week: Optionally, ExoTerra could be a component of a final exam essay question or final paper.