Mt. San Jacinto College

Art Appreciation – Art 100 Online

Spring 2012 Syllabus for Sections 3291, 3292, 3293

This course will introduce you to the important principles, styles, forms and aesthetics of world art. You will learn by studying, analyzing, and writing about examples of art presented. This course is intended for students in all disciplines as a Humanities requirement. In addition, this course provides a general overview for the student who has an interest in the context of art and culture.

Instructor

Elin Pendleton (known as Patricia Pendleton to MSJC)

Email (preferred and most effective contact) art100@mac.com

Phone: (951) 742-7429   It's my studio telephone/100% message. I'll return your call within 24 hours.

Web sites:  http://www.elinart.com, http://www.equinepaintings.com, or http://www.dailypaintings.com

Blog: http://elinpendleton.blogspot.com and Facebook.

Materials

A positive attitude and a willingness to try new things will benefit yourself and your classmates.

Class Discussion Board:  http://my.msjc.edu/ under your course's “DISCUSSION BOARD” and the entire Blackboard course shell containing the coursework.

RSS subscriptions to several feeds for current art trends. (Available through Blackboard site.)

Class Information Site if Blackboard goes down: http://www.elinart.com/art100/

Book:  Artforms by Preble, Ninth Edition (Eighth will work) or the one available (shorter version) through the MSJC Bookstore.

Student Learning Outcomes

 1. Analyze characteristics of, list and identify important art media and styles.

2. Evaluate significant works of art from important periods and movements.

3. Analyze characteristics of art works to identify significant artists.

Responsibilities

• Plan to complete your assignments and reading consistently.  Online courses demand a responsibility and level of maturity that is higher than most brick-and-mortar classes.   To prevent being dropped, contact the instructor if you anticipate not being able to meet the deadlines for posting work and submitting work via email.  Under certain circumstances, allowances will be made and you can continue the course.  If you fail to submit work for three weeks without communication, you will probably fail the course, or you will be dropped. 
• Plan to network with other students to keep your knowledge current.  You will meet other students in the first forum posting. You may choose to reply to their posting and establish a link of friendship.
• Use Wikipedia only as a starting point for researching your discussions. Use the links that are provided by Wikipedia to begin, not end, your search for more information.
• You will post many assignments to the Discussion Board of the online forum.  Your value to the class and value to yourself comes from the interpretation of the material you read and see and the opinions you share about those interpretations.  There is little value in just copying from websites, and your instructor makes note of this.  The amount of your own thinking that is visible in your posts will be a measure of your success.
  • Write from your heart.
  • Include personal experiences as much as possible
• The MSJC learning Resource Centers offer free tutoring and academic support in all subjects for all MSJC students. Students are encouraged to make an appointment of to drop in whenever the LRC’s services will enhance their chances for success in this class.
• Plan on posting replies to the posts of other students.  When you share your thoughts and opinions, you open doors for further exploration of what appeals to you and what doesn’t.  Reading others’ posts is very enlightening!  Your contributions add to the variety.

Museum and/or Gallery Visit:  You are asked to visit a gallery or museum at least once during the course as part of your experience with art.  You can use this visit as one of your large paper assignments. The visit and resulting paper should outline your visit, have a description of the artwork on display and the historical period it represents, if applicable, and your analysis of the entire exhibit, individual pieces, or both, and must include your personal reflection and response to it.  Images need to be attached (or included within the text as html links) as reference and proof of your visit.    You will be provided with information on exhibits, both close and far, during the course.  It is highly recommended that you car pool with other students and go to the major museums we have in California, such as the ones in San Diego or Los Angeles: the Getty, LACMA, Balboa Park, etc.  Your gallery visits can be to Laguna Beach or San Diego, or even locally.

Learning Opportunities

• Write and post your ideas and images to the Bulletin Board and read and respond to what others have written.
• Visit at least one major museum and/or one art gallery and submit reports on your visits.
• Research art and artists via the Internet and present same to your classmates in the forums.
• Take online quizzes based upon chapter readings.
• Compose and submit written papers on topics of your choice related to the course content.

About Grading:

Your letter grade will be established by completing a variety of assignments which translate into points. You will earn points by:

• Taking quizzes online and submitting them.
• Posting your written assignments to the Discussion Board Forums after visiting a variety of web sites.
• Participating in online discussions using the Discussion Board Forums in response to others' postings.
• Posting written papers to the Discussion Board on topics from trips to museums, movies on art, or ind-depth research on topics related to art.
• Real-world visits to art museums and/or art galleries as subjects for posted papers.
• Your Final Exam.

Late work is defined as work that is not submitted during the week in which it is assigned. Late work earns fewer points. The later the work, the fewer the points.

If you decide to stop participating in the class, be sure to stop by the Admissions and Records office to officially drop the class.  It is your responsibility to drop classes! Not dropping the class usually results in an “F” grade.

Grading Scale - Percentage of Total "Hard" Points (outside of extra credit assignments): 90%+ = A, 80-89% = B, 70-79% = C, 60-69% = D, 59% and below FAIL. The point scale will be found under "Course Information" in Blackboard.