Syllabus

Contact Information

Faculty Email addresses:

Deane Wang Deane.Wang@uvm.edu
Skype = deane3wang
Celia Danks Cecilia.Danks@uvm.edu
Han Ling hanling@pku.edu.cn

Communication goals: We will try to respond to Email within a 24 hour period. The difference in time zones creates a challenge, so we will try to respond as soon as possible. We hope that you will also read your Email on at least a daily basis so that if there are any course announcements, you will get them. As this is an experiment, please let us know if you have questions or suggestions about how to make the course run more smoothly. Please contact Deane for all of your logistical questions (assignments, due dates, using the wiki or blog, etc.). For any issues at PKU, please contact Professor Han Ling.

The tradition in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont, is for graduate students to refer to their professors by their first name. I surmise that the tradition at Peking University is for students to refer to their professors as "Professor XXXX." We can be flexible here, so use whatever form that your are comfortable with... we will adapt!

Course Description

This is a fully online course that will explore the historical development of conservation in China and the U.S., then consider contemporary conservation, and finally try to evaluate where conservation may be heading in the future. Students from both the University of Vermont and Peking University will collaboratively create reports to describe where conservation may need to go to address the pressing ecological and social developments anticipated in the 21st Century.

Topics include conservation history, site conservation, land conservation, landscape-scale conservation, “fortress” conservation, inclusive conservation, conservation and poverty, Peace Parks, systematic conservation planning, adaptive management, indicators and standards of quality, land stewardship, carbon sequestration, carbon offsets, and uncertainty conservation.

Course Goals

To help students develop an historical and international perspective on conservation
To engage students in prospective analysis so that they are alway considering change and adaptation, both in concepts and applications
To encourage educational collaboration among Chinese and U.S. students and faculty

Learning Objectives

Briefly compare and contrast U.S and Chinese conservation history;
Survey current conservation activities at various scales; summarize current environmental threats that challenge existing conservation practice;
Try to predict how emerging environmental trends (global warming, population, peak oil, food shortages, etc.) may require rethinking conservation concepts and practices;
Strengthen cross-cultural communication among students in China and the U.S. through small group interactions needed to complete joint writing projects;
Develop frameworks for the comparative analysis (e.g., examining "players" "projects" and "perspectives)

What You'll Need to Take This Course

A PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat (download here).
QuickTime for video. View this VIDEO of Rubenstein Professor Ellen Marsden to test your video software. If you have trouble viewing it, you can get the free QuickTime download here.
Any audio plugin that can play mp3 files. Listen to this AUDIO file about Owls using cell phones file to test your audio player.
Skype software, (free download here), for online talking and instant messaging, when needed.

How the Course Works

As indicated above, this is a fully online class, which means that the whole course can be taken online via the Internet, without ever meeting face-to-face (web course developers call this "F2F"). Because it is sad not ever to see each other, we will try to arrange more informal Skype meetings to see each other. In addition, students will NEED to communicate with each other (preferably via Skype) to complete some of the writing assignments. However, the main part of the course and its content will be implemented via the Internet using Email, the class website, a class Blog, and a class Wiki. Detailed instructions are provided throughout, but if you have questions, confusions, or suggestions, PLEASE Email Deane so that he can make adjustments and clarifications. This is an EXPERIMENT across two continents, so be patient and your help in making this work better is appreciated.

The starting place once you have read the instructions is the ASSIGNMENT page. From here you will get additional details about assignments either at the Blog or the Wiki. We will start slowly, and then as you get used to the technology, move through the content of the course more quickly.

Work Expectations

This online class expects some work on your part on a daily basis (Monday to Friday). The assignments are posted on Mondays and Wednesdays, with responses and comments due by Tuesday-Wednesday, or Thursday-Friday, respectively. This is a graduate class, so we expect you to engage with the material without any additional prompts from the professors (like minus grading points for being late). The evaluation "rubrics" are discussed in the Blog instructions under "Making Comments." The evaluation associated with the Wiki collaborative writing will consider both participation in the Wiki and the quality of the papers that you produce. While "evaluation" is mentioned here, the goal of this new class is for you to be engaged, interested, and having fun -- with important questions and issues that will have a bearing on your quality of life and those around you.

Grading

Please contact the professors for questions about grading. As noted above, we are focused on learning and not grading, so we have a general approach indicated below.

Blog response and synthesis - 30%
Wiki work and participation - 30%
Draft report, editing, and final report quality - 30%
Web outreach products (web pages and EoE entries) - 10%