FAQs

Reiter

NB: This is a demo version of the vhb Online Course "Regionalism and Global Governance". To participate in the actual course, please register on www.kurse.vhb.org and follow the provided link to access all sessions and materials. The link will be displayed once the semester commences.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The following catalogue of questions is based on the most common questions people asked us during previous semesters. If your question/problem has not been addressed below, please feel free to email us.

<b>Note: Deadlines for Submissions are usually at 6:00pm on the days indicated above!</b>

Great that you are here! Make sure to browse through the questions and check out our answers if you have had the same questions.

To summarize the most important points:
While working through the online course, you can only get access to the next chapter by passing the quiz of the previous chapter. So, you will have to do all the quizzes at some point. You will have to submit one essay (for students of the UniBW, please see the FAQ section as there are different rules applying to you). This essay is going to get peer-reviewed by your fellow course mates. The essay is a prerequisite for the seminar paper (there are differences in expectations regarding the quality of the seminar paper between B.A. and M.A. students, see FAQ section if you should have any questions).

Apart from that, have fun and let us know if you run into any problems along the way! :-)

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1. General Things

Each session is accessible once you have passed the quiz of the previous session (one exception: the ultimate session, 14., is also available without having to pass a quiz). To ensure continuous learning progress, we recommend completing each session within one week. This will give you enough time to read the texts, engage in learning group discussions and deal with the additional tasks.

Yes, if you decide to redo the course in another semester, you will have to do the quizzes again. At the end of every semester, we delete all students from the course in order to make space for the new batch.

Most probably you have not solved the quiz of the previous session yet. Do that and you will then have access to the next part of the course.

Make sure that your question has not been answered already (see this FAQ-section and course forum). If you think that your question will concern other students as well, post your question in the course forum. If your question concerns only yourself, contact the course staff:
 
Course Tutors: Christoph Stieglbauer
The team will usually answer email requests within two workdays.
 
Virtual Office hours: As this is an online course, we do not have office hours in the sense of a physical office that you could visit at a specific time. However, as mentioned above, you are more than welcome to email Christoph Stieglbauer anytime and make an appointment for a Skype/Zoom meeting or telephone call. You can also ask general questions that concern everyone in our course forum here on Ilias and more specific questions via email.
Feel free to let us know if you have problems or need help with anything. However, if you would like to receive feedback for abstracts, exposés or similar, please make sure to send them to us a few days before you need the actual feedback from us! We are as human as you are and need a bit of time to do good work.

We can provide you with reference letters for Master or scholarship applications. We have clear rules for how many courses you have to take with us before we can issue such a letter. If you don't meet the conditions (option A), please book an appointment with Prof. Stahl during his consultation hours to have a short interview (Option B). 

Option A:
- at least one lecture 
- at least one seminar (not vhb) 

Option B:
- Interview with Professor Stahl (please book an appointment in advance, you can register online via Stud.IP.)

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2. About the Examination

To pass the course and receive the credits (ECTS), you will have to go through all the sessions and pass all quizzes (quizzes are not graded, however!). You will have to write a seminar paper and hand it in via upload and by mail (hardcopy, Deadline see above!). The page range depends on the number of credits you will receive: make sure that you write as many pages/words as your home university demands for the number of ECTS that you would like to acquire.

Usually, the word count ranges from 5.500 - 7000 words for a "Proseminar, 5 ECTS", 7.500 - 9.000 words for a "Hauptseminar, 10 ECTS", and 9.000 - 11.000 for a "Masterclass/Oberseminar, 10 ECTS". The seminar paper is subdivided into an essay (max. 2.000 words) and a longer research paper. This means if you use 1.800 words on your essay and you would like to receive 5 ECTS (Proseminar), you have another 5.200 words (maximum!) left for your seminar paper. Footnotes are to be included in the word count, the bibliography is not.

The research paper should deal with the course topic of regionalism and pose a specific research question. The methodology has to be stated explicitly. An exemplary scheme and our term paper guidelines help you structuring your seminar paper and inform you about what we expect from you.

For students of the Bundeswehr University Munich (UniBwM): Instead of the longer research paper, you have to submit a second 2.000-word essay on a (different) topic of your choosing related to the contents of the course. This is due to the trimester structure at your university and the resulting higher workload. Apart from the different length of the second part of your examination, everything else applies to you equally.

Essays can be written on any topic of the sessions 1-10. Suggestions for essay topics are given in each of the sessions 1-10. Uploading an essay is a necessary condition for accessing Chapter III of the course (sessions 11-14), i.e. you will not be able to access these chapters until you have uploaded an essay. The essay shall not be longer than 2.000 words maximum. 

The essay assignment is linked to a peer-feedback task. There is a deadline for those who wish to receive peer-feedback on their essay, deadlines in the table above. The feedback you will give to and receive from your peers can and should be used to revise and improve your essay. This poses an excellent learning opportunity and is strongly recommended by us. You will hand in your revised essay together with the research paper, deadline in the table above.
For those who will forgo the option of receiving peer-feedback: it is possible (i.e. you can pass the course if you upload your essay after the aforementioned deadline), but not recommended to do so. Only the version of your essay that is handed in together with the research paper will be graded by us.
For information on how to upload your essay and how to give feedback on the ILIAS platform, see the essay tutorial screencast in the folder "Assignments".

Yes, absolutely! We expect you to properly reference any ideas, quotes etc. that are not your own. The usual standards of academic integrity apply to seminar papers as well as essays - there is absolutely no difference. Make sure to read up on how to properly cite if you do not yet feel comfortable with it. If you have very specific questions that cannot be answered by doing proper research and reading the handouts provided by the professorship, we are always happy to help you.

We will check papers with plagiarism software - so please do cite all your sources to avoid any misunderstandings.

You do not have to, but we recommend it where helpful for the reader to understand the structure of the essay.

Yes, you are allowed to do that. It is no problem if you choose the same topic for both the essay and seminar paper. However, please avoid extensive copy-pasting. Essay and seminar paper shall be recognisable as separate pieces of work. 

No. This course is taught in English, and we expect you to submit all course work in English.

Make sure to go through all the provided course contents. Mandatory readings are the prerequisite but will not be sufficient to ace the course. Try to read as many of the further readings as possible and engage in learning group discussions regularly. If you are interested in one specific RO or a specific theory, try to deepen your knowledge in that respect by contrasting other ROs and theories to it. Challenge your pre-existing beliefs and exercise your analytical skills by writing short essays.

First of all, you should have a look at a handout provided by us with a few information on how we expect seminar papers to be structured like. Having the structure in your mind might already help seeing things a bit clearer. 
For further inspiration, most sessions of this course have suggested discussion/essay questions that you potentially could use as the basis for a research question.

If you have done some brainstorming and have a few different versions of your research question, you are welcome to run it by us to see whether it is any good. ;-)

Not necessarily.

However, it is vital to explain your approach and show that it is structured and transparent. Also, make sure to show how your method goes together with the theory that you chose. In some cases, it makes sense to have a separate (sub-)chapter, in others it doesn't. If you have more questions, feel free to check our guidelines, books on academic writing in political science/international relations and/or contact the course tutor.

By experience, we know that three reasons are most commonly cited by students who request an extension for the seminar paper. Check which of the three applies to you and learn whether we will be able to grant you an extension:
  1. Illness or other grave reasons: If you aren't able to finish your paper on time due to health issues or other grave reasons, we will grant you the extension you need to finish it. However, you will have to prove your stated reason with appropriate documentation (such as an attest by your doctor). Please email us as soon as possible about this and before the deadline!
  2. Internship as part of studies: If you are serving a full-time internship as part of your education, we will grant you an extension as we know that you cannot work full-time and write a seminar paper at the same time. However, we expect you to contact us as soon as you know about the internship and, needless to say, before the deadline. You will have to provide proof for your internship (detailing the exact duration of it). If in doubt, ask us!
  3. Just not enough time: If you find yourself struggling once the deadline is coming closer and therefore wish to get an extension of the deadline, we have to disappoint you. To be fair to everyone, we will not grant you an extension in this case. It is your responsibility to start writing the paper early enough to finish on time. So better get going ;-)If your workload is just too high, don't fret! We will still be here next semester and happily welcome you back as a student in this course.
If you have any other reasons that we did not mention here and you are not sure, please email us!
We assume that your paper is a 1.0 (best grade possible) and then subtract one grade step (according to the German university grading system: 1.3 - 1.7 - 2.0 - 2.3 - 2.7 - 3.0 - 3.3 - 3.7 - 4.0 - 5.0) for each of the criteria listed below, in which you do not live up to appropriate standards. As you know, Bachelor and Master students take part in this course. This means that we respectively apply somewhat different standards when grading papers. To give you one example: In case of a Master class seminar paper, we expect a pretty rock solid methodology section (check out Professor Stahl's video in the last session!) whereas in a bachelor student's paper we still want to see the methodology addressed, but don't expect as much depth. 

Papers will be graded on the basis of the following criteria:
  • Cover sheet/Table of contents/Structure
  • Relevance (Puzzle)
  • Research question
  • Link to a model or theory
  • Hypothesis or Level of analysis
  • Method/Sources
  • Empirical or theoretical analysis
  • Conclusion
  • Bibliography
  • Form/Citation
  • Language
  • Overall impression
Keep in mind that, according to your research design, the categories can mean different things, and there is no "one perfect way" to write a seminar paper. 

On top of that, if your essay (which you have to submit together with the seminar paper, see above) is well-written, we the final grade will be improved by one step. If it lacks substance and quality, the final grade will be adjusted downwards. If the essay is not particularly original and well-written, yet still acceptable, it will not have any effect on the final grade.

Not submitting an essay leads to failing the course, even if you submit a seminar paper.

Yes, this is absolutely true. Due to the different trimester structure at your institutions and differing requirements, we agreed to accept two essays, each 2.000 words long, on two different topics. Apart from the different length, anything else applies as it applies to any other student taking this course (referencing, etc).

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3. Organisational Matters

Please contact the person in charge at your home university in advance to clarify whether this course can be accredited for your study program.  Please understand that it is neither our obligation nor are we - the course developers and staff - authorized to decide whether you can receive credit points for your study program at your home university.

THIS CONCERNS STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PASSAU ONLY

The possibility to receive a proof of attendance certificate aka "Schein" is limited EXCLUSIVELY to help students who

a) are enrolled in a bachelor's degree and want to apply for a non-consecutive master's degree and therefore have to gather more credit-points in the respective subject (example: you currently study business administration but want to pursue a masters degree in political science) and do not have any free examination numbers to register for this course in HisQis (also check modules you chose not to do!);

or

b) if you don't want to receive any credits (ECTS) for this course. If you do want to receive credits for this course, it is mandatory to sign up for the examination in HisQis. 

If one of the two cases applies to you, please go ahead and fill in this form and send it to the secretariat of Professor Stahl. Since the form is in german, don't hesitate and drop us a line if you have difficulties filling it in. 

Note: The examination Office (aka "Prüfungssekretariat") will not accept any such proof of attendance to recognise within your degree. At the end of your studies, they might, however, be able to add it to your transcript of records as an additional course ("Zusatzleistung").

Due to the nature of this course as an online course within the vhb-network, you will have to register twice for the exam (which in this case is the seminar paper and short essay). Please make sure to register as early as possible and not miss the deadlines.
 
You have to register:
  1. On the VHB website (you need your username and password). Find our course and then select "zu einer Prüfung anmelden".
  2. At your home university. Depending on in what module you would like the course to be recognized, you will have to talk to the respectively responsible professor and ask her/him how to properly register so that the grade will appear in the right place.
Students that are not registered for the exam on the vhb portal will not be able to receive a grade and ECTS for their paper and essay. If you should have any problems with the registration on the vhb portal, please to let us know - we will try to help.
However, we cannot assist you with the registration at you home institution. 

University of Passau
Students of the University of Passau can register on HisQis like for any other exam. Examiner, in this case, is Prof. Dr Bernhard Stahl. 

THIS CONCERNS STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PASSAU ONLY

Most probably, the reason for you not being able to find the course in HisQis is that you are enrolled in a degree that doesn't usually offer our course. However, this is not a problem at all. As long as you are signed up for the exam on kurse.vhb.org, you are fine. 
Note: Please add "ERASMUS" on the cover sheet of your submission, so that we know we have to send the grades to the international office directly.

THIS CONCERNS STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PASSAU ONLY

Yes, you can take this online course and have it recognised in Modulgruppe B > Global Governance > MC/OS Global Governance (ohne PL). If you do that, you will neither have to submit a paper/essay, nor will we control whether you passed all the tests. However, we strongly recommend thoroughly working through the course and taking away as much as possible. 
Please note:  While you do not have to sign up on HisQis, please register for the exam on kurse.vhb.org. Let us know if you have any further questions.

THIS CONCERNS STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PASSAU ONLY

Yes, please register with the vhb via kurse.vhb.org. You do not need to register in HisQis. Please contact us in case of any further questions.

Please allow us eight weeks to thoroughly read your work and grade it. We will let you know as soon as we are done with this. If we need more time, we will also inform you.