Courtesy Code:
You are expected to follow the rules for common courtesy and good netiquette in all your email messages and communications. If I deem any to be inappropriate or offensive, I will forward the communications to the ACC office for appropriate action, up to and including expulsion from the course.
Participation:
Students are expected to actively participate in each class unit by performing assignments, posting question responses, and sharing personal experiences from your background. Any student counted as missing more than 2 sessions of class will not receive a completion certificate. Failure to "show up" for weekly work will be considered an equivalent of two classtime absences. Attendance will be kept weekly through logins, emails, discussions, and work submissions. Repeated absences of three weeks or more over the course will result in a failing final course grade. No communication at all for two consecutive weeks means administrative withdrawal (see "Disappearing" below).
Assignments:
All assignments are due as stated in the assignments'' web page. Any additional assignments, or due date adjustments will be posted to the Announcements and/or in a whole-class email, with current due dates noted within.
Student Responsibilities:
You are responsible for pacing yourself through the week so that you are able to participate in the Threaded Discussion Questions as required. Waiting until the last day of the unit week to enter discussions and make comments on the readings will be recorded, and will be detrimental to your participation grade. You are encouraged to do the readings as early in the week as possible, and begin the discussion about the readings as soon as you can, even if you have not completely finished the reading assignments. Of course, the quality of your discussions will be affected if you have not completed the readings. This also counts in my judgment of your participation score.
Deadlines:
Odd things can happen in cyberspace: emails get lost; servers disconnect temporarily; logins become impossible. Don''t wait until the last minute to get things done (the old "student syndrome" of cramming the night before a due date). Allow time to meet deadlines. Reply and check for replies on every email sent or received. Set up an email filter and a separate folder for each class you take, if your email software permits, to keep things from getting lost on your computer system. You are responsible for getting the work to me, on time.
Late work:
Each week''s work must be completed by the end of that week. Note that not all weeks start & stop on the same day of the week. The dates of each week are defined in the Course Information syllabus. Deadlines not kept for assignments made for a week mean that your grade on the assignment will be lowered by a half-grade for each day late. This is to encourage timely participation.
Unless otherwise noted, a "day" is the 24 hour period between midnights (U.S. Central time, where the ACC BlackBoard system is located).
Once a unit is opened to you (by date) it remains open through the end of the course (for review, study, and make-up). Obviously, keeping up with the work week-by-week is best, but understandably, sometimes student travel, or illness, or other unexpected events prevent you from keeping up. If you have extenuating circumstances, email notification to me prior to the event may result in a grant of extra time to complete assignments.
Disappearing:
No communication from you for two weeks for whatever reason means that I will initiate an administrative withdrawal. You can contact me via the channels indicated in the Staff Information link, or you may contact the program coordinator, Bob McGoldrick, at the ACC Administration office at (512) 223-7662.
Safeguards:
Back up every piece of work you do on disk, and make a hard copy (printout). If you experience computer difficulties, you are responsible for solving your own technical problems. Help can be found through the links in the ACC course's home page. You are encouraged to print out all of this course information and keep it in a notebook should your computer or internet access become unusable for any reason. Also, the heaviest times for internet usage are typically 8-10 PM. You might want to consider arranging your schedule to do on-line coursework at other times, if possible.
Academic Dishonesty:
This course follows the same academic honesty policies as any on-campus live class. Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses and may be punished by failure on an exam or assignment, failure in the course, and or expulsion from the college. For more information refer to the "Academic Honesty" policy in the student catalog for details.