Your Data and Privacy

This information is relevant only for the web services Professor Rosenberg uses and not those owned and/or operated by the college/university, the use of which may be required in your course.

• Never provide any personal information beyond your name and email address to any of the applications that request it - e.g., your phone number on the appointment application.  In cases where such fields are "required," and as such, you can't submit the form without it, enter fake data as common-sense dictates.

• All issues of data privacy and records are handled by your institution.

General Technology Policy

Email

You must have an email address to which you have daily access.  Many university email systems will flag as spam those emails sent from outside its own domain.  Therefore, we strongly suggest that you not use your university email account.  Instead, most students use their personal email accounts.  But, if you'd rather, set up an account on a free email service (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) that you use specifically for your course which you can then delete at its conclusion.  Whatever you decide, please remember that failure to receive an email does not absolve you from its content.

Technology in Your Course

The Learning Management System (LMS), which includes this website, is the hub of your course.  You'll use it constantly:  to receive and submit assignments, receive course notifications, to book appointments, and to communicate with the professor - remember, the professor does not accept emails to his university email accounts.

• Assignments requiring file submissions that are inaccessible (due to corruption, incompatibility with my systems, software, etc.) will not be graded and may not be resubmitted.

• Any (or all) of the following activities may be completed (or occur) online:

  • submission of essays

  • uploading files

  • file conversion (from one format to another - e.g. a docx file to a pdf file)

  • booking appointments with the professor

  • watching assigned videos

  • blogging and/or journaling

  • exams and other online assignments

  • the retrieval of e-texts and handouts

  • accessing your course grades

  • Meeting via Zoom for certain (or all) class meetings

  • other reasonable uses of technology, as the course, instruction, and/or assignment dictates

• All essays are submitted only in Adobe PDF format.  Any other file format (such as .doc or .docx, .pages, etc.) will not be considered.

• You are responsible for all announcements, which are posted on the “Announcements” message board as well as emailed.

• Mobile and even tablet versions of the LMR website lack the functionality and the screen real estate necessary to perform the vast majority of required tasks.  Therefore, students should use the desktop version.

• The LMR website is tested using Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Firefox also does well, but Apple's Safari is not recommended.

• Be sure that your web browser is updated. LMR requires cookies.

Online Meetings (Class & Office Hours)

Be sure to download and test the Zoom software well before your first scheduled meeting.

All students will use the Zoom meeting application for all meetings, course and Office Hours, regardless of a university's official meeting application.  Furthermore, even if your course meets in-person, there may be certain classes that meet online; and, in this case, you'll be notified and provided with the Zoom Invitation (via a class announcement and/or a calendar post).

• The Zoom lecture meeting links are located on your university's Blackboard or Canvas course homepage.

For Office Hours meetings, you will receive the Zoom meeting link in the confirmation email.

• When signing in for a lecture or appointment, your Zoom name must reflect exactly that which appears on the official course roster.  Unrecognized users will not be admitted into the Zoom meeting rooms, and, for purposes of policy, you will be considered absent until you rectify the issue. Absolutely no policy exceptions will be made regarding missed coursework or classes because you were not admitted to the Zoom meetings due to your use of an unrecognized name.

• The use of cellphones and tablets are strongly discouraged because they lack much of the necessary functionality to successfully participate in your online meetings.

• You must use a webcam and microphone in order to participate in online meetings.

• You must be in a quiet place without loud, disruptive background noise. If you become a disruption, you will be removed from the meeting. For purposes of policy, removal from a meeting is equivalent to removal from the classroom due to disruption.

• Meetings are not the place to test your technology. Make sure that it operates properly before your meeting. Once you have your software installed, click here to join a test meeting.

• Once the class begins, the meeting room is "locked," which means that you will not be able to gain entry. This is especially important to consider for any in-class assignments as well as courses or particular meetings where attendance is taken.

• All meetings, including, but not limited to, intellectual property (shared and uploaded files, screencasted materials such as PowerPoint presentations), are owned and copyrighted under the copyright provision below, and may not be recorded, shared or accessed in any way without written consent.

Working Online

Uploading Your Essays

You will always have at least a three-day window during which you may submit your essay, the third (or last) day being its deadline.  To that end, I strongly recommend that you never wait until the “eleventh hour” to upload your essay so that before its due date you can handle any technological issues that may arise.  Remember:  only the PDF file format is allowed.  Submissions in any other file format will not be considered.

Completing Online Assignments

Online assignments, sometimes called "modules," are completed entirely online.  Multiple-choice and free-response questions are the most common.

Many online assignments are timed—you have x-number of minutes to complete it. Therefore, always make sure that you have a reliable Internet connection and that you won’t be disturbed while completing the online assignment.

Using Your Course’s Message Board

Your course has its own message board that is available only to students enrolled in your course.  The message board is especially helpful to those who missed a lecture, who don’t understand a particular topic or assignment, or for common discussions.  Additionally, you are able to upload files with your posts (which enables you to send out a draft of an essay, for example, for others to read and comment).

The Right Software*

Because technology issues of any kind are not valid excuses for missed assignments, handouts, etc., it is important that you ensure that your computer has the most up-to-date software.  Your computer must (and probably already does) have the following capabilities*:

• Adobe Reader (for viewing PDF files)

• Java and Ajax (for web applications)

• Google Chrome or Firefox

• Microsoft Word

• The ability to handle streaming media (i.e. YouTube videos, podcasts, etc.)

• If you experience a problem with the website, try using another browser or computer.

• As aforementioned, be sure that you submit your essays only in the .pdf format.  Essays submitted in any other format will not be graded. Most word-processing applications offer .pdf file conversion - as a "Save As", "Download As", "Export As", etc. However, you can use PDF2Go to convert your file to .pdf.

• Additionally, you must download whatever software applications are necessary in order to complete the course - such as the Zoom online meeting software and any publisher-produced electronic materials which may be assigned (see your course's syllabus).

*These are quite basic capabilities that virtually all recently built computers possess—even older computers shouldn’t have any problems.  However, as is sometimes the case with Internet technology, you may have to tweak your browser’s permissions.  This is also very easily done, and your browser will walk you through the steps.  If you have any issues, you should visit your university’s Help Desk.