If you get sick or become aware that life circumstances will prevent you from fully participating in the class, please contact me immediately through the Canvas email messaging system. Building rapport and establishing relationships are key to academic success and becoming an effective professional. If you tell me that life circumstances are affecting your work, then we can work together to determine appropriate accommodations or the best course of action to promote success going forward. I often respond to email within hours and rarely will a question go for more than a business day without a response. If you don't get a response within a business day, please send a gentle reminder.

Late Policies for When Life Happens

We at MPC recognize that life doesn't always work out as planned, especially over the last few years. One huge key to academic success is to communicate with instructors. If you anticipate obstacles to the on-time completion of assignments, please communicate with me before the due date, or as soon as possible after a 911-type of emergency. When communication occurs before due dates, appropriate accommodations can be easily worked out. Almost always, a new deadline is established depending on individual circumstances and situations. Please communicate through the Canvas Inbox and let me know what a reasonable deadline is for your situation. 

What Happens when Quizzes, Tests, Lab Assignments and Project Assignments are Late?
The automated rule in Canvas is that 10% of the points will be deducted for each day a quiz, lab assignment, project assignment or test is late. For example, if a 10-point quiz is turned in a day late with all correct answers, the score will be 9 points. If it's a week late and all the answers are correct, the score will be about 3 points.

Bottom line: it is worthwhile to submit assignments and quizzes a few days late. If you communicate with the instructor before the due date, deadline extensions are often granted, without late point deductions. Please communicate to establish a reasonable deadline for your situation.

The Lowest Lab Assignment Score is Automatically Dropped
We all know that sometimes life circumstances prevent attending class. Although the best thing is to attend each and every lab, we know that sometimes unexpected events and/or emergencies prevent attendance. For these reasons, the lowest lab assignment score is automatically dropped. So if you don't turn in one of the lab assignments and receive a zero, don't worry, the lowest score will be dropped. But remember, this will only happen once. If you turn in all of your labs, the lowest score will be dropped. Please note this policy is only for lab assignments; it does not apply to quizzes, tests, or project assignments. 

Test Make-ups
Make-ups for tests are generally granted when notified in advance of the test date.

Due-date Extensions
Deadline extensions on quizzes and lab/project assignments are generally granted when notified in advance of the due date. 

Communicate Any Accommodations Needed

If you have a disability and are eligible for accommodations, please contact the instructor during the first week of the semester so that your accommodations may be provided in a timely manner. MPC's Access Resource Center (ARC) provides assistance in determining and facilitating appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities. 

What is the Most Important Point of All This? Communicate!

Communicate with your instructor! It is the most important thing you can do to avoid late penalties and misunderstandings if something is happening in your life that prevents you from participating and meeting deadlines. If you are present in lab, communication is easy. If you're not able to be present, or if something is preventing you from doing your best, please communicate to let your instructor know so that appropriate accommodations can be arranged.

Please communicate through messages in the Canvas Inbox. During normal business hours, you will get a response within hours, often even within minutes. Expect longer response times late at night and on weekends. Set your Canvas notifications so that you are alerted immediately of a new message. 

Participation

Students are expected to participate in all course activities, online and in person. Two consecutive weeks of not turning in quizzes or labs, and not communicating about the issues, is a reason to be dropped from the class. It is the right, but not the responsibility, of the instructor to drop students under these circumstances. If you decide to drop the class, please take action to drop the class yourself; do not assume the instructor will do it for you. And, it would be nice if you told your instructor of your decision.

Academic Honesty Policies

I believe students come to college to learn and do their own work.

And, I know from experience that we need to establish these types of policies.

This classroom operates on a system of mutual respect. You receive respect from me by my offering what I hope is an organized, stimulating, and challenging course; one that I hope will heighten your appreciation of how the ocean system works. 

Please show me and your fellow students respect in the following ways:

• Don’t cheat or plagiarize on exams, labs, or project assignments. 

• Plagiarism is the uncredited use of another person’s writing, images, or ideas. It’s like stealing an idea. Plagiarism is copying material from books or websites, inserting it into your work and calling it your own. You wouldn’t want somebody else taking one of your good ideas and using it as their own, would you?

• The uncredited or unreferenced use of Artificial Intelligence sites like ChatGPT is considered plagiarism.

This policy is especially important for the weekly labs and the project. For all of these examples, students may not copy directly or copy and paste from any source; short answers must be written in the student’s own words. Copying or copy-and-pasting from the internet or other sources is considered plagiarism and academically dishonest. Using text from AI sites like ChatGPT in an uncredited or unreferenced manner is blatant plagiarism. Students who plagiarize or provide answers in an academically dishonest manner will be dealt with according to MPC's policies on plagiarism and cheating. Answers to lab questions must be written in each individual student's own words. We encourage working together, but each student must provide answers in their own words. Students turning in lab assignments with identically worded lab answers will be asked to redo them.

Please see the Academic Honesty and Integrity section of MPC's Catalog, from which the following is quoted. 

Academic honesty is a cornerstone of the educational community; therefore, students are expected to understand the standards of academic honesty as they pertain to students’ behavior in the classroom.

Plagiarism

It is important for students to acknowledge sources that are used for completing classroom assignments. Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty.

Plagiarism may be any one of the following:

• 1. Verbatim copying without proper documentation of the source(s).

  2. Paraphrasing without proper documentation of the source(s).

  3. Unacknowledged appropriation of information or ideas from someone else.

If students have any questions about these forms of plagiarism or about an assignment they are preparing, they should ask their instructor for clarification rather than risk unintentional plagiarism.

Cheating

Students are expected to act in an honest and trustworthy manner. Work performed on examinations or other forms of evaluation must represent an individual’s own work, knowledge and experience of the subject matter. Students are expected to follow the classroom rules established by the instructor.

Cheating may be any one of the following:

• 1. Unauthorized looking at or procuring information from any unauthorized sources or from another student’s work during an examination or from any work that will be graded or given points.

  2. Unauthorized acquiring, reading or learning of test questions prior to the testing date and time.

  3. Changing any portion of a returned graded test or report and resubmitting it as an original work to be regraded.

  4. Presenting the work of another as one’s own for a grade or points.

  5. Knowingly assisting another student in cheating.

This list is not all-inclusive and the list itself is not meant to limit the definition of cheating to just these items mentioned.

Consequences

The disciplinary action for cheating or plagiarism is up to the discretion of the instructor. The instructor may select one or more of the following options:

• 1. Issue an oral or written notification and warn the student that further acts of this sort will result in additional disciplinary action.

  2. Issue an “NP” or a failing grade (“F”) or “0” for the assignment in question.

  3. Refer the student to the Vice President for Student Services for disciplinary action.

Please also see the Student’s Rights and Responsibilities section of the MPC Catalog. 

MPC Deadlines and Important Dates

It is the student’s responsibility to understand when they need to consider dropping a course. Refer to MPC's Important Dates and Deadlines  for a complete list of dates and deadlines for dropping a course, refund information, understanding how your GPA is affected, receiving an "Incomplete" grade and more.