guidelines

• To stay enrolled in the course, you must complete the Syllabus Quiz and Netiquette Agreement within 24 hours of the course start date.

• Students who do not complete the DAY 1 assignments are dropped to allow waitlisted students to join the course. If you join the course late, you will need to submit the DAY 1 assignments before moving on to any other coursework.

In a face-to-face class, you are expected to attend class regularly. In the online class, the time you choose to log in and work is completely up to you and your schedule. However, you must log in and participate each week to avoid being dropped. Review the attendance policies for BC Online courses and read below.

Bakersfield College absence policies for online courses:

• After Day 1, non-participation in the course for the equivalent of one week may result in a drop. I don't want to drop you, so check in with me if something is going on.

• Participation means both logging in AND completing some type of coursework. Logging in alone does not count as participation. This means you need to do something in the class: post to a discussion, submit an assignment, complete a quiz, etc., to be actively participating. 

• Please let me know if you must be absent due to an illness or other circumstances. In the unfortunate event that you cannot continue the class, with proper medical documentation, you could be eligible for a Medical Withdrawal from the course. 

Please communicate with me if you have a problem that prevents you from participating. We will work together to find a solution!

• This class embraces diversity and recognizes our responsibility to cultivate an open, welcoming environment where people of all backgrounds can collaboratively work and learn. Listening to different experiences helps us to understand and contextualize power and privilege related to gender, race, class, religion, ability, and sexuality in terms of access or barriers to opportunities.

• Bakersfield College promotes acceptance and respect for all people, including all the intersections of their identities and ideologies, including race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, documentation status, class, economic status, physical ability, mental ability, physical appearance, religion, religious beliefs, military status, social status, spiritual practice, and other ideologies/identifications. 

• In keeping with Bakersfield College’s commitment to creating a safe campus, the Lavender Initiatives exist to provide a space for members of the college community to explore issues relating to sexuality, gender identities, practices, and political issues. The Office of Student Life serves to connect you to the community, resources on and off campus, and opportunities for engagement and advocacy.  If you would like your affirmed name or pronouns to reflect on campus, please complete the Affirmed Name Request form. 

By remaining in this class, you are agreeing to this diversity statement. Any behavior that does not comply with this statement or willfully discriminates against others will not be tolerated.

In this course, we will be reading other people’s writing, watching other people's videos, and using the work of others to support our own ideas. In this digital world, it can be very tempting to copy and paste from the internet or misuse AI tools. But cheating and plagiarism are violations of the Student Code of Conduct. Please review the academic code of conduct in the BC Student Handbook.

• Plagiarism means that you have presented another’s ideas, thoughts, writing, images, videos, or other intellectual property as your own, submitted another student's assignment as your own, or copied and pasted work from any source without citation. To avoid this, always turn in your own original work and properly cite sources in all your writing.

• AI: AI Writing tools such as Grammarly, Bard, or ChatGPT are welcome in this class, provided that you cite when and how you use these tools. Keep in mind that AI programs are not a replacement for human creativity, originality, and critical thinking. Limited use of AI as a tool, and not as a replacement for your own work, is acceptable. Any use of AI outside of this constitutes a violation of the Student Code of Conduct. 

• In this course, we use APA format for our longer written work. Instruction on APA will be provided within the course