Policies

Communication Policy

I enjoy hearing from you. No question or concern is too small, and there's no such thing as a "stupid question." I check my email/Canvas messages often, and responding to students is my number one priority . Sometimes, meeting in person or using video chat is a more effective and efficient way to get your questions answered, so I would love to see you during my office hours!

Attendance Policy

Attending an online course is achieved by participating in the course, contributing to discussions, asking questions, proposing answers, submitting assignments, and collaborating with your peers. You'll have many opportunities to participate in the coming weeks, but remember that simply logging onto Canvas does not count as participation. You must complete assignments located in the modules each week to show your attendance. Assignments submitted must be on topic and related to the course content.

In a face-to-face English 100 summer session class, you would meet as a class for 12 hours per week, and then you would be expected to do 12-24 hours of homework each week. You should expect to spend about that much time online each week in order to be successful in the course.

For our class, each week is made up of three 3 modules. You may miss (not completing any work in that module) up to two modules and remain in the class. Missing three or more modules—consecutively or not consecutively—will result in you being dropped from the course.

The Orientation module must be completed by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, July 7th. If you do not complete the Orientation, I will need to drop you, the same way you would be dropped if you did not attend the first day of class. This allows me to make room for students on the waitlist, and you will receive a refund for the course.

Collaborating with Your Peers

Each week, you will complete one assignment that asks you to collaborate with your peers in a discussion forum. The forum will change based on the assignment; some weeks, this will be a written discussion, and other weeks we will use a video discussion on FlipGrid or an audio discussion on VoiceThread. We will also use GoogleDocs to collaborate on a document together. The purpose of these assignments is for you to engage with your peers and to learn from one another. Each of these assignments will require you to respond to your classmates in a meaningful way, and, therefore, you will be graded on both your completion of the assignment and your responses. Detailed instructions for each collaboration will be found in the Modules.

Add/Drop Dates

Here are important dates to note from Admissions and Records regarding withdrawing from the class:

Last date to drop with a refund: 7/8

Last date to drop without a “W”: 7/10

Last date to drop with a “W”: 8/5

If you are thinking about dropping the class, please talk to me first and let's discuss your options!

Campus Code of Conduct

The Student Code of Conduct explains your responsibilities as a student. Essentially, it boils down to this: we all need to feel safe and respected in order to learn, so please be respectful to your classmates and to me. This includes avoiding racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise disrespectful language when interacting with your classmates. If you ever feel that someone is not following these rules, please send a message to me using the Canvas Inbox and describe your concerns.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism occurs when a student takes credit for words, ideas, or trains of thought that belong to someone else. Sometimes, this happens unintentionally because you do not know how to cite your sources properly. If you are having trouble quoting from your research, please let me know and I will help!

Occasionally, a student intentionally plagiarizes. This usually happens for one of two reasons: one, the student really doesn't understand the assignment and is too embarrassed to ask; or, two, the student has not managed his or her time and is desperate. In both of those cases, I can help! Please reach out to me so that I can help you do your best work, not copy someone else's.

Believe it or not, each person has a unique writing style that quickly becomes apparent in a writing course, so plagiarism is pretty easy for me to spot. Remember that you can submit your essays late, so it is better to get your questions answered and get a late penalty than to plagiarize and get a zero grade. If I find your paper to be intentionally plagiarized, then it will earn a zero grade and it will not be eligible for revision.