An open line of communication is critical to our collaborative efforts, and to your success in the class. Here is my promise to you:

• I will respond to Canvas Inbox messages as quickly as possible, usually within 24 hours. If you do not hear from me within 24 hours, please email me again. I NEVER IGNORE STUDENT EMAILS. Because I obsessively check emails, I do ask in return that when you do email me, please be respectful and professional.

  • • To message me through the Canvas Inbox, click on the Inbox icon in the blue left-hand global navigation menu (on a computer) or the Inbox icon in the Canvas app (for mobile devices).

    • To schedule an appointment with me, sign up through this link. All scheduled appointments are on Zoom at this link.

• Each week, I will send out 1-2 announcements to introduce you to the weekly content and activities and offer mid-week reminders.

• You will receive assignment feedback from me in Canvas in the form of the rubric, in-line textual annotations, and an audio/text summary comment. 

• Your discussions will be graded within 72 hours of the deadline, and larger projects will be graded within 10 days of the deadline.

• I will foster an atmosphere of respect, trust, and collaboration.

Since our class is online, I must drop you if you fail to log in or participate in the course after one week’s time. This is not to punish you. Instead, I check attendance regularly to ensure that those students who stop attending receive a “W” instead of an “F” on their transcript if this happens before the Withdrawal deadline 11/12.

 GCCCD Policy on dropping and withdrawing:

• It is the student’s responsibility to drop all classes in which he/she is no longer participating (for online classes).

• It is the student’s responsibility to drop all classes in which he/she is no longer attending (for on campus classes).

• It is the instructor’s discretion to withdraw a student after the add/drop deadline (include date) due to excessive absences.

• Students who remain enrolled in a class beyond the published withdrawal deadline, as stated in the class schedule, will receive an evaluative letter grade in this class (A, B, C, D, F).

• Students who miss more than 8 hours of instruction (or 4 classes in our case) may be dropped from the course

Academic integrity is "the commitment from students, faculty, and staff to demonstrate honest, moral behavior in their academic lives” (International Center for Academic Integrity, 2021). 

The assignments in this class are designed to help you build skills that are essential for your future academic pursuits, and/or success in the workplace. To that end, it is imperative that you engage with our class work with honesty, integrity, and an eagerness to learn. Please remember that learning can entail challenge, struggle, and sometimes even failure. I’m here to help you be as successful as possible.

I realize that sometimes different instructors have different expectations, and it can be unclear what is allowed from one class to the next. If you are ever unsure about whether something is okay, please feel free to ask me in advance, before you submit your assignment–you won’t get in trouble for asking! I strive to make this class equitable, engaging, valuable, and manageable. If there is ever an aspect of this course that you feel is making it hard for you or other students to be successful, please let me know.

In this class, plagiarism, cheating, unauthorized collaboration, using others’ ideas, words, or images without citation, purchasing course materials or assignments, selling course materials or assignments, and/or outsourcing class work to other people or to chatbots (or artificial intelligence-based tools, like ChatGPT) are not permitted. Those are all forms of academic misconduct. Any attempt to obtain a grade by means other than honest effort is a form of academic misconduct.

With the rise of AI assistants, students must take care that they use this technology in an ethical and honest manner. Therefore, whether you are aware of it or not, it is becoming a more normalized way of writing, thinking, creating, etc. For this class, if you use Chat GPT or some other AI generator to write parts or all of your essay or any other writings in this class, they will not be accepted and you will receive no credit for that assignment. You may have a chance to redo it, but I can't guarantee it. While AI may be useful for helping you with other things like brainstorming or writing a thesis statement, it is not acceptable for using it to write or generate your assignments.

If I ever have any questions about your work, I’ll reach out for a meeting and we’ll discuss what happened and how to move forward from there. Please keep in mind that I take academic misconduct seriously and report it to the Chair of the English Department and the Dean of Student Affairs. The college tracks incidents of misconduct to ensure that students aren’t engaging in multiple violations across different classes or semesters. Academic misconduct can be grounds for earning a zero on the assignment(s) in question, and may result in sanctions such as suspension. 

All forms of academic misconduct, like cheating and plagiarism, are harmful to you and your success, your instructors, your classmates, and the college as a whole. Let’s work together in this class to learn and grow with integrity.

Often referred to as "netiquette," here is a gentle reminder of the interaction practices and rules we'll follow in all our interactions in this course.

If you ever feel that someone is not following these rules, please send an email to me using the Canvas Inbox and describe your concerns.

View a text-only version of The Core Rules of Netiquette in a new window.