Class Guidelines

In this class, you will be visiting Early Childhood Programs and we will be discussing various observations of real people. In accordance with Principle 2.9 in the Code of Ethical Conduct (NAEYC, 2005), all efforts will be made to protect the privacy of children, parents, students, and staff.  Identify children by using their first name only.  In addition, students conducting classroom assignments in Early Childhood Programs will adhere to Principle 3B-1, and will follow program policies. Breach in ethical conduct and/or confidentiality will lead to disciplinary action up to and may include expulsion from the course.  

Writing Expectations

All written assignments, reflections, discussion postings, emails, etc., are expected to be professional and written at college level English.  Papers should be clearly organized, thoughts well developed and main concepts separated into paragraphs.  While this is not a writing class, it is a college level course:  correct spelling, grammar usage and complete sentences and paragraphs are expected. You are expected to use APA style to cite sources (in-text, and references) in all writing (anytime a quote or paraphrase is used). 

Librarian Citation Help is available! 

Plagiarism Defined

Plagiarism is "the action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft” (Oxford English Dictionary). The standard of academic conduct includes plagiarism as the passing off as one's own work any AI-generated text (from Chat GPT, Bard, or heavy use of Grammarly and QuilBot to launder one's work, for instance).

More on AI as Plagiarism

Prohibited use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) includes both generating writing and laundering/enhancing pre-existing writing (such as with heavy use of Grammarly). Students must refrain from using AI on all assignments for this course, including but not limited to journal entries, short or long answers on quizzes/exams, and discussion posts/responses.

Passing off AI-generated writing, including work heavily laundered by services such as Grammarly, is expressly forbidden. Note that a submission does not need to be 100-percent AI-generated to be considered plagiarized.

Course Plagiarism and AI Policy

Plagiarism constitutes a breach of academic conduct for which the college imposes severe penalties. If coursework in any form contains plagiarism of any kind, including AI usage, the following will occur:

• The piece in question will receive an automatic zero and cannot be made up.

• Previously-submitted work may be re-checked and retroactively scored as zero if any plagiarism is detected.

Depending on the severity of the case, further disciplinary action may be taken. Flagrant cases of plagiarism will be reported to the Dean of Enrollment and Retentoin, Student Services. See Cerro Coso's Academic Integrity page for more