Course Name & Number

MATH1314.310

College Algebra

Semester & Year

Fall 2016 (161S)

Instructor's Name

Office Phone #

E-mail Address

Rodney Cruz

972-292-7277

rcruz@nctc.edu

Office Hours

By email or call.

Catalog Description

Prerequisite:  Meet TSI college-readiness standard for College Algebra; or equivalent 48 lecture hours………………………………………………3 credit hours

In-depth study and applications of polynomial, rational, radical, exponential and logarithmic functions, and systems of equations using matrices. Additional topics such as sequences, series, probability, and conics may be included.

Required Materials

Thinkwell College Algebra access (purchased direct from the Thinkwell company via the Thinkwell content link in Canvas or through the NCTC bookstore)

Scientific calculator.  TI-30X IIS is recommended.

Graphing calculators and phone calculators will not be allowed on exams.

Learning Outcomes

At the successful completion of this course the student will be able to:

·         Demonstrate and apply knowledge of properties of functions, which include domain and range, operations, compositions, and inverses

·         Recognize and apply polynomial, rational, radical, exponential, and logarithmic functions and solve related equations.

·         Apply graphing techniques.

·         Evaluate all roots of higher degree polynomial and rational functions.

·         Recognize, solve and apply systems of linear equations using matrices

Scholastic Integrity

Scholastic dishonesty shall include, but not be limited to cheating on a test, plagiarism, and collusion.  See Student Handbook “Student Rights & Responsibilities:  Student Conduct [FLB (LOCAL)]” #20 on page 175.

· Cheating will result in a score of zero on the test, which will not be dropped

   and may result in an automatic failure in the course.

· In addition, a formal report will be filed with the college.

Attendance Policy

It is expected that you login to the course Canvas site at least three times per week (every day is highly recommended).  Students are responsible for keeping up with the course and due dates.  Dropping a course is the student's responsibility.  See Attendance Regulations in the North Central Texas College Catalog.

Grading Policy & Procedures

Your grade will consist of 3 intra-semester exams, a comprehensive final exam, and graded quizzes.  Each exam, the final exam, and your quiz average will be weighted as 20% of your grade.

Category         Weight                                       Grading Scale

Exams (3)          60%                                            90 - 100% A

Final Exam        20%                                            80 – 89%   B

Quizzes              20%                                            70 – 79%   C

                                                                               60 – 69%  D

                                                                                0 –  59%  F

There will be no make-up exams or quizzes.   If your final exam score is higher than the lowest of the 3 intra-semester exams, then the final exam score will replace the lowest of the 3 exam grades.  In this case, the final exam score will be weighted 40% of your overall grade.

Learning Procedures

After you’ve read through this entire syllabus and the other documents in the General Course Information module, click on the Thinkwell content link on the left hand navigation bar of our Canvas course site.  Thinkwell is the publisher of the online text we will be using.  The first time you do this, you’ll be asked to purchase access with a credit or debit card (cheapest option), enter an access code you’ve already purchased at the NCTC bookstore, or get temporary access for 14 days.

Once you’ve passed the purchasing part, expand the first chapter, Orientation and Getting Started Materials, by clicking on the triangle to the left of the chapter title.  Once you have looked through all of the Orientation and Getting Started Materials, you are ready to start learning the course material.

Each chapter will expand to sections, each section expands to subsections, and each subsection expands to reveal the learning materials for that subsection (Book pages, Video Lesson, Video sample solutions, & Interactive Practice).  See the example below.

I highly recommend you watch each video lesson and do the interactive practice.  Each video lesson is done by Professor Ed Burger, the author of the text, and averages about 7 minutes in length.  The Interactive Practice consists of 1 – 4 problems that can be done unlimited times.  These are not part of your grade, but will give you feedback as to whether or not you understand the material.  The Book pages are just what they say – online text pages.  You may find that you like reading through these in addition to watching the videos.  The Video sample solutions are a handful of additional examples you can view for each subsection.

At the end of each section, you will find a Practice Quiz (Not for Grade) and Practice Book Exercises.  Both of these are always available and may be done unlimited times.  The Practice Quiz problems will change some on each attempt.  The Practice Book Exercises are static –  they never change.  I recommend you attempt the Practice Quiz at the end of each section and read the solutions for feedback before you try the corresponding Graded Quiz for that section.  See Graded Quiz Information & Procedures, further down in this document, for more details.

Exam Information & Procedures

The exams are not online.  They are pencil & paper and must be proctored.

You must bring to each exam:  pencils, a scientific calculator (non-graphing), and a photo ID.

No notes of any kind will be allowed during exams.

The exams are given on Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., on the NCTC Corinth campus (room TBD) according to the following schedule:

Exam 1:         Saturday, September 24

Exam 2:         Saturday, October 22

Exam 3:         Saturday, November 19

Final Exam:   Saturday, December 3

These dates are tentative and subject to change.

Students who are unable to attend the above primary exam dates & times on the Corinth campus may, with the instructor’s approval, test at another NCTC campus testing center, or at another institution’s official testing center.  These alternate testing arrangements must be communicated to the instructor at least 2 weeks prior to the primary testing date and may be approved at the instructor’s discretion.  If approved for an alternate testing location, the student must schedule the exam on any day Tuesday – Friday the week before the primary Saturday date for that exam.

Contact information for the NCTC Counseling & Testing Centers may be found at:

http://www.nctc.edu/StudentServices/CounselingTesting/Makeupexams.aspx

Exams will generally be graded in about a week.  Once graded, the grades will be posted in our Canvas course site. 

Graded Quiz Information & Procedures

There will be a graded online quiz for each section we cover.  For example, your first quiz will be over section 2.1 Solving Linear Equations.  All quizzes will be available from the first day of the semester, but must be done by the posted due date at 11:59 p.m.  Students may work ahead as far as they like.  Manage your time & schedule so that you can complete the quizzes ahead of time when necessary.  There will be no make-up quizzes.

There is no limit on the number of times you can take each quiz prior to its due date.  Each quiz will consist of approximately 10 – 15 questions.  The entire quiz must be submitted all at once; however, each time you attempt a quiz, you’ll only have to rework the problems you missed on the previous attempt.  You should definitely try to take each quiz until you get every problem correct.  Since notes are not allowed when taking exams, you should work the quiz problems until you can do them without notes.

The links to the graded quizzes, along with the corresponding due dates, are all found under the Assignments link on the left hand navigation bar in our course Canvas site.

Other Pertinent Information

Note that Closed Captioning and detailed transcripts are available for the Video Lessons:

The accessibility statement for Canvas is available at http://www.canvaslms.com/accessibility .

Thinkwell runs on the same Canvas platform, so this statement also applies to Thinkwell.

If you have any additional needs in order to access the course content, please contact me.

Disability Services (OSD)

The Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) provides accommodations for students who have a documented disability.  A disability is anything that can interfere with learning, such as a learning disability, psychological challenge, physical illness or injury. Accommodations may include extra time on tests, tests in a distraction reduced environment, volunteer note taker in class, etc.

On the Corinth Campus, go to room 170 or call 940-498-6207. On the Gainesville Campus, go to room 110 in the Administration (100) Building or call 940-668-4209.  Students on the Bowie, Graham, Flower Mound, and online campuses should call 940-668-4209 to arrange for an intake appointment with OSD.

North Central Texas College is on record as being committed to both the spirit and letter of federal equal opportunity legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, ADA Amendments Act of 2009, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (P.L. 93-112).

http://www.nctc.edu/StudentServices/SupportServices/Disabilityservices.aspx

Support Services

Counseling and Testing staff offer a variety of services to current and prospective students, such as College 101, placement testing, academic advising and course registration, transfer assistance, and College Success seminars (Time Management, Study Skills, Test Anxiety, Choosing a Major, Learning Style Strategies, Career Exploration), and much more.  http://www.nctc.edu/StudentServices/CounselingTesting.aspx

Student Success offers academic coaching, tutoring, including a Writing Center, a Math Lab, free 24/7 online tutoring through Grade Results and assist new students acclimate to college by providing computer lab services for prospective students.   First generation students can also participate in TRIO which offers specialized support services.

http://www.nctc.edu/StudentServices/SupportServices.aspx

Financial Aid offers financial resources for students that qualify, visit the financial aid offices for more information.  http://www.nctc.edu/FInancialAidHome.aspx

EEOC Statement

 North Central Texas College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin,

 gender, religion, age, or disability in the employment or the provision of services.