Course Title:

College Algebra

Course Prefix & Number: 

MATH1314

Section Number: 

311

Semester/Year:

Summer 1 2018

Semester Credit Hours:

3

Lecture Hours:

48

Lab Hours:

0

Course Description (NCTC Catalog): 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.       

Course Prerequisite(s): Meet TSI college-readiness standard for College Algebra; or equivalent

Required or Recommended Course Materials:

Thinkwell College Algebra access (may be purchased directly 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.

Name of Instructor:

Rodney Cruz

Campus/Office Location:

Online/Corinth

Office Hours:

By email

Telephone Number:

972-292-7277 (include your name and course number when leaving a message)

E-mail Address:

Canvas or rcruz@nctc.edu

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

1

Demonstrate and apply knowledge of properties of functions, including domain and range, operations, compositions, and inverses.

2

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

3

Apply graphing techniques.

4

Evaluate all roots of higher degree polynomial and rational functions.

5

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

# of Graded Course Elements

Graded Course Elements

Percentage or Point Values

3

Partial Exams (proctored)

60%

1

Final Exam (proctored)

20%

33

Quizzes (Online)

20%

See Canvas for quizzes due dates

Your grade will consist of 3 Partial 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 partial 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.

All quizzes are due at 11:59 p.m. on the assigned due date. Sample tests are posted on Canvas/Modules, they will not be counted for credit.

Exam, quiz scores will be posted on Canvas.

Your Final Letter Grade will be posted on My NCTC website.

Exams will graded and scores posted on Canvas generally within one week.

The grading policy may be amended during the semester at the instructor’s discretion.

·  Questions regarding dropping the course must be addressed with the student’s academic advisors not the professor.

·  Homework is very important and it is absolutely necessary for successful completion of the course.  Mathematics is not a spectator sport.

·  During tests all phones must be kept out of sight, in your car, purse, backpack, etc.

·  BE COURTEOUS TO YOUR FELLOW CLASSMATES.

·  The instructor reserves the right to amend the syllabus at any time during the semester.

·  Any announcements/information disseminated during class will take precedence over the

    syllabus.

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.

• Dual Credit (high school) students will take the tests proctored at their respective high schools. The student needs to ask the school proctor to contact the instructor for arrangements.
• Non-dual credit (non-high school) students will make arrangements in their campus’ testing center.

The tests are scheduled according to the following:

Exam 1:           6/12

Exam 2:           6/19

Exam 3:           6/26

FINAL EXAM:     7/5

All these dates and times are tentative and subject to change.

Contact the professor ASAP if you have extenuating circumstances that will not allow taking the test at the specified date.

Contact information for the NCTC Counseling & Testing Centers may be found at http://www.nctc.edu/faculty/counseling-testing-staff.html

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

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.

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.

I will check emails periodically Monday thru Friday and will try to respond within 24 hours.  However, I will likely check my email at least once per day when I am not on campus.  Email may not be checked over the weekend, holidays, or after 4 pm on any weekday. 

Although Canvas is available to students 24/7, it is unrealistic to expect that the instructors will be.  Keep in mind if there are any emails that are urgent over the weekend TRY not to panic.  The solution probably can be resolved quickly upon the beginning of the week. 

Reasons why I may not reply to your email:

-Question can be answered within the syllabus

-If emails resemble text messages to your buddies

-Include substantially poor grammar

-Not coherent

-Extra credit to boost grade

-Future point totals to make a certain grade; do your own math

-Asking for more time to do an assignment

-Asking for special consideration over other students for any reason

-Questions regarding an assignment with less than 12 hours before a due-date

Be mindful of the tone that is presented in emails.  If it is aggressive, unprofessional, or is academically offensive in anyway, the professor will not reply.  Know that the student’s name may be given to the Associate Dean of Denton County Campuses for further review. 

Be sure that you are doing all of your assignments on a reliable computer with sufficient battery life and appropriate Internet connectivity.   The instructor cannot help instances of computers “shutting down,” “crashing,” “running slow,” or “electrical outages due to a storm,” etc.  Be mindful of this before you begin any assignments.   Contact technical support if you encounter any technical issues. The instructors is not a qualified technical support person.