·  Monday, September 03, 2018 Labor Day Holiday - College Closed

·  Thursday, November 08, 2018  Last day to drop a class with a grade of W

·  November 21-24, 2018, Thanksgiving Holiday, - College Closed

·  December May 08 - 13, 2018   FINAL EXAMS

At no point within the semester should students contact me with respect to them dropping.  It is a highly personal decision that can only be made by each student and their academic advisors.

·  Questions on the homework will be discussed at the beginning of each class.  Homework is very important and it is absolutely necessary for successful completion of the course.  Mathematics is not a spectator sport.

·  All cell phones, i-phones, etc. must be kept out of sight, in your car, purse, backpack, etc.  You may be asked to leave for the day if your phone goes off, even on test days, for your first violation.  You may be dropped from the course on your second violation.  You may be dropped from the course if you are at any time caught text-messaging and/or checking emails.  In addition, students are not allowed to study for other classes, read newspapers, and /or sleep in class.

·  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.

All homework and quizzes are due at 11:59 p.m. on the assigned due date for full credit.

Homework may be printed to allow you to work on it away from the computer, but must be submitted on Canvas.  The tests and final exam will be administered in the classroom.  Sample tests are posted on Canvas/Modules, they will not be counted for credit, and may include concepts that we did not cover in class.

I know each student within the semester will have their own specific challenges that they face privately but each one of you need to execute each task as best as you can and soldier on.  This is life. Please do not ask for “grace” or extensions because this is unfair to those who kept their challenges to themselves and did not ask for this.  In short, complete tasks early.

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 will 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 will 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. 

In an effort to keep everyone within this class on an equal playing field regarding IT issues, everyone will be held to the same process and standards. 

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.   The burden rests solely on the student if there is a problem mid-assignment and it truly rests with someone other than the student, you will have to:

1.Create an e-ticket at  http://www.nctc.edu/eLearning_Department/Support.aspx

Select “submit a request.” 

Describe the problem to the e-Learning Department and produce the evidence to support your technological issue.  Include screenshots via computer or phone of the error message or issue.  In addition, include dates and times within the screenshots or photos.

2. Forward the emailed response to the instructor from the e-Learning Department if there is evidence to support your claim.  That includes the response that the Canvas help desk delivered with the overwhelming amount of data regarding your issue to indicate that the technical difficulty was through no fault of the students’.  Do not email the instructor if the e-Learning Department cannot verify your technical difficulty.  Please include your “request number” in parenthesis which can be found in the email from e-Learning.

3. Then the instructor will gather all evidence from the student, e-Learning, and from the student activity from within Canvas to make an appropriate decision in moving forward with the request to re-open assignments.  If students do not provide a good defense, the instructor will not likely re-open any assignments. 

4. Finally, THE INSTRUCTOR WILL LOOK AT THE ENTIRE RECORD OF THE STUDENTS’ ACTIVITY ON CANVAS.  If the student makes a false claim regarding technical difficulties, they should expect to be dropped from the course at the point of the offense.  This is child’s play to look at students’ Canvas activity so avoid being inventive of any fictitious IT stories.

On a personal note:   This syllabus is our contract; it cannot and will not be amended by students for personal issues.  This is not limited to birthdays, deaths, hospital / incarceration stays, or minor holidays.  Everyone is held to the same standard in this class.

Decreased stress for this class can be traced back to utilizing a calendar system (for all assignment due dates), working on a reliable computer, and not waiting until the last minute to get started on assignments (cheating, plagiarism, creating fictitious I.T. stories, and sloppy work can get the very best under these conditions). 

Overall, I would respect a student more if they honestly could not complete an assignment rather than to invent creative stories, blame others, or recycle assignments or copy other work.  In short, these issues just waste my time and could get the student in more academic trouble and potentially expelled from college.