Syllabus

Make-Up
Exams: Make-ups for the online quizzes and Midterms MAY be given ONLY ONCE, provided the student has a valid excuse (medical or death with written proof) for having missed the givendeadline. Notably, there won’t be any make-ups for the Final exam.  NO EXCEPTIONS!

Bonus/Penalty Points:

Finally, note that in-class participation will be accounted for each student’s evaluation at the end of the semester. Bonus
points will be given to students that show high and meaningful
participation in class and that comply with the attendance policies (see next section). Also, the professor may assign bonus points in other circumstances that will be described in class (discussion board, presentations, writing assignments). On the other hand, penalty
points will be assigned to students with disruptive behavior, who don’t comply with the attendance rules and who don’t behave properly in class (examples of improper behavior include listening to music, text-messaging and in general playing with cell phones, talking, napping). Note that bonus/penalty points are the equivalent to one point of the total score.

ATTENDANCE POLICIES:

Absences:
According to college and departmental policies, students are entitled to a maximum number of absences equal to 10% of the number of lectures in a given course. This means that students will be entitled to a maximum of 2 absences. If a student misses more than 2 classes, he/she will receive a WU (for Unofficial Withdrawal) grade at the end of the semester, corresponding to a failing grade.
Note that no exceptions will be made.

Lateness:
Students coming in late are very disruptive.  Your instructor will
give you a “late grace period” of 5 minutes from the moment that class starts. After that, a student will be marked as “late”. This course starts at 8am, if you are not an early person, drop this course and schedule a section that is convenient for you and habits. Moreover, three late marks will be counted as one absent mark. Finally, a student that is more than 20’ late will be marked as absent for that lecture and students won’t be allowed in the classroom.  Absences without excuses will be penalized. 

AttendanceSheet: The Professor will pass around an attendance sheet at the beginning of class. Students will need to sign next to their names and pass the sheet along. After the 5′ grace period, the sheet will be collected by the Professor, and students who come late to
class will need to sign the sheet at the end of the lecture. Failure to sign the sheet will cause students to be marked absent.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY

Academic dishonesty occurs when individuals plagiarize or cheat in the course of their academic work.  It is the responsibility of your instructor to monitor any violation to the College academic integrity policy and any misconduct will be directly reported to the Academic Integrity Committee. 

Plagiarism
is the presenting of someone else’s ideas without proper credit or attribution.

These ideas could come from:

1.   Information obtained from books, journals or other printed sources.

2.   The work of other students or of faculty.

3.   Information from the Internet.

4.   Software programs or other electronic material.

5.   Designs produced by other students or faculty.

Cheating is the unauthorized use or attempted use of material, information, notes, study aids, devices or communication during an academic exercise. Examples of cheating include:

1.  Copying
from another student during an examination or allowing another to copy your work.

2.   Unauthorized collaboration on a take-home assignment or examination.

3.   Using notes during a closed-book examination.

4.   Taking an examination for another student, or asking or allowing another student to take an examination for you.

5.   Changing a graded exam and returning it for more credit.

6.   Submitting substantial portions of the same paper to more than one course without consulting each instructor.

7.   Preparing answers or writing notes in an exam manual before an examination.

8.   Allowing others to research and write assigned papers or do assigned projects, including the use of commercial term paper services.

9.   Giving assistance to acts of academic misconduct/dishonesty.

10.  Fabricating data (in whole or in part).

11.  Falsifying data (in whole or in part).

12.  Unauthorized use during an examination of electronic or wireless, handheld devices, including computers or other technologies to retrieve or send information during an exam.

BLACKBOARD and OPENLAB:

Blackboard will be used on a regular basis by the lecture professor to post course materials, comments and various announcements. Each student is required to log in at least twice a week and your professor will monitor this information often.  Participation is essential and your instructor will track your participation constantly.  It is important to have an OpenLab account and join the course group.  

(If you are not familiar with Blackboard and/or OpenLab or if
you have technical problems with the log-in process, notify your instructor IMMEDIATELY).  Also, students are required to have an e-mail address registered on the Blackboard website. An updated email is necessary for students to be reachable by the Professor at all times for various announcements.

 DETAILED CLASS SCHEDULE: