ATTENDANCE (COLLEGE) AND LATENESS (DEPARTMENT) POLICIES:

Attendance is taken and is important to success in this class. Both absences and arrival more than 15 minutes after the start of class will be marked. If excessive, the instructor will alert the student that he or she may be in danger of not meeting the course objectives and participation expectations, which could lead to a lower grade.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY STANDARDS

Students and all others who work with information, ideas, texts, images, music, inventions, and other intellectual property owe their audience and sources accuracy and honesty in using, crediting, and citing sources. As a community of intellectual and professional workers, the College recognizes its responsibility for providing instruction in information literacy and academic integrity, offering models of good practice, and responding vigilantly and appropriately to infractions of academic integrity. Accordingly, academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York and at New York City College of Technology and is punishable by penalties, including failing grades, suspension, and expulsion.

RESEARCH

A large emphasis will be placed on awareness of the design world by observing the state of design in our community: books, publications, web sources, museums and graphic art organizations. Students are expected to gather reference materials for all their projects and are encouraged to use the college’s library resources. http://library.citytech.cuny.edu

More important than simple library research user research techniques such as but not limited to user interviews, focus groups, A/B Testing and surveys will be utilized.

CLASS POLICIES

Unless otherwise noted, projects given as Homework Assignments are due at the beginning of class and must be handed in (if physical), placed on the server, Flash Drive or sent in email to be reviewed; otherwise it is considered late.
ANY MISSED ASSIGNMENTS WILL EARN ZERO POINTS. Assignments received after the deadline will drop a grade at the end of the class. After that time period, any late assignment will earn a zero. A final folder of all projects will be handed in via DropBox, Google Drive, Creative Cloud or other file storage/sharing service along with the final project at the end of the semester.

CLASS PARTICIPATION

You are expected to give thoughtful, constructive feedback in class. At the heart of it, this is a design class. Learning how to constructively talk about, analyze and create different types of media are at the heart of what you do in this class.  You are to be prepared for each session, meaning you will have read all required selections, performed all appointed tasks, and completed all homework. You are to do your homework with professionalism and to seek help as soon as possible.

INSTRUCTOR’S RECOMMENDATIONS

Come to class on time: Students arriving more than 15 minutes late may be marked absent.

Attend all classes: Each week we will build on the work learned the week before. If you must miss a class, please let me know ahead of time. It is your responsibility to obtain any missed material from your fellow classmates, and to turn assignments in on time even if you are absent. Students missing more than two classes risk failing the course.

Turn in assignments on time: Homework turned in late will lose 10 points for every day that it is late. Work turned in more than two weeks from the due date will not be accepted. Project 1 and Project 2 may not be turned in late. Missing projects may result in a failing grade for the project.

Ask Questions: This is a technical class, and we will be covering a lot of information in a short time. If you are confused, lost, need clarification, etc, please don’t hesitate to ask questions in class. Chances are your fellow students will benefit from the answers AND this will add to your class participation grade! I am also available between classes via email.

SAVE, SAVE, AND SAVE AGAIN: There will be no sympathy for work lost for not saving properly.

BACK UP YOUR WORK: Murphy’s Law Applies In All Things–You will lose your flash drive or it will become corrupted. Save your work in at least two places. Cloud-based services like dropbox can work as well if not better than a computer at home.

INSTRUCTOR’S PREROGATIVE

I reserve the right to change the syllabus or grading formula as I see fit, given the composition and progress of the class. I will notify the class as to these changes in writing in a timely fashion.