2 Attendance and Grading Policy

2 Attendance and Grading Policy

2.1 Course Grade

2.2 Grading Scale

Your final grade in the class will be based on this table:

The grading scale changes in the event of any plagiarism, cheating, or other violations of the student code of conduct.

2.3 Student Centered Learning

This class will use "student centered learning". There will be less lectures and more class discussion than is many classes you may have taken in the past. I will expect that when you arrive at class that you are prepared. Prepare for class by reading the associated material prior to the class. Also use the Internet to look at related material. Each section of the class will start with a short quiz. Discussion of the material will take place after the quiz.

2.4 Attendance

Your attendance in class will help you learn the material covered. You are expected to attend all classes and participate in class discussions. Some times I will take attendance. Non-attendance and late arrival may result in missed quizzes. If lack of attendance and participate in class discussions becomes a problem, attendance and participation may be incorporated into the quiz portion of the class grade.

2.5 Quizzes

The purpose of the quizzes is to encourage you to read and understand the material in the textbook prior to coming to class. The quizzes will be open notes. Taking notes helps most people learn the material they read or listen to in lecture. Plan on reading one chapter from the textbook prior to each 15 question quiz. The quizzes are closed book with hand written notes, so please take notes when you read the chapter. Bring your student number and a pencil.

• One quiz per chapter and a comprehensive quiz.
• All quizzes carry an equal weight.
• The quizzes are short 15 question mark-sense quizzes. Bring a pencil and an eraser to class. Normally the quiz will be given at the start of the class, but not always.
• Closed book.
• Open hand written notes.
• Please bring your Student Services Number. If it starts with the letter "A" code that column as a zero (0).
• The three lowest quiz scores will be discarded.
• There may be a time limit on the quizzes.

There will be no make up quizzes except for circumstances deemed exceptional by the instructor. If you arrive more than five (5) minutes past the start of the quiz, you will not be allowed to take the quiz. If you arrive late, you must finish your quiz prior to the last student that arrived on time. If you are going to miss a quiz because of a religious observation you will need to notify me at least one week in advance so that accommodations can be made for you to take the quiz early. Cheating is never acceptable. If you are caught cheating you will receive a score of -15 points for that quiz. This score will not be discarded. See the Student Code of Conduct for other possible outcomes.

2.6 Reports

The computer field changes so fast that regardless of what you learn in this class much of it will be out of date shortly. The only way to stay current with regard to computers is to read and research constantly. To communicate what you have learned, you need to write. Reading, writing, and research are important in the "white-collar" workplace as well. This importance is reflected in this class by the class requirement of a written report(s). The reports I am asking for are short, between 2 and 4 pages. They need to be done at a college writing level. (I am not a writing instructor.) If you need assistance to achieve a well written reports, ask for the assistance of someone who writes well. Most Pima Community College campuses have learning centers that are available to the students. A list of things to keep in mind:

• Spelling. This is easy with spelling checkers, but read the report to make sure you have the right words.
• Punctuation & grammar.
• Structure of the overall paper. How does it flow from one topic to another.
• Introduction. Where is the paper going. A good introduction helps the reader.
• Completeness. Did you cover all of the material you planned to cover.
• Conclusion. What was covered in the report. A few closing remarks.  
• Citations. Make sure that all work used is properly cited. Quotations should be in quotes or indented with a specific link to your source. Graphics and pictures also need citations unless they are your own creation. For the topic reports you will need a bibliographic page.

Almost all students can improve their writing skills and technique. Writing is a life long struggle for some. Better writing skills can make a big difference in someones life. It is worth the effort. Realize that practice helps, time on task helps, and assistance helps. This applies to a lot of areas, not just writing. For this class I have some specific requirements. They are:  

• report quality
• The reports must be original writing done for this class.
• The reports must be done with a word processor.
• They need to be done at a college writing level. You will loose some credit for poorly written reports that have NOT receive assistance from the Learning Center. If they are not well written you will be required to take them to one of Pima Community College's Learning Centers and work with them on your report. This might result in you receiving a grade of I (Incomplete) for the class.  
• All reference used must be cited completely: author, title, date, publication, volume, issue number, page number(s), ...The purpose of a citation is for a reader to be able to access the referenced work. If there is any doubt about someone being able to find the specific passage, sentence, or phrase cited please fix the citation. There are specific styles for citations, you are welcome to use any standard citation style. If a quote from someone else's work is used, it must be placed in quotation marks and given a complete citation. You may NOT paraphrase someone else's work and call it your own. Plagiarism is not acceptable. If you plagiarize or copy the work of others you will receive full negative credit for the report in addition to any other penalties. The West Campus now has a "Traffic School" for plagiarists. If an assignment is plagiarized, you can contact Meg Files and re-do the report on a new topic to clear one assignment of this penalty.
• report, length
• Aim for a length between 1800 to 3600 words. About 2 to 4 single spaced 12 point type pages with one inch margins.  
• The reports need to be turned in both in hard copy and to Turnitin. For the hard copy please attach your your last draft copy and your original outline. Please keep a copy of what you turn in to me, either in electronic form or a paper copy. I do NOT like binders or folders. Staples are preferred. Thanks. The "codes" for Turnitin are "1787842" and "Weekend". Turnitin checks for plagiarism, does a word count, and time-stamps your papers. The time-stamp at Turnitin will be used as the time you turned in your paper - NOT when I receive the hard copy.
• Extra credit is available if your report is at early and done properly. (This is the carrot.)
• There is a penalty for late reports. It will be a maximum of 1% of your class grade per class day that it is late. The penalty is usually less, but don't count on it being less. (This is the stick. You don't know how big the stick is.)
• Backup your work. I have't had a student yet that has wanted to re-type their paper.

You are encouraged to have the Learning Center help you in writing your reports. You can visit the multiple times. They are located West Campus Santa Catalina building (C), second floor, north end in room C217 (Hours: Monday through Thursday 8:00 AM -- 8:00 PM, most Friday 8:00 AM -- 2:00 PM, and no Saturday or Sunday hours. Phone: 206-6819)on the West Campus.

2.7 Plagiarism

The Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary[34] defines plagiarize as follows:

When writing your reports it is certainly necessary to reference the work of others. It is also important to give credit. As you can see above, I used the dictionary, but there is no doubt about where I got the information. Most issues of plagiarism can be resolved simply by giving credit where credit is due. In general, if you use your mouse to copy text, make sure you have a citation.

The Internet with its search engines has made it both easier to plagiarize and to spot plagiarism. Locating and then copying from a web can take just a few seconds. Re-locating the same work takes, perhaps, even less time. In the past only a very well read individual could locate a plagiarized passage, today both Internet search engines and specific tools make it easy to check for plagiarized passages. For example, a Spring 2006 student plagiarized from an Internet site for their report. To find the original with Google I simply searched for 4 country names in the order that they appeared in the report. Google's first suggestion was where the material came from.

Certainly use the Internet to help you research your topic, or whatever you are researching or writing about, but give credit where credit is due. If you use someone else's phrase, quote it and cite it. If you use an image or drawing in a paper, again, give credit where credit is due.

It is my understanding that seven (7) identical consecutive words in two different documents is usually considered to have been copied. At first glance this seems like it would be impossibly strict. It isn't. Any natural language has so many possible combinations of words that it simply doesn't happen very frequently by accident.

Please note that simply rewriting someone else's work is still plagiarism.

In summary, do your own work. Certainly feel free to include someone else's work, but make sure that there is no doubt about where the material came from, what was used, and who created it.

By the way, check out google print when you get a chance. Google Print is truly an amazing research tool.

2.8 Americans with Disabilities Act

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Students with disabilities requiring special accommodations are strongly encouraged to notify the instructor at the beginning of the semester so that appropriate verification and identification of reasonable accommodations may be made in a timely manner. (Accommodations cannot be made without verification of need.)" ¹

2.9 Class Calendar - Weekend class -- (spring)

2 Attendance and Grading Policy