Protocols
Classroom Expectations
The following ground rules will help your work in this course to go much more smoothly. Please carefully review these expectations and follow them.
- Academic integrity will be appraised according to the student academic behavior standards outlined in The Golden Rule of the University of Central Florida's Student Handbook. See http://www.ucf.edu/goldenrule for further details.
- Unless otherwise noted, all written assignments must be word-processed and professionally presented.
- Work is expected to be thoughtful, reflective and of high quality in terms of both content and presentation. Work that does not meet the established criteria will be noted and will not receive full credit. This may result in a lowered grade.
- All assignments are expected to be handed in on time. Assignments tuned in late but prior to the next weekly class period, will receive a 10% reduction in points. Assignments that are turned in later than one week after the due date will not be accepted, and will receive a grade of zero points.
- It is expected that everyone will demonstrate interest, enthusiasm, and professionalism in media portion and face to face portion of class. Two key components of professionalism are attendance and participation. You will be assessed with regard to these. There are no excused absences for the face to face sessions. Each absence will result in a reduction of your final grade. Chronically arriving late and/or leaving prior to the end of class will reflect as an absence. I believe that you are dedicated to becoming the best teacher possible and to that end, this component will not become an issue for you.
- Keep up with the reading. You have quite a few chapters, modules, discussion postings, and e-mail messages to read for the class. Please keep up with the reading. Students who keep up with the reading tend to do much better in this kind of class than those who do not.
- Work with others. You are required to make every effort to work effectively and promptly with others in your groups. Fair criticism of your failure to work effectively with others will significantly affect your collaboration and participation grade.
Course-mail
Course mail and Discussion groups will be an integral part of this course. Make sure you:
- Check course mail and discussions at least three times per week (more often is better).
- Be patient. Don't expect an immediate response when you send a message. Generally, one to two days is considered reasonable amount of time to receive a reply from me in Course Mail.
- Include "Subject" headings: use something that is descriptive and refer to a particular assignment or topic. Also use the appropriate Discussion Topic; don't post everything on the "Main" Discussion Topic.
- Respect each other's ideas, feelings and experience.
- Be courteous and considerate. Being honest and expressing yourself freely is very important but being considerate of others online is just as important as in the classroom.
- Make every effort to be clear. Online communication lacks the nonverbal cues that fill in much of the meaning in face-to-face communication.
- Do not use all caps. This makes the message very hard to read and is considered "shouting." Check spelling, grammar, and punctuation (you may want to compose in a word processor, then cut and paste the message into the discussion or e-mail).
- Break up large blocks of text into paragraphs and use a space between paragraphs.
- Sign your messages.
- Never assume that your mail can be read by no one except yourself; others may be able to read or access your mail. Never send or keep anything that you would not mind seeing on the evening news.
- If you want to send a personal message to the instructor or to another student, use Course Mail rather than the Discussions.
- A helpful hint for use --- Compose your message in your word-processing application in order to check spelling, punctuation, and grammar --- then copy and paste your composition. This also saves online time.
- Everyone should feel free to participate in class and online discussions. Regular and meaningful discussion postings constitute a substantial portion of your grade.
- Explore disagreements and support assertions with data and evidence.
- Use the "reply" button rather than the "compose" button if you are replying to someone else's posting.
- Do not use postings such as "I agree," "I don't know either," "Who cares," or "ditto." They do not add to the discussion, take up space on the Discussions, and will not be counted for assignment credit.
- Use the Technical Discussion topic for assistance with technical issues. Use the Help Discussion topic for questions about course material or assignments. There will be specific discussion topics for particular discussions - pay close attention to the assignment, and post appropriately.
Note: Review the Netiquette, Viruses and Technical Recourses sections below.
Netiquette
"Netiquette" has evolved to aid us in infusing our electronic communications with some of these missing behavioral pieces. "Emoticons" and other tools have become popular and I encourage their use when it will add to the clarity of your communication.
:-) = happy, pleased
:-( = sad, displeased
:-O = surprised
>:-| = angry
Abbreviate when possible. Examples:
- LOL = laugh out loud, "I find this funny"
- ROFL = rolling on floor laughing, really funny
- BTW = by the way
- *grin* = smiling
- IMHO = in my humble opinion
- FYI: for your info
- Flame = antagonistic criticism
Netiquette continues to evolve and I am sure that we will have constant additions to this growing language. The important thing to remember is that all of the "cute" symbols in the world cannot replace your careful choice of words and "tone" in your communication.
You can learn more about Netiquette and electronic communication by visiting Learning Online.
Viruses
A virus can spell disaster. Your use of a reputable anti-virus program is a requirement for participation in this course (good ones include McAfee or Norton).
Also, back up your files: "My hard drive crashed." "My modem doesn't work." "My printer is out of ink." These are today's equivalents of "My dog ate my homework." And these events really do occur and they are really inconvenient when they do. However, these are not valid excuses for failing to get your work in on time.
Technical Resources
Follow the "three before me" method. Try three other resources prior to e-mailing a question to me. You may ask another student or post a question on the Technical Help discussion topic. Listed below are other resources to use when experiencing technical difficulty. If you do need to e-mail a question to me, include the three sources that you used before contacting me.
Make a hard copy of these resources to refer back to in case you are unable to get online. If your equipment problems prevent you from using e-mail from home, there are many computer labs on campus and virtually every public library offers Internet access.
For specific problems in any of the areas below or for further information go to the corresponding link for assistance.
