Syllabus highlights
Hints for scoring well

Our course digital spaces

• bCourse—announcements feed, assignment instruction and submission pages, course materials, grade reports, group memberships
• Sonic.net, my public website—assignments, what to do in preparation for each class session, and afterwards, seating instructions
• Google Drive folder(s)

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Key points from Syllabus Part 1 and Part 2

Grades

I use a portfolio system that organizes work done in the class under three categories: knowledge, skills, and engagement. Your class syllabus will state what is the balance among these three. This influences your final grade more than any other grading policy. Know the balance and work with it.

Contacting me

Please email me, don't message me either through bCourse or otherwise.

Active learning

This is an active learning class. This affects class process and grade expectations at multiple levels. Be sure you know the contents of the statement elsewhere on active learning.

Multitasking

Devices cannot be used during class. Multitasking, even once, will affect the final course grade.

Deadlines!

My deadlines are firm. There is no grace period, no extensions. Late submissions are not accepted. Very few of my assignments or other assessments can be made up. Allow extra time to submit through the bCourse (20 minute buffer) and/or submit once early in order to have something already there. Remember that if bCourse displays the deadline as "2AM," the submission portal locks at exactly 2:00AM, not 2:00:01AM.

Announcements

Read all announcements promptly. Set bCourse settings to receive announcements every day.

Academic integrity

I care about academic integrity. I monitor ALL assignments (not just essays). I exact penalties. Excuses and explanations are welcome but do not remove the penalties. Read all my statements on academic integrity and plagiarism with care. Review when the contents become fuzzy in your memory. Know what I mean by "context is king" and "over the shoulder rule." Avoid plagiarism. Don't look around the room during quizzes and tests.

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Other advice for improving, protecting, or polishing grades

Advice on attendance

Regular, on-time attendance helps considerably the course grade.

Advice on instructions

Following instructions improves scores.

Advice on time-investment

The time it seems you have invested in something is considered carefully when grading.

Advice on using critical judgment

All my course, I teach and assess the student's critical thinking and critical judgment. This goes hand-in-hand with how I use active learning. Understanding the relationship between these two is key to scoring well. In particular, consider the three phases of active learning I outline: acquisition, practice, and production. Read my statement of both active learning and analysis.

Many of my assignments ask for "credible, interesting, and useful" content. These are the product of good critical thinking and judgment.

Credibility is always a grading point:

• Identify sources that have high credibility according to my online definitions elsewhere.
• Read sources with critical awareness. That means reading beyond the quote you have found. Examine larger arguments in the source.
• Use sources with critical awareness.
• Make plausible claims.
• Submit work that seems to have been thoughtfully reviewed by you, and rewritten as necessary.