These are items related to my class that are not in the syllabus. Information about how I grade assignments and handle attendance.
The Contract
I think I’ve developed a reputation for being fairly relaxed when it comes to teaching my classes. My goal is to treat students as the adults they are, which means it is up to you to act accordingly.
I have found that students sometimes figure out creative ways to stretch the guidelines I have provided for assignments so I thought I’d write out more detailed guidelines. I intend to be a bit stricter with these policies than I have in the past.
Attendance
Attendance is 5% of the final course grade according to the syllabus. Attendance means showing up for a reasonable chunk of the lecture period. I do not generally have a problem with lateness as long as it is not disruptive to the students who showed up on time.
Every class I will count the number of students in attendance.
For online sections, I only count the number of students who were in the course room at any time. I do not require the camera to be on for students, and I do not care what you do during the class period. A student could join the course room and walk away for the lecture and I wouldn’t notice. I do expect students to do the minimum effort of logging into BlackBoard and joining the course room.
For in-person classes, you have to show up in the room. I will most likely take the head count 15 minutes into the lecture (so I can count students who show up late).
If attendance is 80% of the total class enrollment, then attendance will not be graded and students will receive full credit for attendance.
For example, if there are 50 enrolled students in the section, as long as at least 40 students show up to class, attendance will not be graded.
The moment attendance drops below 80% (for example, if only 39 students out of 50 show up to class) then attendance will be graded for all remaining class periods.
If a student fails to show up to class or fails to provide an excuse (for why they didn’t show up) then they will lose 20% of the attendance grade (equivalent to 1% of the final grade). That means that if a student misses 5 classes without excuses, then their attendance grade will be a zero.
If a student cannot make it to class, they need to notify me (preferably ahead of time). They do not need to go into detail, just tell me if it’s a personal matter, or family matter. I don’t need to know intimate details about your lives if you’re not comfortable with that. I only care about the communication.
Class Etiquette
All of these are variations on “don’t be disruptive” and “don’t be a jerk.”
For In-Person Sections
I do not generally care about lateness or leaving early but if you do come in late please do not be disruptive to the other students.
If you need to take a break for any reason or talk on the phone, please leave the classroom to do so.
Please do not have conversations in class. Two students had a conversation in the front row once and I was not pleased.
For Online Sections
Please mute your microphones during the official lecture period. Use the course room chat to communicate with me and/or with other students.
I do not require you to use your camera during lecture. I would prefer that you not enable your camera during lecture to minimize the amount of bandwidth class requires. Sometimes BlackBoard Collaborate starts to get choppy if there’s too much video traffic and that can disrupt students’ ability to hear me talk.
I will try to respond to class chat as much as I can (it can get busy sometimes), but I will have to move on and will try to respond to everyone after the official lecture is complete.
Try to be clear with your comments in chat. If you don’t provide context I won’t be able to respond effectively.
When the official lecture is over and we’re in the informal office hours period of the class period, you can use audio to communicate with me if you wish.
For All Sections
Please be respectful of me and your fellow students and I promise to be respectful to you.
I tend to move quickly though my slides and the formal lecture period only takes half of the allotted time. I realize some students like to take notes off of the slides and I realize that my pace makes this hard. However, most students prefer the faster pace, so I’m not going to change this. If this is a problem, let me know and we’ll figure something out (I’m thinking of providing my previous lecture recordings from the online sections for future students).
While I aim to be relaxed and want lecture to be fun, please do not take this for granted. We are here to learn from each other.
Homework
Quality Responses - When an assignment requires reading an article or watching a video and answering questions about them, I generally look for thoughtfulness in your responses. This means showing me that you actually read the article, understanding what it was trying to say, and providing me your perspective on the subject. When providing opinions there are no wrong responses, but there are still ways to lose points. Responses that are not acceptable:
Do not copy and paste text directly from the article. While this is sometimes unavoidable (you can use quotes if you must copy text from the articles) I am looking for you to answer questions in your own words and from your own perspective.
Do not write incoherent nonsense. Some students have written down words that don’t actually say anything. I do not consider this to be a thoughtful response.
Do not contradict the question. If I ask you for a potential application of a technology, I will accept almost any answer as long as you defend it. But if you tell me that there are no applications for that technology, then why did I make it a question? If you still want to contradict the question, you will have to work harder to prove your point if you want full credit. Honestly, if you can pull it off, it will impress me.
Do not rush your answers. I can tell when students wait until the last minute to do the homework and when they are rushing to complete their assignments. Their answers tend to be overly short. I will start penalizing students for rushed or incomplete answers.
Deadlines - I am somewhat flexible about homework deadlines but students who push the limits risk losing points. I usually provide students several weeks to complete an assignment that should take about two hours to complete, so I have little sympathy for last minute submissions.
Most homework deadlines are the start of a class period. If a student submits homework during the class period I generally will not penalize the student, but if a homework is submitted a few minutes after the end of class they will get the 50% penalty.
For example, if class is from 4:30pm to 7:00pm then a submission at 5:00pm is okay but a submission at 7:01pm will be considered a late submission.
If a homework is not submitted within four days of the deadline then the student receives a zero.
For example, if an assignment is due at 4:30pm on Monday then a submission at 4:31pm on Friday later is a zero.
If you feel that you cannot meet a deadline please email me explaining the situation (this is similar to my policy about attendance). While I will be mildly irritated (I provide several weeks to complete an assignment yet 80% of students wait until the day before the deadline to start, only to run into an emergency) I will give you an extension.
Exams
For the Fall 2021 semester I am teaching one online section and one in-person section. The exams will be online on BlackBoard for both sections.
Exams are multiple-choice and true-false. I reserve the right to add other question types in the future.
If you cannot take an exam at the scheduled time please let me know before the exam time. We will arrange a time for you to take the exam at a later date/time.
While the online system will let you take the exam whenever you want, it is best to schedule a time with me so that I can be available if you have any questions or technical issues.
Student Recommendations
I have had several students ask me for recommendations for graduate school and I am generally happy to write them. Before you ask for my recommendation, think about the following:
For job recommendations, I might not be the best person to write a recommendation because I have never had a managerial role in my career. Generally employers like to see recommendations from managers or from clients (especially clients who are managers).
For academic recommendations, you generally want to go to the full-time faculty first before coming to me.
While I try to write positive recommendations for all students, you can help me by doing the following:
Keep in mind that most students get an A or a B in my classes (especially IS 425). So if you have a 91% in the class, you might actually be in the middle as far as class rank. Some graduate school questionnaires ask “class rank” questions like (was this student in the top 10% of top 25% of your students).
Try to write good responses to homework questions. Then I can write about how you provided thoughtful and insightful responses to questions.
Try to talk to me after the formal lecture. It would help if I got to know you a little better and understand what your academic interests are and what your goals are. The better I know you academically and professionally, the more I can write about you.