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Syllabus
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Course Components and Evaluation Academic Policies and Information Student Resources and Support Services Brief Descriptions and of Major Assignments
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Academic Policies and Information A. Academic Honesty and Collaboration The integrity of the University community is affected by the individual choices made by each of us. This is especially true in New Century College. GMU’s Honor Code (see honor code here) has clear guidelines regarding academic integrity. Three fundamental and rather simple principles to follow at all times are that: (1) all work submitted be your own; (2) when using the words or ideas of others, including fellow students, give full credit through accurate citations; and (3) if you are uncertain about the ground rules on a particular assignment, ask for clarification. No grade is important enough to justify academic misconduct. If you feel unusual pressure or anxiety about your grade in this or any other course, please talk with us or with a counselor. The University provides a range of services to help with test anxiety, writing skills, study skills, and other related concerns (section VII of this syllabus has information about a variety of student resources and support services). Some projects are individual assignments. For these projects, you may discuss your ideas with others or ask for feedback; however, it is not appropriate to give your paper to someone else to write or revise. You are responsible for making certain that there is no question that the work you hand in is your own. If only your name appears on an assignment, your professor has the right to expect that you have done the work yourself, fully and independently. As in most learning communities and in many other classes, you will complete a group project in this unit. With collaborative work, names of all the participants should appear on the work. Over the course of the six weeks you may find that it is necessary for different group members to take the lead on various assignments leading up to the group project. However, faculty members do expect that all group members will contribute fully and that the pieces will be conceptually integrated in the final end product. Using someone else’s words or ideas without giving them credit is plagiarism, a very serious offense. It is very important to understand how to prevent committing plagiarism when using material from a source. If you wish to quote verbatim, you must use the exact words (including punctuation) just as it appears in the original and you must use quotation marks and page number(s) in your citation. If you want to paraphrase ideas from a source, that is, convey the author’s ideas in your own words—you must still cite the source, using MLA or APA format. The resubmission of assignments or projects from one course in another course is not appropriate. In every NCC course, faculty members expect that work you submit has been done only for that class. An exception is made for materials included within course and year-end e-portfolios. If you have any questions not answered in this syllabus or have any concerns during the course, please feel free to ask us in class or call one of us as soon as possible. B. Classroom Etiquette New Century College expects students to take responsibility for their own learning and for their own learning environments. The faculty team expects that you have come to understand and respect the opinions of others. During your first few days in Unit IV, your seminar leader will discuss appropriate classroom norms, and you will be asked to participate in setting guidelines for class etiquette and behavior. C. Electronic Communication Electronic communication is much more public than a conversation between friends. Misunderstandings occur more often and messages can also be forwarded easily to a much larger audience (including faculty and prospective employers). Thus, it is a good idea to pay attention to tone and to avoid writing anything in an email that you would not want made public. Remember, GMU maintains a permanent record of email as do most organizations. To ensure confidentiality, GMU’s policy is that faculty and staff should only respond to username@gmu.edu student accounts. Thus, Unit IV faculty team members will use your GMU email accounts to communicate with you. If you are using a commercial account, be sure to set your GMU account to forward mail to that account. For step-by-step instructions on how to forward your GMU mail to another account (e.g., hotmail, yahoo, etc.) see http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/memo_forward.htm.
D. Web Page Policy When adding to your web page on the GMU server, please remember the educational mission of George Mason University and New Century College. It is important to understand a web page as a rhetorical space, keeping in mind the very public nature of your page. In particular, you should avoid disclosing information of a personal nature about yourself or others. You must use the utmost care in obtaining photographs or graphics so that you do not violate copyright law. Even when visual material is not copyrighted, you must identify the source, just as you would in the bibliography of a paper. Because you are creating a representation of yourself (and also of your college and university) for the world to view, you need to (a) be thoughtful about the information you post; (b) write clearly; and (c) edit your work carefully so there are no errors of grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Keep in mind that your web page may be viewed by a prospective employer. Text you post on your web page should be free of errors. For more information about student privacy and precaution guidelines when publishing on the Web, go to mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/Webguide.htm For copyright guidelines, visit mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/cpyrght.htm For basic Web design principles, start with mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/webdesign.htm E. Attendance If an emergency prevents you from attending a seminar or afternoon phase meeting, you should let your seminar leader know ahead of time when possible and contact a seminar member to find out what you missed. You are responsible for all announcements, assignments, and date changes made in class and for all material covered in class even if you are not there. A word to the wise—research on the relationship between class attendance and college grades has consistently found a strong positive correlation. F. Group Contracts Each project group is required to prepare a group contract. These contracts will be the foundation on which you will build a working relationship with your group members, and unit faculty members will call on these contracts if problems arise within your group. As such, these contracts are extremely important and we expect you to give them careful consideration. Group work is an integral part of this course, not only for the group project, but for the skills we would like you to further develop. These skills will serve you through your university course work and into your professional endeavors. As the unit begins, you will have the opportunity to reflect on past successes and challenges to group work as you prepare your group contract. At the end of the unit, each of you will be asked to evaluate and provide feedback on yourself and your group members. Faculty will use this information to allocate your 50 points for the group peer evaluations.
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