Requirements

Your performance in the course will be scored on a 1,000-point scale. There are three categories of activities that count towards your grade:

• There will be an in-class final exam, worth 260 points.
• The course content is chunked into 6 modules, and the activities required for each module are worth 110 points, so these produce a total of 660 points. The activities are usually spread out over time with multiple deadlines, and the points are allocated accordingly.
• Finally, your attendance and participation in the face-to-face meetings is worth 10 points each, for a total of 80 points.

On the 1,000-point scale, you can expect the following letter grades:

In the end, I may choose to adjust the scale slightly to compensate for assignments or questions that turned out to be trickier than I intended. Such adjustments would never lower your grade from what is designated in the above table; if you get 930 points, you are guaranteed an A.

Policies

No late assignments will be accepted, because we will discuss and evaluate your work promptly after the deadline. This helps to ensure that everyone receives timely feedback, and that you can learn from mistakes while they are still fresh in your mind.

There will be no extra credit. Students usually ask for extra credit late in the semester after they have already messed up their original opportunities. Be sure to start your work early, so that we can detect and solve any problems before they can affect your grade.

Plagiarism is the use or presentation of ideas, words, or work that is not one’s own and that is not common knowledge, without granting credit to the originator. Plagiarism is a practice that is not only unacceptable, but which is to be condemned in the strongest terms possible on the basis of moral, educational and legal grounds. Under University policy, plagiarism may be punishable by a range of penalties from a failing grade in the assignment or course to dismissal from the School of Business, Public Administration and Information Sciences. All students are required to read the handbook on avoiding plagiarism by visiting http://bit.ly/lVShWN

Cheating includes, but is not limited to the following: falsification of statements or data; listing sources that have not been used; having another individual write your paper or do your assignments; writing a paper or creating work for another student to use without proper attribution; purchase of paper or research work for one’s submission as his/her own work; using written, verbal, or electronic or other sources of aid during an examination (except when expressly permitted by the instructor, depending on the nature of the examination) or knowingly providing such assistance to aid other students.

Participation is essential to learning and fulfilling the outcomes of the course. In the blended format, that means attending face-to-face sessions as well as tracking and responding to posts on the web site, and staying consistently in contact with the instructor. I expect you to engage with the course (by logging in to Blackboard, posting to discussion forums, or responding to email) at least twice every week. I will endeavor to respond to any email message within 24 hours (often much faster on weekdays, up to 36 hours on weekends), and to be available for online appointments made 36 hours in advance.

Long Island University seeks to provide reasonable accommodations for all qualified persons with disabilities. This University will adhere to all applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and guidelines with respect to providing reasonable accommodations as required to afford equal educational opportunity. It is the student’s responsibility to register with Special Education Services (SES) as early as possible and to provide faculty members with the formal communication from SES for suitable accommodations. All accommodations must be approved through SES. Contact Information: 718 488 1221 or 718 488 1044.

Time commitment

New York State defines one credit as a total of 15 hours instructional time, plus 30 hours of student preparation. Thus, a typical three-credit course will amount to 45 hours instruction plus 90 hours preparation. (For these computations, an ‘hour’ actually consists of 50 minutes.)

In the blended format of this course, we interpret the New York State guidelines as follows. Face-to-face sessions last for three (50-minute) hours; eight such sessions yield 24 hours direct (face-to-face) instruction. Online resources and activities make up the rest.

The course is structured into six modules. Each module takes 2–2½ weeks and includes a set of readings, podcasts, videos, and other instructional formats, plus discussions and a substantial assignment to be submitted (often in multiple parts). Our estimates of time commitments for each component are given in the table below.