AcademicExpectations

=Academic Expectations=


 * Students are responsible** for all the information on the course wiki, including due dates, project requirements, and evaluation criteria, even if they are not explicitly covered in class. You are also responsible for checking your UMF email on a daily basis. You can set it up so that all UMF email is forwarded to another account so that you don't have to check multiple addresses, but email is the official communication tool of this course (especially the class list serv).

Students are expected to **come to class prepared**. That includes that you have read any assigned readings and are ready to discuss them in class, are prepared to contribute to individual and group projects, and have needed materials.

The University of Maine at Farmington is a community of learners. We come together to learn from and teach each other. Inherent in that relationship is an expectation of academic integrity, an ethic of scholarship. The UMF Code of Academic Integrity is in force in this classroom, as it is throughout campus. Students are expected to educate themselves about these ethical standards and seek advice from professors when they have questions about academic integrity. The **Code of Academic Integrity** is included in the university catalog and on eCampus: [].


 * Attendance** and punctuality are essential. If you must miss a class or be late, you are expected to contact the professor by email or phone prior to the beginning of the class period. Each student is responsible for all information presented in class, all activities completed in class, and turning in all assignments on time. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to learn the missed material by checking with other students. It is not possible to do well in this class without regular attendance.

In the event of disruption of normal classroom activities due to an outbreak of H1N1 flu, the format and attendance requirements for this course may be modified to enable completion of the course. Should this occur, you will be provided an addendum to the course syllabus that will supersede the initial version.

We are asking all members of the UMF community to help us in limiting the spread of this virus and other communicable illnesses. Students who are experiencing influenza-like symptoms—a fever, sore throat, and/or cough—should not attend class. These absences will not be penalized. You do not need to provide a note from your physician. However, it is your responsibility to notify all your instructors (via e-mail, telephone, or voice mail) as soon as possible about your condition. You will still be responsible for all course-related work, but appropriate accommodations will be provided.

Should you experience a fever, sore throat, and/or cough, you need immediately to contact the Health Center at 778-7200 or your own health care provider. According to the Maine Center for Disease Control, you must be placed in isolation (not in your room in the residence hall) either by returning to your home or by being placed in a pre-designated isolation room in one of our residence halls. If you remain on campus, the Health Center will assign you to available space where you must stay until you are free of fever, without fever-reducing medication, for a period of 24 hours or until your symptoms have resolved, whichever is longer. You should not return to class until that time.

For more information about the progress of the H1N1 virus in Maine, please go to []

If you have a **disability** for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, please see me at your earliest convenience in addition to Claire Nelson in the Office of Students with Disabilities, 1st floor Franklin Hall, ext. 7295.

Assignments will be **turned in on time**. Late assignments receive no credit. I might make exceptions and award partial credit for work turned in in a reasonable amount of time, if (a) the student communicates with me prior to the due date, and (b) I find the excuse acceptable. Note: being absent (by itself) is not an acceptable excuse for turning in a late assignment. Please **retain all completed work** for the course, including confirmation emails sent by me, until after you receive your grade from the registrar and confirm that it is the grade that you expected for the course.

Some projects may have a list of **"Deal Breakers."** These are components or elements of a project that MUST be included before the project will be graded. Completed projects turned in, but missing one or more of the Deal Breakers may receive an automatic zero.

Several of the projects are small **group projects**. Each member is expected to contribute significantly to the project and to attend group planning meetings and work sessions. Although group projects generally receive a group grade, at my discretion, I can assign an elevated grade to a team member who made significantly more contribution than the rest of the group or assign a deflated grade to a team member who made a significantly lesser contribution to the group.

A general rule of thumb of **work expectations** for college undergraduate courses is that for each credit hour, expect to spend 2-3 hours per week outside of class preparing for that class. The workload is even more for a graduate course. That's time spent reading, studying, and working on assignments and projects. For a 3 credit hour class, that's a minimum of 6-9 hours per week.

Each course project will take significant **time** to complete. Class time will focus on introducing new information and skills, discussions, and sharing and processing work. Little (but some) class time may be available to work on projects. Students are expected to have access to **technology** outside of class and to put in the time necessary to complete the projects prior to the due date. **Grades** will be assigned based on the key characteristics described in the project rubrics. "Spending a lot of time on the project" or "working hard on the project" will not be sufficient for a good grade, unless that effort is targeted toward doing quality work on those key components.

As a member of a community of learners, you should seek help from, and offer help to other students.The teachers in MLTI have a rule of thumb: **If you want to know, ask. If you know, share.**

Students are expected to observe classroom etiquette and to show common courtesy to the instructor and fellow classmates. Some of the digital etiquette practices to be honored in this class include:
 * Pagers, cell phones, and other electronic devices should be silenced during class. If you receive an emergency communication, please excuse yourself from the room to take care of it.
 * Playing computer games, instant messaging, and checking email during class are considered rude. Refrain from being rude.
 * Surfing the Internet should only happen during class when in-class activities involve the computer.
 * Yes, we really can hear your keyboard and your mouse when you type and click. Please do not distract your fellow classmates from their learning with your noise.
 * If we are working individually on projects, listening to music is acceptable as long as the volume is low enough that no one else hears it and low enough that you can still hear group instruction

Education courses require the participants to **think about teaching and learning** in ways that they may not have experienced. This kind of thinking requires an open mind, flexibility, a tolerance for ambiguity, patience, and creativity. Participants will have to think as much about what is possible as what exists.

All **formal written work** must be free of typographical, spelling, and grammatical errors. Additionally, **intellectual property** must be respected at all times. Direct quotes (including text that is copied and pasted from a website) must be quoted and cited; credit must be given to all sources. Resources for doing this correctly are on UMF's website about synthesis: []

Grading is according to these scales.

//Thank you to Dr. Mike Muir and Dr. Rhonda Christensen for sharing their syllabus content and format.//