Participation Policies and Class Workload Expectation

Log-in and Participation Policy

Attendance for an online class involves logging in and completing your assignments. Many assignments you will do on your own, but others will involve responding to other students discussion posts or questions. In general, a weekly assignment list, or Module, will be posted every Tuesday. Each Module will contain multiple assignments with recommended due dates included for some of them. All assignments for each Module must be completed and submitted prior to beginning the next Module.

While most of this class is asynchronous, meaning it can be completed based on your schedule, there are tests throughout the semester that must be taken during the specific hour(s) they are assigned. These include the chapter tests and the final examination for this course. These tests will all be completed during the time officially assigned for this course, namely at an assigned time on Monday or Wednesday between 9am to 10:50am, and during the scheduled two hour final exam time for this course which is Monday, December 14th from 8:00am to 10:00am. Additionally, there may be online lectures or review presentations via Zoom, which will occur live during the normal class hours as well, if offered. An attempt will be made by the instructor to record and post any Zoom meeting, but in order to get the most out of such a presentation it is preferable for students to attend the live presentation whenever possible.

Instructor Initiated Contact Policy

The instructor will post a weekly announcement to the class, as well as potentially more frequently as topics arise needing announcements. If there is a need, the instructor may also email the class, or individual students, as necessary. The instructor will also post material covering the math content and assignments to complete. The content will be covered via a combination of posted text pages, reading assignments from the book, videos, discussion prompts, as well as potentially via presentations online, and through practice problems.

Student Initiated Contact Policy

There are two ways to easily reach the instructor for this course. The one you use should depend on the topic of the communication.

For content questions in this course, including both questions about how to solve a homework problem or technological problems with the course, please post your questions to the Q and A Forum included in the weekly Module. It is likely that if you need help on a problem, or are having a technological difficulty associated with this class, that someone else enrolled may either be having the same issue or may have already solved the problem or difficulty and may be able to assist you online via the Q and A Forum. The instructor will read and respond to posts put up on the Q and A Forum each week, although it is also a good place for students to help each other with homework or technology problems they may be having. Feel free to both post questions and solutions on these Forums.
For questions related to your grade or about anything specifically related to you personally, please feel free to email me by using the "inbox" option on the blue Canvas menu to the left. I expect to return emails withing 24-48 hours except on weekends or holidays, when it may take me a bit longer to respond.

Student to Student Contact Policy

Students will be communicating with the other students and with the instructor in this course. It is required that these communications be polite, productive, and respectful. Please see the netiquette section of the online training for this week for reference. Online insults are not tolerated in this course, as it is important that all students feel welcome to post questions safely and with the expectation that their input will be respected and that members of the class will support each other and the instructor in the online work environment. We are here to learn together and to support and encourage each other and be a resource for each other. It is truly magical when an online class develops it's own supportive community, and this leads to increased learning and enjoyment for everyone.

Important course dates can be found here.

Class Workload Expectation

How much time and work is required?

Be prepared for about 12 hours of work per week in this course. A four unit "lecture" course, by virtue of what is known as the Carnegie Unit Links to an external site., mathematically establishes a standard the amount of work expected from a student (and the instructor) in a 18-week course. California state law upholds this, see California Code of Regulations, Education Code, Title 5, Section 55002.5. Links to an external site.

Table shows calculation of number of hours per week to be spent on class.
Type of Unit	Units	x Hours Per Unit	Total Hours
Lecture	4	x 18	= 72
2 hours homework per hour of lecture	4	x 36	= 144
		Hours of work per term	= 216 hours of student work
		/ number of weeks	= 18
		Hours of work per week	= about 12