Basic Policies for ArtH 2920

Here are eight policy guidelines specific to our online course. After reading the items below, as well as the Syllabus and the Calendar of Assignments, please go to the “Course Documents” Discussion Forum and leave a message indicating that you have looked at these documents (for example, “OK, I have read the three basic documents”). The Course Documents Forum is also a good place to ask a question if you have any uncertainty about the information in these documents.

1. Keeping to task

Keeping to task is important for success in an online course. Don’t fall behind! This class has regular weekly deadlines. Missing any of these assignments can start to have a snowball effect and pull you further and further into arrears. Procrastination is the no. 1 “killer” of grades for online courses.

2. Effort and time

You should be aware that an online class will take as much effort and time to complete as a face-to-face class with the same number of credit hours. The standard formula tells us to expect two hours of homework (reading, studying, research, and writing) for each hour of in-class activity. For classes conducted on campus this comes to nine hours per week for a three-credit course. How does this calculation translate to our online course? Since there are about 2 hours of online lectures posted each week, you should anticipate another 7 hours of homework-type tasks (reflections, discussions, reading and writing assignments) or a total of 9 hours per week occupied by all the activities of this course. The good news is, you can distribute most of these 9 hours throughout the week at your convenience. Note: These expectations are based on averages. Individual students may require more or less time to accomplish each week’s tasks.

3. Missing due dates

If you miss a due date or fail to upload answers and assignments to Canvas as instructed, you may lose all the points for that assignment. In order to avoid late penalties, please turn in assignments by the due date, and make sure that it posted correctly by double-checking that your work shows up on Canvas. Please do not send me or your assigned TA any assignments by e-mail instead of uploading or posting them as required to Canvas.

4. Read instructions carefully

For each required activity or assignment I will post instructions concerning content, format, length, and method of delivery. Read those instructions carefully! Many students miss out on points by failing to follow the written guidelines for an assignment, especially in matters of format and delivery. For example, if the instructions require that the assignment be uploaded as a Word document (extension .doc or .docx), that is the only format that will be accepted. Students should not ever upload .pages or PDF documents.

5. Email

When emailing me or your assigned TA, please use your ISU account (username@ iastate.edu) only. This will make it easy for us to recognize your message in the in-box and respond to it quickly, and to search and find your message later if necessary. It will also keep your email out of the Junk file.

6. Instructor Response Time

The goal is to respond to any e-mail messages or questions within 24 hours, to score the Lecture Quizzes within a week of the due date, and to grade most other writing assignments and activities within two weeks of the due date. Since actual human beings rather than scantron machines are grading your work, however, sometimes there may be delays. Please keep in mind that your TAs are MA/MFA students who are working hard on their own coursework, too.

7. Academic Misconduct Policy

In the section titled “Iowa State Policies” at the end of our syllabus, there is a link to the University’s Academic Misconduct Policy. This policy includes warnings against cheating and plagiarism that you should be aware of. Copying someone else’s answers in the Lecture Quizzes and Reading Reflections, or incorporating text from someone else’s writing in any assignment without proper citation, are considered examples of academic dishonesty and could lead to failure and disciplinary action. Copying information from websites, etc., is forbidden, as is the use of AI technology for any assignment. If you are confused at all about what constitutes academic dishonesty, please reach out to me. I am happy to help you avoid this!

8. Honoring Copyright

Many of the images and documents that appear in the lecture content of this course are under copyright and I am permitted to show them (and you are permitted to download and study them) as “fair use” for educational purposes only. You, however, should not reproduce or reuse any of this material, except as part of the class activities, without permission of the copyright owners. This includes sharing our course materials on any internet sites such as Chegg, Course Hero, etc. Publishing or otherwise sharing course materials (lectures, slide PDFs, etc.,) constitutes intellectual theft and will not be tolerated.