GGR 240 - Winter Session 2004

SYLLABUS - Subject to revision as necessary

IF YOU REGISTERED AFTER THE FIRST DAY OF CLASSES -- EMAIL Dr. Lew at Alan.Lew@NAU.EDU ASAP with your Dana email address AND Click Here for additional information

Contents

• General Information
• Prerequisites, Description & Expectations
• Structure and Approach
• Technical Support
• Textbook and Materials
• Outline and Schedule
• Assignments, Assessment & Late Policy
• Grading & Extra Credit
• Other Policies

General Information

Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation
College of Social and Behavioral Science, Northern Arizona University

GGR 240 - World Geography - West

Summer Session II 2004 - December 20, 2004 to January 14, 2005 - 3 Units
Professor: Dr. Alan A. Lew

• Office: Southwest Forest Sciences Complex (Bld 82), Rm 120
• Office Hours: Email the Professor through WebCT to set up an appointment
• Off-campus students: if you want to talk by phone, send an e-mail and the Professor will call you from Flagstaff. They can also meet you in the WebCT CHAT ROOM to address your questions.

Course Prerequisites

ASSUMPTIONS/PREREQUISITES: Students are expected to have:

1. Good familiarity with personal computers, the Internet and World Wide Web
2. Access to a computer that is properly set up to use NAU's WebCT. CLICK HERE for these Requirements. If you have questions about this, please contact the NAU Help Desk (below). This page might also be helpful.
3. Ability to use a word processor, preferably Microsoft Word, which can be found in all of the NAU computer labs.
4. A copy of the required textbook (below) by the first day of class.
5. A curiosity about the world.

Course Descriptions

COURSE DESCRIPTION: 
This course examines the social and environmental processes that characterize the Western World, which is liberally defined as the regions including all of Europe (Western, Central, Southern, Northern, and Eastern through Russia); North America; and South America. The approach is comprehensive, covering both the physical geography (primarily geomorphology and climatology), and human geography (history, economics, and culture) of these regions.

FOR WINTER SESSION:
Please note that the pace of this class is brisk. You will be doing 15 weeks worth of work in 4 weeks. Assignments (either a Quiz or a Written Assignment) will be due approximately every two days, with exceptions for Christmas and New Years Days.

Student Learning Expectations/Outcomes for this Course

COURSE GOAL: 
Students taking this course will study the Western World from a geographic perspective and will learn how to understand and interpret the diverse and complex physical and human factors that shape landscapes of these regions.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
    1- How the geologic histories of different regions have shaped their landscape
    2- How climatic differences influence the character of different regions
    3- How the cultures of different regions have formed over time
    4- How contemporary social processes are affecting the regions and countries

Course Structure / Approach

COURSE FORMAT

This is a 100% web-based class. All of the material and assignments will be on the WWW.

You will mostly be working on your own in the class and you will be entirely responsible for your own work. This class requires a large amount of SELF DISCIPLINE. To consider whether or not you should continue with the class, I recommend that you read: Taking Planning Education to the World: Online Teaching at NAU

The Class Homepage is http://webct.nau.edu - You should bookmark this website. You must log in using your NAU Dana or Jan account. The class will not appear until you have registered for it AND you have been manually added you to the WebCT class roster.

• Registered students will not be able to access the WebCT version of this class until the Weekend prior to the first day of class. DO NOT SUBMIT ANY ASSIGNMENTS UNTIL THE FIRST OFFICIAL DAY OF CLASS!
  
• This syllabus is subject to revision as necessary at any time during the term.

EMAIL POLICY: All Correspondence starting the First Day of Classes must take place through the WebCT website. Correspondence prior to that date may be sent to Alan Lew@NAU.EDU.

To Send an Email from WebCT: Click on MAIL on the left sidebar menu; Click on COMPOSE MAIL MESSAGE; Click on BROWSE and click on the Professor's name; click on DONE; Compose your message and SEND

Unless specifically instructed otherwise, All Written Assignments must be submitted through WebCT and must be submitted to the Professor. Any assignment sent outside of WebCT. Contact the NAU Help Desk (see below) if you cannot send an email or an assignment within WebCT.

If you Add this Class after the First Day of Classes -- Email the Professor As Soon As Possible so you can be added to the WebCT class site. Click Here for tips for Late Registered Students.

If you Drop this class, you need to let the Professor know so he can manually remove you from the class website.

• You are expected to have access to a computer that is compatible with WebCT (see Course Prerequisties, above)
• DO NOT EMAIL your Professor with technical questions on WebCT or your computer
  
• If you encounter technical problems, Please Contact the NAU Dana Help Desk at:
  • Flagstaff: 523-9294
  • Toll free: 1-888-520-7215
  • On the web: http://www.nau.edu/its/achd
  • Via e-mail: help@dana.ucc.nau.edu
    
• You can also try Dr. Lew's WebCT Technical Help Page
• Here is a list of NAU Services available to Online Students
  

If WebCT Goes Down for One or More Days (it has happened):

Be sure to check your Dana email regularly for information that might affect you. In the event of a technical problem with WebCT, I will communicate with you through your Dana email account only.

If you have used the ITS Email Account Manager (see http://www.nau.edu/its and Click on Manage Your Email Accounts) to forward your Dana email to some other email account, such as Yahoo or AOL, you do so at your own risk. NAU is not responsible for any delays you might experience in retrieving necessary information from some other email account.

Textbook

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS & MATERIALS:

Goodes World Atlas - 21st edition (2005) or 20th edition (2003) - List price is $34.95, but you can get it for as little as $20 online. The NAU Bookstore will carry it, and will deliver overnight. You can also try a metasearch engine, like AddAll or BestBookBuys or BookHQ.

You are expected to have this book by the First Day of class. No other books or material are required.  Please do what you can to get this book as soon as possible. I will not accept any excuses for not having this book when it is required for an assignment.

Course Outline

CLASS SCHEDULE

Click Here for the General Class Schedule

• The Official WebCT Class Schedule is kept in the CALENDAR link within WebCT.
  
• CHECK THE CALENDAR DAILY TO MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT MISS A DUE DATE!!!

Click Here for the NAU Academic Schedule - including registration and other deadlines and holidays

Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes

ASSIGNMENTS & POINT SYSTEM

POLICIES

1 - ALL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE CONSIDERED LATE IF RECEIVED AFTER MIDNIGHT ON THE DATE DUE.

2 - ALL QUIZZES BECOME UNAVAILABLE AT 11:55 pm (5 minutes before Midnight) ON THEIR DATE DUE. You cannot access the quizzes once they expire. The reason for the 5 minutes has to do with how the WebCT program is structured.

3 - ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION VERIFICATION: You are responsible for verifying that your assignment was properly submitted.

• For assignments that are posted in WebCT (mostly quizzes & discussions), you may need to Reload/Refresh your screen to check that the assignment was indeed posted. (Click on the Refresh or Reload button on your browser.)
  • For Quizzes, be sure to SAVE each question, then wait a few seconds before continuing. Remember to click on FINISH at the end.
• For assignments that are e-mailed to your Professor, you are required to check your Mail OUTBOX to verify that it was sent to the correct person. NEVER Delete Any Email in WebCT. If your INBOX gets too full, create a new folder and move the messages to it.
• If there is a problem in the posting of a grade, you must notify your Professor in a timely manner (within 1 week of when you thought it should be posted). If you wait until the end of the class term, we are not obligated to address your problem.

4 - LATE ASSIGNMENT POLICY:

• Written Assignments: 20% will be deducted for each day that an assignment is late. Late assignments will not be accepted after 4 days. You are also less likely to receive an immediate response to your assignment if it is late, since the class needs to move on and not as much time can be devoted to grading late assignments.
• Quizzes: Late quizzes are not possible because the quizzes expire at the due date and time.

5 - Submission to Wrong Person - Most of the Written Assignments are to be submitted to the course Professor. If you submit an assignment by the due date, but send it to the wrong person, you will lose 20%.

6 - EARLY SUBMISSIONS OF ASSIGNMENTS ARE ENCOURAGED AND ALWAYS ACCEPTED.

7 - MAKE UP ASSIGNMENTS & DUE DATE EXTENSIONS- Both Written Assignments & Quizzes

• Requests for make up assignments, both written assignments and quizzes, will only be allowed for reasons beyond the control of students. In addition,
  1. you must submit written proof, such as a letter from a doctor, minister, computer repairman, or the NAU Dean of Students (or the Associate Dean of students), and
  2. you will receive less credit if you could have easily done the assignment before the problem arose
  • for example, if your computer dies on the due date, and the assignment was available for a week prior to that, you will not get full credit for the make-up, even though the computer problem was beyond your control
• Written proof or verification can be faxed to: Dr. Alan Lew, 928-523-2275.  You can also scan and email them to Dr. Lew in WebCT

COMMON ASSIGNMENT TYPES - REQUIRED WEEKLY:

• MODULE QUIZZES (100 points each): For each Module you will be required to do a quiz in WebCT. Each quiz is worth 100 points and consists of 50 questions (2 points each). You are allowed to take each quiz two times and there is no time limit. About half or less of the questions will change each time you take the quiz. See the WebCT CALENDAR for when each quiz is due.
  
  
  • Quizzes are all 'open-book' - The questions come from the online textbook to answer the questions, though you are expected to work on your own, without the help of others. This applies to the Midterm & Final, as well.
    
  • Questions are given one at a time and you can go back once you have submitted an answer. However, you will not be told the correct answers once you have completed the quiz. Students typically do not like this. This is my response:
    
    • Because there are no "lectures" in this class, this becomes a very text-intensive course. My goal is to have students learn and know the text inside out. By not allowing students to know the correct answers to questions they got wrong, the quizzes become more challenging, and forces more learning. Questions that you may have missed on the weekly quizzes can reappear on the Midterm and Final Review Quizzes -- in which case you can finally get them right. If you absolutely cannot find the correct answer, then you can ask your Professor for tips on how/where to find it.
      
      
  • MIDTERM and FINAL REVIEW Quizzes (100 points each): These consist of randomly selected question from the Module Quizzes, some of which you may see for the first time. The Midterm covers the Module Quizzes up to that point. The Final covers the Modules since the Midterm. The purpose of these is to review material presented previously in the class. These quizzes will not be released until a week or less before they are due. They will each consist of 100 questions.
    
    
• WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS (100 points each): Instructions for the Written Assignments are found on the Assignments Link in WebCT.
  
  IMPORTANT: You are expected to do your own work. Any signs of partial or full plagiarism (submitting someone else's work as your own or copying material from any source withouth reference) will result in "0" (zero) points PLUS an additional deduction of "50" additional points from your final grade. If you "borrow" from another student, both students will suffer this penalty, no matter who is at fault.
  
• INTRO ASSIGNMENT (50 Points) - There is one introduction to the class assignment that is due the First Week.
  
• FINISHING THE CLASS EARLY
  
  Web-based students often ask about finishing the class early. You can complete all of the Module Quizzes early, but not the Midterm and Final Review Quizzes.

Assignments Summary

• There are 6 Module Quizzes worth 100 points each (600 pts total)
• There are 2 Review Quizzes worth 100 points each (200 pts total)
• There is 1 Intro Assignment worth 50 points (50 pts total)
• There are 3 Written Assignments worth 100 points each (300 pts total)
• TOTAL = 1150 points

Grading System

GRADING

The Grading Breakdown based on 1150 points will be:

• To Receive an 'A' = Minimum 1035 points (90%)
• To Receive a 'B' = Minimum 920 points (80%)
• To Receive a 'C' = Minimum 805 points (70%)
• To Receive a 'D' = Minimum 690 points (60%)
• Below 690 points (<60%) = ‘F’

WARNING: Keep all of the work that you receive points for in this (and all of your classes)! If there is ever a discrepancy between what I have recorded and what you think you received, I will only change my record if you have your original work.

Grade Points will be posted in WebCT as soon as possible.

EXTRA CREDIT

Your assignments are expected to be well written and checked for spelling and grammatical errors.

The webpages for this course should be the same -- though human error can and does occur.

To help us maintain the class webpages as best as we can, you will receive

• 1 point for each typo, spelling error or poorly worded text in the Module Readings and WebCT webpages
  
• 2 points for each typo, spelling error or poorly worded questions on a Quiz

Only the First Person to find the error and inform the PROFESSOR of it will receive these points.

You need to be clear as to where the problem is and what it is. And the error needs to be an obvious one, and not subject to semantic debate.

• These points will be placed in an Extra Credit column in the Gradebook.

There are No Other Extra Credit Options for this class. All students are treated the same, so any extra credit options that are adopted are only those that would be available to ALL students. (Do not contact Dr. Lew asking for a special extra credit assignment for yourself alone.)

Course Policies

OTHER POLICIES

ACCESS TO CLASS: Students who fall behind by more than one week without explanation will be locked out of the class -- i.e., you will not be able to log into class through WebCT. To get back into the class, you need to send an email to Dr. Lew at Alan.Lew@NAU.EDU and explain why you have not been doing your work and how you are going to catch up.

INCOMPLETES: To qualify for an Incomplete, students must have been able to pass the class as the end of the semester approached, except that a circumstance beyond their control prevented the student from completing the last assignment and exams by the end of the semester. Students must request an incomplete and a contract must be agreed to as to what work will be done and by what dates. (Note that this policy applies to all classes at NAU.)

• In addition, for this class, students are required to submit a written recommendation from the Dean of Students.
• Please note that the university policy for an incomplete is that it is only granted to students who have completed most of the work for the class and are only tardy on a couple of assignments that would enable them to pass the class. In addition, the reason for not completing the tardy assignments must be beyond the student's control. Finally, the policy state that "After a grade is submitted to the Registrar, the grade may not be changed as the result of the addition of extra credit work not available to all students in the course and/or work not outlined in the syllabus or an addendum which was distributed during the semester."
• Low grades can be overwritten in GPA evaluations by retaking this course at a later date from any professor. You must submit a Grade Replacement petition for this to take place (which you can obtain from the NAU Registrar's web page).

PLAGIARISM and CHEATING: You are expected to do all of the work yourself, and to properly reference any material that you use from other sources. DO NOT COPY ANOTHER STUDENT’S WORK. DO NOT COPY SOMETHING FROM ANY OTHER SOURCE WITHOUT A COMPLETE REFERENCE TO ITS ORIGINAL AUTHOR (Author, Title, Year, Publisher, Page numbers, and Access date and URL for Web material). If you do either of these, you will receive zero (0) points for the assignment, and you may receive an additional penalty equal of points subtracted equal to the assignment's value. (For example, on a 50 point assignment you would get "0" for the assignment and 50 additional points deducted from your total). In addition, you may be dismissed entirely from this course.

• Some information does not need to be referenced because it is so widely known -- such as the US Independence Day is celebrated on July 4. The best rule is "When in Doubt, Reference It."
• The following WWW site on doing research and avoiding electronic plagiarism is recommended reading for anyone doing research on the WWW: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/plagiarism/advice.html