GGR 241 - World Geography East

"People and Places Around the World"

SYLLABUS
FALL 2006
(subject to change as necessary)

• General Information

• Description, Prerequisites & Expectations
• Structure, Approach & Workload
• Textbook and Materials
• Outline and Schedule
• Assessment, Assignments, Checkins & Late Policy
• Grading & Extra Credit
• Other Policies - HELP!

Click Here for special requirements for students who Registered AFTER the First Assignment is Due

General Information

Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

GGR 241 - WORLD GEOGRAPHY EAST
FALL 2006 - 3 Units

Instructor: Mr. Duane Marshall (Duane.Marshall@nau.edu)
Office Hours: by appointment. If you want to talk by phone, send an e-mail and the Instructor will call you from Flagstaff. The Instructor can also meet you in the WebCT CHAT ROOM to address your questions.

• The Instructor will be your primary point of contact in this class once the class has started. All questions about assignments, the class schedule, expectations, and grading should be addressed to the Instructor.

Professor: Dr. Alan A. Lew (Alan.Lew@nau.edu)
Office Location: SBS West (Bldg 70), Room 230
Office Hours: Mon 12pm-2pm, Wed 10am-12pm, and by appointment
Mailing Address: Dept. of Geography Planning & Recreation, NAU Box 15016, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5016
Tel: 928-523-6567 (office); 928-523-2650 (dept.); Fax: 928-523-2275 (attn: Dr Lew); Skype: alanalew

• The Professor is responsible for course content, including the syllabus, and will be your primary contact before the class begins and after the class has ended. While the class is in session (from the first to the last day of the session), most of your questions should be sent to the Instructor, Not the Professor, except for Petitions (late add, late drop, incompletes, etc.) that require signatures.
• If you are uncertain as to who to contact, select the "All Section Instructors" option when sending an email message.

Teaching Assistant: Andrea Bartz

• The Teaching Assistant works with the Instructor to grade assignments. However, all questions about assignment grades should be directed to the Instructor, NOT the Teaching Assistant

EMAIL POLICY:

Prior to the first day of classes, and after the last day of classes (of Finals Week), correspondence should be sent to the class Professor (see above). You can also email the class Instructor at these times, but you will not be guaranteed an immediate response.

All Correspondence starting the First Day of Classes must take place through the VISTA website (http://vista.nau.edu).

• Outside of VISTA, please use your DANA or JAN account to send email message. These are the official and only acceptable email servers for all NAU email correspondence. Use of non-Dana or Jan email accounts may not be responded to.
  
  
• To Send an Email from VISTA: Click On MAIL on the left sidebar menu; Click on CREATE MESSAGE; Click on BROWSE FOR RECIPIENTS and then click on either your Instructor's or Professor's name, or on All Instructors. click on SAVE; Compose your message; then SEND it.
  
  
• After the class has begun, most of your correspondence should be made to the class Instructor. You can also contact the class Professor for questions about:
  - Course content errors and typos
  - Petitions (late add, late drop, incompletes, etc.) that require signatures

All Written Assignments must be submitted through WebCT-VISTA. Any assignment emailed outside of VISTA will be ignored. Contact the NAU Help Desk (see below) if you cannot send an email or an assignment within VISTA.

Contact the NAU Help Desk (see below) if you cannot send an email or an assignment within WebCT-Vista.

If you are having PROBLEMS WITH WebCT-VISTA

FIRST: Contact the NAU Help Desk as soon as you encounter a problem that, if not resolved, will result in a loss of points.

• Write Down the NAME of the person you are speaking with, the TIME that you are talking to them, WHAT THEY SAID to try and resolve the problem, or not.

SECOND: If your assignment will still be late, then contact your instructor as soon as you have finished talking to the Help Desk and let them know what is going on, and so they have a record of when you attempted to submit the assignment.

• Clearly describe what the problem was, when it took place, and what you did to try and fix it.
• Include the NAME of the Help Desk person you spoke with, the TIME and DAY that you called the Help Desk, and What the Help Desk person said.

Contact the NAU Academic Computing Help Desk at:
Flagstaff: 523-9294
Toll free: 1-888-520-7215
On the web: http://www4.nau.edu/achd/
Via e-mail: help@dana.ucc.nau.edu

Contact the NAU Academic Computing (Student/Dana) Help Desk for ALL Technical Questions about WebCT and your Computer.

• For a comprehensive list of resources available to web students please visit: http://www.distance.nau.edu/guide/student_resources.aspx

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course examines the social and environmental processes that characterize the EASTERN WORLD, which is liberally defined as the regions including all of Africa, Asia (excluding the former Soviet Union), and the Pacific. The approach is comprehensive, covering both the physical geography (primarily geomorphology and climatology), and human geography (history, economics, and culture) of these regions.

COURSE GOAL

Students taking this course will study the Eastern 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

ASSUMPTIONS and PREREQUISITES: Students are expected to have:

1. Good familiarity with personal computers, the Internet and World Wide Web
   

   Access to a computer that is properly set up to use NAU's WebCT-VISTA. If you have questions about this, please contact the NAU Help Desk (above). This page might also be helpful. Finally, in the newest version of WebCT-Vista there is a link on the screen that says "Check Browser" which will tell you if you have any browser problems.
   ** Your computer should also have SOUND capabilities -- that is, the ability to play .mp3 files **
   
   Ability to use a word processor, preferably Microsoft Word, which can be found in all of the NAU computer labs.
   
   A copy of the required textbook by the first day of class. - This is especially important for Summer and Winter Session Classes, since time is limited.
   
   
2. A curiosity about the world.

COURSE FORMAT & WORKLOAD

This is a 100% web-based class. All of the assignments will be on WebCT-Vista (http://vista.nauedu). You should bookmark this website.You must log in using your NAU Dana or Jan account. The class will not appear until the first official day of classes. 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 Problems that you encounter with the quizzes and assignments should be emailed directly to the Instructor first, and your Professor second.

This syllabus is subject to revision as necessary at any time during the term.

WORKLOAD

The Arizona Board of Regents Contact Hour Policy (ABOR Handbook, 2-206, Academic Credit) states: "an hour of work is the equivalent of 50 minutes of class time . . . at least 15 contact hours or recitation, lecture, testing or evaluation, seminar, or colloquium as well as a minimum of 30 hours of student homework is required for each unit of credit."

The interpretation of this policy is that for every credit hour, a student should expect, on average, to do a minimum of three hours of work per week. A three credit hour class should average 9 hours of work per week over the semester.

First 3 Weeks of Class

There is very little due in the first 2.5 weeks of this class. The reason is because there tends to be a lot of adding and dropping in Liberal Studies classes like this during the first three weeks. In addition, a few students always have a problem getting their textbooks!

If you enroll in this class from the first day of the semester, you are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to get started on the assignments now and to try and stay 1 WEEK AHEAD on all of the assignments (i.e., finish them 1 week before they are due). By doing this, you will have insurance in case an emergency arises and you cannot work on the class for a week.

If you enroll in this class late, you better get your book and get started on the assignments ASAP!

TEXTBOOKS

(1) Diversity Amid Globalization: world regions, environment, development, Third Edition.   Rowntree, Lewis, Price, and Wycoff.  ISBN 0131330462

• This books is available at the NAU Bookstore, though you can also find it online at the sources below.
  • THE NAU BOOKSTORE WILL NOT RECEIVE THIS TEXTBOOK UNTIL SEPTEMBER 1, 2006
• Because the first book-related assignment is not due until the third week of classes, this will not affect any assignment due dates if you order your book as soon as the bookstore received it, or if you order it from another source.

(2) Goodes World Atlas

• This books is not available at the NAU Bookstore. Instead, you are required to purchase it from other sources. Any Edition that is less than 15 years old will do - List price is $34.95 for the current edition, but you can get it for as little as $20 online. You can try a metasearch engine, like Chambal or AddAll or BestBookBuys or BookHQ or CampusBooks4Less or Cheap Textbooks.com.

  • You are expected to have this book by the First Week 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.

PURCHASE YOUR TEXTBOOKS ASAP -- YOU WILL NEED THEM TO COMPLETE THE SECOND QUIZ

• If you are joining this class late and are ordering your book by mail, have it sent by overnight delivery! Not having the book is not sufficient grounds for making up an assignment.

ASSIGNMENTS & POINT SYSTEM

1. ALL ASSIGNMENT ARE ACCESSED through the LEARNING MODULES in Vista.

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

   • For assignments that are posted in VISTA, you may need to Reload/Refresh your screen to check that the assignment is indeed posted for others to see. (Place your mouse on the screen area that you want to reload/refresh and Right Click - then select Reload or Refresh from the pull-down menu.)For assignments that are e-mailed to your Instructor or Professor, you are required to check your Mail OUTBOX to verify that it was sent to the correct person. NEVER Delete Any Email in VISTA. 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 Instructor or Professor in a timely manner (within 10 days of when the points should be posted). If you wait beyond 10 days, you will receive fewer points. If you wait until the end of the class term, you may receive 0 points.
     • Note that most points will be posted within 1 week after the assignment was due. .
       
       
   WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
   • ALL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS, INCLUDING THOSE POSTED IN THE DISCUSSION AREA OF VISTA, WILL BE CONSIDERED LATE IF RECEIVED AFTER 11:59 P.M. ON THEIR DATE DUE.
     
     LATE WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT POLICY: 15 points will be deducted for each day that an assignment is late. Late assignments will not be accepted after the points reach 0(this is 7 days for a 100 point assignment, and 3 days for a 50 point assignment). 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 late assignments.
     • This late assignment policy does not apply to Quizzes. Quiz availability expires on a specific time and date -- they may not be taken after their due date and time, except as a Make Up (see below).
       
       
     Written Assignments must be submitted through the Vista/Turn-It-In submission link. Submissions outside of VISTA will be ignored. EARLY SUBMISSIONS OF ASSIGNMENTS ARE ENCOURAGED AND ALWAYS ACCEPTED.
   • Please note that Due Dates and Times are all Arizona Standard Time. If you live in a different time zone, you must compensate for the difference.
     
     
3. MAKE UP ASSIGNMENTS - Both Written Assignments & Quizzes
• Requests for make up assignments, both written assignments and quizzes, will only be allowed for reasons beyond the control of the student. In addition, you must provide:
1. A clear and complete explanation of the reason the assignment is late, including why the assignment could not have been submitted before the problem arose;
• Note that waiting until the last few hours before a quiz or an assignment is due and then running into a personal problem will not be considered an acceptable reason for why the assignment is late.
  • Note that NAU Computer Server problems are not your personal problems, and are therefore acceptable reasons for a late assignment. Your personal computer problems are not acceptable.
    • PLEASE BACK UP YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER'S HARD DRIVE ON A REGULAR BASIS.
2. Written proof, such as a letter from a doctor, minister or funeral home, or a letter from the NAU Dean of Students (or the Associate Dean of Students), supporting your justification (if no other proof is available)
• The Professor's Mailing address and Fax number are at the top of this syllabus.
  
  
• You will receive less credit if you could have done the assignment before the problem arose.
• See the section on Extra Credit (below) if late assignments become a problem for you.
  

COMMON ASSIGNMENT TYPES

• CLASS INTRO QUIZ (30 points): This quiz basically covers the syllabus. You are allowed to take this quiz as many times as you wish. You must score 100% on this quiz before you can take (or even see the link for) the First Chapter Quiz.
  
  
• CHAPTER QUIZZES (100 points each): For each chapter you will be required to do a quiz in WebCT-Vista. Each quiz is worth 100 points. You are allowed to take each quiz twice and your highest score of the two attemps will be recorded . Quizzes will be available from the first day of classes. Note that their due dates differ. See the WebCT-Vista CALENDAR for when these are due.
• The Quizzes are all 'open-book' - you can use the book to answer the questions, though you are expected to work on your own, without the help of others.
  
  
• TURN-IT-IN ASSIGNMENTS (Map Assignments = 50 pts each; Issue Assignments = 75 pts each; Map/Issue Assignment = 75 pts)
  
  
• Essay portions of these assignments will use the Turnitin Service in WebCT-Vista. More information on Turnitin is provided below.
• The final paper in this class is a combines Map and Issue assignment that is worth 75 points. All other written assignments are worth 50 points each.
  
  
• CHECKINS (10 points each): You are required to Checkin with the Instructor AND Professor during certain weeks that are identified in the WebCT-Vista Calendar. This will be submitted by Email in WebCT-Vista to "ALL INSTRUCTORS". The word "Checkin" MUST appear in the Subject Line
  
  (1) What is working especially well for you in the class.
  (2) What is NOT working for you in this class; and
  (3) Any initial suggestions for how we (you and I together) can begin to improve what is not working.
  

  The purpose of these Checkins is to prevent small problems from becoming major problems. It is perfectly acceptable to simply tell the Instructor in your e-mail that "everything is OK" and leave it at that -- just so long as you are sending the e-mail. Silence from you is an indicator that something is wrong and you may be headed for trouble in this class.

TurnItIn

Essay portions of the assignments above will use the Turnitin Service, which NAU has recently purchased to enhance student writing abilities. You will submit the assignment through a Turnitin folder on the main Course Content page.

• When you turn your paper in, you will be given an Originality Report (or score - Red is not good), which indicates the degree to which Turn-it-in "thinks" your paper is original and not composed of copied material from other sources or students.
• This is not a perfect evaluation. Block quotes that are fully referenced will be erroneously tagged as plagiarism. These are not really a problem, as the Instructor and TA will manually assess each student's paper and will ignore these when determining your grade.
• However, if you have copied material without properly referencing the original sources, you will not get credit for those parts of your paper. If this is a significant problem, then you will receive 0 points for the assignment.
  

You will be able to view the problem areas and revise your paper at any time prior to the due date and time.

• The ultimate goal, is for you to turn in the best paper possible for the written assignments. Turn-it-in basically helps you to avoid plagiarism -- which has become an increasing problem in our current information economy. By doing so, it forces you to write more personally, creatively and with deeper consideration of the issues.
  

All papers that are turned in through the Turn-it-in folder will be permanently logged into the Turn-it-in website. The paper will be associated with this class and with the names of your Instructor and Professor. The paper will not be viewable by anyone without express permission of the the Professor and Instructor of this class. The paper will be used for originality rankings for other papers that are submitted through Turn-it-in.

• If you are opposed to this policy, then you will need to drop this class and take it from a different professor or at a different university or college.
• Click Here for the NAU Cline Library page on Plagiarism and Academic Integrity.

COMMENTS on Turnitin Assignments can be found by opening your paper in Turnitin, then looking for one or more little blue buttons (or bubbles) somewhere on your paper. Click on a blue button and a window will open with comments from the assignment's grader.

Number of Assignments

• 1 Class Intro Quiz = 30 points (30 pts total)

• 3 Issue Assignments + 1 Map/Issue Assignment = 75 points each (300 pts total)
• 3 Map Assignments = 50 points each (150 pts total)
• 7 Chapter Quizzes = 100 points each (700 pts total)
• 2 Checkins = 10 points each (20 pts total)
  
  
• TOTAL = 1200 points

GRADING

The Grading Breakdown based on 1200 points will be:

• ' A ' = Minimum 90% (1080 points)

• ' B ' = Minimum 80% (960 points)
• ' C ' = Minimum 70% (840 points)
• ' D ' = Minimum 60% (720 points)
• Below 60% (<720 points) = ‘ 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.

EXTRA CREDIT Your assignments are expected to be well written and checked for spelling and grammatical errors. The web pages for this course should be the same -- though human error can occur. To help me maintain the class web pages as best as I can, you will receive 1 point for each typo or spelling error that you find in the text or assignment instructions and 2 points for each error that you find in the Quizzes. Only the First Person to find the error and report it to BOTH the PROFESSOR and INSTRUCTOR will receive these points (yes, you should email the Professor [Dr. Lew] directly if you find something). 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 Grade book.
  The following words will often be tagged as typos in a spell checker. For this class, these are considered correct spellings: Checkin, Webpage, Website, Gradebook. Some international cities and countries have more than one correct spelling, both of which may be encountered in this class. Similarly, many scientific terms, commonly used in the physical and social sciences, will not be in most spell checkers. Before submitting these as potential typos, please do a more general search of the WWW to see if they are commonly used in academic publication.
• Some of the pages on the class website are developed by either VISTA or NAU, and not by the Professor or Instructor. These pages also have typos on them, but cannot be fixed by the Professor or Instructor. Therefore, you will not receive extra credit for pointing these out. You can usually tell if they are VISTA or NAU pages because they look different from the pages that the Professor and Instructor have created -- though sometimes the difference is small.

The subject line of the email should read “Extra Credit – (subject of the extra credit)”, for example: "Extra Credit – Written Assignment 1" -- 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.

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 the Professor or Instructor asking for a special extra credit assignment for yourself alone.)

OTHER POLICIES

INCOMPLETES - Incompletes will not be given without written recommendation by 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 states 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."
  
  You must have completed at least 75% of the class to be considered to qualify for an Incomplete in this class. Incompletes must be requested and approved by the class Professor. You will work with the class Professor to finish the Incomplete.
• Note that many faculty at NAU have found that only 20% of students who take an Incomplete actually finish their classes successfully.

Retaking the Class to Raise Your Grade

If you are not receiving the grade that you prefer toward the end of the semester, then the recommended action is to retake the class in another semester and apply for a Grade Replacement using this form: MS Word, .PDF - the form must be submitted at the time that you register for the class the second time. Note that the assignments will probably be different the second time that you take the class.

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 GIVE YOUR PAPER TO ANOTHER STUDENT TO TURN IN AS THEIR WORK.

• If you do either of these, at a minimum you will receive zero (0) points for the assignment AND a number of points equal to that of the assignment will be further deducted from your total. For example, for a 100 point assignment, you will get 0 for the assignment, and 100 points will be further deducted from your total. In addition, you may be dismissed entirely from this class.
  
• Related to this, 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). Points will be deducted from assignments if you do not properly reference your sources.

  The following WWW site on doing research and avoiding electronic plagiarism is recommended reading for anyone doing research on the WWW: http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/internet/research.htm

LATE WITHDRAWAL POLICY - This policy comes into effect after the drop with a “W” deadline (after the 8th week of a regular semester). The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Policy for Approval of Petitions to Withdraw From a Class After the Deadline:

• The College will only allow a student to withdraw from class after the deadline for extraordinary, outstanding, or mitigating circumstances beyond the control of the student. The petition requires justification and approvals of the student's advisor, course instructor, the chair of the department offering the course, and Dean of the College (including stamps). The student must provide specific and verifiable reason(s) why the petition should be granted. The petitions are not automatically approved and may be denied at any signature level. The College policy requires that students must provide documentation for their mitigating circumstances. Without suitable documentation, the petition will not be approved! A poor or failing grade is not considered sufficient reason to recommend exception to the drop policy. In addition, the consequences of a poor grade (i.e.: loss of financial aid, suspension, loss of scholarship, etc…), changes in work hours, change of major, the level of difficulty of a class, or dropping a course to “increase” available time for other courses are not sufficient reasons to approve a withdraw from a class late in the semester.
• Please note, even if the withdraw petition is approved, University policy requires that students pay a $25 fee before having it processed.