SUBJECT TO REVISION AS NECESSARY
CLASS INTRODUCTION
Professor: Alan A. Lew (Alan.Lew@nau.edu)
mail: Geography, Planning & Recreation Dept., NAU Box 15016, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5016
fax: 1-928-523-2275 (Attn: Dr. Lew)
Teaching Assistant: Michelle McNulty
- 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
Office
Hours: Email the Instructor to set up an
appointment.
- If you want to talk by phone, send an e-mail and the Instructor will call you from Flagstaff. They can also meet you in the WebCT CHAT ROOM to address your questions.
FEE DELETE WARNING
Only students who are registered for this class through LOUIE will be able to access the class. If you are dropped from the class by the NAU Registrar because you have not paid your fees, you will not be able to see or access the class. Your instructor will not be able to open the class for you. You must contact the NAU Registrar's Office to be able to access the class again. (This process has changed from the previous version of WebCT.)
If you encounter this problem, and you fully intend to continue with the class:
- first contact the NAU REGISTRAR' OFFICE to resolve the situation
- then inform the class PROFESSOR ASAP by email at Alan.Lew@nau.edu to inform him of the situation and when you will be able to access the class again
COURSE FORMAT: 100% online using WebCT-VISTA - The Class Homepage is http://vista.nau.edu
You must log in using your NAU Dana or Jan account. The class will
not appear until you have registered for it AND the Professor has manually
opened the class for the semester. You should bookmark this website.
- Registered students will not be able to access the VISTA version of this
class (or any other class) until the First Day of Classes for the Summer Term -- 10 JULY 2006
If you Register for the class AFTER the FIRST ASSIGNMENT is Due
- Click Here
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 General Information). 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 the Professor's Name; 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 problems 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.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Analysis of the relationships between physical (geology, climate, vegetation)
and cultural (historical, cultural, economic) aspects of the United States
with an emphasis on contemporary geographic trends.
Prerequisites: None,
other than the ability to use a Web-browser and E-mail.
ASSUMPTIONS and PREREQUISITES: Students
are expected to have:
-
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.
- A curiosity about
the world.
COURSE GOAL:
Students taking this course will study the U.S. from a geographic perspective
and will learn how to understand and
interpret the diverse and complex physical and human factors that shape
landscapes of this country.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
1- How the geologic history of different regions of
the U.S. shape the landscape
2- How climatic differences shape the character of
different regions
3- How the cultures of different regions in the U.S.
have formed over time
4- How contemporary social processes are affecting
regions and the country overall
CLASS 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 until 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.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS
& MATERIALS:
1 - Geography USA: A Virtual Textbook by Alan A. Lew –
the class textbook
- This book is copyrighted by AtomicDog Publishers. They recently bought
the book from another publisher and have not yet been able to bring it
online. Because of this, they are allowing us to use the book this semester
free of charge. You can access this book through the class website (WebCT).
2 -
Blank Base Maps and Online Atlases webpage - This webpage provides
a link to all of the blank outline maps used for assignments in this class.
You may be required to print one or more of these basemaps out to complete
an assignment. You can also download them to do a map assignment digitally.
They are free. There are also links to online atlases here, which you
can use to find place names and physical features of the US for assignments.
A hardcopy atlas is easier to use.
3 - A good atlas of the U.S. - You can choose to use any atlas
that you want. If you do not have a good one already, I suggest that you
get Goode's
World Atlas. It is the best one out there, in my opinion, for
university students, and you can get it for about $25 from Amazon.com.
(You might also consider Cheap Textbooks.com.) In buying an atlas, look for one with plenty of supplemental thematic
maps (geology, resources, climate, economic activity, historical, etc.).
I have never seen a really good one of just the US (except a very expensive
one published by the US government) -- the better atlasses all seem to
be for the entire world, and they should be fine for this class. You can
often find older copies of Goode's World Atlas in used book stores. The
older copies are just as useful as the newer ones.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Click Here to view a Draft Class
Schedule.
The Official Course Schedule is kept in the CALENDAR link within
VISTA. Note that you can also add your own, private, entries into
the VISTA Calendar. You should check the Calendar daily (as well as your
VISTA email) to make sure that you are getting your assignments done.
- If you Register for the class AFTER the FIRST ASSIGNMENT is Due
- Click Here
ASSIGNMENTS & POINT
SYSTEM
-
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: 25
points will be deducted for each day that an assignment is
late. Late assignments will not be accepted after the points reach 0 (2 days in the Summer Session) . 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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 Instructor 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:
- All of the assignments are listed in the order they are to be done under the Learning Module titled "All Assignments". This link can be found either by clicking on the Course Contents link or the Learning Modules link, both of which are on the sidebar menu in WebCT-Vista. Assignment Due Dates are listed on the Calendar link on the WebCT-Vista sidebar menu.
- CLASS INTRO QUIZZ (1 at 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 Quizzes for Chapters 1 and 2.
- INTRODUCTION and REGION READING ASSIGNMENTS and QUIZZES (13 at 100
points each): You will work your way through the reading assignments.
For each reading you will also be required to do a Quiz. You may take each quiz twice, though many of the questions will vary on the second attempt. The quizzes are due by 11:59pm (midnight); you can still continue taking the quiz after that time, but the answers submitted after 11:59pm will not count towards your points. The Region Quizzes are worth 100 points each; each multiple choice question is worth 2.5 points.
- ALL CHAPTER QUIZZES ARE AVAILABLE STARTING ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS UNTIL THEIR DUE DATE. You must, however, get 30 points on Quiz 1 before you will be able to see Quizzes 2 & 3.
- Note that the first two quizzes are pushed back to the end of the first week of Summer Session to allow for late enrollments. You should, however, do these quizzes as soon as possible so you can get at least a little sleep and not wait to do four assignments in a four days period!
-
ISSUE
ASSIGNMENTS - SPECIAL TOPICS (4 at 50 points each): - These assignments either in form of online discussions or written papers.
- Proper Referencing for Issue Papers: Please use this source as a guideline for how you reference items in your Issue papers: http://www.geog.nau.edu/writing.html
- There are other methods of referencing academic papers, and if you are used to a method that is commonly used in research journals published another discipline, you may use that method, instead. They all include the same essential information.
- CHECK-INS (2 at 10 points each): You are required to Check-In
twice during the termby the due dates listed in the Calendar. The Check-In should include:
- (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 Check-In is submitted by clicking on the Check-In Link either on the Learning Module or on the Calendar.
- The Checkin can be submitted anytime within 1 week prior to its due date. Do Not send it sooner than 1 week before the due date. No points are give for late Check-ins.
The purpose
of these Check-Ins is to prevent small problems from becoming major
problems. It is perfectly acceptable to simply say that "everything is
OK" and leave it at that -- just so long as you send something. 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 Turnitn 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 references 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.
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.
GRADING
The total points possible are:
- 1200 points - Reading Assignments Quizzes (12 x 100 points)
- 30 points - Syllabus Quiz (1 x 30 points)
- 20 points - Check-Ins (2 x 10 points)
- 200 points - Issue Assignments (4 x 50 points)
- = 1450 TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE
Grading is based on your percentage of the total points
The Grading Breakdown on 1450 points will be:
- To Receive an 'A' = 90% (Minimum 1305 points)
- To Receive a 'B' = 80% (Minimum 1160 points)
- To Receive a 'C' = 70% (Minimum 1015 points)
- To Receive a 'D' = 60% (Minimum 870 points)
- Below 60% = ‘F’ (Below 870 points)
The 'A' grade is intended for students who consistently submit
work that is both on time and superior to the majority of the rest of
the class in a consistent manner throughout the term.
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-Vista.
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 inform the PROFESSOR (Dr. Lew) of it will receive these points (yes, you should email 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 Dr. Lew. These pages also have typos on them, but cannot be fixed
by Dr. Lew. 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 Dr. Lew created -- though sometimes the difference
is small.
- If you find a Typo in a quiz, please provide:
- The Quiz Number - because this class moves so fast, I cannot tell which quiz the problem is in unless you tell me.
- The attempt (first or second) that the typo was in. "Question 15" on the first attempt is not the same as "Question 15" on the second attempt.
- Give me more than just one word. A whole sentence is best.
- For Typos in the Chapter Reading and Issue Instructions:
- Give me more than just one word. A whole sentence is best. I have to search the quiz to find the typo, and more words are helpful.
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 ask for a special extra
credit assignment that applies to you alone.)
OTHER POLICIES
WITHDRAWAL AFTER THE DEADLINE: The College of Social and Behavioral Science 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.
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.
Tips for Success in this 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 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 be dismissed entirely from this
course.
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
Northern Arizona University Policy Statements
safe environment policy
students with disabilities
institutional review board
academic integrity
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/academicadmin/plcystmt.html
NAU Student Handbook
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