This syllabus is subject to revision as necessary at any time during the semester
GGR 376
Regional
Geography of Tourism and Recreation
Fall
2008 Syllabus
If you enroll in this class after the first day of the semester, please contact the Instructor and ask to be placed into a Discussion Group.
Click Here for special requirements for students who Registered AFTER the First Assignment is Due
GGR 376 - Regional Geography of Tourism and Recreation
Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Spring 2008 - 3 Units
Dr. Alan A. Lew (Alan.Lew {at} 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
COURSE FORMAT: 100% online using Blackboard-VISTA - The Class Homepage is http://vista.nau.edu
You must log in using your NAU Dana or Jan account. You should bookmark this website.
AUDIO and VIDEO PODCASTS
Audio and video presentations by the Instructor will be available in Blackboard-Vista (using Elluminate, and maybe Wimba). Audio files may also be available in Apple iTunes U at: GGR 376 on iTunes. This is new and accessible to the general public.
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 a timely response.
All Correspondence starting the First Day of Classes must take place through the VISTA website (http://vista.nau.edu).
All Written Assignments must be submitted through Blackboard-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.
VISTA HELP: If you are having PROBLEMS WITH Blackboard-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 Blackboard and your Computer.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This class will cover major tourism and recreation issues on a global scale
and how they apply to in different regions of the world. The class
takes a geographical perspective, which includes relationships between physical
(geology, climate, vegetation) and cultural (historical, cultural, economic)
aspects of places around the globe.
COURSE GOAL:
Students taking this course will develop an appreciation of the global nature
of tourism, and the geographical impacts of tourism in different regions
of the world.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: By the end of the term, students will be able to...
1- Define the fields of tourism and recreation from a social science perspective, with particular attention to their
relationship to geography.
2- Understand why people participate in tourism and recreation activities,
and how this knowledge has practical value for understanding the world we live in.
3- Describe the human and physical geography, and the major tourism and recreation attractions in different regions of the world.
4- Discuss the impacts of tourism and recreation development
across the globe, and how are they managed.
Click Here for special requirements for students who Registered AFTER the First Assignment is Due.
(1) 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.
(2) World Geography of Travel and Tourism: A Regional Approach - by Alan A. Lew, C. Michael Hall and Dallen J. Timothy - Butterworth-Heinemann-Elsevier - (2008) - ISBN: 978-0-7506-7978-7.
You are expected to have these books by the First Week of class. No other books or material are required. Please do what you can to get these books as soon as possible. I will not accept any excuses for not having these books when they are required for an assignment.
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.
You will mostly be working on your own in the class and you will be entirely responsible for your own work. This class requires an enormous amount of SELF DISCIPLINE. To consider whether or not you should continue with the class, it is recommended that you read: Taking Planning Education to the World: Online Teaching at NAU
All Assignments have specified due dates and times. Please note that these are all Arizona Standard Time. If you live in a different time zone, you must compensate for the difference.
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 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 (atlas)!
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!
ELLUMINATE
Elluminate is an online, live conferencing tool that NAU subscribes to and is linked to Blackboard-Vista. It may be used from time to time in this class. There will be a link in the Learning Module when I think I will hold an Elluminate Session. Once a session has actually been scheduled, you can click on that link to find more information about when the session is.
WIMBA
Wimba is an audio presentation and recording tool that was recently made available on the NAU Blackboard-Vista system. I may be using it later this semester.
PODCASTS
(What is a podcast?) Dr. Lew did a series of podcasts in the Fall 2005 Semester that roughly followed this class. Links to those podcasts appear in the class assignments and readings. Transcriptions are also available for most of them. You can consider these podcasts as lectures, though they are not specifically focused on this class only, and they are one year old. Each podcast is about 30 minutes long (16mb in size) and includes news items (from last year) related to tourism. Some of them are Required, while others are not. Those that are not required are still highly recommended as additional background material for the assignments.
Dr. Lew continues to do two travel and tourism related podcasts. You can find both of these these on his blog at http://TravelGeography.info
POLICIES:
ASSIGNMENT TYPES:
- (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 Checkin is submitted by clicking on the Checkin 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 early or late Check-ins.
The purpose of these Checkins 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.
Written Assignments will use the Turnitin Service, which is intended to enhance student writing abilities.
You will be able to view the problem areas and revise your paper at any time prior to the due date and time.
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 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 Blackboard-Vista, 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.
There will be:
TOTAL = 1080 Points
The Percentage Grading Breakdown will be: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. You need to demonstrate mastery of the subject matter through the quality and thoughtfulness of your answers. Between 10% and 20% of the class will likely receive an 'A'. (It could be more or less than this, depending on the makeup of the class.)
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 is recorded in the Grade book and what you think you received, the Grade book will only be changed if you have your original work.
The Total Grade Points and Percentage Grading Breakdown are subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances that may affect the total points. Final grades will be based on the percentages above as they apply to the total final points at the end of the semester.
All Written Assignment Points will be posted in VISTA about a week after they are submitted. Late assignments will take about two weeks (or more) to be graded. Points for Quizzes and Exams will generally be posted as soon as the quiz is completed.
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 and Exams . Only the First Person to find the error and inform the Instructor 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.
GEOGRAPHY & TOURISM EVENTS
You can earn extra credit in this class by attending up to 2 events or activities (mostly public meetings and lectures) that are related to the class and writing a short report on the event and what you learned from it. Each report is worth up to 10 points and you may do no more than one report in one week. The Instructor will read and edit what you have written, and then post it on the class discussion list for other students to read.
Events and Activities Must Be Approved in Advance. The Instructor may post announcements on the class announcement or email list of campus and community events that qualify - those that are posted will be automatically approved. The event or activity must take place during the semester that you are taking this class, and before the last week of classes. If you have any ideas for events (or other activities) that you would like to do, just get my approval -- preferably at least a week in advance.
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.)
FINISHING THE CLASS EARLY
Web-based students often ask about finishing the class early. Because not all assignments will be posted early, this is generally not possible. In addition, the Final Review Assignment will not be posted until the last week of classes. It may be possible (in some semesters) to finish all assignments, except the Final Review Assignment, a few weeks before the end of the semester. At the most only one student ever actually does this in any semester.
INCOMPLETES
Incompletes will not be given without written recommendation by the Dean of Students.
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.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY is a form of misconduct that is subject to disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct and includes the following (please check the appropriate block).
You are expected to do all of the work yourself, and to properly reference any material that you use from other sources using standard referencing systems used in the social and physical sciences. If you need help with this, click here.
DO NOT COPY ANOTHER STUDENT’S WORK, even in part. 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, and you may be dismissed entirely from this class.
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. Using quotations from other sources should be kept to a minimum and only used where relevant..
- 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
SBS 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:
PROCESS FOR LATE ADDS AND LATE WITHDRAWALS FROM CLASSES
(These are new university policies in 2008 that I have been asked to include in this syllabus)
Adding of Class after the Add Deadline or after Posting of Grades for Session/term:
Student requests to add a class after the add deadline or after grades have been posted for a session or term must use the “Petition to Add a Class after the Deadline” available on the Registrar’s website. All signatures must be obtained prior to submitting the form to the Registrar’s office for processing.
Withdrawal after Deadline during Session/term:
Student requests to drop a class after the withdrawal deadline or to withdraw from all classes during a session/term are routed to the Registrar’s Office using the appropriate form(s) available on the Registrar’s Website . See the following URL for the appropriate form: http://home.nau.edu/registrar/forms.asp
Withdrawal after Posting of Grades for Session/term:
Student requests to withdraw from a class or to request a withdrawal from all classes after grades have been posted for that session/term must be sent to the Academic Standards Committee. See the following URL for instructions on how to file a petition with the Academic Standards Committee: http://www2.nau.edu/academicadmin/downloads/PolProc.doc
Exception to Withdrawal after Posting of Grades for Session/term:
Students who have just been academically suspended from NAU who have proof which appears to articulate extenuating circumstances beyond the student’s control (medical/psychological or family trauma) that seem to merit a retroactive withdrawal from the term immediately past, should contact the Office of the Registrar for withdrawal consideration.
safe environment policy
students with disabilities
institutional review board
academic integrity
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