
This syllabus is subject to revision as necessary
at any time during the semester
PL 376
Planning for Sustainable
Tourism
Spring
2007 Syllabus
Other
Course Policies: Class Lock Out, Plagiarism, NAU policy statements, Student Handbook |
DRAFT OVERVIEW of PL 376
Topic Groups: Each student will be assigned to one of the following three groups at the start of the semester. Students will be given the opportunity to switch groups later in the semester. The Final Project will be related to the topic of the group. A couple of sample topics for each group is shown below.
Definitions: Social Media - Social Software - New Media
Social Software Tools that will be used in this class, include:
Tips for Success in This Class
Spring 2007 - 3 Credit Hours
Professor: Dr. Alan
A. Lew
Office Location: Social and Behavioral Science WEST (Bldg 70), Room 230
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)
Office Hours: TBA, and by Appointment
FORMAT: 100% online using Blackboard-VISTA - The Class Homepage is http://vista.nau.edu
If you Register for the class AFTER the FIRST ASSIGNMENT is Due - Click Here
IMPORTANT: E-MAIL 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) outside of Blackboard-Vista.
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.
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.
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.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
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course covers both issues and methods in planning for tourism development from the perspective of sustainable development. Sustainable development is generally defined as using resources to meet the needs of society today in such a way as to ensure the availability of resources to meet the needs of future generations. To accomplish this requires the application of many traditional public planning methods, with an emphasis on community participation and ecosystem management models.
PREREQUISITES: There are No Prerequisite Courses for this class. Access to and use of the Internet are required, as is a computer that is Blackboard-Vista compatible. Students are expected to have:
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: By the end of this course, students will:
(1) Understand the concept of Sustainable Development
(2) Be familiar with various planning paradigms that may be applied to sustainable development efforts [FYI - Urban (Public) Planner #36 Best Jobs in America - CNN, 2006 (note that planning job growth in planning in Arizona is booming!!!)
(3) Understand the major components of the tourism industry and phenomenon
(4) Understand the relationship between tourism and larger community and environmental systems
(5) Be able to theoretically apply sustainable development concepts to tourism planning in both developed and less developed situations
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.
CLASS FORMAT & WORKLOAD:
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
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.
ASSIGNMENT POLICIES
ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION VERIFICATION: You are responsible for verifying that your assignment was properly submitted.
ASSIGNMENT TYPES:
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.
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 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.
The Percentage Grading Breakdown will be:
TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE = 1120
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 unforeseeable 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 Blackboard-Vista about a week after they are submitted. Late assignments will take about two weeks (or more) to be graded. Points for Quizzes will generally be posted as soon as the quiz is completed.
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. Only one or two students ever actually do this in any semester.
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 other error that you find in the text or assignment instructions, and 2 points for each typo or other error found in a Quiz. 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.
SUSTAINABILTY, PLANNING & TOURISM EVENTS
You can earn extra credit in this class by attending up to two outside 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. I 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. I 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 of activity must take place during the semester that you are taking this class. If you have any ideas for events (or other activities) that you would like to do, just get my approval 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 contact Dr. Lew asking for a special extra credit assignment for yourself alone.)
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.
ACCESS TO CLASS: Students who fall behind by more than two weeks without explanation may be locked out of the class -- i.e., you will not be able to log into class through VISTA. 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.
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.
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.
safe environment policy
students with disabilities
institutional review board
academic integrity
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