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

PL 376
Planning for Sustainable Tourism
Spring 2007 Syllabus

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.

1. Sustainable Tourism and Money
   • Promoting Destinations and Sustainability Online
   • Monetizing Sustainable Travel and Tourism Websites, Blogs and Podcasts
2. Sustainable Tourism and the Environment
   • Social Networking for the Environment
   • Online Environmental Education
3. Sustainable Tourism and Community (Physical and Digital)
   • Online Citizen Participation / Political Activism
   • Virtual Communities and Real Communities

Definitions: Social Media - Social Software - New Media

Social Software Tools that will be used in this class, include:

• Message/Discussion Boards (we will use this in Blackboard-Vista)
• Websites (this is optional, though there are some very simple option, eg. weebly.com and Google Page Creator)
• Wikis (at a minimum, there will be one wiki for each of the Topic Groups above)
• Social Bookmarking (e.g., del.icio.us)
• Blogs (potentially including video and photo blogging; at a minimum there will be one collaborative group blog for each of the three Topic Groups above)
• Podcasts (optional; this could be a Final Project, and if it is good enough I will put it out on my Geography for Travelers podcast - with your permission, of course)
• Virtual Reality (optional; can you promote a destination through Second Life? want to try?)
• Social Networks (all students will be required to join and report on a travel-related social network)

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

• Off-Campus Students: If you want to talk by phone, send an e-mail and the Professor will call you from Flagstaff. You can also arrange to meet in the Blackboard-VISTA CHAT ROOM to address your questions.

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.
• Registered students will not be able to access the VISTA version of this class (or any other class) until the First Day of Classes of the Term
  
  

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).

• 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 ALL SECTION INSTRUCTORS;. click on SAVE; Compose your message; then SEND it.
  

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

• 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 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:

1. Good familiarity with personal computers, the Internet and World Wide Web.
2. Ability to use a word processor, such as Microsoft Word, which can be found in all of the NAU computer labs.
3. Access to the WWW from a computer that meets the VISTA System Requirements.
• On the Blackboard-Vista login page is a link to Check Your Browser. Click on that link. All Checks Must Be GREEN. If any are Red, you must fix them. If you do not know how, call the NAU Student Help Desk.
4. Your computer must be able to play MP3 audio files.
5. Ability to devote an average of 8 to 9 hours a week to this class (this is based on the fact that a full-time load of 15 credit hours is roughly equivalent to 40 to 45 hours of work a week).

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

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

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.

• It is recommended that you log-in to Elluminate (through the Learning Module link) about 15 minutes prior to the start of the live session.
• During the Elluminate session you will hear me (or possibly someone else) discussing the Elluminate topic and you will see whatever the presenter has on their computer to show you. You can also ask questions either by voice or text message.
• You are NOT REQUIRED to attend a live Elluminate Session. All session will be recorded and can be viewed at any time once the recording becomes available by clicking on the Elluminate link in the Learning Module.
• You should also take one of the tutorials at http://www.Elluminate.com if you want to learn about how to use Elluminate before the live session.
• You do not need a microphone to participate in an Elluminate Session, though it will work if you have one. You do need speakers or earphones to listen to the audio.

ASSIGNMENTS

ASSIGNMENT POLICIES

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

   • For assignments that are posted in VISTA, you must Reload/Refresh your screen to check that the assignment is indeed posted for others to see. (Click on the Refresh or Reload button on your browser.)
   • 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 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 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. .
       
       
2. 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: 10 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 5 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.
   • 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 LATE 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 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.
  
  

ASSIGNMENT TYPES:

• 12 WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS (75 points each; 900 points total)
  • Weekly Assignments are DUE on Thursdays (by 11:59 p.m.) You are required to complete the 11 weekly assignments, including the Class Intro assignment. These assignments may include: Online discussions, Individual reports, Group reports, and other types of assignments. The Final Project weeks are also included here at 75 points per week.
    
    
• TWO EXAMS (100 points each; 200 points total)
  • These are Multiple Choice and Open Book Quizzes. They will be available starting about 10 days prior to their due dates. Each will be comprehensive of all the material covered from the start of the class to the date of the quiz.
    
    
• CHECK-INS (2 at 10 points each): You are required to Check-In twice during the term by 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 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 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 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.

GRADING

The Percentage Grading Breakdown will be:

• 12 Weekly Assignments (50 pts each) = 900 points
• 2 Exams (100 pts each) = 200 points
• 2 Checkins (10 pts each) = 20 points

TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE = 1120

• To Receive an 'A' = Minimum 90% (1108 points)
• To Receive a 'B' = Minimum 80% (896 points)
• To Receive a 'C' = Minimum 70% (784 points)
• To Receive a 'D' = Minimum 60% (672 points)
• Below 60% (<672 points) = ‘F’
  
  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 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.

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 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.

• 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.
• Email messages and Announcements cannot be changed once they are posted, so they do not count. 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.

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

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.

OTHER POLICIES

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.

• 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