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

PL 376
Planning for Sustainable Tourism
Fall 2009 Syllabus

DRAFT - Under Construction

*** For Fall 2009, this is a 7 Week accelerated class, running Weeks 9 to 16 of the Semester. The class will require more than twice the normal weekly effort than you would have in a full 16 week semester.

• In addition, Reading Week will not apply to this class, and assignments and quizzes extend into Finals Week.
  
  • If you wish, however, you can complete most assignments and all quizzes (not exams) at any time starting the first day of class, which would give you more time during Reading Week and Finals Week.
  • In addition, the Final Exam in this class only covers three textbook chapters, which is one less than the Midterm Exam, and should make that week a little easier.

*** You MUST have the Textbook by the end of the START of First Week of this Class - by Monday OCTOBER 26 to complete the first Quiz and Reading Assignment.

• If you pay for your books through financial aid, you must order your textbook early! The NAU Bookstore always runs out of the textbook for this class. If you get it early you will not run into problems when that happens.

Fall 2009 - 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); Skype: alanalew
Office Hours: Tuesdays 12:00am to 3:00pm (26 Aug to 2 Dec 09) 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.

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

ACCELERATED CLASS

• This is an accelerated class. Please see the note at the top of this syllabus.

AUDIO and VIDEO PODCASTS - REQUIRED

• Weekly Audio Reviews by the instructor are REQUIRED. You must listen to these as they provide important information that might not be available elsewhere in the class.
  • The weekly reviews are available in each Learning Module and in the Wimba Board link in the Learning Modules homepage.
• Other Audio and Video Presentations by the Instructor and other that will be required related specifically to each assignment. Many of these have transcripts that you can use to follow along as you listen to them.
  • These presentations are linked in the Learning Modules.
• If you have a problem listening and viewing these files, please contact the NAU Academic Computing Held Desk (below).

LEARNING MODULES - Assignment Instructions are in the Learning Modules

1. Click on "Course Content" (on the sidebar menu) OR on "Learning Modules"
2. Then on "First Half of the Class"
3. Then on "Module Instructions" for the first module, to get started.

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.

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 at the email address above.

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

• Outside of Bb-Vista, please use your DANA or JAN account (nau.edu) to send email message. These are the official and only acceptable email servers for all NAU email
  
  
• To Send an Email from Bb-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.
  
  
• Please check your email every time you log into Bb-Vista (this may seem obvious, but you would be surprised what students tell me).
  

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

Blackboard-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.

• 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.

Philosophy of this Class:

1. Sustainable tourism requires a sustainable community. While individual acts of sustainability are necessary, it is only when they are reflected broadly across a society that the community becomes sustainable. Thus we can not look at tourism sustainability in isolation from the larger community issues that tourism is a part of.
   
   
2. In a democracy, community values are expressed through the beliefs and actions of elected officials. As technical advisors to elected officials, public planners have a crucial role to play in influencing and shaping sustainable behavior and development; which in turn influences sustainable tourism practices.
   
   

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, which includes speakers or headphones of some kind.
• Alternatively, you may be able to get by with an mp3 player of some kind -- though be warned that you must know how to download and play files on it, may be at a disadvantage with some video 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
(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

Tips for Success in This Class

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK

Understanding and Managing Tourism Impacts An Integrated Approach - by C. Michael Hall, Alan A. Lew. (Published by Routledge)

• The textbook for this class is New and is currently available through the publisher and probably at online bookstores. I do not know when the NAU Bookstore will have have it.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Click Here to view an overview of the Class Schedule (subject to revisions).

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:

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. 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.

For classes that are less than 16 weeks in length (including Finals Week), the average hours per week are increased according to the same per credit hour calculations.

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

Bb-Vista Who's Online Chat

If you have a question and would like a more instance response, then click on the "Who's Online" link in Bb-Vista. If I show up on the list, then click on me to invite me to a chat session. Please note, however, that my computer is on most of the day and even though I may be logged in to Bb-Vista, I may not be anywhere near my computer.

PODCASTS

(What is a podcast?) Dr. Lew did a series of podcasts in the Fall 2006 Semester that roughly followed an earlier version of this class. Links to some of 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.

In addition, there are other audio podcast files that are related to topics in the class that will be linked to the assignments. Most of these will not have transcripts.

You will be able to access the podcasts either through the class Learning Module in one of three ways:

1. Wimba Voice Board - will open an audio player in Bb-Vista - however, this tool will not play anything longer than 10 minutes, so some files may be in two parts, or may not be there at all.
2. A direct link in the Learning Modules - In theory, you should be able to download the mp3 file from your browser. However, this depends on the default audio program is for your web browser. You might want to ask the NAU Computing Center to help you change the default audio player so you can more easily download and play the mp3 files.

Dr. Lew does a travel and tourism related podcast on his blog at http://TravelGeography.info

ASSIGNMENTS

ASSIGNMENT POLICIES

1. ALL ASSIGNMENT ARE ACCESSED through the LEARNING MODULES in Bb-Vista.
2. ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION VERIFICATION: You are responsible for verifying that your assignment was properly submitted.
   • For assignments that are posted in Bb-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.
   • If there is a problem in the posting of a points for an assignment, 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.
     • Most points will be posted within 1 week after the assignment was due. .
       
       
3. WRITTEN AND BLOG ASSIGNMENTS
   • ALL WRITTEN AND BLOG ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE CONSIDERED LATE IF RECEIVED AFTER 11:59 P.M. ON THEIR DATE DUE.
     
   • LATE WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT POLICY: 33% will be deducted for each day that an assignment is late. Late assignments will not be accepted after the points reach 0 (this is 3 days).
     • You must inform your instructor if you submit an assignment after its due date, but before its "0" point date. Otherwise your submission may not ever get graded.
     • When points are shared between two parts of an assignment, they will be deducted in proportion to the points for each part of the 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.
       
       
   • LATE Bb-VISTA JOURNAL/BLOG EDITS OR UPDATES
     • Many of the Written Assignments in this class include a posting to the Blackboard-Vists Journal/Blog Discussion Area.
     • The date that we use to grade your Journal/Blogs in Blackboard-Vista is the last date that you accessed and edited the post. You may edit your Journal/Blog as much as you want BEFORE the Due Date and Time.
     • IF YOU EDIT YOUR POST AFTER THE DUE DATE IT WILL BE CONSIDERED LATE!
       • If you absolutely must add additional information after the due date, please select Create New Entry and start the entry with a short summary of the changes that you are making.
         
         
   • Submissions outside of Bb-Vista will be ignored.
   • Due Dates and Times are all Arizona Standard Time. If you live in a different time zone, you must compensate for the difference.
     
     
4. QUIZZES and EXAMS
• QUIZZES and EXAMS ARE ALL DUE AT 11:59 p.m. ON THE DATE DUE. You will NOT be able to take the quiz after that time.
• You MUST get 30 Points (100%) on the Class Intro & Syllabus Quiz before you will be able to See and Take the Next Quiz/Exam in the class. You can retake the Syllabus Quiz as often as you like until you get 100% on it.
• All quizzes and exams (including the Midterm and Final Exam) are available from the first day of class. Each has a specific due date. You may take the quizzes and exams at any time prior to the their due date.
  
  
• QUIZ / BLOG RETAKE DAY
  • You will be allowed to make-up or retake one quiz OR redo one written assignment during the Quiz/Assignment Retake Day. You may not do BOTH a quiz and an assignment. You may retake the quiz or redo the blog to try to bring up a low score or to make up a quiz or written assignment that you missed.
    • IMPORTANT: To participate, you must inform the instructor of which quiz that you want to take or assignment that you want to redo by the date indicated in the Bb-Vista Calendar.
    • You must redo the quiz or blog only on the one day that is set aside for this on the class Calendar in Bb-Vista.
  • Full instructions on the Quiz/Assignment Retake Day are in the Bb-Vista Learning Module.
    
    
5. MAKE UP ASSIGNMENT & QUIZZES/EXAMS
   
   
   • Requests to make up an assignment or a quiz after its due date 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.
  • 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:

• 1 - WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS (100 points each)
  • Weekly Assignments are DUE on Thursdays (by 11:59 p.m.) You are required to complete the weekly assignments, including the Class Intro assignment (which covers weeks 1 and 2). These assignments may include: Online discussions, Individual reports, Group reports, and other types of assignments.
    
    
• 2 - MIDTERM AND FINAL EXAMS (90 points and 100 points each)
  • These are Multiple Choice and Open Book Quizzes. They will be available starting about 10 days prior to their due dates. The Midterm Exams (90 points each) cover the material over one section of the class. The Final Exam (100 points) is comprehensive of all the material covered in the class, and consists of questions covered in the Midterm Exams.
    
    
    
• CHECK-INS (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.
    
    
  • ANONYMOUS COMMENTS - There are two links in the Assessments section of Bb-Vista (where the quizzes and exams are located) that allow you to submit an anonymous comment to the Instructor. The Check-ins are not anonymous. You may use each of these two links only once -- Bb-Vista does not allow multiple submissions of these.

GRADING

The Percentage Grading Breakdown will be:

• 5 Written Assignments at 100 pts each = 500 points
• 1 Intro Written Assignment = 70 points
• 1 Intro Written Assignment = 50 points
• 2 Checkins at 10 pts each = 20 points
  
  
• 6 Chapter Quizzes at 100 pts each = 600 points
• 1 Syllabus Quiz = 30 points
• 1 Quiz at 80 pts = 80 points
• 1 Midterm + Final Exam at 150 pts each = 300 points
  

TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE = 1750*

• To Receive an 'A' = Minimum 90%
• To Receive a 'B' = Minimum 80%
• To Receive a 'C' = Minimum 70%
• To Receive a 'D' = Minimum 60%
• Below 60% = ‘F’
  

*The Total Points are subject to change, if necessary. The final grade is based on the % received of the final points in the class.

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.

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 assignment instructions (any webpage created specifically for this class) 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.

• 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, Grade book.
• 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 fix by Dr. Lew. In addition, Bb-Vista Announcement, Email messages, and Discussion Forum items cannot be corrected once they are posted. With all of these you will not receive extra credit for pointing out typos. Extra Credit is only available for pages that can be fixed and, in this class only, for the Dr. Lew's textbook.
  • Here is a list of known textbook errata (typos and errors already found by students and the authors). You will not get extra credit for items that have already been found.
    
    
• If you find a Typo in a quiz, please provide:
  1. The Quiz Number - because this class moves so fast, I cannot tell which quiz the problem is in unless you tell me.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

SUSTAINABILTY, PLANNING & TOURISM EVENTS

You can earn extra credit in this class by attending up to four 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 25 points and you may do no more than one report in one week. The report should be between 500 an 1000 words in length (about 1 to 2 pages).

• You may only request and submit one Extra Credit Event per week.
• No Event Extra Credit papers will be accepted after the last day of the regular semester. This is the Friday before Final Exam Week.
• I may edit what you have written and then post it on the class discussion list for other students to read.

Most topics related to Sustainability, Planning or Tourism will be acceptable. The presentation does not need to be about all three. Some examples from previous semesters include:

• Taking a tour of Riordan Mansion State Park in Flagstaff (heritage tourism)
• Attending a public lecture at NAU on the topic: "Ain’t It Purty”: Tourist Impressions of Grand Canyon" (tourist demand/experiences)
• Participating in the Downtown Flagstaff Accessibility Audit meeting (Urban design and built landscape; Tourism supply)
• Attending a meeting of the City or County Planning Commission where you live (Public Planning process)
• Attending a meeting of the Sustainable Tourism group of the Coconino County Sustainable Economic Development Initiative (SEDI)
• Attending a meeting of the City of Flagstaff's Tourism Commission

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.

Content: You must evaluate the extra credit experience in the context of the class. That means that you must reference concepts and ideas from the textbook, the podcasts, the websites and any other additional material required in the Learning Modules. For the Riordan Mansion Tour (above), for example, the most appropriate part of the textbook to use is probably Chapter 4 - the Cultural Impacts chapter - though there could be useful ideas in other chapters, as well. Attending a Planning Commission Meeting would draw upon Chapter 6 - the Planning and Management chapter. Be very clear in your analysis of the tour as to which concepts using and where you got them from.

Submission: Event papers should be written in MS Word. At the top of the paper, please include (1) your name, (2) submission date, (3) the title, name of the presenter, date, time and place of the presentation your attended, and (4) the word count of your paper. Submitted this paper to your instructor by email through Blackboard-Vista.

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.

• 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 an incomplete contract form must be approved by the class professor.
• 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

OTHER POLICIES

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.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY is a form of misconduct that is subject to disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct and includes the following.

• Plagiarism: any attempt to knowingly or deliberately pass off other's work as your own.
• Cheating: any attempt to gain an unfair advantage over one's fellow students.
• Fabrication: any attempt to present information that is not true when the author knows the information presented is false.
• Fraud: any attempt to deceive an instructor or administrative officer of the university.
• Facilitating Academic Dishonesty: any attempt to assist an act of academic dishonesty by another individual.

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