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

PL 599
Contemporary Developments: Tourism & Community Planning
Spring 2006 Syllabus

General Info & Help - Description & Objectives - Textbooks - Course Schedule - Assignments - Grading - Extra Credit & Incompletes - Other Course Policies: Class Lock Out, Plagiarism, NAU policies statements, Student Handbook

Welcome Message - MP3 file - requires sound capababilities on your computer

PL 599 - 3 Credit Hours
Professor: Dr. Alan A. Lew

Office Location: Southwest Forest Science Complex (Bldg 82), Room 120
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: Tues & Thu 10am-12noon, 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 VISTA CHAT ROOM to address your questions.

FORMAT: 100% online using WebCT-VISTA and ELUMINATE and SHTUFF.COM

• 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 WebCT-VISTA version of this class (or any other class) until the First Day of Classes for the Semester -- TUESDAY, January 17, 2006
  
  
• If you Register for the class AFTER the FIRST WEEK of Classes - Please contact Dr. Lew ASAP!

IMPORTANT: E-MAIL POLICY: All Correspondence starting the First Day of Classes for the Semester must take place through the VISTA website (http://vista.nau.edu). Correspondence prior to the first day of classes may be sent to Alan.Lew@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.

If you are having PROBLEMS WITH WebCT-VISTA or ELUMINATE

• 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

NEW NAU POLICY -- 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 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.)

1. first contact the NAU REGISTRAR' OFFICE to resolve the situation
2. then inform Dr. Lew 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

 

1. Tourism Impacts, Planning and Management by Peter Mason (2003-2005, Elsevier, ISBN 0 7506 5907X)
• This book should be available through the NAU Bookstore at the start of the semester.
  
  
2. Tourism Planning: Policies, Processes and Relationships by C. Michael Hall (2000, Pearson Education, ISBN 0-582-32028-3)
   • This book WILL NOT ARRIVE AT THE NAU BOOKSTORE UNTIL THE 2ND OR 3RD WEEK of the semester. You might be able to get it sooner online. You will not need this book until after it arrives at the NAU Bookstore.

You can also try buying the books online using metasearch engine, like Chambal or AddAll or BestBookBuys or BookHQ or CampusBooks4Less.

Informal Course Description: 

This is a special topics class that will focus on tourism development from a community planning perspective. Although we will cover tourism development, the class will have a focus on managing the impacts of tourism.

The class will roughly follow my undergraduate PL376 (Planning for Sustainable Tourism) class. Much of the initial readings will be the same as in that class. This class will not be co-convened with PL376 website. Instead I will copy material over from PL376 to supplement the material in the PL599 class.

The class will occasionally cross-over with GGR 576 (Geography of Tourism and Recreation), another online class that I am teaching this semester. This will occure in two areas:

(1) PL599 students will join PL576 students in online conference call discussion meetings, which will take place every two to four weeks, and

(2) both classes will use of the online website SHTUFF.com to post some of the assignments.

Online Format: This is the First Time that I am offering this class in an online format. While I prefer to have all the class materials available in my online classes from from the first day of class, that will not be the case for this class.

All of the material and assignments in this class 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 TOOLS

WebCT-VISTA and ELUMINATE and SHTUFF

• WebCT-VISTA is a new online teaching environment that NAU recently purchased, and is being used for the first time in the Spring 2006 semester. We all have a bit of a learning curve to overcome here.
  
  
• Shtuff.com is a free wiki web service. A wiki is a website that allows anyone to edit any and all of the text on the website. Wikipedia is the most famous wiki website. One advantage of Shtuff is that I am able to designate who can view and edit the wiki topics I create. I have created a series of wiki topics on Shtuff that focus on Tourism Impacts, and which form the structure within which you will be your written papers.
  
  
• Eluminate is an online conferencing tool that NAU owns. It allows free Internet-based voice communication, while also sharing on-screen displays. I am not 100% sure if I want to use this or not. Alternative possibilities include Skype, GizmoProject, and telephone conferencing. The goal is to have live class meetings every two to four weeks.

ASSUMPTIONS/PREREQUISITES: Students are expected to have:

1. Good familiarity with personal computers, the Internet, and World Wide Web.
2. Access to the WWW from a computer that meets the VISTA System Requirements. Note that your computer must be able to play MP3 audio files, as well. AND you must have a microphone that will work on your computer.
3. Ability to devote an average of 7 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)

COURSE 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.

ASSIGNMENTS:

• WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS (100 points each)
  • For this class, there will be one assignment due each week. These assignment will vary in type, but will often lead to a posting on the Shtuff website. There may be some group work, as well.
  • As a graduate seminar, there will be quite a lot of reading. You will need to learn to be an "aggressive reader"!
  • Each student will focus on selected areas of tourism impacts in their written 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.
     • Written Assignments generally include the Region Assignments and the Issue Assignments.
       
       
   • 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
   • 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.
     

GRADING

There will be approximately 1300 Points

• The actual amount will likely vary as the weekly assignements are developed through the course of the semester.

• 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’
  

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.

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 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 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 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 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 reports 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 discussion list of campus events that qualify - those are 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."

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