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MATH 095 General Mathematics Main Page
Graded Assignments
Handouts
Frequently Asked Questions
Online Discussions and
Rules of Engagement
Online Resources
Extra Help
FSC Blackboard
MyMathLab |
Online Discussion: One cannot hope to
understand and to be able to apply mathematics without practice.
To that end, every member of the class is expected to participate in
class discussion and problem-solving. In addition to in-class
participation, each member of the class will participate in online
discussions on Blackboard. Throughout the course, each member of
the class will post analysis, explanation, and interpretation for a
variety of exercises on the Blackboard discussion board. For each
discussion question, each member of the class will post a response; the
response to the discussion question will be called the discussion
posting. For each discussion posting, a member of the class will
post a first response: a first response is a non-frivolous
comment, question, suggestion, or alternate solution. To each
first response, the author of the original discussion posting will post
a second response: a second response is a non-frivolous response
to the comment, question, suggestion, or alternate solution that was
posted to her/his original discussion posting.
All class
participation, online discussion, and email/IM communication must
conform to the Rules of
Engagement: all interaction and communication between students
and with the instructor must be respectful at all times. Keep in
mind that the purpose of this course is to learn and there is no such
thing as a stupid question.
Rules of Engagement for Course Participation,
Discussion Board Posting and Communication: The purpose of this course, as with any
course, is learning. To that end, this must be a safe environment
for learning. Two important components of learning are asking
questions and making mistakes. To ensure that this will be a safe
environment for learning, a safe environment for asking questions, and a
safe environment for making the mistakes that are a natural part of the
learning process, I created the Rules of Engagement that must be
followed for all course participation, Discussion Board postings and for all
communication whether by email or instant messenger (AOL/Netscape
Messenger, MSN Messenger, or Yahoo Messenger).
Here are the Rules of Engagement for all
course participation,
Discussion Board postings and all email or instant messenger
communications:
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The course environment, both in class and online, is to be respectful
and encouraging. You are expected to be respectful and
encouraging to all members of the class and to the instructor.
This course is to be a positive, supportive environment in which
folks can feel comfortable as they ask questions and make mistakes.
Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process and every member of
the class should be able to make mistakes without criticism.
Please keep in mind that correction is not the same as criticism.
Before you interject during class problem-solving or discussion of
course material, before you post any materials or any response to the discussion board
and before you send an email or reply during an instant messenger
session, whether to a member of the class or to the instructor, you
should carefully consider your words and/or your posting/reply, considering how you
would feel if someone were to address you in such a manner or if you were to receive such a posting/reply. If you are
bothered by the words that you use or by your in-progress posting/reply then you should not
make your statement/posting or send your reply:
if you offend yourself then you will surely offend others.
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You are a member of the class. Please
remember that you are a member of the class, and, as such, you have the
same goal as the other members of the class -- learning. You
must all work together. In order to work together, you must get
along: be nice to each other.
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Be respectful of each other's time constraints.
You all have different schedules. Some of you may have full-time or
part-time jobs, others may be taking more than four courses, and still
others may do both of these in addition to having a family (having a
family is a job by itself). You need to be respectful of each
other's time constraints when you work together in groups or in pairs.
Be careful not to wait until the last minute to do your part of the work
since the quality (or poor quality) of your work will affect the grades
of the folks in your group or your partner. Do not wait
until the last moments before the deadline for a discussion posting or
an assignment due date because your missing the deadline will result in
a grade of zero (0) for the members of the group or for you and your
partner: you are responsible to your group or your partner.
Always remember that technology and Internet connections can be
problematic.
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Flaming will not be tolerated.
What is flaming? Flaming is the posting of hostile,
offensive, threatening, insulting, or disrespectful materials online or
the sending of hostile, offensive, threatening, insulting, or
disrespectful materials by email or instant messenger. You
are expected to be respectful to all members of the class and to the
instructor at all times. All instances/occurrences of flaming will
be reported to the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
and Dean of Students together with the supporting evidence in the form of the
Discussion Board posting, email, and/or instant messenger file.
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No offensive/threatening/insulting/disrespectful
data/information or topics are to be used for any assignments or discussion board
postings. When you are assigned to create examples or to
select data/information for an assignment or for a discussion board posting, you are
expected to select topics that are not offensive, threatening,
insulting, or disrespectful to any member of the class or to the
instructor. Keep in mind that this is a course for a general
audience and, as such, all material should be appropriate for a general
audience. Therefore, you should keep in mind a G-rating (like for
movie ratings, appropriate for general audience) for all materials that
you use for assignments or discussions of course topics, post online or send to someone else. Any offensive,
threatening, insulting, or disrespectful materials used in assignments
or discussions of course topics, posted on the
discussion board or sent by email or instant messenger will be forwarded
to the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of
Students
together with the supporting evidence in the form of the Discussion
Board posting, email, and/or instant messenger file. Any
offensive, threatening, or disrespectful materials will be removed from
the discussion board, and the
grade for the any discussion of course topics, discussion posting and/or assignment
for which offensive, threatening, insulting, or disrespectful materials
were used will be recorded as a
zero (0); the individual who posted or used the offensive, threatening,
insulting, or disrespectful materials will be expected to apologize to
the class and to the instructor.
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Again, please remember that you are all here to learn.
The learning environment should be respectful of the natural
need to ask questions and the natural tendency to make
mistakes. We learn by asking questions and by
making mistakes. The learning environment should be
encouraging and no one should be put down or criticized for
asking questions (There is no such thing as a stupid
question!) or for making mistakes. You are a
member of this learning environment and, as such, you are
expected to encourage and to help each to learn. Since
we are all in this together, let us work together to make this
class an enjoyable experience for everyone, both student and
instructor alike. |
