All students are expected to comply with the following policies.

Academic Integrity: Academic integrity and honesty are basic values of Ohio University. Students are expected to follow standards of academic integrity and honesty. Academic misconduct is a violation of the Ohio University Student Code of Conduct subject to a maximum sanction of disciplinary suspension or expulsion as well as a grade penalty in the course. You are expected to be familiar with the information on academic integrity provided at https://www.ohio.edu/student-affairs/community-standards/students.

Turnitin: Students agree that by taking this course all required assignments may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of Turnitin.com page service is subject to the Usage Policy and Privacy Pledge posted on the Turnitin.com site.

Classroom Incivility: You are expected to behave in a civil manner, carefully listen to whoever is talking at a moment, and respect other people in class. I will not tolerate behaviors that are harmful to the learning of students, such as distracting your classmates’ attention (e.g., by chatting with someone next to you), disrupting other people’s speech, mocking or insulting other people, and showing general disrespect and poor manners toward other people in class. If you harm your classmates’ learning in these ways, you will be asked to leave the classroom.

Electronic Devices: During class, you may use laptops or tablets only to participate in class, and unless otherwise instructed, you may not use any electronic devices, such as cellphones, tablets, and laptops, while you are taking exams in class.

Grade Disputes: If you believe that a grade on any specific assignment was in error, or unfair, you should resubmit that assignment, along with a brief cover note detailing those prima facie errors, or disagreement, together with appropriate evidence. The same procedure should be followed regarding the final grade. A request for re-grading or re-assessment is just that: the revised grade may increase, remain unchanged, or decrease. An explanation will be provided to the student in any case. Note that this policy does not apply to grade calculation errors, which should be brought to my attention right away.

No Extra Credit: There will be no extra credit assignments.

Attendance: Attendance in lecture and discussion sections is required because your attendance is necessary for participating in in-class activities which help you and other students.

Attendance will be taken once the add/drop period ends. Depending on the class schedule, you may miss certain number of meetings without penalty:

• Three (3) classes and graded in-class activities if classes usually meet twice a week.
• Two (2) classes and graded in-class activities if classes usually meet once a week.
• Two (2) discussion section meetings (if any).

You are to use these freebies to cover occasional sick days and other absences, and the penalty is described under “unexcused absences” below. If you must miss a large portion of the semester due to illness or other reasons, you should talk to your advisor and instructors as soon as possible.

Be sure to familiarize yourself with Ohio University’s class attendance policy in the catalog. Go to the catalog website (https://www.catalogs.ohio.edu/) and click “Academic Policies” on the menu. The attendance policy is given under enrollment information.

Excused Absences: Certain absences are considered legitimate by the university. These include illness, death in the immediate family, religious observance, jury duty, required military reserve training, and involvement in university-sponsored activities. Consistent with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 guidelines, the university will also treat absences for students who are engaging in self-quarantine at the direction of the health care professional or other official health department, or who think they might have COVID-19 as legitimate. Provided that these absences do not exceed a total of two weeks of instruction and provided that work for the absence period is made up, these absences will be excused. For absences due to causes other than illness, suspected infectious illness, or quarantine, students should provide appropriate documentation. For illness, suspected illness, or quarantine totaling less than two weeks of instruction, no documentation is required. If you have legitimate absences totaling more than two weeks of instruction, you may not be able to meet the learning outcomes for the course before the end of the semester. In this case, please consult with the instructor.

Unexcused Absences: Other absences are not excused in the sense that they may result in a grade penalty. For each unexcused absence beyond the freebies described above, you will lose 1/10 of the percentage weight of attendance as stated in the syllabus (e.g., if attendance is worth 10% of the final grade, each penalty will be 1%). In addition, you may not be able to make up in-class work for days on which you were absent without a university-recognized legitimate cause.

Makeup Work: The work that you need to make up for periods in which you were absent includes not only class points but learning. Make up work may require you to turn in additional assignments that develop the same skills or knowledge that we worked on acquiring in class.

Lecture Recordings: If lectures are given through Microsoft Teams, recordings will be shared with the class in case you have to miss a lecture due to an excused absence or sudden technological difficulties. But watching recordings is not a substitute for attendance, so I reserve the right to stop sharing recordings if attendance drops significantly. Note that in-person lectures will not be recorded.

24-Hour Email Policy: I will respond to your email within 24 hours of receipt, unless I’m stranded in the middle of nowhere. If you don’t get a response after 24 hours, please resend an email.

University Resources for Learning

Your success in this course is important to me. I recognize that there are multiple ways to learn and that this multiplicity should be acknowledged in the structure of university courses and the evaluation of their participants. Thus, I encourage you to discuss your learning styles and comprehension requirements with me during my office hours or at another arranged time, if necessary. It is best to do this as early as possible. Every student is entitled to a meaningful and stimulating learning experience, and you are strongly encouraged to use the services provided by the Academic Achievement Center (https://www.ohio.edu/uc/aac) and the Student Writing Center (https://www.ohio.edu/uc/aac/swc). Disabled students are also strongly encouraged to use the services provided by Student Accessibility Services (https://www.ohio.edu/uc/sas), including the provision of note-takers, transcribers, and sign-language interpreters.