J. Patrick Fenton, CIS Dept., West Valley College
E-mail to:Your Syllabus is your "contract."
A course syllabus is your instructor's "offer" to you, including the terms and conditions of that offer, for the course you are about to take. This document sets out the "rules," or expectations by which we both agree to abide during the course. Of course, there may be changes to the course during the semester, and those are announced to you along the way. Additional information may also be required, such as the use of the college's on-line course management system, "Angel", or other tools employed during the course. Please see the specific pages for instructions as required.
(For information regarding Angel and MyITLab, click the Resources button on the left sidebar.)
Academic Term |
Lecture Course, Fall Semester 2011 |
Course Information |
CIS 002, Introduction to Computing Section 10561 |
Instructor |
J. Patrick Fenton |
Please Note: |
Your instructor may make changes to the syllabus and/or assignments during the semester. It is the student's responsibility to stay informed of these changes. Students may contact the instructor via e-mail and via Angel. . |
Office Information: |
Office Location : Business Division, office
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Course Description |
An introduction to the fundamental concepts of computer operations and applications. The course prepares students to understand how a computer may be used as a problem-solving tool. Actual application software - word processing, spreadsheet, and database - is used to train students to use the computer as a part of their continuing studies. New technologies, such as publishing web pages, will be explored. |
Course Information |
This is a first course in computing, introducing students to the concepts and uses of computing applications in business and society. May be taken for a Grade or for Pass/No Pass Option. Please note, however, that you must inform your instructor within the first two weeks if you want to receive a Pass/No Pass grade rather than a letter grade; you may make that choice within the Angel section for this course.. See additional information below. Recommended preparation: Although there is little to recommend as preparation for this very basic course, students will benefit from prior use of computing systems and their applications, such as Word, web browsers, etc. |
Course Content |
Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to: Student Learning Outcomes:
Note: Many colleges and universities, including West Valley College, adopted an "Information Competency" curriculum requirement for all college students in order to support your ability to research, obtain, and use information from a variety of sources, both traditional and electronic. This is being implemented in a variety of ways across the curriculum. In this course, you will explore how to define a problem, learn how to search for factual information, and to incorporate this information in your work. |
Instructor's Comments |
This course is divided roughly into two parts: one part addresses the concepts underlying the use and operation of a computer; the second is hands-on tutorial covering the actual use of applications software. There is no one who can learn the applications for you, so you will need to spend some time in front of the computer. Plan enough time so you aren't rushed and frustrated (any more than necessary). In that spirit, I can offer assistance to you but I want to see that you have tried to solve your difficulty on your own. I insist that you first check your work and quite often you will see that you did indeed overlook a basic process - easy to do when learning something new and confusing. Also, you may have a problem that I cannot solve for you because neither you nor I have any idea of the actual keystrokes you used - the possibilities are endless. Finally, you will seek advice from EVERYONE, and that is, to some extent, good. However, you will also get much conflicting advice - some good, some in good spirit. In the end, you are the only one responsible for learning, so you must be responsible for doing. Also, I am not naive enough to believe students are only now, in college, learning to use personal computers; I know most students have had years of experience using the basic tools. However, I postulate that most students have also had years to acquire bad habits, have learned to use software "on the fly" or only sufficient enough to get an assignment done or type a resume for a job interview. There definitely are techniques to help you be more productive, more professional, and more efficient; thus, we will perhaps speed through some very elementary basics and on to the efficiencies I doubt you know. If you need to review something, ask as we go along; "silence" - to paraphrase St./Sir Thomas Moore - is considered "assent" or understanding. Assistance : The entire purpose of the hands-on portion of this class is to help you to start to be self-sufficient in using the computer. If you constantly have trouble using the computer, you may have missed a very elementary conceptual step. I will try to help you discover and correct this. The college does also have a tutorial services office near the campus library where you may be able to obtain personal tutorial help should you feel that you need it. The Tech Center staff are not tutors. Remember that it is your instructor's job to teach you the concepts. If you are having difficulty,communicate with your instructor FIRST. This helps to give your instructor feedback as to concepts that may need to be covered again for the entire class. It also gives your instructor a chance to clarify things for you. "Hands-on" work with the computer as a part of this course is essential, and there is no substitute for your personal involvement.You are responsible for completion of the material. VERY IMPORTANT: Make certain you are fully prepared with all the required materials before you start to work on assignments, projects, study plans, and so on. Having to go search in the middle of your course activities will simply frustrate you. I suggest you keep all of your course materials in one place, together. |
Text and Materials |
Textbooks: The "textbooks" for this course are "e-books" within myitlab from Pearson Education. on Education. The e-bookTextbooks: The "textbooks" for this course is myitlab, provided by Pearson Education in entirely electronic form as a combination of "e-books" and on-line software applications. Students purchase a registration key directly from Pearson Education or from the bookstore to enable access to myitlab, and follow a setup process on their computer to use myitlab for the course. eTexts are similar in content to the printed textbooks by the same titles from Pearson Education, and students may purchase a "hard copy," printed textbook via a link within the MyITLab environment; given that students have already purchased the electronic text, the printed copy is offered at a discount via MyITLab.
You certainly may make use of printed copies of these same texts, provided you use the same edition as the course uses, that you may have from other sources, such as a friend who has taken the same course. Just know that the MyITLab cost will not be any less simply for your having the printed text copies. Tests: Tests are givenon-line on your computer; you will not need to purchase test forms or blue books. You will, however, need MyITLab. Software: The homework and reports are based upon Microsoft Office 2010. You may use any highly compatible alternative software, such as Microsoft Office 2011 or 2008 (Mac),MS Office 2101 or 2003 plus the Compatibility Pack, or Open Office. Microsoft Works, installed as “Included Software” by many computer sellers,is NOT compatible with MS Office. You might consider upgrading your software; more information on this will be provided via the course. Internet Access: You will need to have access to the Internet during this course. WVC uses a course management system, found at wvmccd.angellearning.com , as a part of on-line learning. This class does use the Angel Learning system to announce assignments; accept homework and papers; and to track student grades. Angel Learning may also be used for other course activities. If you do not have access to the Internet at your home or work, you should go to the campus Technology Center and inquire about establishing your access there. E-Mail Account: West Valley College does not provide students e-mail accounts . You are encouraged to establish an e-mail account for use in this class as well as for your personal use. Angel Learning Systems (the course management system used for on-line classes and "blended" courses such as this one) does provide an e-mail facility but that system is not a general e-mail. If you do not have one, you can easily create a free e-mail account on Yahoo.com, Google.com, or other free e-mail sites. These accounts are easily accessible from any internet-connected computer. |
Grading, Evaluation Procedures |
Your course grade is based upon a cumulative total of points earned. Each of the application program assignments and quizzes is valued 10 points. Two written reports are assigned, valued 50 and 100 points. Points are deducted for late submission of work and for work not completed per instructions given to students. The tests are each 50 points and the Final examination is 100 points. |
Grading Standards |
The grading scale for this class is: A= 90%, B=80%, C=70%, D=60%, F < 60%. This course is offered as both a graded or Pass/No Pass option where "Pass" is equal to "C" or better. Taking the course for P/NP option does not mean that you are exempt from doing the same work as a student enrolled for a letter grade in the course. |
College Policies |
All students should be familiar with the college catalog, which can be obtained in the bookstore, viewed in the counseling offices, or downloaded in an Adobe Acrobat PDF file from the college's website at http://www.westvalley.edu/wvc/catalog.html . Students should review the Student Conduct Code . . The following items are excerpted from an edition of the catalog, reproduced here as they apply to students enrolled in this course. • Students are held fully responsible for following College procedures for adding, dropping or withdrawal, and for filing appropriate forms in the Admissions Office. • Prohibited activities or behavior which is specifically identified in the Student Conduct Code: • Cheating, plagiarism or knowingly furnishing false information in the classroom or to a College officer. (See also the following policy on cheating.) • Disorderly, lewd, indecent, or obscene conduct or expression on any College owned or controlled property or at any College sponsored or supervised function. • Failure to comply with lawful directions of College officials, faculty, staff or campus police officers who are acting within the scope of their duties. |
Catalog Regulatory Information |
Special Needs : Students requiring assistance: Any student who needs an accommodation based on the impact of a disability (visible or not) should West Valley College's DESP office, 408.741.2010 or 408.741.2658 (TTY) to coordinate reasonable accommodations for your verified disability ADA Statement : The American with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact DESP in the Learning Services Building; telephone 408.741.2010 or 408.741.2658 (TTY). Unlawful Discrimination/Sexual Harassment If you have a complaint or someone has shared information with you as a student or employee that is unlawful discrimination or sexual harassment, contact the Associate Vice Chancellor of Human Resources at West Valley-Mission Community College District, Human Resources Department, (408-741-2060). If the Associate Vice Chancellor of Human Resources is not available, contact the President of the college in which you attend or are employed. For West Valley College, contact the office of Dr. Philip Hartley at 408-741-2097. Student Attendance Policy: (from the WVC Catalog, p. 182) Students are expected to attend all sessions of each class. Instructors may drop students from the class if they fail to attend the first class meeting, or when accumulated unexcused hours of absences exceed ten percent of the total number of hours the class meets during the semester. Moreover, an instructor may drop from the class any student who fails to attend at least one class session during the first three weeks of instruction. Note: This policy is obviously addressed to students in a lecture class, but the same degree of participation in an on-line class is expected, so similar logic applies. Policy on Academic Dishonesty See the WVC Catalog, p. 182, and the section below. Final Exam Policy A final examination, or alternative final assessment activity, is required of all students in all courses for which a letter grade can be awarded. Final examinations or assessments for full semester courses are scheduled for a two-hour period and will not be given in advance of the scheduled time printed in the final examination schedule. For your on-line course, the final exam will also be on-line; an announcement will be given for the dates/times of the final exam's availability and submission. |
Academic Dishonesty "Cheating" |
From the College Catalog, section 5.8.19: Policy On Cheating: Dishonesty includes but is not limited to in-class cheating, out-of-class cheating, plagiarism, knowingly assisting another student in cheating or plagiarism, or knowingly furnishing false information to College staff, faculty, administrators or other officials. Following are definitions of in-class cheating, out-of-class cheating, plagiarism, and furnishing false information. These are not all-inclusive and the list itself is not meant to limit definition of cheating to just those mentioned. a. In-class cheating: during an examination or on any work for which the student will receive a grade or points, unauthorized looking at or procuring information from any unauthorized sources, or any other student's work. b. Out-of-class cheating: unauthorized acquisition, reading or knowledge of test questions prior to the testing date and time; changing any portion of a returned graded test or report and resubmitting as original work to be regraded; or presenting the work of another as one's own for a grade or points. c. Plagiarism: unauthorized use of expression of ideas from either published or unpublished work(s) as a student's own work for a grade in a class. This also includes the violation of copyright laws, including copying of software packages. d. Furnishing false information: forgery, falsification, alteration or misuse of College documents, records, or identification in class or in laboratory situations. 5.8.19.1 Classroom-Related Disciplinary Sanctions When a student is charged with plagiarism or cheating related to a class, and the instructor has reasonable proof or documentation or the student admits the violation, the instructor may select one or more of the following options: a. Issue an oral or written notification and warn the student that further acts of this sort will result in additional disciplinary action. b. Issue a NP or a failing grade (F) or 0 for the assignment in question. c. Issue a NP or a failing grade for the course. The student will not be permitted to drop the class and will receive an F or NC for the semester grade. d. Drop the student from the class and assign a withdrawal (W) for the class up to the last day to withdraw from semester term courses. Students dropped after stated date would be assigned a failing (F) for the class, pursuant to the uniform grading policy. e. Refer the student to the CSSO for disciplinary action. So -- if considering it -- Don't Cheat! Note: The College's policy on academic dishonesty covers in-class cheating, out-of-class cheating, plagiarism, and furnishing false information. Purdue University has a good website that explains to students what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. The URL is http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r plagiar.html |
Instructor's Policies |
Attendance : It is the student's responsibility to "attend" class. Obviously, there is no in-class attendance for an on-line course; rather, I determine continuing participation, measured by tests, submission of required work, etc., as evidence of the student's continued enrollment. Add/Drop policies : According to college policies, the instructor has discretion to add students during the first week of the semester. I will not add students to a capacity greater than can be reasonably accommodated. Note: The College is enforcing a policy that students who have not paid their fees for the class will be summarily dropped from the class. If asked, you will need to provide a receipt showing payment; I suggest you keep your enrollment and receipt paperwork with you for the first few weeks of class in case of dispute. Students who wish to drop this class must go to the admissions office to complete and submit the required forms . It is the student's responsibility to process all forms, not the instructor's; failure to adhere to this policy may result in not being properly enrolled and thus not receiving credit for the class, or for being issued a grade of F or NC as well as being responsible for payment of all course fees for not dropping the class in the proper period. Do not assume I will drop you. . Note: International students, students on financial aid, scholarships, sports, or other plans affected by the number of units in which they are enrolled are encouraged to check with a counselor BEFORE dropping a course in order to not violate terms of your program or visa. Incomplete policy : Instructors have discretion to issue an Incomplete for a course. Due to the participative nature of this course, I only rarely and for special circumstances will consider an Incomplete and only following a discussion with the student. Failure to complete assignments is not in itself considered a valid reason for an incomplete. Pass/No Pass/Grade policy: The college catalog states that the student must notify the instructor of the selection of the Pass/No Passor a Letter Grade option no later than the end one-third of the class; for semester-length classes it is approximately the fifth week; in summer, it is the second of six weeks. My policy is that students are given a letter grade by default unless they make the P/NP choice in writing, showing your name, student ID, course and section number, within required time period. Withing the Angel section of the class, there is a drop box for posting this election; elections may be made solely through this drop box within the section. Student Conduct/Appropriate use of facilities: This applies if you are using an on-campus Tech Center or classroom computer. Review the excerpt of the college's policies for student conduct. In my course, inappropriate use of the facilities is considered a violation of student conduct. There shall be no display of material considered pornographic, vulgar, sexually explicit, depicting or suggesting extreme violence, or otherwise objectionable in content to other students. This applies to all materials submitted for homework, shared projects, on-line activities such as chat rooms or forums. This policy will be enforced with a "Zero Tolerance" attitude. Please read this again; I consider this very serious and very important. There will be no leniency. "Late," Defined: To eliminate confusion, let me define " Late ," as in work submitted late, late for the test, etc. "Late" is any time after the deadline announced to the class as a whole; due dates are generally posted to the Angel calendar for the course section. Homework assignments, term papers, etc. are due on the assigned date or as otherwise explicitly noted. Once the due date and time has passed, any further submissions are "Late" by definition. Work is always accepted, even if it is "late," but you will lose some credit for being late. I can, and do, reduce the assigned value for late work. A "Last Date to Submit Anything" will be posted on the Angel calendar; work submitted prior to that deadline will be graded, but work submitted post-deadline will not be considered. "Extra Credit" is never counted towards a student's final grade unless all required work has been submitted. "Extra Credit" is just that -- extra, not work done in lieu of the required assignments. Required work is defined as all Office assignments and allReport assignments. Discuss with me any work you would like to do for credit beyond required work and get approval before submitting it as "extra credit." One alternative is that students are permitted to use meaningful projects from the MS Office textbook as "extra credit" as long as the project was neither used as in-class tutorial, example, nor assigned as homework. An Extra Credit drop box is provided within the Angel section; see instructions in that drop box. "Make Up" Test/Examinations: Given that this is an on-line course and that all exams are always announced in advance with at least a notation on the course calendar within Angel, and that the exams are open for student access for a reasonable period of days during the "due date" period, there are no "make up" tests or "late access" to tests. This implies that you are directly responsible for the exams, making certain you have appropriate access to the Internet and myitlab to complete the exams during the stipulated time period. Excaptiion to this policy is rare, but if you have a special circumstance, please contact me. |
Test/Examination schedules |
Tests and the final examination will be announced via the Angel calendar in advance of the test date. You may, however, have unnanounced quizzes from time-to-time; these are graded at 10 points, whereas tests are 50 points. |
Assignments and Projects |
Homework assignments, term papers, etc. are listed separately on the Angel Lessons tab for your course section. Homework Policies: 1. All work assigned must conform to instructions issued for each assignment and to instructions in these notes. Most assignments follow the instructions in the book but there occasionally are some specific changes to be noted. 2. All homework, lab assignments, papers, and tests are required. All computer lab homework assignments are due according to the posted due dates. All homework, lab assignments, papers, and extra credit work must be submitted on time and complete as required for full credit. Check the assignments listing within Angel Learning for the dates assigned and due, as well as the method for submitting the work. 3. Homework may be submitted "late." Late work may be assessed a penalty reducing the assignment's point value. "Late" is defined in the Instructor's policies above. 4. No late work will be accepted after the Last Due Date, which will be posted on Angel's calendar. The absolute last submission date is noted on the calendar within the class section's Angel Learning web site. Submisions after that date will not be considered in determining grades. 5.Homework and term paper report files are submitted electronically via the Angel class management system. Please carefully follow instructions for submission of files as explained in class for each assignment. It will be your responsibility to verify that files submitted are appropriately uploaded and appear in the system. Assignments are not accepted via e-mail without prior arrangement with your instructor and only when circumstance warrants. Generally, all assignments should be posted to their respective drop box in Angel. 6. You are encouraged to ask questions regarding homework, clarification of the assignments, method of submission, etc. The best forum for questions is a course forum (in Angel); the best alternative is via e-mail to me via Angel. |
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