Course Information
Attendance policy
You are expected in class each and every time it is scheduled. Points earned in class through quizzes in-class activities cannot be made up. It is expected that all homework and assigned work (labs, papers, projects, etc.) will be turned in on the due date. Thus, multiple absences will indeed affect your grade.
Class Attendance and College Sponsored Activities
Learning is central to our work at Kirkwood Community College. Faculty design educational experiences to facilitate learning and students learn by engaging in those experiences. Attendance and engagement in all scheduled classes is regarded as integral to learning and is expected of all students.
Kirkwood faculty members identify expectations for learning and attendance in their course syllabi. Students are accountable for the learning outcomes for each session, including those sessions that have been missed. Assessments of learning that occur during an absence may or may not be made up depending on the policies of the instructor and the nature of the absence. Absences that result from participation in college sponsored activities* will be accommodated, subject to the guidelines listed below. For all other absences, authorization of an excuse is the province of the individual faculty member and subject to the standard appeal process.
College Sponsored Activities
Students involved in activities in which they are required to represent the college, i.e. college-sponsored activities, must give written notice to the faculty member at least one week in advance of the absence unless the college’s last minute schedule changes make this notice impossible. If regular season athletic schedules have been developed, student participants must present written notice of anticipated absences within the first week of the semester. Failure to provide timely written notice may result in loss of this opportunity.
Faculty shall accord students the opportunity to independently make up course work or work of equal value, for the day(s) the event was scheduled and to take a scheduled exam at an alternate time. The faculty member shall determine alternate exam times and due dates for missed coursework. These assigned dates may be prior to the date of the absence.
Organizers (coaches, faculty and staff) of college sponsored activities shall 1) assist students in planning class schedules to minimize the number of absences; 2) inform students of their responsibilities as described above; and 3) provide written communications to faculty announcing and verifying the need for student class absences. Written notices should be provided at the beginning of the semester if the schedule is known, or as soon as possible after the need for a student absence is determined.
*College sponsored activities (excluding practices) include such events as athletic competitions, student academic competitions and conferences, musical and drama performances, and class field trips. Questions on whether an activity is a college-sponsored event for purposes of this policy should be directed to the Vice-President of Instruction. If anticipated absences for a semester appear to be extraordinarily numerous or difficult to accommodate, a faculty member may appeal the need for the full accommodation to the VP of Instruction.
Learning Pollicy
Disruptions to other students’ ability to learn or my ability to teach will not be tolerated. Cell phones and smartphones should be turned off or set to silent/vibrate. There is little if any need to use them in class and no, I would not be shocked to know how much students check Facebook or text in class—I was writing computer code and using them before the Web existed.
We believe that the best learning takes place in an environment in which faculty and students exhibit trust and mutual respect.
Students promote trust by preparing honest and thoughtful work, and by expecting evaluation based on performance. Faculty promote trust by setting clear guidelines for assignments and evaluations, providing honest feedback, and assigning bias-free grades.
Students show respect by being prepared and attending class on time, by paying attention, contributing to discussions, listening respectfully to others’ points of view, meeting deadlines, and striving for their best performance. Faculty show respect through timeliness and preparedness, by taking students seriously, valuing their goals and aspirations, and by providing honest feedback.
In a productive learning environment, faculty and students work cooperatively, recognize and respect differences, model the values of character and citizenship, and become lifelong learners.
Plagiarism POlicy
According to Webster, to plagiarize is “to steal or pass off the ideas or words of another as one’s own…to use created productions without crediting the source…to commit literary theft…to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.”
Kirkwood students are responsible for authenticating any assignment submitted to an instructor. If asked, you must be able to produce proof that the assignment you submit is actually your own work. Therefore, we recommend that you engage in a verifiable working process on assignments. Keep copies of all drafts of your work, make photocopies of research materials, write summaries of research materials, hang onto Writing Center receipts, keep logs or journals of your work on assignments and papers, learn to save drafts or versions of assignments under individual file names on computer or diskette so that you can demonstrate changes from one document to another, etc.
The inability to authenticate your work, should an instructor request it, is a sufficient ground for failing the assignment.
In addition to requiring a student to authenticate his/her work, Kirkwood Community College instructors may employ various other means of ascertaining authenticity – such as engaging in Internet searches, creating quizzes based on student work, requiring students to explain their work and/or process orally, etc.
Americans With Disabilities Act
Students with disabilities who need accommodations to achieve course objectives should file an accommodation application with Learning Services, 2063 Cedar Hall, and provide a written plan of accommodation to instructors prior to the accommodation being provided.