1. FACULTY EXPECTATIONS EDU673 Dr. Sara Mattson, PhD sara.mattson@faculty.ashford.edu

2. Hi Class, Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with my expectations to ensure we all have a successful learning experience. And, please let me know if you have any questions as I am here to help! Thank you, Dr. Sara Mattson, PhD Faculty Ashford University Defining the modern college experience SM

3. Exceed Expectations… “Don’t live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable!” ~ Wendy Wasserstein

4. INSTRUCTOR’S EXPECTATIONS OF THE STUDENTS

5. Late Assignment Policy Assignments are to be submitted by 11:59 pm (your time zone) on the due date. Late assignments will be accepted up to three days beyond the original due date, but I do ask for the professional courtesy of an email prior to the deadline. Late assignments will receive a 10% deduction for each day late (please note, this amounts to an entire letter grade and is nonnegotiable). * Please note, this late policy only applies to weekly written assignments. Journals, Learning Activities, DQ and peer responses must be posted by their respective due dates in order to receive credit. * This late policy does not apply to our final week’s assignments, as all assignments must be submitted by the last day of class. I will not accept assignments after the close of this course.

6. Discussion Board Expectations Each week you will participate in collegiate conversations with the class in our discussion forums. Initial responses to discussion questions are due no later than Day 3 (Thursday) of each week. If your initial response is not posted by Thursday, I will enter a score of zero on Friday morning. You will then have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to a minimum of two classmates. Once you have posted peer responses, I will adjust your DQ score to reflect those posts only. All discussion posts must demonstrate collegiate-level writing and be free from mechanical and grammatical errors. When citing resources, use APA guidelines (posts, themselves, need not follow APA formatting). I strongly encourage you to jump into the discussion threads early and often to optimize your learning and that of your classmates. Day 7 responses are rarely beneficial to anyone. If I respond to your post and ask you for more information or suggest a way to improve your post, I expect you to go back and post a reply. In turn, I will respond to your questions. This is critical for good conversations and for creating a social learning environment. I also encourage you to read my responses to your classmates’ posts. I do quite a bit of my teaching through the discussion forums and my response to someone else’s post may provide information that would be helpful for you as well. Read and re-read “About Discussions” found under “Course Home.” This resource includes “Do’s & Don’ts,” the “Discussion Forum Grading Rubric,” and many more helpful tips to make our discussions personal and meaningful.

7. “Recycled Assignment” Policy You are expected to submit new and original work for each assignment in this course. Using your own previously submitted work is called “self-plagiarism” and could warrant similar consequences as standard plagiarism. If you wish to incorporate prior work submitted in another course, or from another university, you may do so only with advanced permission from me. I regularly use the university’s Turnitin plagiarism checker. Please make sure you familiarize yourself with the university’s “Academic Dishonesty Policy”, located in the purple navigation menu under “Course Home | Student Responsibilities and Policies”.

8. “Housekeeping” Items… Turn your assignments in on time. You lose 10% of your overall grade for each day late (this equates to an entire letter grade). I will only accept assignments three days beyond their original due date, as long as you contact me for prior permission. Make sure you are covering all the details of the assignment. Many of these assignments have several parts, so read the full assignment description. A side note, all Word documents must include properly formatted title and reference pages. In most cases, what you turn in will be compiled into one Word document, unless otherwise specified. Turn in collegiate-level work. At the very least, before you submit an assignment or post a message, conduct a spell check. Beyond that, your work should be free of grammatical and mechanical errors as well as properly formatted to APA standards. This applies to your Discussion Question Responses and Participation posts. Be open and receptive to my feedback. When I return your work, I will provide comments within the body of the work and also in the grading rubric. Please read and apply any suggestions you find helpful. This will ensure you do not continue to lose points over issues such as grammar and structure. Take APA seriously. You are required to master APA formatting for this class. You can go to the university online library and familiarize yourself with APA guidelines. The school offers many resources to help you master APA formatting. Read all my posts. Please read each announcement I post. I will be posting reminders and helpful suggestions to our Class Home page or via your Individual Messages. In a virtual classroom setting, this is my main means of communicating important information to you. If you have any questions, ask. You can post questions of a general nature, that the rest of the class could benefit from, to our Ask Your Instructor forum.

9. STUDENTS’ EXPECTATIONS OF THE INSTRUCTOR

10. Contact Information and Response Time I will answer all questions, posted to our “Ask Your Instructor Forum” or via email (sara.mattson@faculty.ashford.edu), within the university’s established 48-response time. My personal goal, however, is to respond to all student questions within 24 hours. If you are in need of a response before you hear back from me, I encourage you to post your question to your classmates in the “Ashford Café” (found under “Course Home”). All personal queries, such as those regarding student grades, should be communicated via email to protect students’ privacy rights. Please e-mail me as soon as possible if you require special accommodations to ensure you have equal access to all aspects of this course.

11. Announcements and Weekly Guidance Announcements I will post weekly announcements, providing a range of housekeeping requirements and assignment clarifications. Please make sure to read each announcement I post as they are designed to help you. Weekly Guidance A standard Guidance is posted to each week’s syllabus. Each Guidance provides additional information and resources to assist you in completing the weekly assignments and discussion questions. Please take a moment, at the beginning of each week, to review these tabs.

12. Grades Discussion board grades will be posted no later than 11:59 pm on Thursday of each week. Written assignment grades and feedback will be posted no later than 11:59 pm on the following Sunday (Please note that the faculty requirement for posting assignment grades was changed from Saturday to Sunday beginning on January 3, 2012.). However, I do strive to post assignment grades sooner, usually by Friday of each week. Final grades will be posted 11:59 pm on the Monday following the last day of class.

13. AGAIN, I LOOK FORWARD TO LEARNING WITH AND FROM ALL OF YOU OVER THE COURSE OF THIS CLASS! SINCEREST REGARDS, DR. SARA MATTSON, PHD SARA.MATTSON@FACULTY.ASHFORD.EDU SARA.MATTSON@FACULTY.ASHFORD.EDU “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it” ~ Aristotle