Course Orientation Syllabus Part III

Adria Peaden
1.1K views • August 24, 2025
0:05 This is our final video. Again, I hope
0:08 this is a short one. And this is
0:10 basically how to uh
0:15 I don't know how to how to get the grade
0:17 you want, but understanding the rules,
0:19 right? So, we're just going to finish
0:21 the last part of the syllabus. We have
0:24 done where to find your assignments,
0:27 what's due, what's your grade comprised
0:29 of. We've talked about how to
0:31 communicate in this class. Announcements
0:34 are important, what are your required
0:36 course books, your required course
0:38 technology,
0:39 and we're going to finish the syllabus
0:41 with grading policies, late work, what's
0:43 a documented excuse, what's cheating,
0:46 those type of things. So, let's start
0:48 with the grading policy. First of all,
0:50 to question a grade, there is a policy
0:53 for that. If you have an issue with a
0:56 grade that's posted, you have 7 days, 7
0:59 days to submit an email to a TA or to
1:02 myself and describe what you think is
1:06 wrong. Uh, quizzes and exams, there
1:09 really aren't a lot of dispute on that
1:11 unless you make a mistake submitting.
1:13 Um, but the questions are pretty
1:15 straightforward. They're automatically
1:17 graded. Remember, when you press submit
1:19 on a quiz or exam, that's your grade.
1:22 You should be reviewing your grades
1:23 automatically. Don't ignore them. Make
1:26 sure they're accurate. When the projects
1:29 come about, that's where the grade
1:31 disputes come about. The main error that
1:34 students make on projects is to submit a
1:37 blank f file or the original start file
1:40 without any work on it. And that has to
1:42 do with saving issues, especially on a
1:45 Mac. sometimes on a a Windows machine,
1:48 but when Microsoft Office likes to set
1:50 you up to save to uh one drive, which is
1:53 a cloud drive, and it's not on your
1:56 personal computer. So, when you go to
1:58 submit, you go to submit the file that
2:00 you downloaded instead of the one you
2:02 worked on, and that causes some issues,
2:03 and you think it's a grading issue, but
2:05 it's not. It's actually a submission
2:07 issue. But that's okay. All of that can
2:10 be solved with a quick email. try to fix
2:13 your problems the second it happens. So
2:15 if you hit submit and you see let's say
2:18 one out of 33 on a project grade
2:20 immediately email us and say hey uh I
2:24 don't know what's wrong or maybe this
2:27 will jog your memory and go I remember
2:29 Miss P saying something about maybe I
2:32 submitted the wrong file. Let me go look
2:34 in the frequently asked questions for
2:35 that week. Oh sure enough there are
2:38 instructions on how to fix it. But the
2:40 dispute of grade, you have seven days to
2:43 talk about it. And that prevents you
2:45 going to the end of the term and
2:47 everybody's emailing me saying, "I just
2:49 need um 0.2 points to get that A. Can
2:52 you go look at my Excel chapter 1 and
2:53 see if there was something wrong with
2:54 it?"
2:56 No, I can't. Your final letter grade,
3:01 everything in this class is
3:03 automatically put out there. I showed
3:04 you the schedule in the first video. Go
3:06 back to the syllabus. You can print it.
3:08 You can see everything that's due, when
3:09 it's due, how many points it's worth.
3:12 There's no surprises. In addition,
3:15 remember I have given you stepby-step
3:17 help videos for every project. You
3:19 should get a 100 on every project based
3:21 on those videos. Quizzes have five
3:24 attempts, the highest grade counts.
3:26 Projects have three attempts, the
3:27 highest grade counts, all before the due
3:29 date, of course. Exams, you have open
3:32 note, open book. You have 60 minutes to
3:35 take them. If you miss an exam, you get
3:38 makeup exams. Uh there are all of these
3:42 ways in this class to help you get the
3:44 grade you want. This is not a weed out
3:46 class. I'm trying to help you get
3:47 through it and get a good grade.
3:50 Hopefully, it will boost your GPA with
3:52 everything I've given you in terms of
3:55 leeway in this class. Right? I'm going
3:58 to set a precedent that no additional
4:01 point earning activities will be
4:03 provided for students who at the end of
4:06 the semester realize they've fallen
4:07 short of their desired grade. This is
4:12 and I should add this. This is my
4:14 interpretation of university policy.
4:16 Students in any course must have exactly
4:18 the same opportunities to earn points
4:21 towards a final grade. Grades reflect
4:24 how a student performed. this there's a
4:27 miscommunication.
4:28 Sometimes students will be like, "You
4:30 gave me a B. I did not give you a B. You
4:34 earned a B. You did not earn an A minus
4:38 or an A. I've given you the tools to get
4:41 there. You earned a B." Okay? Also, do
4:46 not email TAs or myself to ask for extra
4:49 points. There are no extra points in
4:52 this class. No bonus, no rounding. And I
4:54 specifically say that the instructor
4:56 will not give away points. That means no
4:58 rounding of grades.
5:01 Uh
5:05 I wanted to give you an example of that
5:07 and this is this is something you need
5:10 to hear for other classes as well who
5:12 might have this policy. But let's say
5:15 someone comes to me and says I have a
5:17 91.8 that's an A minus. Can you give me
5:21 2 points? It seems like no big deal.
5:22 Like, come on. Just give me 02 points.
5:24 What's the big deal? Just round the
5:26 grade. I know I didn't get those .02
5:29 points, but I'm so close. I have a
5:31 scholarship. I could lose my GPA. Uh, it
5:35 could go down because I'm trying to get
5:37 into law school to med school, and
5:40 you're preventing me from getting that
5:42 good grade by just not rounding. Like,
5:44 what's the big deal? Here's the big
5:46 deal. 2 points you didn't earn. They're
5:49 not yours. I give it to you. Let's say I
5:52 give it to you. To keep with university
5:54 policy, to be fair to every student, to
5:57 give every student the equal
5:58 opportunity, I have to give every
6:01 student 2 points. But that's actually
6:03 not true. The 2 points gave you another
6:07 letter grade. So, it bumped you from an
6:10 A minus to an A. Are you saying I should
6:13 just give everybody 2 points, but you
6:15 got a letter grade out of it? Actually,
6:19 to be fair to every student, I have to
6:21 bump everybody's letter grade up a half
6:24 step. So now, let's say somebody had an
6:27 82, which is a B. I have to give them
6:31 several points to make a B+ to bump up
6:35 their letter grade.
6:37 There's no end in sight on the giving
6:39 out of points when you don't earn it
6:42 because inevitably I give you 02 points,
6:45 someone else is now 0.2 points away and
6:47 they want 2 more or I give someone half
6:50 a grade and they're like, "Well, you
6:51 gave me half a grade. Can I just get a
6:52 whole grade?" There's no end in sight.
6:55 And I have 800 to a,000 students every
6:57 term. To make this very clear and easy,
6:59 the answer is no. You earn the grade and
7:03 that's it. Okay.
7:06 soapbox moment, but we're clear.
7:10 Also, keep in mind because of how I set
7:12 up my grades in Canvas, they're all
7:14 weighted grades. So, for example, your
7:15 exam one is 10% of your final grade
7:18 instead of a point system. It kind of
7:20 causes a letter grade issue in Canvas.
7:24 So, right now, when you submit your
7:25 attendance quiz, you get 1% of your
7:27 grade fulfilled, but it tells you you
7:29 have an A in the whole class. One out of
7:33 100 does not make an A. it makes an F.
7:36 Correct? But what Canvas does is it
7:39 says, "So far you have like an A in what
7:42 you submitted." But if you were to quit
7:45 the class after just the attendance quiz
7:47 and I plug zeros into the rest, you know
7:50 how longer I have an A. Because there
7:52 are these blank spaces in Canvas that
7:54 don't have zeros and they don't have
7:56 grades. The letter grade is kind of
7:58 misleading. It will be accurate when all
8:01 grades are entered. So just kind of tuck
8:03 that away.
8:06 This does fulfill CGS 2060 and CGS 2100
8:10 does fulfill your digital literacy
8:12 requirement at FSU. I'm not going to
8:14 read that to you, but we have a
8:16 requirement that you need to take at
8:18 least one course that fulfills it. There
8:20 are lots of courses out there. This is
8:22 just one of many. And some people take
8:25 these courses again to boost their GPA.
8:29 Course policies. Let's start with
8:31 cheating.
8:33 It's you're kind of thinking, well,
8:34 there's no papers to write, so I can't
8:36 use AI. The projects are all the same
8:38 instructions, so I can't use AI, right?
8:41 Um, here's how the cheating happens in
8:44 this class. Is basically the use of
8:45 other students files. People think, I'll
8:48 get my buddy's file, he took it last
8:50 year, or my sority sister took this
8:52 class. They all have the files, so I'm
8:55 going to just copy the file or I'm going
8:57 to rename it and just submit it.
9:00 Don't do that. SimNet catches that.
9:03 SimNet catches people who use someone
9:05 else's file, copy and paste from another
9:08 student's file into your file, give out
9:11 your file to another student, allow
9:14 another student to copy and paste from
9:15 yours. And here's the one that's
9:18 difficult, and I should change this to
9:20 do not,
9:22 but I'm telling you right now, do not
9:24 share a computer with another student
9:26 who's taken this course or is in this
9:28 course. that will also flag your files
9:30 even if it's innocent. Even if you're
9:32 like, "I don't have a computer. Can I
9:34 use your computer to do my work?" What
9:36 happens is you're logged in with your
9:38 FSU account into Excel, for example. If
9:41 your roommate or your friend is logged
9:43 in with their Excel and you do your
9:45 project on it, there's a mismatch
9:47 between who's logged in and who's doing
9:49 the project.
9:51 So, I'm not always sure that if you
9:54 change the login up here to yours into
9:56 your project if it still won't flag you
9:58 for cheating because on the computer
10:01 itself are your friend's files. There's
10:04 just Simnets's tricky. I would just
10:07 avoid using another person's computer
10:10 who's taken this class or is in this
10:12 class because I haven't quite figured
10:14 out where
10:16 the cheating flag stops, you know? So, I
10:20 just say avoid it. Don't use another
10:22 person's computer who's in this class.
10:26 For exams, no, I can't flag you for
10:28 cheating for anything. It's all open
10:30 book. But I just I explained in this in
10:32 the first video, just avoid it. It's
10:34 just a waste of time.
10:36 In terms of communication or netiquette,
10:39 your etiquette on the web essentially,
10:42 please, when you email me, let me know
10:44 more information than just, "Hi, can you
10:48 help me? Let's be descriptive. First of
10:51 all, I teach two classes, 2060 2100.
10:54 Tell me where you are. It's It saves me
10:58 time going to look up where you are and
11:00 figure out where your grades are and and
11:02 you know, look at you. Secondly, tell me
11:05 what you're doing, what project, what
11:07 quiz, what exam, what step you're on.
11:11 In addition, if you're struggling with
11:13 something, screenshots, videos. I'd like
11:16 to point out a tool
11:23 is an extension on Chrome called Loom.
11:25 Loom M. So you could go to loom.com
11:29 and it essentially is a screen recording
11:31 tool. So if you add this to your Chrome,
11:34 you can screen record and show me
11:36 exactly what's happening. I use it all
11:38 the time. It's one of my favorite tools
11:42 to help you. So if you tell me you have
11:44 a problem, I might be like, "Send me
11:45 your file. I'll send you a short video
11:47 on how to fix it. So, you can also use
11:50 this tool to show me what's going wrong.
11:52 I used it last uh all summer long, and
11:55 it's been life-changing for me as an
11:57 instructor. When you email us, please
12:01 keep in mind that we're human and we
12:04 hold work off hours. Now, my TAs can be
12:06 night owls sometimes, so some of my TAs
12:09 might be up late. I actually also am
12:12 kind of a night owl, but I'm still going
12:13 to say it. If you email us after 5:00
12:16 p.m. Eastern, don't expect a reply
12:19 quickly. Maybe the next morning. Also,
12:22 over the weekend, maybe not quickly.
12:24 Nothing's due over the weekend. It It's
12:26 only people working late. I, however, on
12:30 due dates, especially if projects, will
12:32 be up until 11:59 p.m. Eastern when
12:34 they're due. I just, it's part of my
12:37 service to you guys as an instructor.
12:39 Again, I don't lecture live, so I like
12:41 to offer that to you. I'm up late. Email
12:44 email me if you have issues.
12:48 Now, let's go into what is a valid
12:49 excuse if I miss work.
12:52 Extensions are only considered in case
12:54 of medical or other emergency
12:55 situations. Here's what an emergency is.
12:59 An event that was not pre-planned or
13:02 could not be avoided that hindered your
13:04 ability to submit your work on time.
13:07 I went on vacation is not an emergency.
13:10 I um got in a fight with my boyfriend is
13:14 not an emergency.
13:16 Uh in all of these cases, you if you do
13:19 have an emergency, you have to have
13:20 documentation. You have to be able to
13:22 verify it to me. I don't see you guys in
13:24 person. I don't know you. I an email
13:28 telling me that you had an issue is not
13:30 a documented excuse. So, yes, doctor's
13:33 visits, uh any type of paperwork you can
13:37 provide me. And please redact what you
13:39 don't want me to see. I don't need to
13:40 see personal information, your vitals.
13:44 Just I need a doctor's note. That's it.
13:46 With dates and your name on it. I will
13:49 verify doctor's notes from time to time
13:51 that look sketchy. Okay. So, just I've
13:55 caught one every term. I feel like I
13:57 catch a sketchy doctor's note. Um,
14:01 what qualifies as a valid excuse? This
14:03 is not a list that's closed. There can
14:07 be other ones that I'm missing, but
14:09 documented illness. You sick, you went
14:11 to the doctor, they treated you. Every
14:14 doctor will give you a note to go back
14:15 to work or school. Ask for it. Death in
14:18 the family. It happens every term. It's
14:20 so unfortunate and sad. There's usually
14:23 some type of documentation either, and
14:26 we're talking a program from a service,
14:29 an obituary that the funeral home put
14:31 up, something will be documented, jury
14:34 duty, military duties, religious
14:36 holidays, other official university
14:38 activities. I'm going to explain more of
14:41 that in a minute. But these these
14:44 absences I can accommodate. But please
14:47 consider telling me the second the
14:49 emergency happens. So if it if you're
14:52 able to communicate, let's say you're
14:54 got the flu and oh I'm feel horrible,
14:57 you can open your eyes for 10 minutes
14:58 and send one email to all instructors.
15:02 I'm really sick. I plan on visiting the
15:04 doctor in the next day or so. I just
15:06 wanted to let you know. Period. Send.
15:09 Took 30 seconds. I know I feel horrible,
15:12 but I sent that email.
15:16 My I let my instructors know.
15:19 Um,
15:21 let's see.
15:24 Extensions are never granted for reasons
15:26 such as the following. A pre-planned
15:28 conference, sporting event, club, travel
15:30 team, Greek life, fundraisers. I know
15:34 these are all FSU sponsored events.
15:38 So, let's say the debate team goes to a
15:40 world uh a world debate competition and
15:43 it's over the weekend in Minnesota. And
15:45 I'm sorry, but we're traveling on
15:46 Friday. I can't submit my project.
15:50 That's a pre-planned event. You could
15:53 absolutely submit your project. They're
15:55 open two weeks before you leave. That's
15:57 why they're open before you leave so you
15:59 can work around your schedule.
16:02 Pre-planned events. There's always some
16:04 type of 24-hour danceon or something in
16:07 the fall, I believe. Don't get caught up
16:10 in that and think, I'm going to leave
16:11 before the project's due. It never
16:14 happens. I get emails every time that
16:16 dance event goes on. I'm still here.
16:18 Okay, you'll have to turn it in late
16:20 over the weekend for 20% off. That's
16:22 something you chose to attend. You
16:24 weren't forced to it. It's your choice
16:26 to go do these things. Plan ahead. Okay.
16:32 Other things that I get, the lab was
16:34 full. There's uh an error when I tried
16:38 to submit. I sim was slow. I lost the
16:43 file. Something got corrupt. The
16:45 computer stopped working. My sister
16:47 stole my laptop. I have a family
16:50 emergency. I'll get to that in a second.
16:53 But here's the thing. Scheduled
16:54 vacation. My sister's getting married in
16:56 the Bahamas. All of this can be avoided
16:59 if you work early.
17:02 Let's change your mindset in an online
17:05 class. You should be working when the
17:08 assignment opens, not when it's due. So,
17:12 when you see an assignment open, work on
17:14 it. If you go to the assignments tab,
17:16 you will see when things open. Write
17:20 that down as your due date and work on
17:22 it. Then you have two weeks to work
17:24 through. My computer stopped working.
17:26 The university uh computers were full.
17:30 Um I lost my file. If you work early, we
17:33 can fix all of those and still get it
17:35 submitted on time. But none of those are
17:37 valid excuses to submit late without
17:39 penalty. I have two-day late windows to
17:42 submit late if you decided to
17:44 procrastinate. And I give you a little
17:46 grace, okay? But you get a penalty for
17:49 it. Your job would not appreciate you
17:52 going, "I'm sorry I procrastinated, but
17:54 can I turn it in a couple days late? I'm
17:56 sorry. We have a client working on this
17:57 or ready for this project to be done and
18:00 we promised it would be done." That
18:03 leads to firing. Okay? Let's learn good
18:05 habits. Work when it opens, not when
18:08 it's due. Let's go back to family
18:10 emergency. I know things happen in your
18:13 life that you don't want to share the
18:15 details with me. And that's okay.
18:17 Sometimes more often than not, the
18:19 family emergency email is to see if the
18:21 instructor will go, "Oh, it's okay. Just
18:23 turn it in late." I don't have that
18:25 luxury. I There's too many of you guys.
18:28 I need a documented excuse. If you if
18:31 there's a family emergency that you
18:32 don't want to talk to me about,
18:34 fine. We actually have a department to
18:37 handle that. It's called case management
18:39 services. And if I see a vague email
18:42 saying I can't turn something in because
18:43 of uh you know I'm having a mental
18:46 breakdown or something happened in my
18:48 family or or you broke up and you know
18:51 life is happening and you can show the
18:54 university that this life event really
18:56 disrupted your time here at FSU and you
19:01 need some grace. Case management will
19:03 verify that and not tell me the details.
19:05 They'll send your instructors a letter
19:07 that says, "Jane Doe really couldn't do
19:09 any work from this date to this date.
19:12 Can you work with them?" Okay. So, in
19:14 those circumstances, I don't need to
19:17 know the details. Fine. But don't use
19:19 the phrase family emergency. I expect to
19:21 get out of work. Okay?
19:23 Missed exams. All MIT exams have a
19:26 makeup exam. Doesn't matter if you have
19:27 an excuse or not. I will allow you to
19:29 make it up. There's going to be a window
19:31 at the end of the term that you will be
19:33 allowed to take those makeup exams and
19:35 I'll have instructions on how to sign
19:37 up. If you don't have documentation, you
19:40 will get a 20% penalty. So, even if it
19:43 was a whoops, I forgot. You'll get to
19:46 take a makeup exam, but 20% off. If you
19:50 have documentation, you'll get full
19:51 credit. Exam. Makeup exams are not
19:54 intended to do retakes. They will be the
19:57 same format as the original exam. Late
20:00 policy for quizzes and guided projects.
20:02 This is these are kind of reviews, but I
20:04 want to hit it again.
20:06 Late project quizzes and guided projects
20:09 have a 2day late window after the due
20:12 date. So, a project is due Friday, you
20:15 miss it, you have until Sunday before
20:17 11:59 to turn in late. There will be 20%
20:20 taken off.
20:24 Um, other assignment policies. This is a
20:27 big one. All deadlines are 11:59 p.m.
20:30 Eastern. The attendance is due before
20:32 2:00 p.m. on the first Wednesday, but
20:35 that's the only difference. Otherwise,
20:36 it's 11:59 p.m. Eastern. If you live in
20:40 another time zone like me, you still
20:42 have to calculate for Eastern. So, if I
20:45 were working in Central time, my
20:48 projects are actually due at 10:59 p.m.
20:50 Central. So, keep that in mind when
20:52 working.
20:55 Make sure I didn't miss anything.
21:09 Sorry guys, just one second.
21:13 Um, I think the rest of this is
21:15 self-explanatory.
21:19 One thing I want to point out that's
21:21 kind of rare, but sometimes it does
21:22 happen.
21:24 Um, all project files in this class must
21:28 be completed during this term. So, let's
21:30 say you took this class at another
21:31 university or you took it here already,
21:34 but you're retaking it. Or let's say you
21:36 took CDS 2060 and now you're taking
21:38 2100. Some of the projects overlap. It
21:41 doesn't matter. You have to submit a
21:43 brand new file. You have to download a
21:45 new one, work on it, submit a new file.
21:47 I don't allow you to just resubmit what
21:49 you've already accomplished in another
21:51 class. Um, and if that doesn't make
21:53 sense to you, don't worry about it.
21:57 Okay, I think that's it. So, we are at
21:59 the end of our syllabus module.
22:01 Hopefully, you've completed all that.
22:03 This is the first time I'm actually
22:05 doing a module like this where I have
22:07 locked things down until you've
22:09 completed every step. So, I'm unsure how
22:12 it's going to work too well.
22:14 I'm hoping that by the time you take the
22:16 third quiz, the rest of these modules
22:19 should unlock. If that's not true,
22:23 hopefully someone will email me and tell
22:25 me um
22:28 about that. Okay, keep me posted if
22:31 you're having any issues with this
22:32 required module because I again,
22:36 this is new for me too. But if you have
22:38 any questions throughout the entire
22:40 term, email us please and we will help
22:43 you get through this. Okay.