Evaluation and Grade Scale
| Course Requirements |
Percentage |
| Exams (15% each) |
30% |
| Assignments |
40% |
| Individual Project |
30% |
| Grade |
Percentage |
| A |
≥ 90% |
| B |
≥ 80% |
| C |
≥ 70% |
| D |
≥ 60% |
| F |
≤ 59% |
Academic Integrity
Any violation of academic integrity will be dealt with severely. All assignments are subject to review through Turnitin.com for originality. Students caught violating any of these principles will be subject to a failing grade for the course as well as referral to the Vice President for Student Life and Development for further disciplinary action.
Plagiarism: Is "using the words or ideas of another writer without proper acknowledgment, so that they seem as if they are your own" (WSU Academic Integrity Policy). Plagiarism includes the use of AI, such as ChatGPT, to create any material you submit in this course (paper, exams, or discussions) that violates the course AI policy (below). Any use of plagiarism (or any other breach of academic integrity) in this course may result in a failing grade for the entire course.
AI Policy
Prohibited
Creating any course submission (or parts thereof): papers, reports, presentations, etc. (or their outlines)
Answering exam questions
Answering homework questions
Creating discussion posts
Rewriting or changing the entire style of any submission
Permitted (and Encouraged)
Using AI as a tutor or to create self-quizzes
Finding project/paper/discussion topics
Getting explanations of concepts/theories
Finding resources/references/examples
Finding/downloading data Identifying individual spelling or grammatical errors Improving selected phrasing or style issues
For anything else, approval is required.
AI Cautions
Whenever possible, use Microsoft Copilot with your WSU logon.
Do not submit personal or sensitive information.
AI can share your data with third parties.
Employees may read your conversations.
AI results often do not provide the citations required by academic integrity.
AI can ‘hallucinate’, i.e., provide false or distorted information.
AI can be biased especially in sensitive political or social issues.
AI model training may violate copyright.
Course AI Assistant
The Course AI Assistant can answer questions about both the course content. You can use this to find information, explain concepts, get examples, test yourself on the material, etc. WARNING: This is a preliminary, beta version; absolutely no guarantees of accuracy are implied.
Use of this chatbot is subject to the course AI Policy. You are required to read the AI policy (above) before using this chatbot. Violation of those policies will result in receiving a failing grade for the entire course.
A chatbot is ‘no excuse’ for submitting inaccurate information. “But the chatbot said…” is not a valid excuse for submitting incorrect information in any course submission.
The course chatbot will not be available when either an exam is open.
Attendance
Attendance is required in this class. Use this Attendance Link to record your attendance during class. The full details will be given in class, but here are the basics:
I will not take attendance until the second week of class.
You will be allowed five permitted absences for the semester, which are only to be used for medical absences, job interviews, official sports participation, and other justified absences. Each additional absence will result in a deduction of 1 point (i.e., 1%) from your final course score.
Should you have acceptable and documented reasons for missing more than five days, you are required to provide documentation covering all missed classes (including the five permitted days). Here are two examples that should make this clear:
Example 1: You miss 4 days due to participation in a WSU sports competition, then you are in the hospital for a week missing 3 more days of class. You have missed a total of 7 days (2 more than automatically permitted), but you can provide acceptable and documented reasons for all 7 days, so you have no penalty.
Example 2: You decide to skip 5 days of class without any justification. Then you get legitimately sick and miss an additional class. You do not get an additional permitted absence even if you have documentation for the sick day. The 5 permitted absences that you wasted were for covering legitimate absences, such as your sick day. If you wanted to get an additional permitted absence for the sick day, you would need to provide acceptable and documented reasons for all 6 days that you missed.
Assignments, the Project, and Exams
Assignments: There are a series of assignments in D2L. Due dates are listed on the schedule.
Project: Each student must complete a course project. More information will be given in class and can be found on the Schedule Page in D2L.
Exams: There are two examinations. The tests are not deliberately cumulative; however, since the course builds upon itself, concepts developed in earlier chapters will necessarily be used in later chapters. You may only use a calculator, but not the textbook, notes, crib sheets, formulae sheets, etc. You may not substitute a cell phone, tablet, computer, etc. for the calculator. The only exceptions are accommodations authorized by the University. Make-up exams will only be given if there is official documentation of an emergency, e.g., a doctor’s note. Details and dates are listed on the schedule.
Other Information
Groups: Your group is listed in D2L. All group members normally receive the same grade for group submissions. If, however, there is a significant problem of non-participating by one or more group members, I reserve the right to lower the grades for those members or remove them from the group (which would result in their losing all credit for group work).
Due Dates: I do not under any circumstance extend due dates for the MindTap Assignments for individual students. If you have a documented excuse for not being able to complete one of these, I will consider adjusting the grade, but I will not extend the deadline.
Cell Phone Policy: Cell phones may not be used during class. Please keep them muted and stored in your backpacks or elsewhere.
