Course Information

Syllabus

Click this link to access the syllabus for Sections 0527 and 0534 (asynchronous)

Click this link to access the syllabus for Section 1290  (synchronous)

Textbook Information

This is a Zero Textbook Cost course, which uses OER (Open Educational Resources) in lieu of a textbook. All required materials can be accessed in the Weekly folders.

Mandatory E-Learning Orientation

Please visit the Blackboard home page for your section and access the E-learning Orientation on the gray navigation panel. This is a mandatory assignment and should be completed by the end of the first week. A 20-question quiz at the end of Week 2 will include material from the Orientation.

BMCC Grading System

A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C-	D+	D	D-	F
93 – 100	90 – 92	87 – 89	83 – 86	80 – 82	77 – 79	73 – 76	70 – 72	67 – 69	63 – 66	60 – 62

For access to the grading rubric, click here.

Commonlit Sign-up Directions

Please open this PDF file for directions on how to create an account with Commonlit.org. This is a zero textbook course (ZTC), and many of the assignments will come from this interactive website. Please create your student account right away so that you do not miss any assignments.
Your passcode is:  W3GV55 
The name of the class is: OpenLab Spring 2021

Thank you for your cooperation.

How the Online Class Works

This is a fully online class. That means that we do not have any face-to-face meetings. Each week you will be responsible for completing 4-7 tasks. The tasks are varied and include reading, listening, viewing, and discussing activities. You will be graded on your responses to the discussion board, quizzes, and of course, on your essays. From time to time you will be directed or linked back to the Blackboard platform.

 

Information about Discussion Boards (DBs)

Even in an online course, lively discussions are at the heart of an interesting class. Please lend your voice and ideas to all discussion boards. These are the main forums for interaction in an online course and are also the primary means of showing your presence in the class.

Discussion Board Etiquette

•   Please respond in full sentences in correct English (not in texting language).

•   Please use upper and lower case. If you want to add emphasis, use italics rather than capital letters.

•   Disagreement with the opinions of others is fine–even admirable–but please show respect for fellow classmates in your responses.

Discussion Board Grading

Class participation via the discussion board makes up a significant percentage of your overall grade (20%). To receive full credit for a DB your first post must be submitted by Friday of each week. One additional post, which responds to the comments of another student, must be submitted by midnight on Sunday. It is likely that posts submitted very late in the week will not be read by others, which defeats the whole purpose of the DB, which is to communicate and interact. I will respond personally to each post submitted by midnight on Wednesday.

To receive credit, comments must be substantive and help to move the conversation along. Comments such as “Nice post” or “I agree,” though friendly, do not qualify as comments and will not receive credit.

• Each DB is worth 100 points

.• Your initial post, which should be at least 150 words in length, is worth 80% of the week’s grade.

• Your follow-up responses to at least one other student should be 75-100 words in length.

• Follow-up comments are worth 20% of the week’s grade.

• Posts that are submitted on the weekend will not receive a grade higher than 75%.

• Posts submitted as Attachments will not be opened.

• Discussion Boards cannot be “made up.” (This is because there will be no one with whom to discuss anything in a closed DB).

I will make every effort to post grades for each DB by Tuesday of the following week.

As I’m sure you can understand that, with nearly 80 participants in our OpenLab group, it is not possible for me to respond individually to every single post. However, I assure you that I do read every post. I will, of course, be jumping into the forum from time to time, usually in the first few days of the week. This discussion board really belongs to you and your colleagues.

The High Cost of Plagiarism

Plagiarism will be dealt with firmly. A student who plagiarizes will receive a permanent grade of zero (0) for the essay or discussion in question. All essays will be submitted through Turnitin, which features plagiarism detection capability. Suspected plagiarism, even if it passes the Turnitin detection function, will be turned over to the Student Life Manager for Student Conduct and Academic Integrity. If you hope to pass this class, do not plagiarize.

Every student is required to view the short plagiarism video in order to have a complete understanding of what plagiarism is. This will preclude the excuse that anyone has “accidentally” plagiarized.

Essay Due Dates and Submission Links

Essay 1 due:  Sunday, February 28   (See Week 4 for details and submission link).

Essay 2 due:  Friday, March 26  (See Week 7 for details and submission link).

Research Summary due:  Sunday, April 11 (See Week 9 for details and submission link).

Essay 3 due:  Sunday, May 2 (See Week 11 for details and submission link).

In order to be reviewed all essays must contain a signed Academic Integrity Pledge. Below the Work Cited page, please type the following and type your full name.

I hereby pledge that the information in this essay is my own original work and that all phrases or quotes taken from other sources have been correctly identified via quotation marks/in-text citation. YOUR NAME

How to View Instructor Comments on Written Work

It is very important that you review instructor comments on your graded essays. This way you can correct errors and do better on future essays. To see your grades, navigate back to your Blackboard course and follow these steps:

Go to TOOLS
Click on MY GRADES
Scroll down to the assignment you want to view and select.
Click on ASSIGNMENT MATERIALS
Click on MY PAPER

When you get to your essay, you will see my comments on the essay itself. Then, on the right-hand side, click the icon that looks like a piece of paper with a pencil on top of it (the third blue icon down). My written comments to you will appear in a small window to the right of this. Above this, you can click to listen to my Voice Comments.

Below is additional information about Turnitin assignments.

Click here for directions for reviewing both text and voice  Essay comments  submitted through Turnitin.
Directions for voice comments follow the directions for reading text comments. (Click “Next”).

Help with Sentence Structure

Run-on sentences, comma splices, and sentence fragments are the most common errors in essays. Please review the quick guide below for correcting these mistakes in sentence structure.

For correcting run-on sentences and comma splices, review this PDF file.

For correcting sentence fragments, click this link for a short video.

Sentence Structure and Grammar Exercises

Click this link to access the OWL at Purdue Writing Center “Sentence Structure” Page. On the navigation panel on the left of the screen, you can choose from a number of lessons and practice exercises.

BMCC Writing Center Tutoring

Click this link to access online tutoring with the BMCC Writing Center.

Click this link for online tutoring schedule for this semester.