Math 1314 (3:3:1) Online College Algebra Fall Professor Information Name Jo Beth Horney

Transcription

1 Math 1314 (3:3:1) Online College Algebra Fall 2015 Please Print for Quick Reference Professor Information Name Jo Beth Horney Address Once class begins, all should be sent via Blackboard. Blackboard Web Site (bookmark this site) The first time you log into Blackboard you may be asked to change your password. PLEASE WRITE DOWN YOUR PASSWORD! Course Description This course provides a standard course in college-level algebra. A survey of algebra topics is included. This course is designed primarily for liberal arts majors, but students in the sciences will find the course an excellent review of algebra concepts before proceeding on to higher mathematics courses. All graded homework for this course is conducted online (see Assignment Policy). Extensive use of the Internet is used to access course material. How This Course Is Conducted This course is an online course, which means that you will access course information and respond to me and/or other students through the use of the Internet. I use Blackboard to deliver and manage this course. Blackboard is a software package that was written to help manage online courses. There are Blackboard student tutorials available to you on your Blackboard home page. The On Demand Help and Learning Catalog contains Quick Tutorials designed to help familiarize you with Blackboard and its features. I encourage all students to view this

2 catalog. Just a few minutes of your time will acquaint you with and make you feel more comfortable using Blackboard. Learning Outcomes Upon successful completion of this course, students will: 1. Demonstrate and apply knowledge of properties of functions, including domain and range, operations, compositions, and inverses. 2. Recognize and apply polynomial, rational, radical, exponential and logarithmic functions, and solve related equations. 3. Apply graphing techniques. 4. Evaluate all roots of higher degree polynomial and rational functions. 5. Recognize, solve, and apply systems of linear equations using matrices. Core Objectives Communication Skills: Develop, interpret, and express ideas through written communication Develop, interpret, and express ideas through oral communication Develop, interpret, and express ideas through visual communication Critical Thinking: Generate and communicate ideas by combining, changing, and reapplying existing information Gather and assess information relevant to a question Analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information Empirical and Quantitative Competency Skills: Manipulate and analyze numerical data and arrive at an informed conclusion Manipulate and analyze observable facts and arrive at an informed conclusion Required Materials 1. MyMathLab Student Access Kit (if you do not want a hard-copy textbook) This Kit is available at either SPC Bookstore (Levelland campus or Reese Center) or online at: ZOewnnIOR2UdjdYwK2sQ! To begin purchasing online, you will need the Instructor's Course ID given in the MyMathLab information on the next page. Detailed information about MyMathLab follows. Do not use this link if you plan to purchase a hard-copy textbook. Before you purchase a hard-copy textbook, please know that the entire textbook (including answers to the odd-numbered exercises) is available via MyMathLab. This means that you can opt NOT to purchase a hard copy of the textbook and purchase only the Student Access Kit. Many of you prefer to have a textbook in hand, so please read the textbook information under Optional Materials before you purchase.

3 2. TI-83, TI-83 Plus, TI-84 Plus, or TI-84 Plus Silver Edition Graphing Calculator You MUST have a graphing calculator for this class. If you own another brand or model of calculator, you may not be able to perform many of the calculator tasks presented in this course. You use these other calculators at your own risk. The lecture notes that I have written for this course contain screen shots of the TI-83 model calculator. The TI-83 Plus and the TI-84 Plus models look and work identically. Other models and brands are quite different. Any calculator solving and/or checking technique shown in the Lecture Notes are "fair game" on tests. You may use and are many times required to use these techniques on tests. I encourage you to purchase your Student Access Kit (either with or without the hard copy textbook) immediately to register for this class online. Do not wait until class begins to start purchasing your materials. Class begins on January 20th. This means that you should be ready to do math on January 20th. Get your materials early, and be ready! Things You Need In Order To Register in MyMathLab Student Access Code (in the Student Access Kit) Instructor's Course ID for non-dual credit students: horney52194 Instructor's Course ID for Dual Credit high school students: horney85824 South Plains College Zip Code: Personal Address: Please use your SPC address for MyMathLab. Instructions for locating and accessing your personal SPC account are included in this syllabus. Follow These Steps For A Painless Registration Procedure Go to and click Student under Register on the right. Follow the on-screen instructions to enter your Student Access Code and the Instructor's Course ID, provide contact information, and create a Login Name and Password. Capitalize the first letter of your last name and first name when you register. Please write down this information for future reference. After you have registered and enrolled, you are ready to login to your MyMathLab course. Until the first day of class, you will not have access to actual course materials, but you may be able to access the Browser Check. To Log In And Access Your Course in MyMathLab Go to and click the Sign in button on the right. Enter the Login Name and Password you created during registration. You will be taken to CourseCompass. This is the online learning environment for MyMathLab. From the My CourseCompass page, simply click the name of your course to begin exploring MyMathLab! Course name for non-dual credit students: Math S (Online College Algebra - Fall 2015) Course name for Dual Credit high school students: Math S (Dual Credit OCA - Fall 2015) Once you have logged in and accessed your course, the first order of business is to do the Browser Check. This wizard will test for and install the required plug-ins so that MyMathLab works properly on your computer. If you fail to do this, none of the homework problems will appear on your computer. You must do the Browser Check on every computer on which you plan to use MyMathLab.

4 Logging Into Your Course in Blackboard Under no circumstances are you allowed to give your User IDs and/or passwords to anyone (for either Blackboard or MyMathLab). If someone other than you logs into this course, expect to be administratively withdrawn from the course with an "F" regardless of the reason. You are NOT allowed to take this course at the same time as a friend, roommate, brother, sister, parent, spouse, or significant other (whether you live with them or not). If I find this is the case, both of you will be withdrawn from the course with an "F." The only exception to this sibling/friend policy is for dual credit high school students during the fall and spring semesters. These students are exceptions because a facilitator proctors their daily work and tests. Optional Materials 1. College Algebra (6th edition) by Robert Blitzer (if you want a hard-copy textbook) This textbook is available in multimedia e-form as a part of MyMathLab. If you prefer to own a hard copy, please purchase a textbook containing a MyMathLab Student Access Code. If you order books online to purchase or rent, double-check that the MyMathLab Code is included. Purchasing a code separate from the textbook is much more expensive. SPC Student Accounts Did you know that you have a South Plains College account? The following information will help you find your address and instruct you how to check your SPC . You must use this address when you register for MyMathLab. Your SPC address Your SPC Domain Username is the first part of your address. Your Username is your first initial plus the first 11 letters of your last name and last 4 digits of your student ID number. In some cases, your username might be a duplicate of someone else's so your middle initial might be used after your first initial then only the first 10 letters of your last name plus the last 4 digits of your student ID number. If this username is still not unique then a random digit will be added after the first 8 letters of your last name. Whatever the case, the Domain Username will never be more than 16 letters and/or digits. Your SPC address can be found on your SPC Acceptance Letter. Do not forget to include the word "students" after addressed as studentusername@southplainscollege.edu will be returned undelivered. Your SPC address looks like: Username@students.southplainscollege.edu Why use your SPC address You MUST use your SPC address for MyMathLab. Also...you probably have several professors who send all class communications only to SPC accounts. It is a good idea and practice to send/receive all of your college communications using the same account. You don't have to worry about any accidentally being filtered into a Junk folder and missing that important from a professor. This provides secure, virtually SPAM-free .

5 Academic Integrity It is the aim of the faculty of South Plains College to foster a spirit of complete honesty and a high standard of integrity. Any student who attempts to present any work as their own which he or she has not honestly performed should expect serious consequences, possibly suspension. Students should refer to the SPC General Catalog policy regarding consequences for cheating and plagiarism (see "Academic Integrity" as well as "Student Conduct" sections in the college catalog). You are expected to work alone on all tests. Please do not ask anyone for help with any question on any test. If you choose to cheat, you will be withdrawn immediately from this class with a grade of "F." As we progress through the course, if a test score is more than 30% better than the preceding test score, you may be required to come to the Levelland campus and retake that test in a proctored setting. It is most rare for a student to make this kind of advanced progress from one test to the next. Retesting is to insure the validity of the test score. If you are doing all of your own work, retesting will be little more than an inconvenience. Student Conduct Expected student conduct is outlined in the SPC catalog. Please note that this is an online environment, and you will have the opportunity to other class members. Please do not attach any pictures or data that others may find offensive. Watch your language in your s. Prerequisite Skills In order to participate in this online course, you need these skills: typing skills know basic functionality of a computer know how to connect to the Internet know how and be willing to compose, reply to, and forward messages know how to attach and open documents in an message know how to print.pdf (Adobe Reader) documents have algebra skills consistent with the successful completion of high school Algebra I and Algebra II. (SPC's Beginning Algebra and Intermediate Algebra courses provide these skills as well.) Required Software MyMathLab requires the following plug-ins: Adobe Flash Player Adobe Reader Links for the above plug-ins as well as other information concerning computer requirements, browser requirements, and monitor resolution, are found in the Browser Check in MyMathLab. You should carefully work through this Browser Check as soon as you register and log into MyMathLab. For the record, the TestGen Plug-in is not required for this class, so do not install it when working through the Browser Check. Computer Issues If your personal computer becomes "disabled," there are open computer labs on the Levelland and Reese campuses that you may use to access Online College Algebra. Please use only these labs to access MyMathLab since special plug-ins are required and other labs (or places like Kinko's or public libraries) may not have these plug-ins installed. Call the following numbers for lab hours. Let me know if you need directions to either lab. SPC Technology Center: SPC Library: Reese Center:

6 Please remember that it is your responsibility to have a back-up plan in case your computer goes down. Please have this plan in place now and do not wait until it is a crisis situation. THIS IS YOUR WARNING TO HAVE A BACK-UP PLAN IN PLACE. Test and/or homework deadlines will not be altered if you have computer problems. Assignment Policy Graded homework assignments for each section of the course are located in Homework on MyMathLab. These problems are chosen as representative of the basic concepts presented in the sections. These questions will not adequately prepare you for the tests. They are just starting points for the topics. A more comprehensive assignment will be given for each section from the textbook exercises. These assignments can be found at the end of each set of Lecture Notes. Lecture Notes are located within the Units (under Course Information) in Blackboard. You can also access a document containing all of the textbook assignments within Textbook Assignments (under Course Information) in Blackboard. The textbook exercises will not be turned in or graded. After completing the Do Homework in MyMathLab for a grade, you should work the textbook problems on your own for a more complete understanding of the topics. I have assigned only oddnumbered problems from the textbook exercises so that you can check your answers in the back of the textbook. If you do not have a hard-copy textbook, the answers for the odd-numbered problems can be found in MyMathLab by expanding Chapter Contents and clicking on Student Solutions Manual. Online homework can be submitted multiple times (until the assignment deadline). If you miss a question, please redo that question by clicking on the Similar Exercise button until you succeed. You should settle for nothing less than 100% on each online homework assignment. It is not necessary to report your homework scores to me. MyMathLab automatically saves your homework scores in a gradebook for me. After each homework session, click the Save button to insure that your score is saved correctly. Homework is grouped together by units. Check the Class Calendar in Blackboard for each unit's homework deadline. You will no longer have access to those homework sections at that time. Although the MyMathLab servers are rarely down, Pearson does schedule routine maintenance and upgrades from time-to-time. Pay close attention to all announcements on your MyPearson page in MyMathLab. Pearson will provide plenty of notice of when to expect an outage. Expect NO access to your homework assignments or tests during an outage. If either routine maintenance and/or an upgrade is scheduled at the same time as a homework or test deadline, you must be aware of this and makes plans to submit all homework assignments and/or tests BEFORE the outage occurs. No deadlines will be extended due to routine maintenance or upgrade outages on MyMathLab. It is your responsibility to stay informed and work ahead as needed. Attendance Policy Because this is an online class, you must access the course in Blackboard on a regular basis. Logging into MyMathLab is not sufficient for attendance purposes. Accessing and studying the Lecture Notes provided in Blackboard are extremely important in order to master the objectives of the class. You will feel more at ease with the material if you use the Lecture Notes in Blackboard in conjunction with your textbook. I strongly recommend that you log into Blackboard daily or at least four days a week to check for from me. Sometimes I will ask you to reply to an . You should do so promptly. Many times the s are merely informational. This information is important, or I would not send the . Every week beginning with Week 2, you must check into class by sending me an in Blackboard. These weekly check-ins occur on either Monday or Tuesday depending on holidays. Your check-in messages should inform me on what section you are working as well as information about how you feel you are doing in the class. You may share any information that you feel is relevant to the class or ask any questions that have come up during your studies.

7 Make sure that the week number is included in the Subject of your . If your check-in is incomplete or not signed, it will be rejected and returned to you. This is not a difficult task, but it is required. Please take a few minutes each Monday/Tuesday to check in with me in order to earn attendance credit for the week. There is a one-day grace period for check-ins. Check-ins should be sent on Mondays, but you have until Tuesday at 11:59 pm (Wednesday for a Tuesday check-in week) to submit one for attendance credit. Any student who does not send a check-in by the grace period deadline will be counted absent for that week. Check-ins may be submitted on Sunday but no earlier. Please note this on your personal calendar so you will remember to check in. I have included a Check-In reminder each week on the Class Calendar. Expect to spend a great deal of time with this course. Most students find that doing some math every single day is the best way to maintain continuity and to stay caught up. The pace is fast. Prepare yourself. The Class Calendar in Blackboard is designed to assist you in staying on track. Withdrawal If you are administratively withdrawn from this class, the grade for the course will be either an "X" or "F." Administrative withdrawal will occur if you fail to submit two tests (see Test-Taking), if you miss ANY two attendance check-ins in Blackboard and your work in MyMathLab indicates that you have stopped participating in class, or you stop working on MyMathLab assignments whether you submit weekly check-ins or not. You must be actively participating in class to remain enrolled. If you wish to withdraw from this class for any reason, you must initiate the appropriate steps on your own. To submit a student withdrawal: contact Valerie Barrera in Admissions to get assistance for submitting student withdrawals from a lengthy distance. Her is vbarrera@southplainscollege.edu. Her phone number is (806) In your , you will need to state/explain why you need to withdraw, your current location as to why you cannot withdraw in person, and provide a copy of your photo ID. Carbon-copy your professor in the . Include specific information about the course to be dropped (course and section number), and, even though the information is on your photo ID, include your full name and SPC ID#. Dual credit high school students must initiate withdrawal through their high school counselors. High school students may not drop the course without the aid of the counselor. Throughout the Course All communications will be conducted in Blackboard. Any question or comment should be sent using the Blackboard program. Please check your Blackboard daily for class reminders and announcements. If I request a reply from you, please reply promptly. If you do not enjoy reading or hesitate to send , you should reconsider your plans to take Online College Algebra. is our only means of regular communication. Online is no place for you if you refuse to correspond regularly via . Because Blackboard is limited in its ability to handle math symbols easily, I will reply to your math questions in.pdf or.doc form using an attachment in Blackboard . Contact With Professor Horney Office Hours This class is conducted asynchronously. This means that there is no set class time when we all must meet together online. If you need online, live-action assistance, we can arrange to meet in a Chat Room in Blackboard at both of our conveniences. Send me an in Blackboard letting me know that you need to meet. Please give me at least two times that are convenient for you to meet. I will reply to your with the time that is most convenient for me. During the regular fall and spring semesters and once my schedule is set, I will post my physical office hours in the Announcements on the home page of Blackboard. You are welcome

8 to call or visit me at my office during my posted office hours. I will have no physical office hours during the summer session. Response Times Generally I am online everyday. I will do my best to respond to your within 24 hours of receipt. If I leave town, this response time may increase. I will notify you if I get behind or leave town so that you can expect a slower turn-around time. Please do not wait until the last minute to do homework or to ask questions before a test. You must plan on allowing a reasonable amount of time for me to respond to your questions. If you wait until the last minute, your questions may not be answered by the homework or test deadline. Grading Policy Your final grade will be calculated as follows: Test 1 15% Test 2 15% Test 3 15% Test 4 15% Final Exam 25% Homework Average 15% Your final course grade is based on the usual grade distribution: A ( ) B ( ) C ( ) D ( ) F (59.4 0) Work hard throughout the semester. I do not curve test grades for any reason. I also do not allow any one student to be a special case. Do not ask for extra points or for me to bump up your grade at the end of the course. You must earn all points that you receive. There are no "freebies." You may access your homework grades on MyMathLab by clicking the Gradebook button. At test time and after the deadline for homework assignments has passed, I will transfer your cumulative homework average to your Gradebook on Blackboard. After each test deadline, I will review your test. The purpose of this review is to make sure that it was graded fairly. The grading program in MyMathLab does award partial credit but not as liberally as I would like. Many times I think a student has earned more credit than the program has allowed, so your test grade may improve as a result of the review. Once all tests have been reviewed, your official test grade will be transferred to Blackboard as well. MyMathLab will keep a cumulative homework average for you, so you will always know what your current homework average is. After Unit 2 is finished and grades have been transferred, your Blackboard Gradebook will display your current overall average for the course. I strongly suggest that you contact your Academic Advisor to determine what minimum grade is required of you in this course. Generally, a "D" will not transfer and may not count for credit for some majors. Please find out in advance what grade you must achieve so that you will not be disappointed at the end of the semester. Test-Taking All five tests in this course are administered online via MyMathLab. To access a test, login to MyMathLab, click the link for our course, and choose the 5th item of the Course Menu (Quizzes & Tests). Tests are password protected. Each test will have a different password that I will to you in Blackboard the day before the test is released. The tests are timed. You will have four hours (240 minutes) to complete each test. Tests must be taken in one sitting. Plan ahead. Make sure you have four uninterrupted hours to complete a test. You may not need all four hours, but you will want to schedule the full amount of time just in case you do need it. The tests are not printable. You must remain connected to the Internet and logged into MyMathLab for the duration of each test.

9 Dual credit high school students: You may not take tests on your own. You are required to take your tests in the presence of a proctor. Your high school principal will assign a reliable person to proctor your tests. Generally, this person is your class facilitator. At test time, you and your proctor should schedule a 4-hour block of time for testing. Once you and your proctor have decided when your test shall occur, please send me an containing this information. Your proctor will know the test passwords. All students at the same high school taking this course must test at the same time. It is critical that you use a reliable computer with a trustworthy Internet connection to take tests. You should reboot your computer before completing a test. All other applications should be closed as you complete a test. If your computer is "glitchy," do not use it to take tests. If your Internet connection is "spotty," do not use it to take tests. Make plans to use a computer in one of the SPC labs mentioned in the Computer Issues section of this syllabus if you do not trust either your computer or Internet connection. Do not wait until the last day a test is available to complete it. Bad things often happen to those who procrastinate. The last day the test is available is reserved for students who have requested and received a test restart (keep reading) or for dire emergencies only. Procrastination or wanting one more day to study are NOT dire emergencies. One test restart will be granted in case of computer or program malfunction. This means one restart for the entire semester NOT one per test. Please do not ask for more than one restart. It is unfortunate and aggravating to do poorly on a test due to computer malfunction. Do all you can to avoid this, but if it happens after you have used your one restart, there are no other contingencies. This is one of the down sides of Internet classes. No one should be taking an online class with an old, unreliable computer. All tests are required. Even if you believe you can successfully complete the course with a "0" on one test, this is not acceptable. Every test must be completed and submitted. If you fail to submit one test, you are required to make up that test (see Make-Up Test). If you fail to take two tests, you will be withdrawn from the course with an "X" or "U" or "F" regardless of your average at that time. If you are required to make up a previously missed test and you fail to show up on Make-Up Test Day to complete this test, you will fail the course with an "F" regardless of your average. The Final Exam is required of all students still enrolled at the time of the test. If you have calculated that your course average can withstand a "0" on the Final Exam and you do not submit this test, you will fail the course with an "F." The Final Exam cannot be made up since its deadline is after the Make-Up Test Day. Please do not play games with the requirements of this class. Make-Up Test You are allowed to make up one test during the semester (except the Final Exam). Make-Up Test Day this semester is Friday, December 4th, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., on the Levelland Campus. This make-up test should not be used carelessly. You should make every attempt to submit every test during the time it is originally scheduled. Students never perform as well on a make-up test due to the lag-time between when the mathematical concepts were covered and when these concepts are tested. Do not plan on using this make-up test option. Plan to take tests at their originally scheduled times. Since only one test can be made up (with the exception of the Final Exam), if you miss two tests during the semester (including the Final Exam), you will either be administratively withdrawn from the class (if the tests are missed before the Last Day to Drop), or you will fail the course with an "F" (if the tests are missed after the Last Day to Drop). If you fail to show up to make up a previously missed test, you will fail the course with an "F" regardless of your average. Friday, December 4th, is the only Make-Up Test Day. Do not ask for an alternate day, time, or location. If you do not live in the Levelland/Lubbock area, you are still required to come to the designated location for your make-up test. If you feel this is too inconvenient, you should be sure to submit all tests as they are originally scheduled. Do not ask to retake any test. Make-Up Test Day is for a missed test only. There is a huge difference between missing a test and taking it for the first time and retaking a test after already seeing the test. No student will be given an unfair advantage of this nature. Do not expect any second chances on any test. Plan now to take every test as it is scheduled. Prepare and do your best on every test.

10 This policy applies to dual credit high school students, too. If you miss a scheduled test, do not ask your proctor/facilitator to reschedule your test. You will have to make up that test under these same guidelines. College tests are serious business. Do not miss a scheduled test! Test Deadlines Check the Class Calendar (found on the home page of our course in Blackboard) for both release dates and test deadlines. These deadlines are firm and non-negotiable. Test Study Guides An outline of test contents can be found in the Test Study Guides provided in each Unit in Blackboard. Please take the time to briefly look over the study guide before beginning each unit. This will prepare you for the unit. Once you have completed all homework assignments for a unit, go back to the study guide. Use it to help you prepare for the test on that unit. Students who use the study guides come to depend on them and find them very helpful. Math Resources There is always additional assistance available to you if you need it! Take advantage of every resource. Me Please don't be afraid to ask me for help. I should be your first "line of defense" not your "last resort." Please send through Blackboard. You can also call or visit me during my physical office hours. MyMathLab This program contains infinite practice problems (with step-by-step help), tracked tutorial exercises, review exercises, practice tests, and an interactive multimedia textbook. Take advantage of all the excellent tools that MyMathLab provides! Students have reported that the videos provided here are especially helpful. Videotapes Videotapes for some of the topics in this course are available via Blackboard. These videos are different from those provided in MyMathLab. To view digital videos via Blackboard, it is best to use either a broadband or high-speed Internet connection. You will need both Real Player (to view the videos) and Adobe Reader (to view and/or print the accompanying handouts). You should already have these programs, but links to download them are on the Blackboard site. They are free downloads. Many students find these videos life-savers. There is nothing like seeing someone actually teaching the topic you are studying. It is almost like attending class. The login information for viewing math videos via Blackboard is as follows Blackboard username: mvideos & Password: mvideos Peer Tutors During the fall and spring semesters, peer tutors are available for free to any SPC student. Every South Plains College campus has peer tutors available during the fall and spring semesters. Occasionally, we are lucky enough to have a peer tutor available during the summer sessions. As soon as math tutors are hired and scheduled, I will post their names, locations, and tutoring times, in the Class Announcements link in Blackboard. Technical Support Technical support questions concerning Blackboard should be directed to blackboard@southplainscollege.edu. Technical support information concerning CourseCompass or MyMathLab is found at this web address: Student technical support can be reached via telephone at I suggest that you use either the live chat option on the web site or call the 800-number instead of sending an . Replies to s sometimes take several days especially at the beginning of the semester. Please do not contact me for technical support for either MyMathLab or Blackboard.

11 Students With Special Needs Students with disabilities, including but not limited to physical, psychiatric, or learning disabilities, who wish to request accommodations in this class should notify the Disability Services Office early in the semester so that the appropriate arrangements may be made. In accordance to federal law, a student requesting accommodations must provide acceptable documentation of his/her disability. For more information, call or visit the Disability Services Office in the Student Services Building, Diversity Statement In this class, the teacher will establish and support an environment that values and nurtures individual and group differences and encourages engagement and interaction. Understanding and respecting multiple experiences and perspectives will serve to challenge and stimulate all of us to learn about others, about the larger world and about ourselves. By promoting diversity and intellectual exchange, we will not only mirror society as it is, but also model society as it should and can be. Welcome to Online College Algebra!