PSY 110: Introduction to Psychology

PSY 110: Introduction to Psychology Prof. Bob McCoy Instructor of Psychology Behavioral Sciences Department Fusselman Hall, Room 104 Office phone: 415.485.9602 Email: rmccoy@marin.edu Last updated on: 7/21/15 Hello, and welcome to our class! Before our class starts in August 2015, I want to give you some basic information about the class, including what you will need to be successful in the class. Please take the time to read the following carefully. Description This course examines traditional areas of psychological investigation from a scientific perspective. Topics include scientific methodology, human development, personality, psychological measurement, psychopathology, psychotherapy, motivation, perception, social influences on behavior, cognitive processes, learning, and biological basis of behavior. 3.0 Units. No prerequisites. (CSU/UC). AA/AS Area B, CSU Area D-9 or E, IGETC Area 4 Access Requirements This section of Introduction to Psychology is a completely online learning experience. No mandatory campus visits are required to take this course. However, it has the same content and rigor as a conventional lecture course and will use the same textbooks as the face-to-face class. Instead of attending lectures, you will be reading and using online materials, activities and discussions. The course will be administered using a class web site in Moodle that is accessed via the MyCOM student portal. This class and its content are equivalent to the face-to-face version of class which meets 3 hours a week. Students are expected to access this web site a minimum of 2 (two 1.5 hour sessions with the material) to 3 times (three 1 hour sessions) per week. Additionally, it is suggested that you put in a minimum of two hours of study time for every hour we meet. That is 6 hours a week in addition to the 3 hours of study time in order to be truly successful in the course. Furthermore, this course is not intended to be a self-paced course. I expect us as a class to move through the material each week, reading, learning and discussing any questions or issues that may come up. Your participation and interaction as part of an online community are required and will enhance your success in this class. To be successful in this course you need to plan on dedicating roughly 6 to 9 hours a week to this class depending on the lecture material and assignments. Important Note: How to Know if Distance Learning is For You! Please keep in mind that distance learning is not for everyone. Online classes are not easy! To get a good grade in the course, you must be self-motivated. It is important to keep up with the assigned reading and any other assignments every week. Most students consider the course material to be very interesting, so this should not be too much trouble. However, you are more likely to succeed if you get organized, schedule a regular block of time to study each day, and stick to it! Students must also feel at home navigating online. You must be a self-starter who feels confident about learning from reading, as there is a lot to read, and who is comfortable working independently. In a nutshell, this course is designed for the highly motivated, computersavvy, and self-directed student who wishes to pursue a quality education. But before you have second thoughts about whether you can succeed in an online environment, rest assured that you'll likely have more interaction with me than you would have with an instructor in a traditional, large-lecture classroom setting. Granted, you won't necessarily meet with me face to face, but there will be forms through which you can contact me. In addition, you can always contact me via email (see contact information below.) 1

Instructor Communication Policy The best way to contact me is by email, preferably at rmccoy@marin.edu, or else directly through Moodle email. Please include your name and the class section number (PSY 110 DE) in your email, so that I can more quickly identify you. If you do not identify yourself, it may take me longer to get back to you. When you contact me via e-mail, please expect up to 48 hours for a response, excluding weekends. Though I may choose to contact you over the weekend, I generally do not check or return emails over the weekend. (For example, if you were to contact me on Friday, you may not hear from me until Tuesday.) If you do not hear from me within 48 hours, please resend your message. In the event that Moodle is ever down, please contact me through my COM email address, rmccoy@marin.edu. If the College of Marin server is down and you cannot contact me via Moodle or my school email, please leave a voicemail for me at (415) 485-9602. In your voicemail make sure you identify yourself, what class you are in (PSY 110 DE), your message and a number where I can reach you. If you do not leave a message I will not call you back. Please give me 48 hours to respond to you. First Day of Class Instructions All enrolled students are required to login to the class Moodle website by 12 midnight on Monday, August 17, 2015 to hold their spot in the class. If a registered student does not login to the class site by this date and time, his or her spot may be given to a student on the waitlist. There is often a long waitlist, so if you are registered for the course, be sure to log in before the above deadline to keep your spot in the class. Important Note: Waitlist and Add Codes If you are on the waitlist and a spot in the class opens up, you will automatically be added to the class (you will not need an add code). If you are not on the waitlist, I will not add you unless (a) all waitlisted students have had the chance to add the class and (b) there are still fewer than 49 students in the class. In this case, I reserve the right to add non-waitlisted students at my discretion, by order according to the date and time I received their email telling me they wish to add the class. So if you hope to add the class but are not on the waitlist, please email me before Tuesday, August 18, 2015 to let me know you are interested in adding the class. In your email, please include your name and our course name PSY 110 DE. Prerequisites There are no official prerequisites for this course, but due to the amount of reading and writing and technical vocabulary in this course, it is highly recommended that students be eligible for ENGL 120 or ENGL 120SL. Course Materials Required textbook: We are using Exploring Psychology with DSM-5 Update (9th Ed.) by David G. Myers, Worth Publishers, 2014 Required access to website: LaunchPad, the Worth Publisher s website that accompanies our textbook. Book and Access Code Purchases PLEASE FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS EXACTLY. We are using the textbook Exploring Psychology with Updates on DSM-5, NINTH EDITION, 2014, by David G. Myers, published by Worth Publishers. We are also using LaunchPad, the Worth website designed for this textbook. LaunchPad contains an electronic version of the textbook, so you have three options when it comes to buying the text. If you are comfortable reading textbooks online, you only have to buy an access code to LaunchPad. This is the cheapest option. If you want a hard-copy of the book, then you can either (a) buy the LaunchPad access code by itself and then find a used edition of the textbook on your own, or (b) buy a package from the COM bookstore that contains both the LaunchPad access code and a new loose-leaf version of the textbook (this is the most expensive option). 2

All three options are described below. Please choose one of these options. Whichever option you choose, you MUST end up with an access code for LaunchPad AND you must register that access code in LaunchPad. Note: If you can t afford to buy the textbook at the start of the course, you can get free access to LaunchPad and the electronic version of the textbook for 21 days. See the instructions after Option 3. OPTION 1: Buy only an access code to LaunchPad. Price: about $65. This option gives you access to LaunchPad and to the online version of the textbook. You will buy the access code directly from the Worth website. You will need a credit card for this option. 1. Have your COM student ID number (your M00 number) handy 2. Go to this website 3. Under New Student Registration, click the button "I want to purchase access" 4. Enter your email account (this can be any account you wish your COM account, a gmail account, etc.). OPTION 2: Buy an access code to LaunchPad AND a used copy of the textbook. Price: about $65 for the access code, plus whatever price you pay for a used copy of the textbook. With this option, you will buy an access code to LaunchPad. You will buy that access code directly from the Worth website. You will then, on your own, find and buy a used copy of the textbook. 1. Have your COM student ID number (your M00 number) handy 2. Go to this website 3. Under New Student Registration, click the button "I want to purchase access" 4. Enter your email account (this can be any account you wish your COM account, a gmail account, etc.). 6. Find and buy a used copy of the textbook. You must buy this exact version of the textbook: Exploring Psychology with Updates on DSM-5, Ninth Edition, 2014, by David G. Myers, published by Worth Publishers. Here are the ISBN s for the different formats of the hard-copy text: Hardcover: ISBN-10: 1-4641-6336-7 and ISBN-13: 978-1-4641-6336-4 Paper: ISBN-10: 1464163367 and ISBN-13: 9781464163364 Loose-leaf: ISBN-10: 1464163383 and ISBN-13: 978146416338 3

OPTION 3: Buy a package containing both an access code to LaunchPad AND a new looseleaf version of the textbook. Price: about $117. With this option, you will buy a package containing both a loose-leaf version of the textbook and an access card to LaunchPad. You can only buy this package from the COM bookstore. 1. Go to the COM Bookstore and buy the package for Exploring Psychology with Updates on DSM-5, Ninth Edition, 2014, by David G. Myers, published by Worth Publishers, for this class (PSY 110, CRN 82514, Instructor Bob McCoy). Do not throw out the LaunchPad access card that is in this package! 2. You will also need to buy a 2-inch 3-ring binder to put the loose-leaf text in. 3. After buying the book, then, with your access code and M00 number handy, go to this website 4. Under New Student Registration, click the button "I have a student access code" 5. Enter your access code and then click Submit 6. Follow the instructions for registering in our class. (Our class is Introduction to Psychology Distance education section. ) When asked for your email address, you can use any personal email address you like: your COM email address, a gmail email address, etc. TEMPORARY ACCESS TO LAUNCHPAD (And the etext) If you cannot afford to purchase access to LaunchPad at the start of the semester, you can get FREE access for 21 days. After the 21 days, you must purchase an access code directly from Worth or else buy the COM bookstore package containing the textbook and the access code. Here s how to get temporary access to LaunchPad: 1. Have your COM student ID number (your M00 number) handy. 2. Go to this website 3. Under New Student Registration, click the button I need to pay later. 4. Enter your email address (it can be your COM email address or any personal email address such as Hotmail, etc.) As a reminder, when your temporary access has expired, you must re-register with an access code that you ve purchased from the bookstore or purchase standard access through Worth s site. WHEN RE-REGISTERING, PLEASE USE THE SAME FIRST NAME, LAST NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS, AND PASSWORD THAT YOU USED FOR TEMPORARY ACCESS to ensure that your work and grades remain associated with your account. 4

What To Do When You First Access The Course Online Be advised that Moodle works best with Google Chrome or Firefox. Not all features function with Safari for Mac users. If you run into any technical problems, check your browser using the helpful information at the following link: https://ilearn.csumb.edu/blocks/browsertest/ You can also access moodlehelp@marin.edu for assistance. Take some time to familiarize yourself with these 3 helpful Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) links for students and bookmark them for future reference: COM Distance Education FAQs: www.marin.edu/de/faq.html Moodle Student FAQs: docs.moodle.org/28/en/student_faq FAQs regarding the MyCOM portal: http://www.marin.edu/mycomresources/faq.html Finally, there is an important note that you should read and heed at the top right of your Moodle home screen: "Closing this browser does not end your session. In order to end a session you must click on Logout (top right side of browser window). If you do not log out, your session will remain active. The next person to use this computer will have full access to your account." Make yourself a sticky note to remind yourself to log out! I hope this letter answers your preliminary questions. If you have other questions, please email me. I look forward to working with you, and to introducing you to the exciting world of psychology! You ll learn a lot about the human mind and behavior. You ll also pick up tips on how to learn and study better, how to memorize better and even how to be happier! Here s to a great semester! Best regards, Bob McCoy 5