Teaching Students Online Syllabus

Table of Contents, Fall 2019

● Your instructor
● Communication with your instructor
○ Office Hours
○ Email
● Important Dates
● Course Information
○ Unit Structure
○ Course Schedule
○ Text
○ Required
○ Provided for you
● Course Expectations
● Grading Practices
○ Evaluation Philosophy
○ Major Assignments
○ Grading Scale
○ Revisions
○ Deadlines and Late Work
○ Saving Your Work for Later
● Class and Program Policies
○ Public Work and Privacy
○ MSU Minimum GPA Policy
○ MSU Minimum Course Grade Policy
○ Instructor and Student Communication Policy
○ Attendance Policy
○ Grief Absence Policy
○ Academic Honesty
○ Academic Honesty Violation Procedures
○ Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
○ Technical Assistance
○ Use of Media Derived from the Class
○ Limits to Confidentiality
○ Office of the University Ombudsperson
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Your instructors
Name: Anne Heintz

Email: [email protected]

Twitter handle: @happen2day

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/heintzprofessional/

Zoom Room:

Name: Marissa Zhu

Email: [email protected]

Twitter handle: @MarissaZhu

Website: https://marissazhu.weebly.com/

Zoom Room:

Communication with your instructor

Office Hours
In the spirit of asynchronous learning, office hours will be held as needed. Please let
me know if you need to meet. You can email, call, Tweet, etc. I am happy to set up
a time to meet virtually using Zoom, talk on the phone, or meet in person, if
geographically possible.

Email
All official course communication will happen with your MSU email account. Please
check your MSU email daily throughout the course. Make sure you have your D2L
email forwarding to your MSU email account. Our email norms include:
● If you email your instructor, you can count on a response within 48 hours.
● If you receive an email from your instructor, please respond within 48 hours
with your best and most thorough response. Sometimes that might be a “I
see this email, I can respond on Tuesday.”
● If you are having difficulty with the course, please reach out right away. It’s
hard for us to know if you are stuck unless you tell us. We will work to
develop a plan with you to help you complete requirements.
● Our secondary mode of communication is Google Doc Comments
● We will provide you feedback on ongoing work in a Google Doc called your
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Developer Notebook. We will use both in-text and comments to have a

conversation with you around your work in this document. We ask that you
read what we provide to you, but in order to continue the conversation, that
you EMAIL us with any questions or follow-up to our feedback or to let us
know you’ve made revisions--that’s the quickest way to “get our attention”

Important Dates
● Our class begins on 8/28/19.
● Open add ends at 8:00 pm ET on 9/4/19.
● The last time to drop with a refund is 8:00 pm ET on 9/23/19.
● The last time to drop with no grade reported is 8:00 pm ET on 10/16/19.
● Our class ends on 12/6/19.

Course Information
CEP 820 examines ways in which educators can bring the world into their
classrooms with technology to better meet the educational needs of students across
the lifespan. The course focuses on ways teachers and students can broadcast their
ideas and information to the outside world for purposes of collaboration and
communication. The course includes discussions of various online learning
management systems including their functions, strengths and weaknesses along
with the exploration of various teaching methodologies and how they should be
used in the online environment to ensure teaching and learning success.

Course Schedule
● Each chapter lasts approximately 2 weeks. We hope this time frame will
offer the flexibility to schedule the course assignments into your busy lives.
You’ll notice that chapters begin on Mondays (Eastern Time). Each new
chapter will open on the first Monday of its two-week schedule. Assignments
are also due on Mondays so that, for instance, the assignments for the first
chapter are due on the same day that Chapter 2 opens. (Chapter 0 only
lasts five days because it is introductory material.)
●
● Chapter 0 – Course Introduction
Aug. 28 - Sept. 2

● Chapter 1 – Foundations for Thinking about Online Learning

Aug. 28 - Sept. 16

● Chapter 2 – Course Management Systems

Sept. 16 - Sept. 30

● Chapter 3 – Building a Virtual Classroom

Sept. 30 - Oct. 14

● Chapter 4 – Communication and Collaboration

Oct. 14 - Oct. 28
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● Chapter 5 – Assessing Student Learning

Oct. 28 - Nov. 11

● Chapter 6 – Online Literacies and Universal Design for Learning

Nov. 11- Nov. 25

● Chapter 7 – Classroom Management

Nov. 25 - Dec. 6 (this module is slightly shorter.)

There will be no regularly scheduled meeting days for the course; there will
be HIGHLY SUGGESTED regularly scheduled optional synchronous meetings.
The content will be delivered via D2L, and communication among members
of the class will take place primarily asynchronously via discussion board
postings, multimedia tools, and (most importantly) email. We will offer a
series of optional blended learning experiences during the course (where we
will deliver material via a course collaboration tool and you attend virtually.)
You will not be required to attend – all of these “online lectures” will be
recorded so that if you cannot attend, you still have access to them.

Text
Required
The trends and theories in teaching students online are accelerating. Thus, there
are no required textbooks, nor any course packs, for this class. Instead, most
readings are drawn from freely available resources on the web, provided in the D2L
course site, or available online through MSU Library’s Electronic Resources.

Because of the rapid pace of change within the realm of educational technology,
new resources are constantly being developed. This allows for a unique opportunity
for instructors and students to learn from each other. We encourage you to
bookmark resources that you find for all of us to see and use.

Course Expectations
Readings. You should read each unit’s content and all assigned readings and
media. Materials will be provided within the course’s content page. You are
expected to follow all hyperlinks and engage with all materials.

Participation. This is a master’s level graduate course emphasizing critical

engagement with course content. Your full participation in course readings,
assignments, discussions, and activities is expected. This means doing all readings
and explorations in the given time frame, attending all scheduled and required
meetings, asking questions when you are stuck, and being a resource for others,
when possible.

Assignments. Course assignments should be completed by their scheduled due

dates. Written assignments should use appropriate academic and APA style for
tone, voice, citations and references. We have support resources in your course,
but it is your responsibility to make sure that all your work has been checked for
excellence.
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Grading Practices
Evaluation Philosophy
Students who enter the MAET program bring a vast and powerful array of expertise
to our learning community. Each of you is expert in many things. However, we
know that many students enroll in these courses because they don’t feel especially
expert in technology integration just yet. You may be taking this course because
you want to develop foundational technology skills. Rest assured, this is the course
for you. Alternatively, you may already feel quite proficient with a wide range of
technologies, but are taking this course to develop your tech skills even further.
Rest assured, this is also the course for you. As adult learners, we are most
interested in your growth—and you will be evaluated on the basis of how
far you go, not on the basis of where you started. This doesn’t mean that
different standards apply to different students. On the contrary. We hold each MAET
student to a very high standard of academic and professional excellence. We expect
each of you to push your limits—whatever those limits are—and to contribute your
own, unique learning experiences and perspectives to our learning community. We
expect each of you to write well and in accordance with the elements of style
outlined in the APA manual. We expect each of you to meet deadlines. We expect
each of you to ask good questions. We expect each of you to seek out answers by
leveraging all of the resources at your disposal. We expect each of you to adhere to
professional standards of academic integrity, to respect the work of your peers, and
to offer thoughtful, constructive suggestions that sharpen our collective
understanding and focus.

Major Assignments

● Engage Activities – 42 points

● In each chapter there will be required assignments to complete by particular
due dates. These assignments involve you engaging with the readings or
with the process of designing your online course module (the final project for
this course). These activities will take place in your Developer Notebook.
There are a total of 7 Engage activities, one for each chapter. All are due by
the end of each chapter. (7 activities x 6 points each)

● Design Activities – 24 points

● In each chapter you will complete tasks that will help you work your way
towards the big course project: Your online course module. You will
document your work on these activities in your Developer Notebook. There
are a total of 6 Design activities (one for Chapters 1 thru 6). All are due by
the end of each chapter. (6 activities x 4 points each)

● Final Online Course Module – 26 points

● As a student in this course, you will be required to design, develop, and, if
possible, begin to teach your own online course module. You will
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demonstrate the authentic use of a course management system. You will

also purposefully select and integrate online tools that permit you to teach
and students to learn effectively. The online course module is not an entire
online course – this would be an unrealistic expectation for one course! We
encourage you to think of the online module as one unit of study, or as a set
of at least three connected lessons on a topic. An online course module is
not simply a list of deadlines or discussions that your students have in an
online forum. We expect you to also teach content to your students using
some sort of content management system and web-based tools that are
purposely chosen because of their affordances to support the teaching and
learning objectives of your module. Throughout the semester you will be
working on tasks and activities (Design activities) that will pave the way to
your completed and final online course module.

● Participation, “Classmenship”, and Play work – 8 points

● Students are expected to turn in assignments in a timely manner, respond to
instructor and peer feedback, and communicate effectively with instructors
and peers. In addition, in every chapter, you will have the opportunity to
“play” around with certain technologies and might be required to show an
outcome of exploring that particular tool. While these activities are not
graded, we will provide you with qualitative feedback on your work.

Due Dates

Due Dates

Chapter 0 work Sept. 2

Chapter 1 work Sept. 16

Chapter 2 work Sept. 30

Chapter 3 work Oct. 14

Chapter 4 work and mid-semester evaluation Oct. 28

Chapter 5 work Nov. 11

Chapter 6 work Nov. 25

Final Online Course Module Nov. 25

Chapter 7 work December 6

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Grading Scale
Percentage Grade Equivalency

100-94% 4.0

93-89% 3.5

88-84% 3.0 (Minimum GPA to carry for GC or master’s degree)

83-79% 2.5

78-75% 2.0 (Minimum grade for university credit)

74-70% 1.5

69-65% 1.0

≤64% 0.0

Revisions
We invite and encourage you to revise and resubmit work based on instructor’s
feedback, with the exception of the Final Online Course Module and Chapter 7
Engage assignments, because of timing and submitting grades. To do this, please
notify your instructor via email that you have revised the assignment and request a
review by the due date in your Notebook. This policy is intended to help you
continue to produce high quality work and stretch your learning. It’s based on the
assumption that your initial submission is your best work at the time and your
revisions will be even better quality.

Deadlines and Late Work

Due dates will be shared with you via the ShareTracker and D2L and will primarily
be on Mondays at 11:59 pm.

We understand that life happens - getting sick, busy times at work, technology
troubles, just to name a few - and things don't go according to plan. If this
happens, we expect you to communicate with your instructor as early as possible.
You will receive 1 “freebie” late assignment that can be turned in up to 48 hours
late. After this, late work without prior communication will not receive a score.

Saving Your Work for Later

All MAET and MAED students will take the Capstone Portfolio Course (CEP 807 or
ED870, it’s the same course). This serves as a synthesis of your master’s program
and will require you to curate your best and most favorite work. We will support
you doing this at the end of the course, but please get into the habit of saving and
backing up your work. We know it takes a little more time up front, but it’s time
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well spent.

Class and Program Policies

Public Work and Privacy
All instructor feedback is given to you privately. Constructive suggestions, grades,
and all other communications are conducted privately and individually via your
FeedbackNotebook, MSU email, and in D2L. However, MAET and GC courses require
you to create work and share work publicly on the web. Sometimes, this work will
be in draft form. Sometimes this work will be openly reviewed by peers who will
provide thoughtful and respectful feedback. Usually, work will be hosted on your
blog. Often, we ask you to share links to you work with your professional learning
network (PLN) via Twitter.

We ask you to engage in this type of public activity for several reasons germane to
the MAET philosophy. Sharing work in draft form with others instills a design
mindset; showcasing professional learning on the web highlights skill development
for multiple stakeholders in your PLN; using multiple technologies to explore,
create, and share work helps you develop advanced skills and dispositions for
technology integration in learning contexts. Participation in these activities is
essential. Managing your online presence and identity is a critical aspect of this
process.

As a student in this course, we want you to think critically and deeply about the
online identity and boundaries you want and need to establish for yourself. Then,
please make choices accordingly. You are encouraged to think carefully about the
degree to which you want your work to be identifiable as your own. Many students
create Twitter handles and URLs for their blogs that include their real names.
Others choose to create an online persona - a name like “Tech Teacher” - that is
less personalized. This option is a way to remain anonymous to the world, and to
also participate actively in your courses. Many students create accounts for
technology tools using a personal email address Many students keep personal
information out of their blog posts. If you teach students, please think about the
extent to which you make their identities public through your own choices around
online identity too. You can always choose anonymity.

MSU Minimum GPA Policy

MSU, the College, the CEPSE Department, and the MAET program all have a policy
that requires MA students to maintain a minimum cumulative GPA. "If, upon
completion of 18 or more graduate credits, the student has not attained a grade–
point average of 3.00 or higher, he or she becomes ineligible to continue work
toward the master's degree in the College." - from Academic Standards, University
Graduate Policy - Education, p. 1.

MSU Minimum Course Grade Policy

According to MSU policy, students cannot receive credit for any course with a grade
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below 2.0. You will have to take an extra course if you earn below a 2.0 grade in
any course.

Instructor and Student Communication Policy

All course-related email communications should be sent through official MSU email
addresses. The MSU email is an official university ID and provides an additional
layer of security.

You should expect email replies from instructors within 24 hours. If we email you,
please respond within 48 hours. If an out of office assistant is on indicating that you
are unavailable, I will certainly take that into consideration.

Attendance Policy
Attendance may seem like an odd issue to address in an online course that is
designed so that working professionals can complete their work asynchronously,
according to their own needs. That said, as part of this course, you become part of
our learning community. As a member of our community, I expect certain
courtesies if you are unable to attend pre-arranged meetings or participate as
expected. For instance, it is expected that when students make online
appointments with instructors, or are required to work with colleagues on a group
assignment, that they attend. If you are going to miss a meeting, please provide
advance notice to all concerned. If you are travelling and know that you’ll be out of
contact for a few days, or won’t be able to respond to incoming messages as
quickly as normal, please give advance notice to your instructor and colleagues.
Generally, our online classes are designed to give you flexibility -- but this flexibility
also comes with the assumption that you will participate actively as required by the
course.

Equality and Inclusion

We are firmly committed to equality and inclusion in the MAET program. In this
course, we will work to promote an anti-discriminatory environment where
everyone feels safe and welcome. Accordingly, each of us has the right to be
addressed in a way that aligns with our personal identity. We will have the
opportunity in this course to indicate the name that we prefer to be called and, if
we choose, to identify pronouns with which we would like to be addressed. As the
instructor, I will do my best to address all students accordingly and support
classmates in doing so as well.

Grief Absence Policy

The following Grief Absence Policy was adopted by University Council in Spring
2015:

The faculty and staff should be sensitive to and accommodate the bereavement
process of a student who has lost a family member or who is experiencing
emotional distress from a similar tragedy so that the student is not academically
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disadvantaged in their classes or other academic work (e.g. research).

For undergraduate and master's (Plan B) students without research

responsibilities, it is the responsibility of the student to:
A. notify the Associate Dean or designee of their college of the need for a grief
absence in a timely manner, but no later than one week from the student's
initial knowledge of the situation,
B. provide appropriate verification of the grief absence as specified by the
Associate Dean, and
C. complete all missed work as determined in consultation with the instructor.

It is the responsibility of the Associate Dean or designee to:

A. determine with the student the expected period of absence - it is expected
that some bereavement processes may be more extensive than others
depending on individual circumstances,
B. notify the faculty that the student will be absent, and
C. receive verification of the authenticity of a grief absence request upon the
student's return.

It is the responsibility of the instructor to work with the student to make

reasonable accommodations and to include appropriate language describing such
accommodations in their course syllabus, so that the student is not penalized due
to a verified grief absence.

Students who believe their rights under this policy have been violated should
contact the University Ombudsperson.

Students wanting to request a Grief Absence should complete the Grief Absence
Request Form.

Academic Honesty
Article 2.3.3 of the Academic Freedom Report states that "The student shares with
the faculty the responsibility for maintaining the integrity of scholarship, grades,
and professional standards." In addition, the MAET program in the CEPSE
Department adheres to the policies on academic honesty as specified in General
Student Regulations 1.0, Protection of Scholarship and Grades; the all-University
Policy on Integrity of Scholarship and Grades; and Ordinance 17.00, Examinations.
(See Spartan Life: Student Handbook and Resource Guide and/or the MSU Web
site: www.msu.edu.)

Therefore, unless authorized by your instructor, you are expected to complete all
course assignments, including homework, lab work, quizzes, tests and exams,
without assistance from any source. You are expected to develop original work for
this course; therefore, you may not submit coursework you completed for another
course to satisfy the requirements for this course. Also, you are not authorized to
use the www.allmsu.com web site to complete any course work in this course.
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Students who violate MSU academic integrity rules may receive a penalty grade,
including a failing grade on the assignment or in the course. Contact your instructor
if you are unsure about the appropriateness of your course work. (See also the
Academic Integrity webpage.)

Academic Honesty Violation Procedures

If an instructor believes the academic honesty policy has been violated, they will
first report the violation to the MAET program director. The MAET program director
will then contact the student to investigate the nature and scope of the violation.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

From the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD): Michigan State
University is committed to providing equal opportunity for participation in all
programs, services and activities. Requests for accommodations by persons with
disabilities may be made by contacting the Resource Center for Persons with
Disabilities at 517-884-RCPD or on the web at http://rcpd.msu.edu. Once your
eligibility for an accommodation has been determined, you will be issued a Verified
Individual Services Accommodation ("VISA") form. Please present this form to me
at the start of the term and/or two weeks prior to the accommodation date (test,
project, etc.) so that I can meet your needs. Requests received after this date may
not be honored. To make an appointment with a specialist, please contact (517)
353-9642, TTY (517) 355-1293, or the website for RCPD:
http://MYProfile.rcpd.msu.edu

Technical Assistance
If you need technical assistance at any time during the course or to report a
problem you can:
● Visit the Distance Learning Services Support Site
● Visit the Desire2Learn Help Site http://help.d2l.msu.edu/
● Call Distance Learning Services: (800) 500-1554 or (517) 355-2345

Use of Media Derived from the Class

As members of a learning community, students are expected to respect the
intellectual property of course instructors. All course materials presented to
students are the copyrighted property of the course instructor and are subject to
the following conditions of use:

1. Students may record lectures or any other classroom activities and use the
recordings only for their own course-related purposes.
2. Students may) share the recordings with other students enrolled in the class.
Sharing is limited to using the recordings only for their own course-related
purposes.
3. Students may not post the recordings or other course materials online or
distribute them to anyone not enrolled in the class without the advance
written permission of the course instructor and, if applicable, any students
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whose voice or image is included in the recordings.

4. Any student violating the conditions described above may face academic
disciplinary sanctions.

This course will close five years after the course end date.

Limits to Confidentiality
Essays, journals, and other materials submitted for this class are generally
considered confidential pursuant to the University’s student record policies.
However, students should be aware that University employees, including
instructors, may not be able to maintain confidentiality when it conflicts with their
responsibility to report certain issues based on external legal obligations or that
relate to the health and safety of MSU community members and others. As the
instructor, I must report the following information to other University offices if you
share it with me:

● Suspected child abuse/neglect, even if this maltreatment happened

● when you were a child,
● Allegations of sexual assault or sexual harassment when they involve
● MSU students, faculty, or staff, and
● Credible threats of harm to oneself or to others.

These reports may trigger contact from a campus official who will want to talk with
you about the incident that you have shared. In almost all cases, it will be your
decision whether you wish to speak with that individual. If you would like to talk
about these events in a more confidential setting you are encouraged to make an
appointment with the MSU Counseling Center.

Office of the University Ombudsperson

Conflicts, disagreements, and issues sometimes arise during the course of a
graduate program. If you find yourself in this situation and have exhausted the
internal resources for resolving the issue, you may contact the Office of the
University Ombudsperson.

The Office of the University Ombudsperson provides assistance to students, faculty,

and staff in resolving University-related concerns. Such concerns include: student-
faculty conflicts; communication problems; concerns about the university climate;
and questions about what options are available for handling a problem according to
Michigan State University policy. The University Ombudsperson also provides
information about available resources and student/faculty rights and
responsibilities. The office operates as a confidential, independent, and neutral
resource. It does not provide notice to the University - that is, it does not speak or
hear for the University.

Contact the Ombudsperson at any point during an issue when a confidential

conversation or source of information may be needed. The Ombudsperson will listen
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to your concerns, give you information about university policies, help you evaluate
the situation, and assist you in making plans to resolve the conflict.

Contact information:
Office of the University Ombudsperson
129 N. Kedzie Hall
(517) 353-8830
[email protected]
https://www.msu.edu/unit/ombud/

Note: This course has evolved over the past several years, incorporating the work
and thinking of all the people who have taught it. The assignments, activities, and
written materials (including the content of this syllabus) were developed by various
groups and individuals and subsequently revised and reconfigured to result in the
current versions.