Course Syllabus Summary (with instructor hints)

The course syllabus for this course, like all LCC syllabi, is in the Concourse syllabus system as required by the college. Like all LCC syllabi, it can be found by clicking on the large box that says “Concourse” on the  D2L home page for the course. Or you can click here.

The system and the college require the syllabus to be in a certain format and include certain information.  Individual departments (like Chemistry) and professors (like me) want to include information valuable to students such as how the class will run, what you’ll study, what you are responsible for, and how you’ll be graded.  By the time all this is included (and put in the required system) you get a very long (students often feel TL;DR)boring, gray document.  Reading it can feel like reading the Terms and Conditions when you purchase something online. That’s too bad, because there are good reasons to at least be familiar with the syllabus – it can help you better plan for the course, allowing you to actually spend less time and better succeed in the long run.

So in this section I’m going to briefly cover some highlights of the syllabus and explain what you need to know now and what you might want to refer to later if needed, and hopefully answer some FAQ’s.  But if you have any other questions about the course at any point in the semester contact me.

Meeting Times

This course meets fully online and asyncronously, which means that you will never have to be logged in a specific time for a class meeting.  The only activities that have to be done during a specific time are the departmental exam (dates listed on course schedule), and you can do them any time during the scheduled day.  Other items, like quizzes and online homework, have due dates but are untimed and available for a number of days, allowing you a lot of flexibility to work on and complete them.

I get that all of you are balancing work, family obligations, and other classes.  You also may have some travel or vacations some week.  You may not know your work schedule week to week. So there is a lot of flexibility built into the course, with very few deadlines.  The homework and quizzes will be available to you over several days, and are only due shortly before the exam  (see the schedule) they cover to ensure you complete them before the exam (as the homework and quizzes are designed to help you learn and prepare as opposed to actually “grade” you.  The responsibility is all yours to keep up and figure out how to complete each unit.  My only suggestions are

1. Don’t procrastinate!  Students who wait until just before the deadline to do all the work find it much harder, and get lower grades.
2. Study the material in the order presented.  Chemistry builds on itself, and the material in the beginning of a unit is usually needed to understand what comes next (this is also why procrastinating hurts — if you spend a little time with the earlier material before moving on, it helps!)
3. Contact me if you are having trouble, get seriously behind, or need to deviate significantly from the schedule. And don’t delay! I want you to to be successful, but can’t help if I don’t know what’s up.

Contact Information

It’s here.

Course Description

See the syllabus.  It should be self-explanatory.

Student Learning Outcomes

The longest section in the syllabus.  You can think of these as the course outline, and a set of questions you can ask yourself before each exam — if you can do these items, you should be well prepared.  I will list them within each topic covered, so there is really no need to see them in the syllabus.

Materials

Include this website, the OpenStax text, the online homework website, and the course D2L site. These were discussed in the previous section (Welcome to CHEM 152)

Evaluation Criteria and Breakdown (grading)

All grades (individual assignment and total) will be posted in the D2L gradebook (and nowhere else) as required by LCC.

Unit Exams (300 points)

There will be four 100-point departmental unit examinations given during the semester. They were also discussed at length in the previous section.  Detailed information about the exams is available at the Chem 152 Exam info link (which is also under “Useful Links” on the right sidebar of every page on this website.

Two part Final Exams (200 points total)

A comprehensive two‑part departmental final exam (Part A and Part B, 100 points each) will be given during the last week of the semester.  Part A will cover the same material as the first two unit exams and Part B will cover material from the last two unit exams.  The scheduling and format for each part will be similar to the unit exams.

Quizzes (100 points)

There will be seven quizzes worth 20 points each.  They will be available on this site in the unit folders with instructions for completing and submitting them.  You will keep the highest five quiz grades (the lowest two will be dropped).The quizzes were also discussed at length in the previous introductory page.

Bonus/Extra Credit (30 points maximum)

The graded homework is worth 100 points.  However, earning a perfect 13 points on each of the 10 assignments would result in a total of 130 points.  Therefore, there are 30 points maximum bonus points in the course.

Course Policies

Please read the Course Policies in the syllabus. These policies apply for ALL sections of CHEM 152, regardless of instructor, so we will follow them in this class as to not do so would be unfair to students in other sections.  The one I get the most questions about is making up exams or quizzes.  Note the policy as written in the syllabus:

There are no makeup quizzes or exams in CHEM 152.  An absence from an hourly exam or a quiz will be recorded as a zero.  However, one exam score will be dropped.

Since this is an online class and the homework and quizzes are all online, this shouldn’t be a big issue with the homework and quizzes.  You will be given access to them well before their due dates (you have access to the homework now and a minimum of one week for each quiz), so you will have plenty of time to work on them.  There is a lot of flexibility of when to do those assignments.  Don’t procrastinate!  If you wait until the last minute and have something come up (work, internet outage, illness, etc) I may not extend the homework or quiz deadline (instead I may remind you that you get to drop two quizzes or that there are bonus points available on the homework).

I MAY (no guarantees) be more flexible on the exams, as they are scheduled to be done only on certain days.  I do want you to take the exams and be successful and I realize the days might be problematic at times or you may be ill.  If that is the case , tell me as soon as possible. The exam dates are available on the calendar now.  If you contact me in advance (the earlier, the better) and tell me there will be a problem, I can probably work with you.  If you contact me after the exam was to be taken (or at 11:30 pm the night it was to be taken) and ask if you can take it later/make it up the answer will likely be no (instead I will remind you you can drop an exam).

Again, the key is to communicate with me what is going on!

Institutional Policies

All of these policies and this entire section is required by LCC.  I have no input on it and am required to include it.  I have no problem doing so, but I realize that it is cumbersome to read.

Additional Items

May be useful information to you — you don’t need to read it, just take a quick look to know it is there later if you need it.

Schedule

As mentioned earlier, the course schedule is available at this link.

There is also a link to the schedule in the right sidebar of all pages in this website.

It is tentative at this point, but will always be accurate as it will be updated if there are any changes.  I’d recommend checking it weekly or at least at the beginning of each unit.