Announcements
Two or three times a week, I may post announcements for the class using (surprise!) Canvas’s Announcements. There will basically be two kinds:
- Class business: Reminders for upcoming assignments, changes to due dates, corrections, and other announcements related to the logistics of the course (how the course works);
- Instructional material: clarifications, responses to issues that come up in student work, and other items related to the content of the course (things to help you do your work).
Both kinds of announcements are important, so please check your announcements regularly. I recommend that you create a schedule for yourself — or, even better, consider setting up a “Notification” to inform you whenever an announcement appears (see the next item in this syllabus).
Notifications
Canvas has a flexible communications system. Indeed, at times, it can be too flexible, and communications can get lost in the range of possible channels.
If you haven’t yet done so, I recommend that you go to your Canvas Settings and set up Notifications in a way that works for you. You can set it up so Canvas notifies you when there’s a new announcement, as well as when I post feedback on an assignment, or someone responds to a message in the Discussion forum, etc.
I’ll walk you through that process in a video in the first week of the course — though if you’d like to set them up now, you might find these directions in the Canvas Student Guide helpful.
Discussions
Throughout the semester, I will assign Discussion Group Assignments (DGAs) designed to help you to work through issues and ideas we bring up in class. I will also set up specific threads that focus on specific assignments, as well as general questions.
It’s important that everyone feel comfortable participating in Discussions, so please: be respectful of your peers. You may disagree, at times, but please do so thoughtfully and politely, not with sarcasm or derogatory remarks directed at any person or group of persons. Please remember that there is a feeling human being on the other end of the computer connection. There is a lot of room for debate in this class, but not for flame wars.
On the other side of the coin: please don’t take criticism or advice personally. Love-fests don’t help anyone improve; honest suggestions do. When they’re right, we learn something new. But even when they’re wrong, we strengthen our own position by articulating why we think they’re wrong.
In short: strive both to give and to receive feedback, criticism, or advice with grace.
And please: don’t use A.I. That’s about as disrespectful as it gets.
Canvas Messages (“Conversations”) and Personal Email
Messages to individuals (to your classmates, or to me) — Canvas calls these “Conversations” — should generally be used only for private communications. If you have any comments or questions that might be of interest to the class, please post them in an appropriate Discussion thread so others may benefit from the conversation.
For example, if you want to let me know why you haven’t turned in an assignment yet (a private issue that the rest of the class doesn’t need to know about), it would be appropriate to send me an individual Canvas message. If you are confused about the instructions on a writing assignment, though, it would be appropriate to ask that question in the Discussions area. You may fear that your question is obvious, but it’s likely that others have a similar question — and sometimes students’ answers to such questions are more helpful than my response.
For class-related issues, please contact me through Canvas when you can; it’s much easier to keep track of conversations that way. For issues not related to the class, or in case you have trouble with Canvas (if you have trouble logging into Canvas, for example), you can go ahead and contact me through my personal email address (gkemble@yccd.edu).
I will respond within two business days (though I’m usually much quicker than that).
Next up: Grading
The next section is about my grading policies.