Fall 2024
Instructor – Joe Cash
Office – P284
Email: jcash@csustan.edu
Office Hours – This is an online course, so there are no office hours.
Thoroughly read, study and follow the directions in the intro document. If the intro document does not address your question, then we will work together via email to make the intro document understandable. If we can’t solve it via a series of emails, then we can make arrangements to meet in my office to work on it, but I may need at least 24 hours notice for such a meeting, and we will schedule such a meeting only after we have tried (possibly several times) and I have determined that the problem can’t be solved via email. Plan your time accordingly. Use the above joecash@cs.csustan.edu email address only to contact me.
Course
Description:
(3 Units) Gives the student the knowledge and experience needed to use a personal computer effectively. A range of computers and software will be available; as much as possible, the student will be able to learn about systems which are directly usable in his or her area of study. Topics include discussions of computer hardware, the range of capabilities of the personal computer, how to evaluate a piece of software, and how software is written. Satisfies G.E. area UD-B. Prerequisites: Upper-division standing. (Credit may not be given for both CS 2000 and CS 4000.) (Lecture, 2 hours; laboratory, 2 hours) (Fall, Winter, Spring)
Note that, to the best of my knowledge, students need 45 units (not 60) when they register for the course and must have satisfied A1, A2, A3 and B4 by the time the class starts in order for the units you earn for this class to satisfy the General Education Requirement. See a counselor or advisor in your department if you have questions about that
Required
Materials:
MyLab IT: Read the intro document thoroughly for more information before purchasing anything, including your textbook and your MyLab IT access code. Note that to read the intro, you must have Adobe Reader installed on the computer you are using. Adobe Reader is a free download. If you don’t already have Adobe Reader installed on your computer, use a web search engine like http://google.com or http://yahoo.com to search for “free Adobe Reader Download” and follow the directions to download and install Reader on your computer, then try clicking on the “intro” link on the class website at http://www.cs.csustan.edu/~joecash. Some students have had problems getting Adobe Reader to display the intro. Right-clicking on the “intro” hyperlink and opening the intro in a “New Tab” on the browser may solve this problem. Other possible solutions involve clicking while the mouse cursor is in the browser window or scrolling up and down while viewing the intro in the browser. Pearson recommends you use Google’s Chrome browser. Firefox also works.
Textbook: Go! Microsoft Office 365 2021 Edition by Gaskin, Vargas, Geoghan, and Graviett, and Technology in Action 18th Edition ISBN: 9780135403556. The Kiva on-campus book store changes the ISBN to 8220144183847 in order to make the access code available via email. That’s makes it easier for you. Electronic versions of the textbooks are included when you purchase the MyLab IT access code from the Kiva book store on campus. The bookstore has told me that they will ship textbooks and MyLab IT access codes to the bookstore at the Stockton campus if students contact the bookstore to request it. Make sure you match the section number of the course you are enrolled in as per your schedule in http://my.csustan.edu with the section number on the book shelf at the bookstore to make sure you are getting the correct MyLab IT access code. The MyLab IT access codes without the paper textbook are sometimes behind the counter at the bookstore, so if you can’t find them on the shelves, ask a worker at the bookstore. If you want to work on your Grader assignments at home and you don’t have a compatible version of MS Office already installed on your home computer, then you may want to acquire a free version of MS Office 365. You can go to the website here: https://products.office.com/en-us/student/office-in-education?ICID=OfficeCatPage_SE_Officeforstudents-_feature-business-111717-en_US and follow the instructions there.
Email: You must look at the announcements on your MyLab IT account and at your csustan.edu email account once a day. There may be emails and announcements sent to you or to the class in general and you are responsible for the instructions and other information you may receive via these channels on a daily basis. Only use your csustan.edu email to send me email. You may register for MyLab IT with any email address; but please, only email me from your csustan.edu email.
Recommended
Materials:
Flash Drive or Online Email Account: to save your work and transfer it to another computer for Grader assignments.
My objective is to provide beginning computer users with information that will help them use Microsoft Office. Students will log into and work in the MyLab IT website. MyLab IT gives the student access to an online simulation (emulation) of Microsoft Office 365 2021 Edition (MS Office). Students will complete assignments using the MyLab IT MS Office simulator, and “Software Exam” assignments, which are also called “Grader” assignments or Grader Exams, in which students will use MS Office 365 2021 Edition applications outside of the simulator. You will also take a quiz on the reading in the “Technology in Action” text on chapter 9 on computer security. You will submit these assignments through the MyLab IT web site. You will also view the grades for your assignments in the grade book on the MyLab IT website. You can also see what grade you will receive at the end of the term if you don’t earn any more points in the “Results” section of MyLab IT.
Grading:
Grading will be based on the points you have earned in the course by completing assignments in MyLab IT according to directions. Be careful to follow the directions in the syllabus and intro successfully; that is how you earn points in this class. Your grade for the course will depend on the “Overall Score” entry on the Results page in MyLab IT grade book. Other entries in the MyLab IT grade book are approximations only; focus on the “Overall Score” entry if you’re interested in what your final grade will be, it always displays your final grade for the course. Please note that MS Access assignments are not required this term. Look in the Assignments page in our course in MyLab IT to see all of the assignments which earn you points towards your grade.
Late Policy: Due dates exist for each individual assignment, but you may resubmit assignments to improve your score on assignments with no late penalty up until the Final Deadline, provided MyLab IT does not crash and there are no bugs or other problems that prevent you from resubmitting those assignments. No assignments will be accepted after the Final Deadline for any reason whatsoever, even if crashes or bugs or any other problems encountered after the deadline for PowerPoint Chapter 3 prevented you from completing your attempt to resubmit an assignment. The Final Deadline is listed in the footer of every page of the intro and is marked with a note on the assignment due date calendar in MyLab IT. Note the Final Deadline is after the due date for the last assignment. You may resubmit assignments you have already turned in to improve your score on said assignment after the due date for the last assignment, but any questions, problems, bugs with MyLab IT computers or programs crashing, the internet not working; personal, work or family problems, or any other kinds of problems must be resolved before the due date for the last assignment, which is November 18, 2024 (note that the due date for PowerPoint Chapter 3 is BEFORE the “Final Deadline”. I will be extremely busy after the due date for PowerPoint Chapter 3 and will not be able to answer any questions, help any students, or work on any problems after the due date for PowerPoint Chapter 3. Note that there are scheduled dates for maintenance for MyLab IT. MyLab IT will not be available during that time. Please familiarize yourself with the MyLab IT website so you are aware of the dates it will be down for maintenance and plan accordingly. Reading the intro document is the absolutely required first assignment for this class, and the first paragraphs of that document elaborate the policy on due dates, so read and re-read that document until you understand what is in the intro before doing anything else for this class. The only reading for this class, other than the chapter on computer security in chapter 9 of the “Technology in Action” eText book are the directions for the assignments themselves, this syllabus, the information on the MyLab IT website, and an intro which is less than forty pages long, so read that document thoroughly and repeatedly until you understand what is in the intro. Please complete the course early, as there will be no incompletes or extensions on the Final Deadline for any reason whatsoever.
Attendance: Class attendance is not required this term due to the pandemic.
Deadline to Register for MyLab IT: You must properly register for MyLab IT by the due date, which is before the census date. That means this term you must properly register for MyLab IT by September 1, 2024 or you may be dropped. To properly register for MyLab IT you must register in the correct section of MyLab IT. That is, you must register in the section of MyLab IT that has the same section number as the hybrid section in which you are enrolled. Also your name as it appears in the MyLab IT grade book must be spelled EXACTLY as it is in http://my.csustan.edu or you may be dropped from the class, or I may require you to contact Pearson Customer Support to change your name. If you are registered in the wrong section of MyLab IT or the your name is not spelled exactly as it is in http://my.csustan.edu I may disable your MyLab IT account and drop you from the class. Note that, if I disable your account because you enrolled in the wrong section as per your schedule in http://my.csustan.edu then you will not only have to re-enroll in the in the correct section of the class; you will lose all the work on assignments you have done so far and have to re-complete those assignments to earn a score for them. If you spell your first or your last name differently (even one character is different) than they appear in my.csustan.edu, then you will have to contact Pearson Customer Support and ask them to correct the spelling of your name. Please, do NOT ask me if you registered properly, it is your job to make sure you registered properly. Check http://my.csustan.edu to see if you registered in the correct section and if your name is spelled the same in the MyLab IT grade book as it is in http://my.csustan.edu. (Note: You may register using a temporary MyLab IT access code. You can activate the code later in the term by paying Pearson for it, but you must pay for the MyLab IT access code before the deadline mentioned above.) I don’t think Pearson gives refunds for the MyLab IT access code, so make sure you’ve followed all the rules so you won’t get dropped and are going to stay in the class before paying for the MyLab IT access code; but also make sure you register for the proper section in MyLab IT before the above-mentioned deadline for registering for the class in MyLab IT.
Cheating: Students have failed this class because they cheated, so pay attention to, and carefully follow the directions here and especially in the intro regarding cheating. Please don’t let other students have access to your Grader files, and please don’t turn in any Grader assignment files that any other student has had anything to do with. Also, don’t turn in a file that was downloaded while you were logged into another section of the class or that was downloaded from a previous term, even if the file or account was your own. When a Grader file is uploaded to MyLab IT, if somebody else downloaded the file or edited it, or if the file was downloaded in another section of MyLab IT or downloaded from a previous term MyLab IT informs me that there was an integrity violation. If a student turns in a file another student has downloaded or edited, or was downloaded from a different section or term of the class then that will be considered cheating and the submissions will be deleted and scored at zero percent and the student will not get a chance to re-submit that assignment for a better grade, even if it is an accident. If that student copied their file from another student taking a class from me this term the student the file was copied from will suffer the same penalties. Other penalties may be assessed for both students, including a lowered grade, failing the class and/or having charges filed against the students in the Department of Judicial Affairs. See the catalog description of plagiarism for more information about penalties. See the section in the intro entitled “Moving Grader Assignments, Copying Other’s Work, and Cheating” for information about how to avoid such accidents and charges of cheating. It is very important that you keep your files secure so no other student or anybody else can copy them and turn them in. If someone else turns in your file you will be penalized for cheating. Follow the directions in the intro in the section entitled “Moving Grader Assignments, Copying Other’s Work, and Cheating” every time you work on a Grader assignment to avoid having others copy your files or you may be charged and penalized cheating.
Enrollment: While MyLab IT is required, you must also be enrolled in the course in “MyCSUStan” (i.e. the usual enrollment for classes through the university located at http://my.csustan.edu) to receive credit for the course; being enrolled in MyLab IT is not enough.
First Assignment: The first absolutely required assignment for this class is to thoroughly read and re-read the intro document until you understand it, and then properly follow the directions in that intro document. You can find a link to the intro document on the class website where the link to this syllabus is located. That web page address is https://www.cs.csustan.edu/~joecash. Be careful when choosing the course code for your MyLab IT section when you read the intro. If you choose the wrong course code, you will enroll in the wrong section of MyLab IT. If you enroll in the wrong section of MyLab IT, your account will be disabled and you will have to start over and re-do all the assignments for the term in the correct section of MyLab IT. You will not receive any credit for assignments submitted while logged into the wrong section of MyLab IT. You may need to advance the calendar in MyLab IT to the next month to see the first assignment. See instructions in the intro for further directions regarding this.
Disabled Student Resource Center: This class accommodates disabled students in that you have as much time as you like to work on assignments up until the Final Deadline. After the Final Deadline no assignments will be accepted for any reason whatsoever. If you have a disability and need or would like other accommodations please visit the Disabled Student Resource Center in the Mary Stuart Rogers Building Room 210 (MSR 210) or visit their website at https://www.csustan.edu/disability-resource-services/contact-information
You can accumulate points towards your final grade in
the following ways:
Complete the assignments in the calendar on the MyLab IT website. You can always see what grade you have earned for the course by looking at the “Overall Score” entry in the Results page in MyLab IT. If you turn in more assignments and earn more points, you may improve your grade, and that improvement is then reflected in the “Overall Score” entry when MyLab IT updates the Overall Score field (within a few hours if you turn the assignment in before the due date, usually; but it may take days if you turn the assignment in after the due date.) The “Overall Score” entry shows you the grade you will receive for the course if you don’t earn any more points.
If you do not have MS Office 365 2021 Edition at home you can use the MS Office 365 2021 Edition which is installed on computers in the on-campus computer labs, provided that the on-campus labs are open. Food and drink are not allowed on the same tables as lab computers. As mentioned above, you may also download a free version of MS Office 365. See the link in this document above to go to the download site for the free version of MS Office 365.
Points earned for particular
activities assigned in this course will be weighted as follows:
There is one multiple choice quiz (Scored as a quiz, so it is worth 1.8% of your Overall Score) on the reading in the Security chapter in chapter 9 of the “Technology in Action” book. The other chapters each have three emulator style training assignments and three emulator style exams named, for example “Word1A Training”, “Word1A Exam”, “Word1B Training”, “Word1B Exam”, and “Word1C Exam”. In addition to that there is a Software Exam for each chapter named, for example “Word1Grader” which are not emulator exams and require MS Office 365 2021 Edition be installed on the computer you are working on.
The weight of assignments for each chapter is as follows:
Training assignments, known as “homework” within MyLab IT: Each is worth up to 0.6% of your final grade
Exams and Grader assignments, known as “quizzes” in MyLab IT Each is worth up to 1.8% of your final grade
The quiz on the chapter on security, known as a quiz in MyLab IT is worth up to 1.8% of your final grade
The cumulative weights (percent) for the assignments add up to 100%.
Note: The above weightings are approximations and are merely guidelines. Focus on the “Overall Score” entry in the MyLab IT Grade Book as a definitive indication of your final grade for the course.
General Education Goals and Outcomes
This course meets GE
learning outcomes in area B: Develop broad knowledge of biological and physical
sciences, humanities, and creative arts, and social sciences.
|
GE Learning Outcome |
Assignments and
Quizzes Will be Used to Assess Learning Outcomes in the Lab and Homework
Activities Below |
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1.4 Apply quantitative reasoning concepts and skills to solve problems. |
|
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3.4 Demonstrate enhanced awareness of multicultural, community, and/or technological perspectives. |
All the assignments in the class are designed to teach students how to use technology in the form of computer hardware and software to communicate in writing (e.g. MS Word assignments), present data to an audience (e.g. MS PowerPoint), and use MS Excel to solve problems quantitatively. |
See the table below for cutoffs
for letter grades.
|
If you earn this
percentage of the total possible points: |
You will receive this
grade: |
|
90% or more |
A |
|
80% or more but less than
90% |
B |
|
70% or more but less than
80% |
C |
|
60% or more but less than
70% |
D |
|
Below 60% |
F |
Some students,
like Nursing students and Liberal Studies students may be required to take this
class for a letter grade. Check with your advisor if you are uncertain about
policies regarding your grading options. The last day to drop the course or
change your grading option to Letter Grade or Credit/No Credit in the
Enrollment Services Department is December 9, 2024.
As per a memo
from the C.S.U. Stanislaus administration, the information in this syllabus, on
our class website, and the scheduled due dates for assignments are subject to
change without notice.