Session 3: Rules of the Road

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Session 3 Rules of the Road

• Peggy Golden and Pamela Peterson Drake

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The Syllabus

• a.k.a. Your contract with students

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The Syllabus

• Name, contact info, office hours
• Course description include catalog description
  and prereqs
• Learning objectives
• Outcomes
• All policies of class
• Schedule (may be modified downward)

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Syllabus policies

• Include statement regarding the University Honor
  Code.
• Include a statement regarding ADA.
• Include a statement disclosing whether you use
  Turnitin for written work.
• If you provide the syllabus online, this syllabus
  must be printable.

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Syllabus policy, cont.

• You cannot change the syllabus during the
  semester unless it is in the direct benefit of
  all students.
• Bottom line dont change it
• To minimize changes, separate the syllabus and
  the schedule.

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Syllabus example

• MAN6721 Peggy Golden

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Syllabus Elements

• SYLLABUS Management 6721 August 16, 2005
• Global Management Strategy
• Professor Dr. Peggy Golden1
• Textbooks Mintzberg, Lampel, Quinn, Goshal, The
  Strategy Process Concepts and Cases 4th Edition
  
• Smith and Golden Corporation A Business
  Simulation, 4th Edition
• Coursepack from Xanedu available on screen or for
  print from eCompanion/Course Home
• 1 Office hours are 300-500
  Mondays. Others by appointment or 24/7 at my
  email golden_at_fau.edu. My office is 812 Askew
  Tower Downtown Fort Lauderdale. Various phones
  954.762.5220 (work) 954.462.5224(home)

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COURSE OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES

• This course is considered to be the capstone
  course in the MBA program and its focus is
  strategy, both corporate and competitive levels.
  The learning objectives are
• Be able to identify the fundamental competencies
  of a firm
• Understand the overall condition of all
  functional areas of the firm
• Place the firm in its proper context in the
  industry and from a marketplace perspective
• Anticipate the immediate future performance of
  the firm
• Identify the implications of the corporate
  governance on decision-making
• Become familiar with the resources and
  competencies that assist the firm in competition

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Outcomes

• Evaluate opportunities and threats, strenghs and
  weaknesses in the firm
• Relate these positive and negative attributes to
  the mission and value statements
• Identify critical areas for strategic change
• Assess the impact of global forces on expansion,
  repositioning, and other strategic initiatives
• Address the benefits of privately held vs.
  publicly listed firms

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GRADING Semester grades are based on the
percentages shown below. The cut-off
percentages may be lowered at the end of the
semester to match the curve of the performance
of the class.

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COURSE OUTLINE Fall 2005
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Syllabus example

• FIN4504 Pamela Peterson Drake

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Recommendations

• Be sure your syllabus is as inclusive as
  possible.
• When your students have questions, highlight the
  location of that information in your syllabus.

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Grades and Grading Policies

• Or
• My students think that I gave unfair grades

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Grades

• GRADING STANDARDS SHOULD BE CLEARLY SPELLED OUT
  IN SYLLABUS
• All grades are posted through FASS
• FASS directly vs. FASS through MyFAU
• What about incompletes
• CAUTION! Students are litigious
• Controlling subjectivity in grading

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Consequences of incomplete grading information

• What about absence policies?
• Student grievances
• Open communication to Provost/President via email
• Avoiding problems

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Recommendations

• Be sure that grades conform to syllabus
  expectations.
• Document absences and other non-quantitative
  expectations.

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Final exams

• Faculty responsibilities

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Final exam policy

• Final exams are given at the discretion of the
  instructing faculty member.
• Final exams may not be given on the designated
  Reading Day.
• Final exams can only be given at the time
  published in the Final Examination Schedule.
• If no final exam is given, the class must meet
  during the scheduled final exam period.

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Final exam distance learning

• Final exam should be given during the final exam
  week. Including the weekend prior to the final
  exam week is fine, but do not schedule the exam
  prior to or on the Reading Day.

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Office hours

• How many and what type?

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Office hours

• General guidelines
• Why face-to-face
• Why at all?
• Benefits vs. costs

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Recommendations

• Be sure to post your office hours and be
  available during that period of time.
• Some face-to-face hours are a requirement even
  for web classes.

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Academic irregularities

• Violations of the Honor Code

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University policy

• FAU is committed to a policy of honesty in
  academic affairs. Academic irregularities
  frustrate the efforts of the faculty and serious
  students to meet university goals.
• FAU Academic Affairs Faculty Handbook, p. 38

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Honor Code

• The Honor Code is provided in 6C5-4.001 of the
  University Catalog (p. 72).
• Irregularities
• Cheating (use of materials or assistance)
• Plagiarism
• Other activities that interfere with the
  educational mission (p.72)

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Reducing irregularities

• Define cheating
• Encourage ethical behavior
• Know the test takers
• Maintain assessment security
• Control the exam environment

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Maintain assessment security

• Large lectures
• Multiple versions of exams
• Different exams each semester
• Warnings
• Proctors

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Maintain assessment security

• Written assignments Turnitin
• Be aware of paper mills, e.g.,
• www.schoolsucks.com School Sucks
• www.cheathouse.com Evil House of Cheat
• www.termpapersonfile.com
• www.megaessays.com
• www.termpapers.com
• For more information, go to www.plagiarism.org

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Maintain assessment security

• Distance learning
• Large pools of questions
• Multiple types of assessments
• Dynamic content

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Control the exam environment

• Limit materials brought to the exam
• Limit materials taken from the exam
• Limit handheld devices to specific calculators
  prohibit transference among devices
• Forbid cell phones and ear phones

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Why bother?

• Reputation effects for unchecked violations
  diminishes the value of the degree for all.
• Provide a consistent message regarding the
  importance of ethical conduct.
• Without faculty action, many repeat-offenders go
  un-noticed.
• Unfairness in cases when faculty curves

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Academic irregularity Procedure

• The instructor determines that there is reason to
  believe that a violation occurred.
• The instructor informs the student of the charges
  and penalty.
• The instructor provides the student with a
  written statement of the charges.
• Statement is sent to department chairperson, who
  informs the Registrars office.
• A note is made to students internal file

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Academic irregularity Procedure

• The student may appeal instructors action by
  requesting a conference with the department
  chairperson within 10 days.
• When the department chair notifies the
  Registrars office, the Registrars office will
  inform the department chair whether a student is
  a repeat offender.
• Repeat offender ? suspension or expulsion

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Academic irregularity Procedure

• The student may appeal to a faculty-student
  council in the College.
• A student may appeal the action of the
  faculty-student council to the Provost.

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Recommendations

• Place statement in syllabus regarding the Honor
  Code and penalties.
• Place statement in syllabus regarding use of
  Turnitin if there are written assignments.
• Make an effort to reduce cheating.

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Conflicts of interest

• Or
• Who is my employer anyway?

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University Policies

• Reporting outside employment every year
• Who gets the patent for your intellectual
  property?
• Teaching for another institution the legalities
  and university policies
• Pro bono vs. paid outside work
• Outside work/travel during the week
• Use of University property/resources

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Recommendations

• File appropriate reports
• Do not use University property for non-University
  business

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Student confidentiality

• What you can and cannot do and say.

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The Buckley Amendment20 U.S.C.
1232g(a)(4)(A)(i)(ii)

• Prohibits dissemination of a students
  educational record without the written consent of
  the student (if the student is 18 years of age or
  older) or parent (if the student in younger than
  18 years of age).
• Educational records files, documents, and other
  material directly related to the student.
• Does not include public information (e.g., name,
  address, major, dates of attendance at the
  university, etc.)

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Communicating grades

• Do not post grades using social security numbers
  or any subset (e.g., last 4 digits) of this
  number.
• Do not hand back a graded assignment or exam to
  anyone other than the student.

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E-mail discussion boards

• Email users should exercise extreme caution in
  using email to communicate confidential student
  information, and should not assume that email is
  private and confidential. 
• It is especially important that users be careful
  to send messages only to the intended
  recipient(s). 
• Recommendation Do not send confidential
  information through email.

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Discussion with other faculty

• Confidential student information may be discussed
  with other faculty and administrators only as it
  benefits either the individual student involved
  or the objectives of the College/University.

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For more information

• Check out the
• College of Business Faculty Handbook