Read this ENTIRE document carefully! It explains all of the details of how the course works and how you are graded. You may want to print this out and keep it with you as a reference throughout the course.
If your question about the course is not answered here, go to the FAQs page, which you can also find on the main course menu in Blackboard. You may also want to print this page out so that you have it with you througout the semester as a reference.
If you have already read the syllabus and are just looking for an answer to a specific question, you can click on the links below to take you directly to that section.
Required TextbookFor detailed information about the book, click here.
To take this course, you must have the following:
A working computer to which you are allowed to download programs, and to which you have uninhibited access at least 2-3 days each week for a total of at least 8-12 hours each week. (It may be possible for you to complete some coursework on a tablet or smartphone, but I cannot guarantee this--check whether this works first by trying out the various first week's assignments and see if that works for you.)
A reasonably fast and reliable internet connection.
A working email address which you can check at least 2-3 times per week.
Weekly access to a scanner or the ability to write equations using a word processing program like MS Word and to draw pictures using a computer software program and save them in a format which can be viewed by others, such as jpeg or gif format.
8-12 hours available to do work for this course each week, divided between at least 2 or 3 days each week.
The ability to learn mathematics by reading rather than listening to lectures delivered orally.
The self-discipline and organization to do regular work each week and meet scheduled deadlines, even through there are no regular in-person meetings.
You can find all assigned work and deadlines listed on the Assignments page on the Main Course Menu in Blackboard. You should check this every week.
This class has several kinds of assignments:
The discussion questions will be posted each week under the Discussion Board button on the main course menu.
You must always post your first response to the discussion board about 3 DAYS BEFORE the deadline for the assignments each week; if you miss this deadline, you will lose points on your discussion board grade because other students won't have enough time to respond to your post! This deadline is always listed on the Assignments page, in the Discussion Board column.
Before submitting your first discussion board, read about how to submit your discussion board answers by clicking here.
You may also want to read about common mistakes which students make on the discussion board by clicking here.
What is required to get full credit:
Post your first response to the discussion board by the FIRST discussion board deadline (see the deadline given in the Discussion board column of the Assignments page for this week).
READ ALL OTHER STUDENT POSTS before the final deadline, and use what you learn from this to correct your own posts. If you find that another student's post makes you reconsider your answer, then you should go back and correct your post, even if that student has not commented specifically on your work.
If I find that you have not been reading other student posts, you will lose points. (If your answer has obvious errors that have been addressed by other student posts and you never repost to correct these, then it will be clear to me that you have not read the other students' posts).
- Respond to all student and professor questions and comments on your work.
If I respond to your post and ask you to fix or clarify something you’ve said, you must respond to my post.
If other students give you feedback on how to fix your answer or explain why they think that your answer has an error, then you must respond to them by either correcting the error and reposting your answer, or if you think they are mistaken and that your answer does not have the error they have described, then explain clearly to them why the error they have pointed out is, in fact, not an error.
If you receive important comments from me or another student just before the deadline, you may respond to them after the deadline until the discussion board has been graded (which is usually about one week after the discussion board deadline has passed), if you have submitting all your other discussion board posts by the deadline. This is the only instance in which you can post to the discussion board after the deadline has passed. without prior permission from me.
- Reply to AT LEAST TWO of the other students’ posts for each question by the final deadline for that week (see the deadline listed in the Deadline column on the Assignments page for that week).
Your replies to other students’ posts should say something useful! It is fine to reply to another student, “Your answer really helped me to understand the concept better!”, but this post does not contain any information about the math itself, and therefore will not count as one of your two responses.
As you read the lectures, you will come to several sections of lecture questions which test your knowledge of the material covered in the lectures. These questions must be completed online. To get to these questions, go to the main course webpage in Blackboard and click on the Lecture Questions button on the main course menu.
You can save lecture questions and come back to them later, before you submit them. You can even redo them once they have been graded so that you can see if you can get a higher grade. But you must hit the submit button at the end of the lecture quesitons in order for them to be graded.
Before doing your first set of lecture questions, read about how to submit lecture quesitons by clicking here.
Each chapter has its own homework problems taken from the book.
If you do not follow directions properly when submitting your homework, you may recieve partial or no credit for the assignment.
- Be sure that you have the correct edition of the book, or the problems listed for the homework will not match the numbers in your book. The correct edition of the book is available at the library, and you can photocopy the pages of the book that contain the homework if you like.
Before sumitting your first homework assignment: Click here to see instructions for submitting the homework.
You may also want to read about common mistakes which students make while submitting the homework by clicking here.
Some weeks we will have a group project assigned instead of the usual homework, discussion board question, and lecture quesitons. .
I will put you into groups, and your group will have an area under the Group button on the main course menu where you will have your own discussion board, digital drop box, and chat room, where you can communicate with your group members.
Each group will have a group leader. Whoever volunteers for this position first will receive 10 extra points on the project grade. If no one volunteers, I will choose someone at random for the job and everyone will lose 5 points on their final grade.
The job of the group leader is to decide what tasks each person in the group will complete and to set up any times the group might meet online to discuss the problems. You will receive more detailed instructions when you are assigned your first group project.
Before working on the first group project assignment, read about how to submit your work by clicking here.
How to get a good grade on the group project:
Logon to your Group discussion board AS SOON AS THE PROJECT IS ASSIGNED, and be sure to log on regularly throughout the week. If you don't login soon enough and your group leader has set group deadlines that you have missed, then you will have to do the project completely by yourself or you will receive a 0!
Make sure the final version of any answers you submit as a part of the group project are correct and contain adequate explanation of your answers . Anytime you submit incorrect work, as soon as you discover your mistakes, resubmit the work with your corrections.
Respond promptly to the group discussion. Be sure you have replied to several other group members’ posts, at different times, with an answer that actually talks with them in detail about the math involved. Remember, just like in the discussion board, answers without substance (for example, responses like, “You did a great job,” and “I don’t understand,” without any other details) will NOT count!
Make sure that you look at everyone else’s work in the group, and if you see someone in your group who is doing something that is incorrect, help them to fix it. Politely point out their mistakes and try to clearly explain to them how to correct them.
Before taking your first test, read more about how to submit your test by clicking here.
Tests are open book, but you must do them ALONE, and everything you write on the test should be in your own words.
All tests will be open book, but they will be timed, and you will be expected to work on your own when you take the tests. Cheating by working with another student is still prohibited and if I discover that you have cheated, you will receive a zero on the test, and if it happens more than once, a failing grade for the class.
If you give an answer to an essay question that you have copied word for word from my lecture, or from the book, or from another student's posts this will be considered plagarism.
To read more about what kind of work constitutes cheating and what the penalties for cheating are, click here.
You will have a week to take the test, during which time you can log in anytime to take the test. Be sure to take the test well before the deadline. The test will disappear after the deadline for taking it is past, and you will not be able to get in to take it after that without my permission!
At the end of the class, we will have an essay project, which will consist of a series of essay questions about the topics covered in the course. It will be cumulative. You may ask for help on this assignment and you may begin it at any time during the course, but all of your final answers must be in your own words. If you have regularly participated in the discussion questions througout the semester and you have completed all of the lecture questions and tests with passing grades, you should be able to get a passing grade on this assignment as well.
Before the last day of classes: You will receive 75% of the credit for the assignment. This means that the highest grade you can get at this point on the assignment is a 75.
After the last day of classes: You will receive NO credit on this work unless you have a valid excuse (i.e. sickness, death in the family, etc.) with some kind of documentation, and you have let me know about the problem ASAP.
To see what the last day of classes is for this semester, go to the college academic calendar by clicking here. Once you go to this page, scroll down to the current semester, and see on which date the "last day of classes" falls.
Here is what you must do if you want to request an extension due to technical problems:
Every time you call Information Technology (IT):
(I know this can be frustrating, but unfortunately, I cannot fix technical issues. It is your responsibility as the student to keep calling the help desk until you can get through to a person who has the expertise to solve your problem. If the first person you talk to can’t help, then ask them to transfer you or give you the name of someone with more expertise who might be able to help you. Then contact that person. Keep this up until you can get someone to fix the technical issue.)
This is BMCC's official attendance policy: "At BMCC, the maximum number of absences is limited to one more hour than the number of hours a class meets in one week. For example, you may be enrolled in a three-hour class. In that class, you would be allowed 4 hours of absence (not 4 days). In the case of excessive absences, the instructor has the option to lower the grade or assign an F or WU grade."
Even though this course does not have regular face-to-face class meetings, you are still required to participate regularly and you can still be penalized for being absent. For example, if you do not login to the website for a week and do not turn in any work that week, this constitutes an absense of 4 hours. If you do not participate in the course for more than a week, you can get an F or a WU grade for the course, unless you have contacted me to let me know about your situation and you make up all work once you return to the class. Remember that even though this class is online, it still has all the same requirements as a face-to-face class.
Students with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations or academic adjustments for this course must contact the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities. BMCC is committed to providing equal access to all programs and curricula to all students.
This is BMCC's official policy on plagarism and academic integrity: "Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else’s ideas, words or artistic, scientific, or technical work as one’s own creation. Using the idea or work of another is permissible only when the original author is identified. Paraphrasing and summarizing, as well as direct quotations, require citations to the original source. Plagiarism may be intentional or unintentional. Lack of dishonest intent does not necessarily absolve a student of responsibility for plagiarism.
Students who are unsure how and when to provide documentation are advised to consult with their instructors. The library has guides designed to help students to appropriately identify a cited work. The full policy can be found on BMCC’s web side, www.bmcc.cuny.edu. For further information on integrity and behavior, please consult the college bulletin (also available online)."
The best way to protect yourself from plagarising the work of others is to make sure that you never write anything down that you do not understand. Do all the work you can to try to work out what the answer is to a given problem - consult my lectures, your textbook, other students, tutors, etc. Then, once you think you understand what the answers is, put all of these reference materials aside and try to write out the correct answer in your own words. Read your answer to yourself out loud and see if you think it makes sense. If it doesn't make sense to you when you read it aloud to yourself, go back and try to revise it until you think it does make sense. Try to keep your explanations as simple as possible.
On every assignment you complete in this class, even if you work with other students on it, it is your responsibility to make sure that all of your final answers are in your own words. In many cases you may consult my written lectures and discuss your work with other students, but you may never simply copy the answer another student has given or copy a portion of my lecures and turn it in as your own work. You may also never copy work from another textbook or website and turn it in as your own work. Even if you take someone else's answer and just make small changes to it, this is still considered plagarism, even if it isn't copied exactly, so you should never try to model your answer on something someone else has written, instead, you should always try to explain your answer completely in your own words.
If you cheat or plagarize on an assignment, I will give you a 0 on that assignment, and depending upon the circumstances, I may submit an official report to the college detailing the incident, which could result in disciplinary action by the college. If the instance is severe enough, I may also give you an F in the class. If you are referred for disciplinary action, the college can decide to expell you from the college so that you cannot take classes at any CUNY college. The penalites for cheating and plagarism can be very serious.
If I suspect that you may have cheated or plagarized on an assignment, I also reserve the right to ask you to come to the college to redo that assignment in person.
The main menu for the course is the purple menu on the left of the course webpage. It has the following menu titles:
Announcements: Click here to look at the course announcements will be posted. Be sure to check this at least twice a week.
Course Information: Click here to find a copy of this syllabus or look at the college academic calendar.
Assignments: Click here to see all the assignments listed by the week in which they are assigned. To see what is due each week, look here.
Lectures: Click here to read the lectures. Just remember that in order to see what assignments go with each of the lectures, you have to look at the Assignments page. You can also get to the lectures by clicking the link to the lectures on the Assignments page for each week.
Discussion Board: This is where you can find the discussion board. You must post your answers to the discussion questions here each week.
Groups: Click here to communicate with your group when I assign a group project.
Tests: Click here to take tests and test reviews.
Digital Drop Box: Click here to turn homework into the digital drop box.
Check grades: Click here to see your grades for the course or to check which work you are missing.
Contact Prof.: Click here to see my contact information, office hours, etc.
FAQs: Click here for frequently asked questions. If you have any questions about the course, look here first!