Course Policies

Attendance and Participation: 30%

Attendance, respectful discussion, and active participation is required in all class sessions. Absences will only be excused in case of medical emergency or university-sponsored activities. If you are not on-task during workshop days or if you engage in behavior which is disruptive to your classmates’ work, you will be counted absent and/or asked to leave.

Homework: 35%

Nearly every week we will have a short assignment due online. Details for each are linked on the course schedule. Please ask in our course Slack group if you have questions.

Terms: 5%

In our readings, we will often encounter terms which are unfamiliar. This is part of learning a new method of research! To help us get a handle on all these new terms, every week (except for the first week) each student is responsible for identifying and defining one new term. Terms and their definitions should be submitted here, and will be published on the course blog after approval from Dr. Kane. Extra credit is given if you define a term no one else has defined for that week.

Peer evaluation: 5%

Three times during the semester, I will ask you to give points to your classmates based on how helpful they’ve been in class or on Slack. I want to incentivize you to learn how to teach and assist others. Teaching others technical skills is a skill itself, and one that I hope you will practice frequently in this class.

This is very old advice about how to teach someone to use a computer, but still helpful and informs my teaching philosophy.

Transcriptions: 5%

Details will be linked from their own page.

Final Project: 20%

Details will be linked from their own page.

(Optional) Doctoral students may design a research project related to the dissertation area in consultation with their advisor and Dr. Kane.

Course Policies:

Assignments

All assignments are due online at the beginning of class on the date indicated on the syllabus. Late assignments will lose one grade increment per day late (ie, an A- will be a B+ after one day late and a B after two days late). Paper or emailed assignments will not be accepted.

Grades and feedback on assignments will not be discussed over email. If you want more feedback, or you would like to discuss your grades, you must make an in person appointment with Dr. Kane.

Email and Technology

Lost files, lost passwords or computer troubles are not an excuse for late work, especially in this class! Have a backup plan! We’ll discuss options the second week of class.

Unless specific permission is given for disability accommodation purposes, class sessions may not be recorded under any circumstances. Recording audio, video or by other means may result in dismissal from the course or a zero for class activities at the instructor’s discretion.

Phones and other noise making devices should be silenced at the beginning of class. Don’t disrupt the learning of others. Noise or distraction from your electronic devices may result in loss of the day’s class activity points.

Students are required by University policy to check their albany.edu email once every 24 hours. Students are responsible for receiving any updates about the course via email.

Please allow at least 48 hours for a response from Dr. Kane. There are many of you and one of me.

Email any time but do not expect a response outside of the 9AM-5PM business day. Especially the night before an assignment due date.

Accommodations

All reasonable accommodations will be provided for students with documented physical, sensory, systemic, cognitive, learning and psychiatric disabilities in accordance with the University’s Statement of Reasonable Accommodation Policy http://www.albany.edu/disability/docs/RAP.pdf

If you believe you have a disability requiring accommodation in this class, please notify the Director of the Disability Resource Center (Campus Center 137 / 442-5490 / cmalloch@albany.edu). That office will provide Dr. Kane with documentation of your disability, and will recommend appropriate accommodations.

Academic Honesty

Students who violate the University’s academic honesty policies http://www.albany.edu/undergraduate_bulletin/regulations.html may fail the assignment or course and will be reported to the Office of Undergraduate Education or Office of Community Standards for a Violation of Academic Integrity.

It is assumed that your intellectual labor is your own. If there is any evidence of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, the minimum penalty will be an automatic failing grade for that piece of work. Plagiarism is taking (which includes purchasing) the words and ideas of another and passing them off as one’s own work. If another person’s work is quoted, summarized, or paraphrased, this must be indicated with quotation marks and/or a citation.