COURSE SYLLABUS

COURSE TITLE: ADOLESCENT PSYCHOLOGY                                          INSTRUCTOR: LEWIS BOSLER, M.A.
COURSE:  PSY 218                                                                                                 OFFICE HOURS:  By appointment ONLINE                                                                                                                    EMAIL: WebCT email
SEMESTER: Fall 2010                                                                                       

 TEXT: Santrock, John W. Adolescence.  13^th Edition.  Mc-Graw-Hill: 2010

 COURSE DESCRIPTION:

An exploration of adolescent changes including physical, maturational, cognitive, social and emotional factors.   Adolescent developments also viewed from various theoretical points of view.   Vocational and educational developments are considered.  

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

This course will focus on patterns of  social, personality, emotional, intellectual and biological development during adolescence.   Through class discussions and written assignments, students will be encouraged to both analyze and think critically about the developmental changes that occur during adolescence from various theoretical perspectives.   Students will learn about research methods that psychologists use to study adolescent behaviors.

Communication:
I will check email and the discussion  on a daily basis during the week. I will respond to emails a quickly as possible, but it may take me as much as 24- 48  hours to respond to any questions you ask. Please be patient if I don't respond immediately.   On weekends, I might not check email regularly (or at all), so if you have a question regarding assignments, it would be good to ask it early in the week.   

Your best option for contacting me is to email me through the private WebCT email on the course site.  If I have not responded to you within 48 hours (2 days) you can send an email to lbosler@hcc.mass.edu . If you send an email to my college email address, be sure to put your name and the course number in the subject area.  If you don’t, I am likely to delete the message.  I am also available for appointments at the college. Please call or email to make an appointment with me.

This course is delivered asynchronously, which means you do not have to be on line at a particular time. There will be no required chat room for the course, however, you may decide to use a chat room to communicate with other students.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Attendance: 
Since this is an online course, the rules change! You will be expected to log in and participate in the online discussion group a minimum of 3 times weekly.   For the purposes of this online course, a grade of AW may be given if you have not posted something on the bulletin board or contacted me for 7 days, or if you fail to meet 2 deadlines for quizzes or assignments. Any one of the above criteria is sufficient for you to be withdrawn from the course.

Participation-Discussions:

Students are expected to read and think critically about the assigned chapters and material and be prepared to participate in the online discussions. Students are encouraged  to post topics for discussion.   

Because there is no ‘live’ classroom interaction, this segment of the course is particularly important. Let me repeat: The discussion part of the course is VERY IMPORTANT.   The discussion is asynchronous, which essentially means ‘any time, anywhere.’ This is a threaded discussion, not a chat room discussion. Each week, or perhaps a couple times a week, I will post a discussion question or two. When you participate doesn’t really matter - but it is important that you do participate. As noted above, you are expected to log in and post a relevant comment a minimum of three (3) times weekly. It would be good to check in early in the week, mid-week, and toward the end of the week, so that you can get the full flow of the discussion. The more often you check in, the better your understanding will be. There is an expectation that all students will take an active role in their own learning. I will actively monitor and participate in the discussion group. I may also utilize group emails as a tool to share information, questions, concerns and new information.  

Written Assignments:
There will be some written assignments. Each assignment will give instructions as to whether to post it to the discussion forum or email it to me via the WebCT course site.  

Quizzes:
There will be a quiz at the end of every chapter.  The quizzes are posted in the “quiz” section of the WebCT course.  Please make note of the dates that each quiz is available.  If you miss a quiz you will receive a “0” – there are no make-up quizzes.

**VERY IMPORTANT ---  Students who have taken online courses in the past have always complained about their quizzes answered being changed by the computer.   It seems as if this happens with students who use a mouse with a “mouse wheel.”.  After you click on an answer in the quiz DO NOT USE THE MOUSE WHEEL to scroll down to the next question.  If you do not click to save you answer before you scroll to the next question, the mouse wheel will scroll to a different answer than the one you chose and submit that instead of yours.

 **PLEASE NOTE:  Double check all of your answers before submitting them.  

**SUBMITTING ANSWERS AND QUIZZES – After each question you must click on the “SAVE ANSWER” button, and at the end of the quiz you must click on the “FINISH” button.   If you forget to do this, your answers will not be saved, and your quiz will not be graded, even if you answer all of the questions.

Exams:
There will be a mid-term exam and a final exam.

 Test/assignment(s) schedule:

Assignments and quizzes will be noted on the Course Calendar. You can expect at least one written assignment per chapter, in addition to doing the online quizzes and posting to the discussions. I will not provide additional reminders for assignments, quizzes and exams. It is your responsibility to check the calendar on a regular basis.

Timeliness Policy:

• Students are expected to complete all work by posted due dates.

• Quizzes can be submitted from the beginning date of a chapter until the due date.   Quizzes will NOT be accepted after the due date – students will receive a “0” for any quizzes submitted after that date.

• I will NOT accept late homework assignments.  Homework submitted after the due date will receive a “0”

• Computer crashes, inability to connect to the internet, and other "the dog ate my computer" situations do not excuse late work.  There are always computers available for your use at the college.

• Lateness due to personal or family illness or other "emergency" situations will be discussed on an individual case, at the instructor's discretion, and only with proper documentation    

**EXTRA TIME:  For me, one of the biggest challenges as an instructor is when a student tells me that they would like extra time to submit their work or to take a quiz.   There are many times that the student has a legitimate reason and I want so much to help them out by giving them extra time to do their work.  Unfortunately, if I give one student extra time, I would have to allow all students extra time – I can’t make exceptions for some students and not other students.   Given that fact, it is not reasonable for me to make exceptions – first of all it would make keeping up with the work that I have to do very difficult, and secondly I would have to put some time and effort into deciding what is a legitimate reason and what is not.    What this means is that if you miss and assignment, discussion postings, and/or quizzes you will not have the opportunity to submit the work after the deadline.

 GRADING:
Final grades will be determined by the following:

Written Assignments                  100 points each
Quizzes                                       150 points each
Participation in Discussion          100 points each   
Mid-term Exam                           250 points each
Final Exam                                  250 points each

 PLAGIARISM: 

You are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity, as spelled out in the college’s student Handbook.   When you copy something word for word, or when you are merely paraphrasing ideas from someone else's work, you are committing plagerism.  If your paper contains information that you did not know prior to you starting the paper or is not common knowledge, you must make reference as to where you obtained the information.  You must cite your source, including the last name of the author and the date of the publication in parentheses.   If you use someone else's works and ideas without citing them, you are committing plagiarism.   For a first-time offense, you will receive an “F” for the assignment. For s second-time offense, a student will be withdrawn from the class, given a final grade of “F” and will be reported to the Dean of Students, who will consider disciplinary actions.

 Also considered a form of plagiarism is to submit someone else’s answers on quizzes and exams.  Anyone caught submitting another person’s answers on a quiz or exam will be given a grade of “0” on that quiz or exam for the first offense.    If caught doing it a second time, a student will be withdrawn from the class, given a final grade of “F” and will be reported to the Dean of Students, who will consider disciplinary actions.

 *If a student is suspected (without proof) of cheating on a quiz and/or exam, if after a discussion between the student and instructor the issue cannot be resolved, the student will be required to take another – PROCTORED – exam at HCC.

The HCC ACADEMIC POLICY – is posted in the COURSE INFO section.