Computer
Science Technology Department
Houston
Community College System
HCC
STUDENTS SERVICES POLICIES &
Standard
Department Syllabus Attachment
The following
items are standard for every course taught within the department. They
cover a variety of policies and present information that is important for the
student to be successful in their courses.
ADA SERVICES
TO STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Any
student with a documented disability (e.g. physical, learning, psychiatric,
vision, hearing, etc) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must
contact the appropriate HCC Disability Support Service Office (DSSO) Counselor at the beginning of each semester. Instructors
are authorized to provide only the HCC DSSO approved
accommodations but must do so in a timely manner.
Students
who are requesting special testing accommodations must first contact the
appropriate (most convenient) DSSO for assistance
each semester:
DISABILITY
SUPPORT SERVICES OFFICES:
System: 713.718.5165
Central: 713.718.6164
Northwest: 713.718.5422
Northeast: 713.718.8420
Southeast: 713.718.7218
Southwest: 713.718.7909
After
student accommodation letters have been approved by the DSSO
and submitted to to CAMPUS OR DE Counseling for
processing, students will receive an email confirmation informing them of the
Instructional Support Specialist (ISS) assigned to
their professor.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
You are expected to be familiar with the College's
Policy on Academic Honesty, found in the catalog and student handbook. Students
are responsible for conducting themselves with honor and integrity in fulfilling
course requirements. Penalties and/or disciplinary proceedings may be initiated
by College System officials against a student accused of scholastic
dishonesty. “Scholastic dishonesty”:
includes, but is not limited to, cheating on a test, plagiarism, and collusion.
Cheating on a test
includes:
•
Copying from another students’ test paper;
• Using materials not authorized by the
person giving the test;
• Collaborating with another student during a test without authorization;
• Knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, or soliciting in
whole or part the contents of a test that has not been administered;
• Bribing another person to obtain a test that is to be administered.
Plagiarism means the
appropriation of another’s work and the unacknowledged incorporation of that
work in one’s own written work offered for credit.
Collusion mean the unauthorized
collaboration with another person in preparing written work offered for credit.
Possible punishments for academic dishonesty may include a grade of 0 or F in
the particular assignment, failure in the course, and/or recommendation for
probation or dismissal from the College System.
(See the Student Handbook).
ATTENDANCE:
Students
are expected to attend all classes and labs regularly. Students are responsible
for [any and all] materials covered during their absences, and it is the
student’s responsibility to consult with the professors for make-up
assignments. A student may be dropped from a course for excessive absences in
excess of 12.5% of the hours of instruction. For example: For a three-credit
hour lecture, a student may be dropped after six hours of absence. HCCS professors cannot assign a “W” for any
student after the official withdrawal date. “Administrative withdrawals are the
discretion of the professor. If you are doing poorly in the class, but you have
not contacted your professor to ask for help, and you have not withdrawn by the
official withdrawal date, it will result in you receiving a grade of “F” in the
course.
COURSE
WITHDRAWALS-FIRST TIME FRESHMEN STUDENTS-FALL 2007 AND LATER: Under Section 51.907 of the Texas Education Code “an
institution of higher education may not permit a student to drop more than six
courses, including any course a transfer student has dropped at another
institution of higher education.” Beginning in fall 2007, the Texas Legislature
passed a law limiting first time entering freshmen to no more than SIX total course withdrawals throughout their educational career in
obtaining a certificate and/or degree.
COURSE WITHDRAWALS: Be sure you understand HCC policies about dropping a
course. It is the student’s responsibility to withdraw officially from a course
and prevent an “F” from appearing on the transcript. If you feel that you
cannot complete this course, you will need to withdraw from the course prior to
the final date of withdrawal. Before,
you withdraw from your course; please take the time to meet with the instructor
to discuss why you feel it is necessary to do so. The instructor may be able to
provide you with suggestions that would enable you to complete the course. Your success is very important.
If
you plan on withdrawing from your class, you MUST contact a HCC counselor or your professor prior to withdrawing
(dropping) the class for approval and this must be done PRIOR to the withdrawal deadline to receive a “W” on your
transcript. **Final withdrawal deadlines
vary each semester and/or depending on class length, please visit the online
registration calendars, HCC schedule of classes and catalog, any HCC
Registration Office, or any HCC counselor to determine class withdrawal
deadlines. Remember to allow a 24-hour
response time when communicating via email and/or telephone with a professor
and/or counselor. Do not submit a
request to discuss withdrawal options less than a day before the deadline. If you do not withdraw before the deadline,
you will receive the grade that you are making in the class as your final grade.
EARLY ALERT PROGRAM: To help students avoid having to
drop/withdraw from any class, HCC has instituted an Early Alert process by
which your professor may “alert” you
and HCC counselors that you might fail a class because of excessive absences
and/or poor academic performance. It is
your responsibility to visit with your professor or a counselor to learn about
what, if any, HCC interventions might be available to assist you – online
tutoring, child care, financial aid, job placement, etc. – to stay in class and
improve your academic performance.
REPEAT
COURSE FEE: The State of Texas
encourages students to complete college without having to repeat failed
classes. To increase student success,
students who repeat the same course more than twice, are required to pay extra
tuition. The purpose of this extra
tuition fee is to encourage students to pass their courses and to
graduate. Effective fall 2006, HCC will
charge a higher tuition rate to students registering the third or subsequent
time for a course. If you are considering course withdrawal because you are not
earning passing grades, confer with your
instructor/counselor as early as possible about your study habits, reading and
writing homework, test taking skills, attendance, course participation, and
opportunities for tutoring or other assistance that might be available.
HCC
DISTANCE EDUCATION (DE).
Currently
Computer Science Technology Department teach several
courses where the student does not meet weekly on campus. Students
complete course materials on an individual basis that are available via
Internet. They visit a campus at least once during the semester for
testing (some courses more than once). Not all students are well suited
for this method of instruction delivery. See the department web site for
more details. The following information is necessary for all Computer Science
students taking online courses:
ACCEPTANCE
GUIDELINES: Not all people are well suited for independent
study. A general set of guidelines is used to determine if you should be
accepted into the Distance Education sections. These guidelines will
require you to:
1.
Be self
motivated or a self starter: This usually means having completed at least 6
credit hours of college and having a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or better.
Exceptions must be approved by the instructor.
2.
Meet the
course prerequisites: This means being ready for ENGL1301 and MATH1314 (i.e. no
remediation needed) and high school computer literacy or equivalent.
3. Already be familiar
with computers by having used:
4.
Have
access to computer resources:
5.
Understand
the following:
a.
Students
should check e-mail and web pages for updates regularly, not less than two
times each week. If you are unable to monitor the class website on a weekly
basis then you should not enroll in an online course.
b.
It is
recommended that students read their e-mails from the OLDEST to the NEWEST.
If students have sent the instructor a question, make sure and read your email
frequently in case the instructor requires more information from you.
c.
During
exams and project submissions it is the students’ responsibility to verify that
assignments have been submitted properly.
d.
Make
sure that your address/phone is correct on your student ID card.
DISTANCE EDUCATION SYLLABUS INCLUSIONS ARE:
BLACKBOARD
STUDENT USER ID
Your Blackboard login user ID will be your HCC
User ID (sometimes referred to as the “W”
number). All HCC students have a unique User ID. If
you do not know your User ID you
can look it up by visiting the HCC home page:
·
From www.hccs.edu, under
the column “CONNECT”, click on the “Student
System Sign In” link
·
Then click on “Retrieve
User ID” and follow the instructions. Or use the direct link to access the
Student Sign In page:
https://hccsaweb.hccs.edu:8080/psp/csprd/?cmd=login&languageCd=ENG
The default student password is “distance.”
Students will then be prompted to change their password after their first
login. Please visit the Distance Education Technical Support website if you
need additional assistance with your login.
DISTANCE EDUCATION (DE) ADVISING AND COUNSELING
SERVICES
Much DE student information can be found on the
DE Student Services website: de.hccs.edu. Advising or counseling can be accomplished
through our online request form AskDECounseling. Counselors and Student Services Associates (SSA) can assist students with admissions, registration,
entrance testing requirements, degree planning, transfer issues, and career
counseling. In-person, confidential sessions can also be scheduled to provide
brief counseling and community referrals to address personal concerns affecting
academic success.
ASKDECOUNSELING FORM
AskDECounseling is a student
services online help form. This is the best and quickest way for students to
get accurate assistance with DE registration, enrollment, advising, and counseling.
The online help form is simple to fill out, convenient, and readily accessible through
the internet. Students do not have to travel to campus sites, leave work, or
wait in an office or lobby to receive assistance. Upon submission, student
requests are answered in the order they are received.
LIBRARY
RESOURCES
As
a DE student you have the same access to first-rate information resources that
the HCC Libraries make available to all HCC students. A special website pulls
together all the tools DE students will need to get their research
rolling. Visit Library Resources
specifically for Distance Education students.
HCCS
GRADING SYSTEM:
The
Houston Community College grading system will be used to evaluate students’
performance in this course. Each instructor will provide detailed information
about grade calculation.
|
Grade |
Score
|
|
A-Excellent |
90-100 % |
|
B-Good |
80-89 % |
|
CFair |
70-79 % |
|
D-Minimal |
60-69 % |
|
F-Failure |
0-59 % |
SCHOLARSHIPS: The department started a
scholarship fund during the fall 2002 term. All students should read the
HCC Foundation website using www.hccs.edu.
Some of the scholarships are based entirely on scholarship performance without
regard to financial need.
CAUTION/WARNING:
SOFTWARE USAGE POLICY:
The software
provided by HCCS in its computer labs are for your use and is licensed to the
college. You are entitled to the use of this software during the
scheduled class/lab time, and open lab time. It is not permitted to make copies
of this licensed software. This practice of making illegal copies of
software is known as pirating. Attempting to pirate the college's
software will result in immediate dismissal from the course. Software that has
been recommended or required by an instructor for downloading is usually
shareware, and it is the responsibility of the student to obtain any required
license from the publisher of the software.
CAUTION/WARNING: VIRUS PROBLEM AND
CLOSED LAB ENVIRONMENT When dealing with computers, a virus is a
program that does some mischief (annoyance to destructive). Attaching
itself to a good program or data file that is stored on a flash drive usually
transmits virus programs. Drives that come in contact with a computer
that has a virus program on the hard disk drive could catch the virus. A
virus may also attach to email of other files that you download via the
Internet.
We
are attempting to make our computer lab rooms, virus free. One of the
ways to help in this effort is to prevent diskettes from outside our lab to be
used at all in our labs. This is called a “Closed Lab Environment”.
The Computer Science Technology Department is establishing a policy that is
close to this Closed Lab Environment.
The
following steps should be followed:
1.
You should not bring software or data disks to the lab unless it is for a
course that you are enrolled. Never, load any software without
permission. You should not bring any other software or data disks to
class unless approved by the instructor.
2.
Various students may need to use the open lab time to catch-up on assignments
or for additional practice (whether in DE or non-DE courses). They should
purchase a USB flash drive. As much as possible, this flash should only
be used in our classrooms and open labs.
3.
Students taking Internet Delivered courses should be using a current
virus-checking program on their personal machine.
All
of our labs have Norton Anti Virus checking software installed. However,
it is impossible to detect all viruses with a 100% guarantee. The student
should recognize this risk and the college is not responsible for damage to any
computer system from diskettes or downloads that become infected from a college
computer.
NEW
BLACKBOARD TECHNICAL HELP
Representatives
will be available to provide support for the Blackboard Vista learning
management system and software supported by that system via:
http://www.hccs.edu/hccs/faculty-staff/online-courses
SCANS: The Secretary’s Commission on
Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) from the U.S. Department of Labor was asked
to examine the demands of the workplace and whether our young people are capable
of meeting those demands. Specifically, the Commission was directed to advise
the Secretary on the level of skills required to enter employment. In carrying
out this charge, the Commission was asked to do the following:
§ Define
the skills needed for employment,
§ Propose
acceptable levels of proficiency,
§ Suggest
effective ways to assess proficiency, and
§ Develop a
dissemination strategy for the nation’s schools, businesses, and homes.
SCANS
research verifies that what we call workplace know-how defines effective
job performance today. This know-how has two elements: competencies and
a foundation. This research identified five competencies and a
three-part foundation of skills and personal qualities that lie at the heart of
job performance. These eight requirements are essential preparation for all
students, whether they go directly to work or plan further education. Thus, the
competencies and the foundation should be taught and understood in an
integrated fashion that reflects the workplace contexts in which they
are applied.
The
five SCANS workplace competencies identified by the Commission are the
following:
1. Resources—An ability to identify, organize, and allocate time, money,
materials, space, and people. Much of what you do in the classroom can help
students develop competency with resources. Emphasize planning skills in
relation to preparing, working, and completing assignments.
2. Interpersonal—Skills
to participate as a member of a team, teach others, serve customers, exercise
leadership, negotiate, and work with others possessing diverse backgrounds.
Cooperative/collaborative learning activities are an effective way to teach
interpersonal skills. In discussions after group activities, emphasize
interpersonal lessons and challenges of the activities.
3. Information—An
ability to acquire, organize, evaluate, interpret, and communicate information
along with using computers to process information. Competency with information
is basic to any classroom. Emphasize that efforts to
master information skills prepare students for future employment.
4. Systems—An understanding of social, organizational, and
technological systems; an ability to monitor and correct performance; a
competence in the design and improvement of systems. Look for opportunities for
students to use critical thinking skills to identify and analyze systems in
their school, community, nation, and world.
5. Technology—The knowledge and skill to select equipment and tools, apply
technology to specific tasks, and maintain and troubleshoot software and
hardware. Although there are many forms of technology that can be used in your
class, computers create real interest and opportunities for your students.
Encourage your students to make computers an important part of their education,
whether the computers are used in self-paced learning or in group projects.
The
three SCANS foundation skills identified by the Commission are the following:
1. Basic Skills—Reading,
writing, mathematics, listening, and speaking. Classroom activities can develop
and reinforce all these basic skills. Teaching these skills in the classroom
can provide cross-curricular opportunities.
2. Thinking Skills—Creative
thinking, decision making, problem solving, seeing things in
the mind’s eye, knowing how to learn, and reasoning. During their
careers, students will need this foundation to adapt to a rapidly changing
society. Helping students to think critically becomes very important so that
they may adjust to change. Seek opportunities for students to stretch their
minds, find new answers, ask hard questions, and lay foundations for lifelong
learning.
3. Personal
Qualities—Responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, and
integrity. Throughout their lives, your students will need to get along with
others: with classmates, friends and family, customers, and coworkers. Look for
chances to reinforce good personal qualities. And remember the power of
teaching by example.
SCANS
workplace competencies and foundation skills have been integrated into all
courses taught by the department.
http://csci.hccs.edu is official website for
Computer Science Technology Department. Please visit the website for
curriculum, faculty counseling, job postings, University transfer listing, etc.
End
of File - This file last modified 8/19/2010