Academic Dishonesty Policy

Santa Monica College defines academic dishonesty as an act of fraud or deception in any academic exercise. Therefore, it is considered cheating when a student shares his/her work with another student; or when a student completes an assignment or takes an exam with another student; or when a student copies another student's work and submits it as his/her own; or when a student completes the assignment or takes the exam for another student. You can read more about Academic Dishonesty Conduct Defined under your syllabus.

What happens if students are caught cheating on an assignment or exam?

Regardless of the circumstances, both students involved in this event will be considered at fault. Students caught cheating on any part of assignments or exams will receive no points for that assignment or exam in question. The instructor will also submit a report in writing to the campus disciplinarian to be placed in each student’s disciplinary files. In addition, there may be other consequences that the campus disciplinarian may impose on the students involved in this event.

General Grading Policy

Project Assignments, Case Problems, or Class Projects:

Students are required to complete each section of the assignment to get credit.
Students are required to use the correct student data file to earn credit.
Students are required to use the mandatory program as posted on the syllabus to complete these assignments.
Students must have the correct features and functions covered in this class to get the credit for that step. Students cannot replace the features with other features in these assignments. The grade is based on using and applying the features that we are covering in the chapter.
Students are required to check their own submissions if they want to earn the credit. The instructor is not going to be chasing students to get the right files. If the instructor does not get the correct files, that student will automatically receive ZERO.
The grade is based on the submission date and time only. Therefore, I will not accept any computer stamp date.
There is no resubmission in this class to fix mistakes. All assignments will be grade one-time only. Therefore, take your time and check your work before submission and watch the videos that have been recorded for this class.

Late Submission Policy

Students have until Sunday to submit the late assignment of that week except for the last assignment of the semester and the Final Class Project. Any late project assignment or case project must be submitted on the day before the final exam.
There is no late submission for Final Class Projects since these projects are due on the last day of classes. Students must upload their files before 11:59 pm on the assigned due date.
Any file submission will be considered late even if you submit your file late by just one minute.
I will not accept any "late assignment" late under any circumstances. Regardless of their situation, students have no more than two weeks to upload any file for this class except for the last semester's last assignment.
As listed on the syllabus, there is a 20% penalty for all late submissions. Also, students will not be able to see the score on a late submission right away. If you submit a late assignment, then the instructor will also be late in updating your grade. If you do not want to wait for your assignment score, then submit your assignments on time.
If you have been assigned a case problem during the final exam, any late submission will be subject to a 40% penalty, and you must know that I will not accept anything after the official class date.

Practice Theory Tests:

All practice theory tests are due on Monday. However, students are encouraged to take their theory tests at the end of the week. You can take each test up to 10-times as long as you do it before the test closes. Try not to retake these tests after getting 80% or more because you need extra effort to review your midterm and/or final theory exam. More information is posted under the Course Schedule page for this class.

Students should be taking the practice theory test within a week. After that, however, the practice theory tests will officially close as listed on the course schedule page.

After the official due date, the test will show up as a late submission if you take the test after the official due date. However, I am not taking points off for retaking these exams after a week. Moreover, Canvas will save the highest score under the Canvas gradebook. Therefore, students are solely responsible for checking each test's final grading score to ensure that you have at least 80% or more on your test before it closes.

These practice tests are Pass/No Pass grading.

Any practice test with a testing score of 80% or more is a passing score; therefore, students will earn full credit = 5-points per chapter.
Any practice test with a less than 80% testing score is "not" a passing score; therefore, students will earn credit = 0-points. Therefore, if you get less than 80%, retake the test to increase your score before the test closes permanently.

Board Assignments:

Students are required to participate during the week that the board is opened. This is an online class, so students can log in to the class 24/7 to participate on the week that the class is open.
To get credit, you must post your answers first before you can see other students' responses. You will not get credit if you do not answer the board questions before clicking on the submit button or post incomplete answers.

I am expecting to see a paragraph with a minimum of FIVE full long sentences per question. Short answers will result in low scores OR not score if you do not answer the questions.
Students need to ask questions directly to TWO different classmates related to their posting by Friday night so that other students can have the weekend to answer these questions. Therefore, if you submit a late board, make sure that you still post the two questions to get points for asking the questions to two different students.
Comments do not count as questions. It would help if you also used the proper quotation marks (????) so that other students can see that you are asking a question.
When replying to questions or asking questions, I expect answers or questions that are constructive to others. Also, we are going to maintain a friendly and respectful environment for all students.
Students must reply to all the questions that other students have posted by 6:00 pm on Sunday. If you do not answer these questions or you skip addressing any of the questions that other students posted directly to you, you will not receive full credit for this section. Make sure that you check your board throughout the week, especially on Sunday night, to make sure that all your questions have been answered. This is a full-week assignment.
Students who reply only to a few students or skip answering other students' questions will not receive full credit.
The discussion board will close on Sunday night after 11:59 pm. Therefore, students will not be able to participate after the board is closed, and there are no extensions for this assignment regardless of the situation. This board assignment requires you to participate and communicate with other students using this board page on the given week.
Also, I will not accept any other form of communication for this assignment. For example, you cannot submit your answers to the comment or via e-mail since you need to be in direct communication with other students through this board.

Grading Policy for Late Posting

There is a penalty to any student answering the board assignment questions "after" Friday night for the first two parts of the assignment. Therefore, make sure that you post questions to two students that do not have any questions on their own board so that you can get this credit.
Students submitted their board assignment answers on or before Friday, and nobody posts any questions directly to them (Monday through Sunday). Therefore, those students will receive full credit since they had no questions or comments to reply to.
Students that submitted their board assignment answers after Friday will not get credit for the last section if there is no interaction on the board with another student within their own board.

Hands-On Exams: (If applicable to this class)

The time of the file submission is critical for your grade. Students have to attach the file within three hours (180 minutes) from when they click on the Start Quiz button to be considered on time.

This exam is graded manually. Therefore, after you submit your exam, you may see a ZERO in your score automatically since the score is pending. That is normal. Do not panic. The exam score will be posted once the exam is closed and all students have taken the exam. The instructor manually enters the score per exam once the exam is being graded.

Make sure that you check the submission of the file (s) or the ZIP folder. If you attach the same file or ZIP folder that I gave you or another file or ZIP folder that is not your exam, you will automatically get zero in this exam as your final score. If you think you made a mistake, you have to submit the correct file immediately after submitting the original exam using the Canvas Inbox. That means you need to submit the exam file(s) or ZIP folder within the three hours time period. Unfortunately, there is no resubmission button on the exam page, so you have to use the Canvas Inbox to attach the new file. Also, I will not accept under any circumstances any exam submission several hours later after you submitted your first exam or the following days. Students are responsible for checking their submissions at all times.

Late Submission

There is a penalty for any late submission regardless of the situation. Students are required to take this exam using a working computer that is fully equipped with the correct software program and has Internet connections at all times. Also, students must take the exam in a place that is free of distraction.

Any submitted file beyond 180 minutes will be penalized five points for each beginning hour that the exam is submitted late. Therefore, if you submit your file one minute late or one hour late, you will be getting the same 5-points penalty.
There is a 20% penalty for all those exam files submitted after the exam has been officially closed. However, the student's responsibility is to take the exam when the exam is officially opened, not after it is officially closed. Therefore, for students planning to take the exam on the last exam day, I suggest starting your exam no later than 8:50 pm to finish the exam within the last three-hour period and before the exam is closed.
I will not accept any exam file where the student failed to attach the file or failed to attach the correct exam file. There are no acceptable excuses. You have been asked to check your work on the exam instructions and resubmit it to Canvas Inbox if you were not sure to attach the correct exam file to the exam page.

What happens if a student missed exam #1 or midterm exam for any reason?

There is a makeup exam#1 or midterm exam. This exam may be opened on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday of the following week.
There is an automatic penalty of 20% for taking makeup on exam #1 or midterm exam regardless of the student situation. The points will be deducted after the exam closes.
If you miss the makeup exam, then you will be getting zero for that exam. However, you must know that you can still pass this class with at least a B assuming that you scored high in everything else.

What happens if a student missed exam #2 or the final exam for any reason?

There is NO makeup exam #2 or the last exam.
If a student misses exam #2 or the last exam, that student will automatically zero on exam #2 or the last exam. Students received the list of the weekly assignments and exam due dates since the first week of classes. Therefore, it is the student's responsibility to plan his/her to complete these exams on the given day.

Theory Exams: (If applicable to this class)

The theory exams are similar to the practice theory tests. Therefore, students are recommended to go back to their practice tests and use any unused tries to study for their exams. Students will not receive any additional tries. The maximum number of tries per practice theory test for the entire semester is 10. Students will be given mostly multiple-choice questions for this theory exam. Students will be allowed to take the certification exam instead of the final theory test in some courses.

What happens if a student missed the midterm theory exam for any reason?

There is a makeup midterm theory exam. This exam may be opened on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday of the following week.
There is an automatic penalty of 20% for taking a makeup theory midterm exam regardless of the student's situation. The points will be deducted after the exam closes.
If you miss the makeup theory exam, then you will be getting zero for that exam. However, you must know that you can still pass this class with at least a B assuming that you scored high in everything else.

What happens if a student missed the final theory exam for any reason?

There is NO makeup final theory exam.
If a student misses the final theory exam, that student will get an automatic zero on the final theory exam. Students received the list of the weekly assignments and exam due dates since the first week of classes. Therefore, it is the student's responsibility to plan his/her to complete these exams on the given day.

What if the student has an emergency?

The student will have to apply for an incomplete. These are the Santa Monica College policy on incomplete:

AR 4310.1 Incomplete Grades (School Policy)

Incomplete grades in a course or courses may be approved when illness, accident, emergency, or special circumstances beyond the student's control prevents the student from taking the final examination or completing other immediate "end of semester" course requirements. The student must be passing the class with a “C” or better before the final exam or final project. The Incomplete grade is not to be used to extend deadlines for coursework, which the student might reasonably be expected to meet.

Instructors may require documentation that supports the student’s request. Instructors are not required to grant Incompletes, and such decisions by the instructor are final and may not be appealed by the student.

Therefore, if a student needs an incomplete in my class, that student must provide official documentation showing their names and dates as proof that the student could not take the final examination due to emergencies like illnesses or accidents. I need the official documentation from a hospital or a policy report if that involves an accident within two days after the last day of classes since I have to confirm the validation of the documents. In addition, instructors have less than a week to submit their grades at the end of the semester.

No student can request an incomplete after the grades have been posted, even if the student had a legitimate reason for not taking the exam.

Feedback

Students will receive feedback from all their assignments "after" the due dates.
Since all my assignments are done manually, it takes me a lot of time to give feedback to students. Therefore, I like to take turns every week when I choose which class I will grade first. Therefore, you may see that your score may show up early during the week or toward the end of the week in some of the weeks.
Also, if you submit a late assignment, you must know that you will "not" get your grades right away. I do not grade late submissions until I am done will all my grading throughout the week. Therefore, if you do not want to wait for your grade, submit your grade on time please.

When will I see my grade?

All practice theory tests and all theory exams will have automatic scoring. At the end of the semester, you will be getting a Practice Test Summary, where the scores will be posted as 5-points for each chapter. In addition, you will see the pass/no pass grading.
Project Assignments: I will start grading project assignments first after the official submission day (Tuesday). Please, read the rubric and the comments posted to make sure that you do not make the same mistakes in future assignments.
Board Assignments: I will grade these assignments once all the assignments have been graded. Therefore, you may not see the scores for the board within the same week. Please read the rubric and comments if you missed points in your board assignment.
Hands-on exams: I will grade the hands-on exams (if you have any available for this class) after taking the makeup exams. No grade will be released before. Please read the rubric and comments to see which areas you missed.
Capstone Projects: I will grade the capstone projects after posting all the scores from the weekly project assignments. Please read the rubric and comments to see which areas you missed.