These policies are from recent syllabi, though pasted below not necessarily in the order they appear. I also have a HELP! page where I link to lots of campus resources around academic, financial, and personal help.   A Note About Open Education The underlying philosophy behind the types of assignments and the ways that they are assessed in this course is Open Education. This is a big umbrella term that encompasses a lot of different learning and teaching practices that are meant to reduce barriers and give more agency and freedom to students. For you, this means:

• Using free materials to reduce costs/barriers
• Choosing the format of some assignments so that you can best show the knowledge you have gained and hone skills that matter to you
• Instead of traditional letter or number grades, receiving feedback and opportunities for revision from your professor, and allowing you to self-assess your work and assign yourself a final grade.

  Attendance Try your best to attend every class session – it helps you and makes class more fun and interesting for everyone. I am required to take attendance by PSU for financial aid verification. Class is not recorded for viewing later or virtual Zoom attendance. (PSU’s Official Excused Absence Policy is not relevant to this class since attendance doesn’t have a direct effect on your grade.) Making Up an Absence If you are absent, meet with me as soon as you can to make a plan for making up class activities that you missed. Checking Canvas is not sufficient by itself for making up an absence. Late Work Due dates are there to help you stay on track and not get overwhelmed when work piles up week after week. But if you think that you will need extra time, contact me as soon as possible with your request and a suggested alternative due date. Technology (Laptops, Tablets, Phones) Try your best to use technology responsibly so that it does not impede your learning or distract others. We will sometimes use laptops in class activities, so come to class with your devices fully charged. (If you don’t have access to a laptop or tablet, you can check out equipment for free from the Help Desk in the HUB.) At some moments, I may ask you to put away devices to allow for focused offline work.   Assessment I will give you feedback on your work, but will not assign points or letters to any assignment. You will have an opportunity to redo and revise most assignments. My hope is that working without grades and with second chances gives you the freedom to focus on your learning goals and needs. What about the Canvas gradebook? Canvas is the place where you turn in many assignments. It’s also a repository that holds information and helpful materials related to our course. I do not use Canvas to calculate your grade. I will mark assignments as “complete” or “incomplete” which is just a rough way to see if something was submitted or not, but not a judgement of its quality or completeness in meeting assignment expectations. So, if you see a number or letter in the Canvas gradebook, please ignore it and instead focus on my written feedback. How will I know my overall course grade? You will complete periodic self-assessment reflections, where you discuss your progress for the course learning goals. At the end of the course, you will propose a final grade that you justify in a narrative reflection. We will meet to discuss your reflections and make any adjustments if needed. Participation Class more fun and rewarding if everyone participates. But “participation” is much more than just speaking up during a class discussion, and I want you to think of participation and class engagement as a set of skills that you can improve. At the start of the course, you will set participation skill goals to work on throughout the semester.