RTV 4700 FALL 2014 Course Syllabus

MY PHILOSOPHY ON UNIVERSITY LEARNING
You find yourselves immersed in a four-year, liberal arts university environment.  A small minority of this country’s adults possess a bachelor’s degree.  Put these things together, and you begin to get a picture that this whole college thing isn’t really very easy.  That’s the way it should be.  If something is of value, you most often will have to work hard to obtain it.  So it is with knowledge.  This course will tax you intellectually.  There’s a lot of stuff covered here, and you’ll have to dedicate yourself if you wish to achieve a “good” grade.  This isn’t just an accident; I intend it to be difficult.  That’s what university learning is supposed to be.  I design my classes to be difficult but fair.  To that end, I stand prepared to assist you in anyway I can to get that result you want in class, but the work must always come from you.  I can guide your efforts, but the learning will be the product of your labor.

CELLPHONE POLICY
Cellphones may not be visible, in use or exposed in any fashion during class time.  Additionally, turn them off or use the vibrator mode; ringing or ring tones in class are prohibited.  Also, I regard texting the same as conventional calling.  Repeated infractions in any of these areas may result in a point deduction from your overall final score for the class.

COURSE TEXT
Creech, Kenneth C.  (2007).  Electronic Media Law and Regulation, 5th Ed.  Boston:  Focal Press.

ADDITIONAL REQUIRED MATERIALS
Scantron sheets (These are the raspberry-colored version with the UCF logo on the front.)
#2 lead pencil (for exams/quizzes); ink pens will not be accepted for a grade

GRADING
Syllabus Quiz………………………………………………………………..5 points
Exams (3 @ 100 points each)………………………………………300 points
Quizzes (7 @ 10 points each)………………………………………..70 points
TOTAL…………………………………………………………………..375 points

FINAL GRADES
Final grades will be determined according to the following strategy:
     A…………337-375
     B+……….324-336
     B…………312-323
     B-……….300-311
     C+………287-299
     C………..275-286
     C-……….263-274
     D+………250-262
     D………..238-249
     D-……….226-237
     F…………….0-225

TESTING AND ASSIGNMENTS
Exams will be administered in class on the day they appear in the course schedule, and will be based on assigned readings, lectures and class discussion.  Quizzes will be administered online in WebCourses, and will be based solely on assigned readings.  The current event assignment is detailed on its attending page.

WEBCOURSES QUIZZES
There will be 7 quizzes.  Each quiz will cover assigned readings and/or lecture information.  Quizzes will be open for a particular time window.   Quiz open dates and times will be posted on the course schedule, and will consist of 10 questions worth one point each. You will have one minute per question.  You will only see one question at a time. and you may not change an answer once it’s been submitted.  You may take each quiz twice within this window, and I will keep your highest score.  Given that you may take each quiz twice, you should be shooting for a perfect score on every online quiz. 

NOTE ON TECHNICAL PROBLEMS WITH ONLINE QUIZZES
Should you have technical difficulties of any kind with webcourses, the first thing you are required to do is contact tech support athttp://onlinesupport.cdl.ucf.edu/help/ and file a report. The next thing you must do is contact me at george.bagley@ucf.edu.  I will not respond if you do not indicate that you’ve contacted tech support. Generally speaking, I will wait to hear back from tech support before deciding how to proceed. 

MISSED EXAMS/QUIZZES/CURRENT EVENT ASSIGNMENT
There will be no make-up quizzes or exams, nor will I administer any quiz or exam early.  In cases of a legitimate absence that prohibits you from taking either an exam or quiz (death in the family, severe and incapacitating illness, for example) you must present to me documentation of the incident/event that prohibited your attendance (funeral program, airline tickets, traffic ticket, towing receipt, etc.) and a typed, brief (confined to one page), formal request containing the following:

• explanation of the incident/event
• why you think it justifies the policy outlined below (doubling credit)
• the date of both the class(es) missed and the particular quiz or exam missed
• your contact information (name, PID and knights email address)

These documentations must be submitted in hard copy (no electronic versions) and are subject to verification.  If found acceptable, I will double a quiz or exam score.  In the case of the final exam I will double the previous exam score.  In the case of the final quiz, I will double the previous quiz score.  In the event these can’t be verified or are unacceptable, or if the above requirements are missing, no score will be awarded for that exam, quiz or participation. The above documentation may be either handed to me personally during class or office hours, or may be placed in my NSOC mailbox (main NSC office), but in the latter must have signature and time/date notation from NSOC office personnel.  I won’t accept any documentation without such notation, nor material placed in the box outside my office door.  If you have to miss the final exam for unavoidable reasons, you must notify me within 24 hours of that final exam and submit documentation according to course policy (above) within 24 hours of that final exam in order to qualify for the missed exam exception for this course.

NOTE:  I will only accept such request material up through the last day of classes for the term in question.  After that, I won’t entertain appeals for a missed exam or quiz or a missed summary.

EXTRA CREDIT/MAKE-UP CREDIT
There is only one formal option for extra credit in this course and that is the Current Event assignment.  There will be no make-up exams or quizzes, nor will they be administered earlier than the date posted on the schedule.

COURSE TESTING POLICIES

• On exam days, question sheets will be issued only until the first exam or quiz for that day has been completed and returned to me. After that, no question sheets will be administered and you’ll receive no score for that respective quiz/exam.
• During exams, students must leave the room of test administration upon completion of the test and not return during that period until all testing is concluded.  Talking is disallowed. 
• Students may not exit the room during administration of test.  To do so without permission/clearance will result in a score of “0” for that test.
• Only scantron sheets and pencils will be allowed at desk level during testing period, unless otherwise instructed.  All other items, including backpacks and especially cellphones, must be closed and placed under your chair.
• Wandering eyes, whether cheating or not, will result in either seating reassignment, or denial of credit for the exam or quiz.

COURSE POLICY ON ETHICAL DISCOURSE
This course promotes discourse in all its various forms.  Ideas, opinions, perspectives are encouraged and respected, diversity thereof tolerated.  There is, however, one exception:  disparaging words, references or allusions of any kind meant to demean or minimize an individual’s beliefs, gender, race, appearance or sexual preference will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

COURSE POLICY ON ETHICAL SCHOLARSHIP
It is unethical to use someone else’s writing, notes or ideas as your own, or to allow someone else to use your writing, notes or ideas. This includes abstracting material from other sources like magazines, the Internet or newspapers without proper attribution.  To do so will potentially lead to a score of “0” for the particular assignment and referral to the UCF Office of Student Conduct for appropriate disciplinary action. Don’t let yourself get caught in this scenario; always be prepared with your own original work.

I also have a real problem with cheating during tests, quizzes or anywhere else.  Don’t let poor study habits or anything else put you in a position where you feel the need to cheat.  Be assured, I’ll pursue instances of cheating to the fullest extent possible as defined in the UCF GOLDEN RULE, which may include expulsion from this class or from the university.

Additionally, the University of Central Florida Undergraduate Policy and Curriculum Committee of the Faculty Senate has approved the use of the Z designation policy.  As a result of academic dishonesty or unethical behavior in a course, an appropriate grade will be assigned to a student that is preceded by the letter Z.  For more information on the Z grade, see http://z.ucf.edu/.

CLASS EMAIL COMMUNICATION
Email communication is most often inherently more informal than a hard-copy letter, yet when you communicate via email with a professor it is nevertheless different than when you communicate with your friends or family.  To that end, in your correspondence with me you need to avoid the type of errors I list below or risk no response to your communication:

• common texting abbreviations
• inappropriately casual grammar such as no appropriate capitalizations at the front of sentences or in uses of the first person subjective pronoun, “I,” lack of closing punctuation
• scriptural, religious or any kind of reference to your personal belief system that is not the subject of the email

Additionally, all UCF students must have an active Knight’s E-Mail account. I may only send university e-mail communication to Knight’s E-Mail accounts.  To sign up for your free account, please visit www.knightsemail.ucf.edu . If you have questions about an existing account, please call (407) 823-5117.

POLICY ON RECOMMENDATION LETTERS
While I’m happy to write recommendation letters for present or former students, I also reserve the right to deny such requests.  My policy on these letters is that I have to know something about you which justifies such a letter.  In other words, simply because you were in my class doesn’t justify a recommendation letter from me.  Moreover, such a recommendation letter under these terms would be meaningless.  Consequently, I may excuse myself from your request.  Please don’t take offense at this; it’s just that I have simply not witnessed in a classroom or other setting enough of you to draft a meaningful recommendation letter.

RTV ListServ
RTV majors and prospective majors are encouraged to subscribe to the RTV ListServ.  The listserv is the official email communication vehicle of the Radio-Television division. Announcements about class schedules, changes in classes, as well internship and job opportunities are made through “the list.”  You may view the procedure for subscribing to the RTV ListServ at: RTV LISTSERV Information

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Students with disabilities who need accommodations in this course must contact the professor at the beginning of the semester to discuss needed accommodations. No accommodations will be provided until the student has met with the professor to request accommodations. Students who need accommodations must be registered with Student Disability Services, Student Resource Center Room 132, phone (407) 823-2371, TTY/TDD only phone (407) 823-2116, before requesting accommodations from the professor.

NOTE: This syllabus may be altered, at the instructor’s discretion, during the course of the term. Students are responsible for informing themselves of changes announced in class.