GSU 1010-085 (CRN 86480) NEW STUDENT ORIENTATION
Semester: Fall 2012
Time/Place: 9:30am-10:45am R, Aderhold Learning Center 329
Instructor: Dr. Shelby Frost
Office: Andrew Young School of Policy Studies (AYSPS), room 656. The
AYSPS building is located at the intersection of Marietta and Peachtree Streets;
my office is on the 6th floor – take a left off the elevators.
Office Hours: 4:00-5:00pm T; 1:00-2:00pm R; and/or by appointment
Office Phone: 404-413-0155 (email is my preferred method of communication –
see note #1 below)
Email Address: sfrost@gsu.edu (or use the email feature in ulearn)
Website: http://www.shelbyfrost.com/
Peer Mentor: Jailene Gambaro
Email Address: jgambaro1@student.gsu.edu
Phone: 404-207-8367
Prerequisite: none
Text/Materials:
Required Texts:
 Nia Haydel and Nikolas Huot. 2011. GSU 1010: New Student Orientation.
(Denoted H&H hereafter.)
 Wes Moore. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (New York: Spiegel &
Grau/Random House, 2010)
Access to a computer and the internet is required – there are many computer labs
available on campus – for information about locations and hours see
http://www.gsu.edu/ist/38559.html.
We will be using ulearn for this course, which can be found at http://ulearn.gsu.edu. It is
a password-protected environment where you can monitor your grades, easily
communicate with me and your classmates, and find many useful materials throughout
the semester. Please check the ulearn site at least once between each class meeting for
announcements, etc. To logon to the system, you need your ulearn ID and your initial
password – see the ulearn login page for information about how to login to the system
and where to go for help if you have never used ulearn before (otherwise, there should be
a link to this course on your existing ulearn page). If you have trouble getting into the
ulearn site with your own user ID and password, use temp.sfrost as the user ID and
student as the password (this is my “fake student” account – please do NOT change the
password for this account), and please send me an email to let me know that you cannot
access the ulearn site so I can try to help you access it. There will be various items
available through the internet throughout the semester. You should become familiar with
a web browser (such as Netscape, Firefox, or Internet Explorer) and you will need Adobe
Acrobat Reader for some items; the reader is available free of charge at
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html. There is a link to the Adobe site
on the links organizer page of the ulearn site. If you have not already done so, I highly
recommend that you install it on your machine; it should already be installed on any
machine you use in a computer lab on campus.
General Education Goals and Outcomes
Communication: Students communicate effectively using appropriate writing
conventions and formats.
• Students will be able to express their ideas in writing.
• Students will be able to effectively convey their ideas to others.
Collaboration: Students participate effectively in collaborative activities.
• Students will be able to articulate various team roles.
• Students will be able to manage conflict with others.
Critical Thinking: Students use the results of analysis to appropriately construct new
arguments and formulate new questions.
• Students will be able to identify, evaluate, and act on issues of personal and professional
importance.
• Students will develop skills necessary to effectively convey their point of view to
others.
GSU 1010 Education Goals and Outcomes
Academic Life: Students will become familiar with the academic resources, procedures,
and student code of conduct policies of Georgia State University. They will exhibit
familiarity with the location, use, and content of official university documents relevant to
these issues.
• Students will be able to articulate the purpose of the Student Code of Conduct.
• Students will understand the role of the academic advisor.
• Students will be able to identify resources for academic support on campus.
Community Life: Students will have an understanding of the community and
environment on and around the university campus, as well as the general Atlanta
community. They will engage in at least one dimension of the Atlanta-Based Learning
Program.
• Students will be able to articulate opportunities for involvement in the campus
community.
• Students will identify opportunities for civic engagement.
Personal Life: Students will engage in activities designed to improve their study and
learning skills and to enhance their personal growth and development.
• Students will identify personal time management systems that work for them.
• Students will be able to successfully identify stress management techniques.
• Students will be able to identify resources in the community that are available to
promote and enhance their personal growth and development.
Grading Policy: GSU 1010 is a 1 credit-hour course that will count as an elective. It
will not count as part of the 120 hour degree requirement. Based on your performance, a
grade of A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, or F will be awarded upon completion of
the course. The grade for GSU 1010 will be computed in your Grade Point Average
(GPA). More information about GSU grades can be found at
http://www.gsu.edu/registrar/grading.html. The following scale will be used to assign
grades:
Course Grade
Points Earned
A+
97 or more
A
93 to 96
A90 to 92
B+
87 to 89
B
83 to 86
B80 to 82
C+
77 to 79
C
73 to 76
C70 to 72
D
60 to 69
F
59 or less
There will be several components to your grade. The following chart gives the
breakdown, and more detailed explanations follow in the sections below the table.
Component of Grade
Attendance (4 pts each day)
Required Assignments (5 pts each)
Variable Assignments (5 pts each)
Total
Points Possible
56
30
20
100+
Required Assignments :
1. Skills Inventory Reflection: You will take an online skills inventory and submit
a written reflection. More details will be provided in the assignment feature of
ulearn.
2. Road Map to Graduation: After the class session on Academic Advising, you
will submit your “Road Map to Graduation”. More details will be provided in the
assignment feature of ulearn.
3. Time Management Diary: After the class session on Time Management, you
will produce a “Time Management Diary”. More details will be provided in the
assignment feature of ulearn.
4. Campus Resource Video: It is important that you learn your way around the
GSU campus and about the many resources available to you. Therefore, you will
choose a particular campus resource (see list of campus resources in chapter 2 of
H & H), and produce a video highlighting what you learned from visiting their
office. You will post the video to YouTube and put the link on the discussions
board in ulearn. More details will be discussed in class and posted in ulearn.
5. My Student Body Module: This is comprehensive, online health promotion
education program for college students. You will complete this online and submit
your certificate of completion electronically via the ulearn assignment feature.
More details will be provided in the assignment feature of ulearn.
6. Service Learning Presentation: One of the required modules for GSU 1010 is
service learning/civic engagement. You will be required to attend some type of
service learning/civic engagement activity and report to the class about it. You
will prepare a power point presentation about the activity you participated in, and
you will post it to the ulearn discussion board. You may actually present it in
class as well, depending on how much time we have for such presentations. You
may work in small groups on this; everyone in the group will earn the same grade.
More details will be discussed in class and posted in ulearn.
Variable Assignments:
Twenty points of your final grade will be assignments defined by you. You must
complete four assignments worth five points each. These assignments are designed for
you to identify campus or community activities of interest to you, attend them, and
somehow share them with the class. Examples of how you might share with the class
include writing a short paper, producing a video, photo diary, or Prezi presentation. Note
that whatever you submit will be shared with everyone in the class.
You must have all variable assignments approved before you attend them. For example,
if you plan to attend a session about studying abroad, please notify me 24 hours in
advance of attending the event to have it approved. I will certainly approve attendance
at any of the Academic Success Workshops offered through the GSU Office of
Undergraduate Studies (the schedule is posted in ulearn), but you still need to notify me
in advance. There is a link in ulearn to an online form for you to use to submit the
information to me. In your proposal seeking approval for an assignment, you must
include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Date of the event:
Name of the event:
Purpose of the event:
Proposed reporting style: (short paper, video, photo diary, Prezi presentation, etc.)
After your proposed activity is approved, there will be a designated location in ulearn for
you to post your written summaries. Your variable assignment will be due one week
after the event/activity.
You may propose a variable assignment with other students in the class. If you chose to
work as a team for a variable assignment, then please list the names of everyone on the
team. If you are proposing a reporting method for a group project, I expect it to reflect
the efforts of multiple people. This means it should be lengthier and or use multiple
types of reporting.
Late Assignments Policy: All assignments will be collected at the beginning of class.
Post all assignments to their designated locations on ulearn unless instructed otherwise.
Late assignments will NOT be accepted. There are NO MAKE-UPS for missed
assignments.
Attendance Policy: Successful students attend class each week and participate in the
classroom discussions. Attendance is required each week and counts for 56 points of
your final grade. If you miss class, you will receive a zero for each classes missed. Each
class is worth 4 points of your final grade. If you are absent from class for an excusable
reason, documentation will be required to verify your absence. You will be asked to
complete a make-up assignment to earn the points you missed during your excused
absence. You are expected to be on time and prepared for each class session. Arriving
late for class or leaving early will result in forfeiting 2 points for the day. Consult the
tentative course outline (file posted in ulearn) to see what we are scheduled to cover each
day. It represents a tentative course outline, but we will try to stick to it as closely as possible
(please see note #6 below).
iPads: This course is part of a university pilot project where each student will receive an
iPad for use this semester. It must be returned at the end of the semester. You are
responsible for the iPad. If it is lost or stolen, you will have to pay a replacement fee
(about $650), so please take good care of it. If you do not feel comfortable with this
responsibility, please see me immediately to discuss options (such as you not being
issued an iPad this semester). FLC students will pick up their device at the Digital
Aquarium, 390 Student Center (http://www.gsu.edu/aquarium/index.html) after the
drop/add date. In order for a student to get a device, she or he must have their Panther
ID. In addition, the student’s name must appear on the class roster at the Digital
Aquarium. FLC students can pick up their device starting M, 8/27 through F, 9/31, and
T, 9/4 through F, 9/7 (10:00am-6:00). This gives you a two-week window to get your
iPad. If you miss that window, you can pick up your iPad during normal checkout hours
(MWF 10:00am–6:00pm). FLC technology checkouts will stop on September 28th. I
plan to start using them in GSU 1010 and PERS 2002 during the 2nd week of classes, so
you really need to get yours as soon as drop/add is over. We might use the iPads as
“clickers” in class, and we will use them for other exercises in class, so you should bring
it to class every day. You should be able to use your iPad to access the course ulearn
website. Your iPad will come preloaded with some useful apps purchased by GSU, and I
will suggest some other free apps for us to use in this class. FLC students should return
their technology to the Digital Aquarium by Friday, 12/7/12. Students who do not return
their equipment will have a hold placed on their account.
Notes:
1. When sending me an email to sfrost@gsu.edu, be sure to send it from your
official GSU student email address because my email program frequently blocks
emails from external email accounts (such as yahoo, gmail, etc.). I will send
emails to you either via ulearn or using your official GSU email account (so you
need to check those regularly – see
http://www.gsu.edu/ist/dist_email_students.html for the GSU policy on
communications via GSU email accounts).
2. Students with disabilities requiring accommodations must be registered with the
Office of Disability Services before an instructor can modify instruction or
expectations. The Office of Disability Services may be contacted at 404-4131560. Students may only be accommodated upon issuance by the Office of
Disability Services of a signed Accommodation Plan and are responsible for
providing a copy of that plan to instructors of all classes in which an
accommodation is sought. Any student with a disability who may require special
accommodations must make an appointment with me at the beginning of the
semester to discuss such accommodations.
3. Incompletes will only be given to students who are PASSING the course, and
even then, only in very special circumstances. In the case where an incomplete is
awarded, it must be removed by the end of the next term that the student is
enrolled (and within two terms regardless of whether or not the student is
enrolled) or it will automatically turn into an F. See
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwfhb/sec403.html for more information on GSU’s
policy on removal of Incompletes.
4. Students who withdraw after the midpoint of each term will not be eligible for a
"W" except in cases of hardship. A student who withdraws after the midpoint of
the term is assigned a grade of "WF," except in those cases in which (1) hardship
status is determined by the Office of the Dean of Students because of emergency
employment, or health reasons, and (2) the student is doing passing work, as
determined by the student's instructor(s). Note that undergraduate students are
limited to a total of six withdrawals during their academic career. See
http://www.gsu.edu/success/scholastic_discipline_policy.html for more
information on this University policy. Students in FLCs are not allowed to
withdraw from GSU 1010.
5. All students are responsible for knowing and adhering to GSU’s Policy on
Academic Honesty as published in On Campus: The Undergraduate CoCurricular Affairs Handbook. You can also read the policy at
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwfhb/sec409.html.
6. This course syllabus provides a general plan for the course; deviations may be
necessary. Important University dates can be found at
http://www.gsu.edu/registrar/calendars_and_exam_schedules.html.
7. Your constructive assessment of this course plays an indispensable role in shaping
education at GSU. Upon completing this course, please take time to fill out the
online course evaluation.
8. Georgia State University values diversity and is committed to fostering and
maintaining an educational environment which appreciates individual differences
in all areas of operation including classroom instruction, texts, and materials. To
this end, any actions, practices, or processes by any faculty, staff person, or
student that discriminates against or is prejudicial toward any person or group
based on race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, nationality, disability, sexual
orientation, or socioeconomic status will not be tolerated.
9. Students are expected to behave properly in class – so as not to interfere with the
learning environment of others in the classroom. This includes showing up for
class on time, not leaving early (or at least being quiet if either of those do
happen), not talking to neighbors in class, not using cell phones during class,
etc. Students not adhering to these rules/guidelines may be asked to leave the
class and may be subject to an administrative withdrawal (depending on the
severity of the infraction). See
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwdos/codeofconduct.html for more information on
GSU’s policy on disruptive student behavior in the classroom.