! DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY HEADQUARTERS, U.S. ARMY SERGEANTS MAJOR ACADEMY 11291 SGT E. CHURCHILL STREET FORT BLISS, TEXAS 79918-8002 Course Title Advanced Leader Common Core Course (DL) Course Materials This course may be taken from any location that has a computer with a secure internet connection. You will need speakers or headphones for this course, all other system requirements can be found on the website on the NCOES Announcement page. Course of Instruction This is a self-study course in which you are allotted 90 days to complete. The course consists of 4 Modules which have timelines for completion. Course Timeline Failure to meet timelines will result in a letter being sent to your NCO Support Channel informing them of your lack of progress. The timelines are as follows: ! Academy and Course Policies Academic integrity is the foundation of the academic community. Each student has the primary responsibility for being academically honest. Students are advised to read and understand all sections of the Advanced Leader Course (ALC) DL Student Letter of Agreement which can be located on the NCOES Announcements section once you have logged onto https:// alc.ncoes.army.mil. Prerequisites After you have successfully logged in, you must complete Blackboard Basics for Students, ALC Student Letter of Agreement, and the NCO Support Channel/Chain of Concern in order to start the course. You must complete Blackboard Basics for Students and verify that you have completed the Blackboard 101 Quiz. If you do not score two points on this quiz, you will not be able to progress to the ALC Letter of Agreement, which is the next prerequisite. You must complete the Advanced Leader Course (ALC) DL Student Letter of Agreement. The ALC Student Letter of Agreement is written in test format and is imperative to your enrollment progression. By completing this test, you agree that you have read and fully understand the Student Letter of Agreement. If you do not score seven points on this test, you will not be able to gain access to Module 1. You must list your NCO Support Channel/Chain of Concern’s Rank, Name, Phone number and AKO email address to receive credit for this assignment or you will not be able to progress. If you are on a special assignment such as recruiting, joint assignment, or a MiTT team you still need to list your NCO Support Channel/Chain of Concern for at least two levels up. In this same section, you must also provide a solid contact phone number and email where you can be reached should a Course Facilitator/Grader need to communicate with you. Plagiarism Plagiarism is the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work. Plagiarism occurs when a writer duplicates another writer's language or ideas and then calls the work their own. Copyright laws protect writers' words as their legal property. To avoid the charge of plagiarism, writers take care to credit those from whom they borrow and quote. It is intended for students to refer to journals and other relevant outside sources, evaluate their findings in light of the current scenario, draw appropriate conclusions from their research, and then present their conclusions in a straightforward and convincing manner. Students must always submit work that represents their original words or ideas. Any words or ideas used in a class posting or assignment submission that are not the student’s original words or ideas must cite the sources used. Words or ideas that require citation include, but are not limited to, all hard copy or electronic publications, whether copyrighted or not, and all verbal or visual communication when the content of such communication clearly originates from an identifiable source. Reference your resources in accordance with the following format: “Title of the Article” (in quotations), Publication Name, and Publication Date. If your resource was found on the internet, to reference it simply copy and paste the link. Please see the Advanced Leader Course (ALC) DL Student Letter of Agreement for more information about academic honesty, including consequences of academic dishonesty. Cheating on any quiz, test, or exam constitutes an honor code violation which is grounds for student dismissal. Course-Specific Standards You will be responsible for completing quizzes, exams, practical exercises and thread discussions throughout four modules of training. These classes are set up with adaptive releases, meaning certain elements must be graded and passed before you are able to move on. Your inputs to discussions will be graded for grammar, punctuation and sentence structure. It is imperative that you do not wait to the last moment to attempt to complete your courseware. If you do not meet specific timeframes, a letter will be sent to your NCO Support Channel informing them of your lack of progress, which means you must verify their email address. Once your work has been graded it will be annotated on the website grade book. The majority of the lessons you will encounter contain Practical Exercises (PE) also known as a “ check on learning.” At the end of each lesson, there will be a quiz. You must achieve a minimum of 70% on each quiz you complete in order for Blackboard to make the next lesson available to you. You will have two attempts on each end of lesson quiz to obtain 70%. After the second unsuccessful attempt, you will not be able to progress in the training and must contact your facilitator to establish a documented action plan to enhance the learning process. Each Learning Module will have a graded exam at the end. Your GPA will be affected by module exams. If you fail (less than 70%) a graded exam, you must contact your instructor/facilitator to schedule a retest. You will be given only one retest. The maximum score you can achieve on any re-test module exam is a 70%–regardless of your actual score on the retest. You must complete every portion of each Module in order to gain access to the following sequence of Modules. End of Module exams require your understanding of the material, exam, and your ability to reference questions. You have 90 minutes to complete the 20 questions. Failing both a primary examination and the retest will result in a recommendation for dismissal from the course for failure to meet academic standards. Threaded Discussions In order to access your end of module exam, you will need to have all of your PEs assignments and threaded discussions completed. Each threaded discussion question is worth 10 points; you must achieve 7 out of 10 points to receive a go. • Select threaded discussion question. • Post a 150 word answer to the discussion question demonstrating your best writing ability. • At a minimum, post two responses, to a classmate’s post (either two different classmates or two responses to the same classmate) and respond to your instructor’s follow on questions. • Use “natural voice” and capture that voice in your writing. • E-mail both of your facilitators when your posting is ready to be graded. Grading: • Less than 150 words is a NO-GO and will require a re-write; 150 words = 1 point • Clarity (Max 3 points) – how well you demonstrate your understanding of the topic in the question you respond to. • Critique – (Max 3 points) - how well you respond in your posting to another student’s response. • Questioning (Max 3 points) – how well you develop follow on questions. *For additional information refer to threaded discussion Rubrics at the end of the syllabus* ! Course Contact Information Once you have logged on to https://alc.ncoes.army.mil, navigate to the NCOES HOME and locate your announcements. Under your announcements you will find the contact information of the Course Facilitator/Grader that is assigned to your course. If you have any further questions which have not been answered within the material provided, please email • MSG Carter Branch Chief barbara.j.carter1.mil@mail.mil 803-299-2298 ! • Facilitators SFC Smith byron.smith1@us.army.mil 803-299-4836 SFC Hunt nelson.hunt@us.army.mil 803-299-4843 SSG Grant jaton.m.grant@us.army.mil 803-299-4837 SSG Dolly rachel.m.dolly@us.army.mil 803-299-4840