| Concepts | Computer Skills |
|---|---|
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Online: Students registered for sections of this course designated as "online" will have no scheduled weekly meetings in a classroom. However, online students are still welcome to attend lectures if they choose. Online students need to be physically present on the FSU campus in Tallahassee to take all exams. Classroom: This class provides 45 hours of instructional contact. Classroom students have two weekly lecture class meetings on campus where lessons are provided and course topics are discussed.
The course director holds 4 hours per week of office hours, and there is a help lab in 302 MCH that is available 35 hours per week.
Recitation Sections: There are no pre-scheduled recitation or lab meetings for this course.
ALL STUDENTS will have access to instructors at the online Help Desk, and on campus in a classroom Help Desk. All students must sign up to take their exams in on-campus exam sessions offered during the semester. All exams are held in the FSU Testing Center.
Students who have taken CGS 2060, Computer Fluency, are not eligible for credit in CGS 2100 and should not sign up for this class.
If both CGS 2060 and CGS 2100 are taken in the same semester, the student will receive credit for only one of the two courses.
Course Director:
Randolph Langley
Office Hours: see course website ('Instructor Info' tab on Blackboard)
Office: MCH 103
Course Teaching Assistants:
Names and contact information to be announced; see course Blackboard site
Administrative TAs:
Every student will be assigned an Administrative TA who will be their
primary contact for administrative situations, such as grading
questions and extension requests. Administrative TA assignments will
be posted on the course web site.
Online Email Help Desk:
Send mail to: 2100help AT cs.fsu.edu
In Person Help Desk:
Location: MCH 302; hours will be posted on the course web site.
Communicate all course questions and concerns to the email helpdesk 2100help@cs.fsu.edu, or to Teaching Assistants in the help desk lab, or in certain cases to your Administrative TA. Teaching assistants will refer cases which they are not able to handle to the lead teaching assistant, who will either handle it or refer the case to the Course Director.
A personal computer is not required, but it is recommended for anyone wishing to do assignment work from home; Windows PC or MAC computer with Microsoft Office 2013.
| Points | Task |
|---|---|
| 100 | Syllabus Quiz |
| 100 | Assignment 1: Office Word |
| 100 | Assignment 2: Excel |
| 100 | Assignment 3: Excel |
| 100 | Assignment 4: Excel |
| 100 | Assignment 5: Excel |
| 200 | Exam 1: Text Chapters 1-6 and Appendix A |
| 200 | Exam 2 : Text Chapters 7-10 and Appendix B |
| 1000 | Total Points |
Use the table below to calculate your letter grade based upon the number of points earned.
| Lower Bound Pts | Upper Bound Pts | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| 920 | 1000 | A |
| 900 | 919 | A- |
| 880 | 899 | B+ |
| 820 | 879 | B |
| 800 | 819 | B- |
| 780 | 799 | C+ |
| 720 | 779 | C |
| 700 | 719 | C- |
| 680 | 699 | D+ |
| 620 | 679 | D |
| 600 | 619 | D- |
| 0 | 599 | F |
Final Letter Grade: The points you earn over the duration of the semester determine your final letter grade. No additional point earning activities will be provided for students who, at the end of the semester, realize that they have fallen short of their desired grade. This is university policy. Students in any course must have exactly the same opportunities to earn points towards a final grade. Grades will reflect how well students read and follow course directions and meet course deadlines. Grades are final unless an error was made in grading or point calculations.
Any request to your Administrative TA to review the grade for a particular item must be made within 7 days after the date that the given assignment/exam grade is posted, or it will not be considered. You must notify your Administrative TA that you wish to make a grade inquiry via email in order to meet this deadline. All grade inquiries must then be resolved and the grade finalized within 7 days of the grade inquiry being initiated.
The successful completion of this course satisfies the FSU Computer Competency Requirement for many majors. Students must check with their academic advisor to confirm that this course will meet the requirement for their specific major. The first Microsoft Office Word assignment functions as the computer competency capstone activity of this course. The following policy is a university requirement: In order to fulfill FSU's Computer Competency Requirement, the student must earn a "C-" or better in the course.
To insure successful completion of this course, students must understand and comply with the following:
NO INCOMPLETES WILL BE GIVEN FOR THIS COURSE UNLESS THE STUDENT CAN SHOW DOCUMENTATION OF SEVERE AND UNANTICIPATED EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES FOR WHY HE/SHE WAS NOT ABLE TO COMPLETE THE WORK, AND HAS ALREADY COMPLETED NEARLY ALL OF THE COURSE WORK WITH PASSING SCORES. INCOMPLETES ARE NEVER GIVEN DUE TO POOR PERFORMANCE IN A COURSE.
If you have a Windows PC with MS Office 2013 and a high speed Internet connection, or if you have Office applications that can save in the latest verion compatible with MS Office 2013, you can do much of your class work on your own PC.
Assignments will be graded with Microsoft Office 2013 on a Windows PC, so make sure that the files you submit work the way they are required to, in MS Office 2013 on a Windows PC.
Students who don't have a Windows PC with the correct version of MS Office can do some or all of their coursework on a PC in the 315 MCH computer lab which has all the software. When working in the lab, students must save all their work on a portable flash drive.
All students are responsible for properly maintaining multiple, backup copies of their files and work for this course.
Students who do their work on older versions of Microsoft Office run the risk of losing points on their assignments, or even getting a zero score. Submitted homework files that are not submitted in accordance with the assignment directions will receive a zero.
The versions of Microsoft Office in the labs are Office 2013 for Windows and Office 2011 for Mac.
Again, all assignments are graded using Office 2013 on Windows (and not on a Mac with 2011) so all files must work correctly on that specific platform to receive full points. Generally speaking you can do most of your work on a Mac system, but be sure to verify that your files work correctly on a Windows platform before you turn them in for grading.
Please don't use the Safari browser to turn in your assignments. Safari seems to have more problems with Blackboard's submission process than other browsers.
Students can also find all the software necessary for this class installed on computers in any of the three general purpose labs on campus: MCH 315, the Student Union, or the basement of Strozier Library.
Students that opt to do their work on their own computer accept the responsibility for their computer's proper functioning.
"Computer problems" will never be accepted as an excuse for missing an assignment submission. If problems occur at home, students will need to complete their work in any of the three general purpose labs on campus mentioned above. NEVER WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO SUBMIT AN ASSIGNMENT.
Administering exams to very large numbers of students each semester is no small task. We have a testing staff that attends to this task and several procedures and policies to help the testing procedure run as smoothly as possible. It is imperative that students follow the following procedures and policies regarding the examination process. All exams are Concepts exams.
You will incur a 40 point penalty (20%) if you:
No late assignments are accepted.
Extensions will only be considered in case of medical or other emergency situations. In all cases, you must substantiate any request with written proof consisting of original and verifiable documents, for example, a letter from a physician or hospital emergency room documents, or written funeral home documentation.
Extensions are NEVER granted for reasons such as the following: the university computing sites were crowded, Blackboard was slow, you lost your file and you didn't have a backup copy, your computer stopped working, you lost the internet connection at your home, or you had other courses or job commitments that interfered with your work in this course.
For serious emergency or medical situations (hospitalization, death in the family, etc), you are strongly advised to seek assistance at the Dean of Students office. Often, if you provide the appropriate documentation there, they will send out official notice to all of your instructors at once as to your situation.
You can avoid all problems by starting work on the assignments early, working on them incrementally, and by getting help early when you need it. Also make sure you have completed all of the assigned readings and worked through relevant exercises in the required course textbook.
The Florida State University Academic Honor Policy outlines the University's expectations for the integrity of students’ academic work, the procedures for resolving alleged violations of those expectations, and the rights and responsibilities of students and faculty members throughout the process. Students are responsible for reading the Academic Honor Policy and for living up to their pledge to ". . . be honest and truthful and . . . [to] strive for personal and institutional integrity at Florida State University." (Florida State University Academic Honor Policy, found at< a href="http://fda.fsu.edu/content/download/21140/136629/AHPFinal2014.pdf">http://fda.fsu.edu/content/download/21140/136629/AHPFinal2014.pdf.)
Always begin your assignments from a new, blank document file. We consider it cheating when a student starts an assignment from some other student's assignment file, or copies a portion of another student's file. All cases of cheating in this course will be dealt with using standard university policies and processes. If another student's name appears in the document properties, it is considered prima facie evidence of cheating.
There are no innocent participants in cheating incidents. Students who give someone else their assignment, or leave their assignment work available for others to access either on a private or public computer, intentionally or accidentally, are considered accomplices to cheating should someone else use their work and submit it as their own.
Many assignments are designed in a manner that requires every student's files to contain unique and different data. If two or more students submit work with the same, or portions of the same data, and/or if file properties are the same, it is evidence that cheating has taken place. If another student's name appears in the document properties, it is assumed that cheating has taken place.
Two or more students working together on an assignment is considered cheating. An assignment submission is intended to be a measure of one student's ability.
Be warned! Special software will be used that compares every electronically submitted assignment file to all other submitted files to determine if the file was copied from another student. Sometimes cheating is not detected until after students have submitted several copied assignments. In such cases the first copied assignment is considered the first offense, the second copied assignment, the second offense, and so on.
Students caught communicating during exams will be required to leave and will forfeit that exam.
Success in the course depends heavily on students reading all course related emails and all announcements posted on the course web site. Most communication between instructors and students occurs online. Students are expected to read their FSU emails and announcements on the class web site at least daily Monday through Friday. The course calendar and grade book must be checked at least once a week to stay current on what needs to be done and what has been graded. Failure to do so may result in missed opportunities and poor grades. The student is fully responsible for reading all emails, Blackboard announcements and other Blackboard communications in a timely manner and is also responsible for any grade-related consequences relating to not doing so.
Students with disabilities needing academic accommodation should:
(1) register with and provide documentation to the Student Disability Resource Center; and
(2) bring a letter to the instructor indicating the need for accommodation and what type. This should be done during the first week of class.
For more information about services available to FSU students with disabilities, contact:
FSU Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC)
874 Traditions Way
108 Student Services Building
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4167
(850) 644-9566 (voice)
(850) 644-8504 (TDD)
sdrc@admin.fsu.edu
http://www.disabilitycenter.fsu.edu/
Excused absences include documented illness, deaths in the family and other documented crises, call to active military duty or jury duty, religious holy days, and official University activities.
These absences will be accommodated in a way that does not arbitrarily penalize students who have a valid excuse. Consideration will also be given to students whose dependent children experience serious illness.
Except for changes that substantially affect implementation of the evaluation (grading) statement, this syllabus is a guide for the course and is subject to change without advance notice.
Last Update: 2014-08-25.