Name:	(Always use your real name in this box)
Email:	(Enter your exact email address)	(Enter your Username--see  Home Page or below)
Postal Address:	Number & Street	Telephone Number:
	City, State, ZIP
Course CRN #:		Last four numbers of student ID:

Username and Password:

You must use a username and password after the first week of class. Without these words you will not be able to access the course materials.

NOTICE!

Your username and password for your online course is your B number. Students are not allowed to change the password for the online course area. Remember username and password will always remain your B number in the online course area. If you do not know your B number you may contact the college for assistance by following the link below.

If you still need assistance with your username and password please go to this page and read the instructions: http://www.bcconline.com/orient/password.htm, to receive further assistance.

ON-LINE INSTRUCTIONS: YOU MUST FILL OUT THIS SYLLABUS IF YOU INTEND TO TAKE THE COURSE!

It is your responsibility to make sure the instructor has the all the contact information stated at the top of this syllabus by the start of classes!! It is your responsibility to e-mail the instructor if you have any problems or do not understand this syllabus. 

It is your responsibility to confirm your enrollment either via the Internet at https://ias.barstow.cc.ca.us/ or by calling (760)252-2411 x7236 if you are having problems accessing the course material.  After you have confirmed your enrollment, go to http://www.bcconline.com/orient/ and read the password link.  Following this procedure will ensure you are helped in the fastest manner possible.

By enrolling for this class, the assumption is that you possess the necessary skills to read at the college level, to enter and perform research on the internet, to email using proper email etiquette and to post to the discussions.

When emailing your instructor: ghenderson@bcconline.com  include your full name. Send all e-mail with the name of the course in the subject line and Lesson Number or use the words: problem, question or comment. Many times I have received e-mail with no name in the body of the email.  Sign all e-mail with your name as registered at school, or else you will not receive a reply and your assignment will not be graded.

You must explain the problem in the subject line, for example: Excel, Exercise 2-23. E-mail without an appropriate subject line will be deleted and will not be read. With the current high incidence of viruses and unsolicited email, I delete all email without appropriate subject lines automatically.

Remember I do not answer email on the weekends, Therefore, to determine the 48 hours response time, do not include Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. If an e-mail with the word “problem, help, or question” in the subject line is sent on Monday through Thursday you can expect a response within 24-48 hours.  If an e-mail with the word “problem, help, or question” in the subject line is sent on the weekends, there will be a longer turn around time, but the e-mail will be answered by Tuesday of the following week. 

E-mail assignments will have a one week turnaround time, and you should not expect an answer to a successfully submitted and completed assignment before the end of the one week turnaround time period.  Receiving graded assignments or answers to your questions before the above stated timelines have passed does not guarantee that you will receive replies that quickly in the future. 

Online classes are NOT conducted via instantaneous transmission.  Just as I am giving you a NINE day period to complete your work, I am to be given SEVEN days to reply to your assignments.  In addition, the above stated timelines apply to ALL students and ALL responses to your questions and concerns. 

I appreciate your understanding of the above stated timelines and will respond to ALL questions and concerns about this class within the timeframes stated above.

A posting place at the top of the discussion page indicates the instructor’s message board to you. Be sure to check this each week so that you don’t miss messages and clarifications; remember that sometimes no instructor posting will have been made.  Students are not to post in the instructor's posting area.  Should you have a concern with your class please e-mail me your question.  It is not appropriate for students to post their concerns in the instructor's posting area. Students who post in the instructor's posting area will receive a warning and their posting will be deleted unanswered.  Students who ignore the warning and post again to the instructor's posting area will be dropped from the class. 

At the conclusion of the class students may find out their grades by calling (760) 252-6868 (local or out of state) and (877) 336-6868 (toll free within California).  You may also find out your grade by going on the Internet at https://ias.barstow.cc.ca.us. 

In the box below type: I understand and agree to abide by the online instructions written above.

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Course Description

The course introduces the principles of spreadsheets using the Microsoft EXCEL spreadsheet program. You will develop skills in the use of spreadsheets to create and print computerized spreadsheet data in the solution of common business problems. Then you will integrate these applications with the capabilities and requirements of modern IBM-type personal computers.

 Student Learning Outcomes (SLO's)

• Demonstrate the skills required to prepare, edit, and format professional electronic spreadsheets.

• Solve problems associated with producing professional electronic spreadsheets.

• Organize and communicate information and data in professional electronic spreadsheets.

Course Objectives                Back

At the end of this four-unit course, you will be able to:

• Identify parts of a spreadsheet program.
• Create, save, print, close, open, and edit a spreadsheets.
• Plan worksheets, enhance spreadsheets, and protect files.
• Build worksheets with copy and past, drag and drop, fill, and AutoFill.
• Use range names and sort information in a worksheet.
• Check spelling, find and replace data, and manage files.
• Format numbers, text, columns, rows, borders, styles and use AutoFormats.
• Create web-based spreadsheets and hyperlinks.
• Manipulate data using formula functions and advanced formulas.
• Work with Date, Times, and Financial Functions.
• Create charts and import graphics to add visual appeal.
• Link and consolidate worksheets, and exchange data.
• Use auditing tools and What-If analysis.

Critical Thinking Assignments                               Back

Critical thinking tasks include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Develop comprehension of the operation and relationships of computer hardware and software.
• Understand worksheet interrelationships and structures for optimal arrangement of data to produce meaningful spreadsheets.
• Evaluate common business problems to determine how best they may be represented on a spreadsheet.
• Create and print graphs and charts to transform tabular data to illustrative figures.
• Synthesize principles and procedures to produce accurate documents.

Textbook and Computer Requirements                  Back

• Text: Kathleen Stewart, Microsoft Excel 2010,
   ISBN: 0077331214
   MHID 0077331214

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill

• Web Site: www.mhe.com

• You will need Microsoft Excel 2010 to work through this textbook. Excel
  2010 needs to be installed on the computer’s hard drive. The following
  lists provide minimum requirements for running Microsoft Excel 2010.
  • Computer with 500 MHZ or higher and at least 256 MB of RAM, 512 MB
  for graphics
  • Microsoft DirectX 9.0c compliant graphics processor with 64-MB video
  memory
  • DVD/CD-RW, USB flash drive, or other external media
  • 3 GB or more of available hard disk space
  • 1024 by 768 or higher resolution monitor
  • Mouse
  • Internet connection
  • Excel 2010 (from Microsoft Office 2010)
  • Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7, or higher
  • Browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox support Office Web Apps)

What materials do you need and what are the computer requirements for class?

E-Mail Updates                                                            Back

One of the primary methods of contact in an online course is email. Your college is capable of extracting student names and email addresses from our registration system. The purpose of extracting this information is two fold. The information will be used by the instructor to remain in contact with the class in order to provide information necessary for the students' academic success. The information will also be used to send emails to the students from the college administration. The emails sent by the college administration will consist of links to course surveys which will be used to improve our online courses, important announcements for students, and links to college surveys, which will be used to satisfy requirements placed on the college by the California Community College Chancellor's Office. The college will not use this information to advertise any products and will not share student email addresses with any other organization.

 

Methods of Instruction

1.    Lectures via web-pages 
2.    Class Discussion via on-line discussion groups 
3.    Individual Instruction 

Methods of Evaluation                                   Back

• Weekly readings and discussions
• Weekly homework and research
• Weekly lab exercises and applications
• Quizzes and exams

Course Completion Requirements

• Attendance is based on your weekly postings to the discussion group.
   
• Read the assigned lessons and lectures, complete all assignments in each lesson, and evaluate your progress by comparing your completed work to the solutions provided online.
   
• Complete all assignments in a lesson but only submit the exercises assigned. When an assignment is complete, proofread it carefully before submitting it via e-mail attachments. 
   
• Assignments must be clearly marked with your name and unit or exercise.
   
• Complete exercises, assessments, projects, quizzes, theory tests, and performance tests as required in the instructions. Take final exam on campus, on the military base, or with instructor-approved proctor.

Should you decide to stop participating, posting to the discussion group, or turning in assignments, it is your responsibility to drop the class, not the instructor’s. If this is not done, a grade of "F" may result.

How is attendance kept and how are you going to submit your completed exercises?

Class Procedures                                                                                                                         Back

The 1½ hours stated in the book only refers to how long it would take to do the first exercises in each lesson that teach you how to do the tasks. The assignments in the back of each lesson are not included in that time, and they may take longer since you have to figure them out based on what you learned in the previous exercises. You should plan on putting in 6 to 8 hours a week.

If we were meeting in a classroom for this 4-unit class , the State of California would require us to meet 6 hours a week (homework outside class is not included and would be another 3 hours) for 18 weeks. We have squeezed this class into 9 weeks, so if we met in a classroom, we would be looking at 12 to 15 hours a week for 9 weeks. While this may sometimes be frustrating and time-consuming, there is a very real feeling of accomplishment when a program suddenly performs as you expect, and you realize you can control the computer.

Each lesson has a lot of information, and if you miss a step, it might be confusing. Please just go slow and be sure to do all the steps before you go to the next exercise. They build on one another. You might want to do all the exercises in one sitting, too, if you can arrange it. Leaving it and coming back later might make it harder to follow. Solution files are provided for you to check your progress as you work through the exercises.

How many hours should you plan to spend each week completing the exercises?

Grades and Grading Standards

Grades will be based on the following items:

• Lesson Exercises: Assignments will be made to check your progress. You must send three files for each lesson to the instructor by e-mail as attachments.

• Objective Quizzes: (True/False and/or Multiple Choice) for each lesson will be given online.  

• Exams: You will take a midterm and final exam. The exams will include a combination of production and theory testing. The midterm is not proctored. The final exam is proctored and can be taken at either the main campus, Barstow computer lab, Miramar, or the Ft. Irwin Barstow College lab.
   
• Class Participation on Discussion Board: Posting high-quality discussion comments on the discussion board is required. Students that do not post at least once a week may be dropped.

The following grading scale and grade distribution are predicted; however, the instructor reserves the right to curve final grades (upward or downward) based on overall class performance. Final grades will be based on the total points earned during the semester. Grades will be assigned based on the following standard:

Percentage	Grade	Grade Points	Quality
94-100	A	4.0	Work is of superior quality
90-93	A-	3.7	Work is above average
87-89	B+	3.3	Work is above average
84-86	B	3.0	Work is above average
80-83	B-	2.7	Work is average
77-79	C+	2.3	Work is average
73-76	C	2.0	Work is average
70-72	C-	1.7	Work is below average
67-69	D+	1.3	Work is unsatisfactory
64-66	D	1.0	Work is unsatisfactory
60-63	D-	0.7	Work is failing
0-59	F	0.0	Work is failing
I	Incomplete	0	Class work is incomplete. Student has an opportunity to finish work within one additional semester. This grade is reserved for students missing a major test or whom have had a major life altering event. Incompletes are given only when you have completed most of the course

Grade Distribution
Lesson Exercises	30%
Discussions	10%
Objective Quizzes	20%
Midterm Exam (not   proctored, open book)	20%
Final Exam (proctored, closed book; one page of notes only)	20%

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Grading standards for Quizzes: You can earn 100 points for each quiz. The number of correct answers earned from the total number of questions determines the points for each quiz.

Grading standards for Exams: A perfect assignment or exam that is submitted on time will receive to 200 points (100 points for the objective portion and 100 points for the production portion). For the production portion of an exam, ten points will be deducted for each omission, accidental text addition, formatting error, typographical error and 20 points will be deducted for a late submission.

Students are expected to take the exams and turn in assignments when they are scheduled, and each exam must be completed during a specified time limit. If a student fails to notify the instructor with a valid excuse before the scheduled exam, it will be determined by the instructor if the student may make up the exam. The final exam will be given at Barstow College.

Grading standards for Discussions: Posting to the discussion is a required activity each week. You must post a comment to the discussion board one or two times for each lesson as shown in the class assignments. Please note that I have "assigned" only 15 postings. You will need to do at least one more on your own (consider helping another student with a problem) to get the 16 required postings. You should post at least eight (8) times for the first half of the class and eight (8) times for the last part of the class for a total of 16 posts for the entire class.

If you participate each week on the discussion board with high-quality comments, your discussion grade will be 100 points (8 posts x 12.5 points possible for each post=100) at the middle and (8 posts x 12.5 points possible for each post=100) at the end of the course. High-quality discussions are demonstrated by critical thinking, original ideas, and appropriate grammar. Spelling is important. For any of these items or for less postings, your grade will be lowered.

Posting each week on the discussion board will prevent you from being dropped from the course, too. Since responses to the discussion questions will be counted for attendance, you will not be given credit if these are submitted late. Please note that even though you will not get individual feedback from me on these discussions, I do read them and count your on-line participation in lieu of on-campus attendance. I will respond with my thoughts on the discussion topics as often as possible. To improve your grade, you should post often. By posting regularly, you will learn to use the discussion board, learn more about the topics on which you are working, and get to know your classmates by participating in the group discussion. In addition, if you participate often in the discussions with good-quality comments, your discussion grade will be higher.

Please post any general problems, questions, comments, or issues that may rise during the course instead of e-mailing. If you help other students within this area of the discussion, you will receive extra points towards your participation grade. I check my e-mail more often than I check discussions boards, so if your problem needs immediate attention, please use your discretion on whether to post or e-mail me. I will post all "global" e-mails that I send to the class throughout the course. Many times I have found that students do not receive general e-mail that I have sent. Therefore, I back-up all general correspondence by posting the information on the discussion board. I recommend that you check this area once at the beginning of the week, and again, at the end of the week to keep up-to-date on any changes that may have occurred or other important information.

Below are reason you may not receive full credit for your posts:

1. You don't post at least two times on two different days.

2. Bad grammar, format, and spelling.

3. Your answers are not "complete."

4. You plagiarized (copy verbatim from the Internet or another written source with out proper sourcing).

Examples of Partial Credit Postings: 

PARTIAL ANSWER BY STUDENT:  "I think you could use all relative references, but you would be entering so many formulas in different cells, it would take a lot of time." (very weak answer, need to elaborate more.  Must use at least a sentence or two of information that you learned about the topic from the book or the Internet.  If you quote the textbook or the Internet you must give reference to the Internet site or the textbook. This post would get half the points)

"I agree with Stewart, relative and absolute cell references are different" (no credit for answers like this; zero points)

"Hey, does anyone know the answers to question 3?" (obviously this question doesn't even belong posted under the topic.  Questions such as these need to be moved to the "Problem, Questions, and Lessons Learned" area; zero points)

"Relative and absolute cell references are really important.  without them we canot do some formulas." (answering a topic question not relevant to the topic will cause you to lose points, as well, there are several misspellings.  This topic post would lose more than half of the points.)

Grading standards for Lesson Exercises: For the assigned Exercises from each lesson that are completed and submitted on time, you can earn 100 points per lesson. For each missing Exercise or late submission per lesson, 20 points will be deducted. If no Exercises for a lesson are submitted, you will get zero points. Any assignments not turned in by the end of the course will receive zero points (F).

If 20 points out of 100 are deducted for lateness, although my exercises are perfect, that is 80 percent. What is the letter grade?

Homework                                                                        Back

It is expected that students will complete all assignments in each lesson, even though the exercises are not turned in to be graded. Learning software packages takes time and continual practice, so it is important that students not skip any of the exercises. Exercises are good practice for learning the material. Students should submit only the work that is required for grading purposes. 

Please save a copy of all of the work you’ve submitted until the end of the semester as  "technical difficulties" do occur and there’s a possibility that something may be lost in transmission, and I won’t receive it. I will be checking your work using my computer which has the Windows XP operating system and Microsoft Word 2003. All exercises must be sent as attachments.

For technical assistance, call our Web Mistress, Nancy Olson at 252-2411, Ext. 7319, email: mailto:webmaster@bcconline.com. 

Late Work

Students are expected to take the exams and turn in assignments when they are scheduled, and each exam must be completed during a specified time limit. Late assignments will lose 20 points for lateness, and I will not accept missing assignments that are more than two weeks late. No late work will be accepted during final's week or after the class has ended.

Students who are registered after the first day of class will be given one additional day for each day they are registered late to complete the work for the first week without penalty. For instance: A student registered on Wednesday of the first week of class would have three additional days to complete the work for week one without penalty.

Academic Dishonesty                                                Back

Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses and may be punished by failure on exam, paper or project; failure in course; and/or expulsion from the college. If more than one person turns in the same work, both people will be punished for the offense. You may do perfect work and still fail the course, if you are caught plagiarizing, cheating, or giving someone else your work that they submit as their own.

Asking Questions

When the question is about grades or is personal or when the subject under discussion is not clear, students are encouraged to communicate with the instructor by sending e-mail. You will receive priority by entering the word "question" or "help" in the subject line of your e-mail message.

Class Participation

Students are encouraged to post comments to the discussion group, especially with respect to asking questions when the subject under discussion is not clear. Since attendance is based on your weekly postings to the discussion group, posting comments each week will prevent you from being dropped from the course.

If you have a question, what can you do to get help?

Checking Grades                                                      Back

Grades are not recorded instantly after assignments are submitted. It takes time to grade, record scores, and prepare progress reports. Since I grade all assignments at the same time to assure consistency, I may not grade assignment until the due date, even if they are submitted early.

After I receive your syllabus, I will respond to you with your personal access code that will allow you to look at your grades online.

On a regular basis (usually by the end of each week), I will update the online grade book. If you do not see a score for assignments that you sent more than a week previously, please e-mail me, but do not worry. If you resend the original message with your attachments, I don't take off points when I know you submitted the work on time originally. Let me know immediately if you have any questions about your scores in the grade book.

Final Exam and Proctor                                           Back

The final exam is given the last week of class. If you cannot take the final at Barstow College, Ft Irwin, or Miramar sites during the last week of the course, then it is your responsibility to find an instructor-approved proctor and fill out the Proctor Request Form for this course.

A proctor is someone that you must find who will guarantee to give your final exam. The proctor must meet the Barstow College requirements for proctoring your exam and must be instructor approved. A family member, friend, coworker, or neighbor is not an acceptable proctor. A good place to look for a proctor is at your local library, church, college, school, or library. Find a military educational officer, a librarian, a clergy member, or educational officer and an approved site, such as a military educational center, a church, a library or an educational center (school) for the exam. The approved site will need Microsoft Office 2010.

What do you need to do if you are not going to take the final on campus?

Disability Statement                                               Back

If you have a disability which may impact your success in this course, you may contact the Disability Student Programs and Services (DSPS) office to arrange any reasonable accommodations and supports to which you are entitled.  It is the responsibility of the student to initiate these procedures. The DSPS department can be contacted by calling 760-252-2411 x7224 or 760-252-6759 TTY/TDD or emailing dsps@bcconline.com.

Disclaimer Statement                                             Back

A syllabus is not a contract between instructor and student but rather a guide to course procedures on attendance, requirements, grading and objectives. The instructor reserves the right to amend the syllabus when conflicts, emergencies or situations arise that necessitate a change. Students will be notified of any changes.

In the box below, type the following:

I understand a syllabus is a general guideline for students to use in planning their time for a particular class. The instructor reserves the right to make modifications to the syllabus with reasonable time allowances for students to adjust to the changes.

Before you click the Submit button, be sure you filled in all the information boxes in the syllabus: