Meeting Time/Place: MWF 9-9:50am, Physical
Science 106
Prerequisites: none
Instructor: Don Allison
Office: 225 Fitzelle Hall
Phone: 436-3439
Email: allisodl@oneonta.edu
Office Hours: W 1:40-4pm
F 2:15-5pm
Others
by appointment (or just drop by)
Catalog Description:
An introduction to
word processing, database management, spreadsheets, desktop publishing,
multimedia software, computer communications (the world-wide-web, Internet and
E-mail, library searches, home page creation), hardware and software
troubleshooting by installation and maintenance, scanning and digital images. Students will use a hands-on approach to
explore a variety of hardware and software tools applied to a number of
cross-curriculum projects.
Course Description (the inside scoop):
The purpose of this
course is to provide a quick introduction to general computer use, and then to
introduce you to the Microsoft Office suite, and to make you reasonably fluent
users of Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
In addition, you will create your own personal web pages and will upload
them to the Oneonta web server. You will
complete familiarization exercises searching the web and using email. This is a very hands-on course, and we will
spend a lot of class time actually doing projects on the computers in the
lab. You do not need to have had any
previous computer experience before taking this course. Because of this, those of you familiar with
parts of the material the course covers will find some things moving along
slowly. Just wait—we’ll get to the parts
you aren’t familiar with soon enough. In
the meantime, go ahead and help your neighbor who is less familiar with the
current material than you are, and we’ll all learn more.
Course Goals:
To become
proficient at using a windowing computer interface, to develop fluency with the
Microsoft Office suite, to learn to use some simple networking applications
such as ftp and email, and to be able to construct interesting web pages. At the end of this course you should be able
to use a computer to assist you in all of your other courses.
Text and Software:
New Perspectives on Microsoft Office 2007 Windows XP
Edition, First Course, by Shaffer et al, published by
Course Technology, ISBN 1423905776. In
addition we will be using Microsoft Office 2007 and other tools available on
all the computer labs on campus in the Windows XP environment. If you wish to do all the work on your
personal computer, you will need a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 that includes
Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. You
will also need the data files that accompany the book. These can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.course.com/course/Integrated_Apps/0577-6d_text.exe. Other utilities we will be using can be
downloaded from the ACS web site, http://helpdesk.oneonta.edu/xoops/modules/wfdownloads/.
Tentative Schedule: (order of readings
& other assignments, by due dates, course activities, course content by
expected order of coverage, test dates and test coverage)
|
Date |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
|
Jan 12-Jan 16 |
|
Last day
to register |
Classes
begin Add/drop
begins |
|
|
|
Jan 19-Jan 23 |
Martin
Luther King Day – admin offices open |
Add/drop
ends Last day
to sign up for P/F Inauguration
Day |
Word tutorial 1 due |
|
Word tutorial 2 due |
|
Jan 26-Jan 30 |
Word tutorial 3 due Chinese
New Year |
Last day
to add a full semester course |
Word tutorial 4 due |
|
Word catch up day |
|
Feb 2-Feb 6 |
Superbowl was
yesterday Groundhog
Day May
graduation application deadline Word exam |
Excel tutorial 1 due |
|
Excel tutorial 2 due |
|
|
Feb 9-Feb 13 |
Excel tutorial 3 due |
|
TAP
Certification begins Excel tutorial 4 due |
Excel catch up day |
|
|
Feb 16-Feb 20 |
President’s
Day Excel Exam |
Integration 1 due |
College
closes after last class Access tutorial 1 due |
||
|
Feb 23-Feb 27 |
Graduate
admissions applications due Break |
Mardi
Gras Break |
Ash
Wednesday Break |
Break |
Break |
|
Mar 2-Mar 6 |
Classes
resume Summer
session registration begins Dr. Suess birthday Read
Across America Day |
|
Access tutorial 2 due |
|
|
|
Mar 9-Mar 13 |
Daylight
Savings Time started yesterday morning…did you set your clock ahead? Access tutorial 3 due |
Purim |
Interim
grades due from faculty |
|
Access 4 tutorial due |
|
Mar 16-Mar 20 |
Access Exam |
St. Patrick’s Day |
Integration 2 due |
|
LAST DAY
TO DROP A CLASS First
day of spring PowerPoint tutorial 1 due |
|
Mar 23-Mar 27 |
PowerPoint tutorial 2 due |
PowerPoint Exam |
|||
|
Mar 30-Apr 3 |
Integration 3 due |
|
April
Fools Supplemental material |
|
College
closes after last class |
|
Apr 6-Apr 10 |
Break |
Break |
Break |
Break Passover |
Break Good
Friday |
|
Apr 13-Apr 17 |
Easter
Monday |
Last day
for students to make up I or P grades from fall 2008 Classes
resume |
Income
Taxes Due |
|
Last day
for faculty to turn in grades to replace I/P grades |
|
Apr 20-Apr 24 |
Supplemental Material Exam |
Begin
fall pre-enrollment Earth
Day Administrative
Professional’s Day |
Last day
to withdraw from college |
Arbor Day |
|
|
Apr 27-May 1 |
|
|
May Day |
||
|
May 4-May 8 |
Cinco de
Mayo National Teachers’ Day |
Last day
of class |
Final
Exams Begin 8-10:30am
TR10 11am-1:30pm
TR4 2-4:30pm
TR12 |
8-10:30am
MWF10 11am-1:30PM
MWF2 2-4:30pm
MWF12 |
|
|
May 11-May 15 |
Mother’s
Day was yesterday—did you remember?? 8-10:30am
MWF9 11am-1:30pm
MWF1 2-4:30pm
MWF11 Final Exam 8am |
Nurses’
Day 8-10:30am
TR8 11am-1:30pm
TR2 |
8-10:30am
MWF8 11am-1:30pm
MWF3 Final
Exams End |
|
Commencement,
Saturday May 16 Armed
Forces Day Saturday May 16 |
Attendance Policy:
Attendance is
STRONGLY encouraged. Although it will
not enter into your grade computation directly, I will be taking attendance
occasionally, especially at the beginning of the semester to start putting
names with faces. However, students who
attend class regularly generally do much better in their classes than their
peers who attend sporadically. You will
be responsible for material covered in class as well as the material in the
text. In addition, we will be discussing
the exams and projects in class, demonstrating various techniques for working
with computers, and so on, as well as answering questions about the assigned
material, so it is in your best interest to attend class as much as
possible. Finally, the college has a
requirement that students attend one of the first two lectures and the first
lab for any course or they can be administratively dropped from the course and their
space given to someone else. Additionally,
anyone missing 25% or more of the class meetings to that point at any time up
through midterm can be involuntarily dropped from the course. Depending on the number of people on the
waiting list for this course, these policies will be enforced more or less
stringently.
Collaboration Policy:
Cheating or other
academic dishonesty hurts others as well as yourself and will not be
tolerated! You are expected to
personally produce everything you hand in for this class yourself. Plagiarism can get you in trouble in the
“real world”, and it will get you in trouble in this class. It is okay to ask your neighbor or a friend
how to do something for one of the projects, but you should actually do the
step(s) yourself when creating anything you are turning in. It is not okay to ask your neighbor or friend
how to do something during any of the exams!
Assignment Turn-in Procedure:
You should print
out all parts of your assignment, and staple them together. For those assignments that do not specify
anything specific to print, print out the last item that you created (eg the last database query, or the
last spreadsheet graph) and turn that in.
If you are unsure as to what is required, ask! Don’t lose points because you didn’t turn in
something you were supposed to. Be sure
to write your name and section number on the first page, or you might not get
credit for the assignment!
Grading and Other Administrivia:
Exams:
There will be four
exams and a final. Each exam and the
final will contribute 15% toward your grade.
Projects:
The projects are an
integral part of the course, since this is where most of the learning will take
place. They are to be done as specified
in your text, and any printouts that you are directed to produce should be
printed, collected, and turned in by the date that they are due. There are a few exercises where nothing is
specified to be printed out, or where you do a lot of work after the last
printout. In this case, print out the
last item you were working with in the tutorial and hand that in as well.
Grade Computation:
|
|
Weight |
Tentative Date |
|
Word Exam |
15% |
February 2 |
|
Excel Exam |
15% |
February 16 |
|
Access Exam |
10% |
March 16 |
|
PowerPoint Exam |
15% |
March 27 |
|
Supplemental Material Exam |
10% |
April 20 |
|
Final Exam |
15% |
May 8, 8am |
|
Projects |
20% |
See schedule above |
|
Total |
100% |
|
Make-up Test and Late Assignment Policy:
Assignments are due at the end of class on
the day shown on the schedule above.
Late projects will not be accepted without a really good reason. Since you already know all the due dates, you should plan to work ahead and turn in
projects early if you know you will have scheduled absences. In no case will projects be accepted
after the exam on the material covered in the projects!
You should plan to be present for all the
tests and the final exam. Any makeups will be allowed only for legitimate,
school-approved excuses, and should be arranged with the instructor as soon as
possible after you discover you can’t attend the exam (before the exam is given
whenever possible). In any case, all work must be completed by the last
class, including any makeup exams.
Exams missed for unexcused absences, or exams not made up by the last
day of classes will be recorded as a zero grade.
Additional resources:
For students wishing to explore further or to
find answers to questions not covered in the text, there are many books and web
sites on becoming proficient computer users.
If you have any particular areas you would be interested in for further
reading and study, please ask me and I can recommend a range of books for you
to consider.
Additional unique aspects of the course:
Important:
Unlike
more traditional memorize and regurgitate courses, this course has a strong
hands-on learning, or learning by doing component, represented by the
projects. This enhances retention,
reinforces understanding, and ensures that the student masters the material
well enough to be able to use it in other projects. I have tried other approaches, including
demonstrating procedures while students follow along, but what I have found
works best is for students to work in the lab on projects using the tools to be
learned, while I circulate about the room and answer questions or provide
individual instruction. Some students
like this approach, while it doesn’t work well for others. Students more comfortable with a traditional classroom
lecture/demonstration approach might want to switch to another section.