Welcome

At a Glance

Getting Started

Your First Week's Checklist

  • Explore your course website and set your announcement preferences
  • Install Zoom for office hours
  • Check your classroom on the first day
6 quick tasks
Open the checklist

Getting Started

Taking Your Course

  • Set up your technology early so deadlines stay stress-free
  • Come to every class on time and prepared
  • Free tutoring and writing centers at every college
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Policies

Course Policy

  • Email only the address on your syllabus, not LMS messages or voicemail
  • Assignment extensions are rare; exam extensions are never granted
  • Ordinarily, missed in-class work can't be made up
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Policies

Technology Policy

  • Use an email address you check every day
  • Keep your computer and software up to date
  • Zoom is used for office hours and the occasional online session
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Policies

After the Semester

  • Emergent issues must be raised by the day and time of the final
  • Break-time email is answered on the first Tuesday of January, June and August
  • Letters of recommendation for transfer applicants who earned a B+ or better
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Help & Contact

Resources

  • Use AI to build understanding, not to outsource it
  • Common questions, answered. Check before you email
  • University help desks for the problems this site can't solve
Browse resources

Help & Contact

Book an Appointment

  • Fifteen minutes, one-on-one, on Zoom
  • Cancel or reschedule until 24 hours before
  • One open appointment at a time
Book a time

Help & Contact

Contact

  • Use the email address printed on your syllabus
  • Allow one to two business days for a reply
  • For anything longer than a short question, book an appointment
Get in touch

Course Basics

Every course meets in person, and a rewarding semester begins with a few good habits.

Habits That Carry the Semester

Tap a card for a quick how-to. New this term? Start with your first week's checklist.

Check the Calendar DailyReadings, drafts and assignments appear there as they become available. Put every due date in the calendar you already use, too.
How to

Check it twice a day, morning and evening. Or let the dates come to you by subscribing in your own calendar app:

  1. Canvas: Calendar → Calendar Feed, then copy the link.
  2. Blackboard: Calendar → Settings → Share Calendar, then copy the link.
  3. In Google, Outlook, Apple (iCal) or another calendar, add a calendar from a URL and paste it.
Canvas instructions →Blackboard instructions →
Know Your TechLearn how your course’s LMS works before the first assignment is due.
How to

Both systems publish step-by-step guides for students: submitting work, finding feedback, reading announcements and more.

Canvas Student Guide →Blackboard Help for Students →
Get Clarity EarlyAsk me, your TA or a classmate as soon as something is unclear.
How to

Ask in class, out loud. If you have a question, others in the room almost certainly have the same one, and the answer helps everyone.

For anything longer or more personal, you can always book an appointment.

Use the Writing CenterWork with the tutors throughout your process, online or in person.
How to

Bring the assignment prompt and whatever you have so far, even a page of notes. Your college lists its Writing Center hours and booking on its website.

Start Drafts EarlyBegin an essay the day it is assigned. An early draft leaves time for feedback and real revision.
How to

Start the day it is assigned. You need time to take the assignment apart and absorb what it asks, work with the tutors, and get your questions answered.

Take NotesYour notes are the most valuable thing you will build this semester. They shape how you approach every assignment.
How to

Lectures give the course its perspective, and your notes are how you understand it. The assignment prompt alone won't tell you how to complete the work. Your notes will.

Write down the ideas, terms and questions we develop in class, and return to them before every assignment.

Roughly ninety percent of a college course is completed outside of the classroom. Attend your lectures, keep good notes, get your questions answered, and your success will follow.