Course Syllabus

Davis Connect 7-12 Syllabus for Online Classroom, Independent Study, and A La Carte Courses

Successful Student Expectations

• Complete work on time, make a schedule for each day and stick to it. 
• Read assignment instructions and lesson content thoroughly before asking questions. Ask questions of your instructor through your Canvas Inbox.  
• Create a learning environment at your home.  Remove distractions, organize your learning space, and find a spot that works for you. 
• Track your progress by using Calendar to see suggested due dates and Grades to see feedback and score updates from your instructor. 
• Read the feedback and suggestions given by your instructor.  Be motivated to fix your mistakes to improve your grade and increase your knowledge. You may resubmit all assignments to improve your score except for the Term final/project/assessment. 
• Check into your courses every day. 
• If you have personal concerns that may impact your academic success, please contact your instructor through the Inbox. 
• Need tech support? Visit our tech center website Links to an external site. for common issues or to reach a tech aide. 

Policies

Active Participation 

• If a student is inactive for a period of two (2) weeks, the student may be dropped from Davis Connect online courses. To be considered active in a course, a student must be:
  • logging in and spending time in the course, submitting assignments, and communicating with the instructor. 
• NOTE: If a student is auditing a course, this needs to be communicated directly with the instructor and Davis Connect office, so the student will not be dropped for inactivity.

Plagiarism 

• To ensure academic honesty, review the presentation shared in the “Davis Connect Academic Honesty, Policies, and Agreements” assignment in the introductory module 
• If you directly copy work from the Internet or another source, you will be given a "0" on the assignment and another chance to redo and fix your mistake.
• NOTE: If the behavior continues, you risk receiving an administrative U in Citizenship, being locked out of your classes until you complete an online course on Academic Honesty and/or attend a parent/student/administrator behavior contract meeting, and/or being removed from the program altogether.

Late Work

• Complete the course activities by the suggested due date if possible or as soon as possible, if a due date has been missed. Your instructor will mark your assignment as a "0" if the due date has passed, and the assignment will continue to show a 0 grade until it is graded by your instructor.  
• Please allow the instructor 48 business hours to grade your submissions. You will still have the opportunity to complete your assignments up until the deadline. Instructors grade based on the quality of the submission not when it is submitted. 

Instructor Communication

• Instructors have 24 hours or 1 business day to respond to your messages.  Please be aware that if you message them later on in the day, in the evening, or over a weekend it is very unlikely to receive a response that day.  
• Please be courteous and respectful when messaging them. 

Course Activities 

This course was designed to meet the Davis School District DESK Standards which are modeled after the Utah State Core Curriculum for this subject area. Priority standards are covered primarily with supporting standards as time and pacing allows. 

Instruction

• Each module has reading material, videos or other instruction.  Make sure to view all of this information before starting an assignment. 

Assignments

• There are assignments in each module designed to help you have a better understanding of the course concepts. Assignments can be automatically graded in a quiz format or a submission for instructor grading, and/or a combination of both. 

Discussions

• Replies must be 2-3 sentences minimum. Politeness and grammatical conventions must be followed. Review the specifics on comment requirements in the discussion. 

Quizzes

• It is possible that this course has one or more quizzes/tests/assessments to check your mastery of concepts being taught. All assessments are to be completed without help (others, the Internet, or materials) unless specifically stated that it is open source. 

Personalized, Competency Based Learning 

Mastery 

• This course was designed to meet the Davis School District DESK Standards which are modeled after the Utah State Core Curriculum for this subject area. Priority standards are covered primarily with supporting standards as time and pacing allows.
• Activities in this course are graded on a mastery, proficiency scale of 4 levels. These mastery scales align with the standard (DESK and/or UT Core) being taught, practiced, or assessed. The points associated with the mastery level are as follows:
  • Mastery (Level 4) = 4 points
  • Proficient (Level 3) = 3.44 points
  • Approaching Proficient (Level 2) = 3.04 points
  • Beginning Proficient (Level 1) = 2.64 points
  • No Evidence (Level 0 or non-submission) = 0 points 
• Since the majority of the activities in this course are four points or a multiple of four, weighted categories have been assigned and include the following parameters:
  • Learning Activities: Each module has learning activities, which can include reading material, videos or other instruction.  Please review the information before starting an assignment or complete the learning activity within the assignment to understand a new concept. Learning activities are 15% of the overall grade and can be graded as complete or incomplete or for the mastery level with associated points.
  • Practice/Assignments: After a learning activity, there will be opportunities to learn more and/or begin practicing applying and analyzing the new concept. Practice assignments are 30% of the overall grade and can be graded by the mastery level with associated points, either by a rubric or a quiz score.
  • Module Assessments/Term Tasks:  At the end of the module, there will be a final assessment to check mastery of concepts of the standards taught in that unit. This may be an auto-graded quiz or an instructor graded assignment (i.e., quiz, project, task, discussion, or assignment). Then, at the end of the course, there will be a final assessment, task, or project (either auto-graded or instructor graded), that will check mastery of the standards taught in an entire term. Assessment activities are 55% of the overall grade and can be graded by the mastery level with associated points, either by a rubric or a quiz score.

Grading Scale

Additional Course Information

1. If this a high school course, grades 9-12, it represents a quarter of graduation credit (0.25 or 1 term) of content for either a semester-long or year-long course. If this is a junior high course, grades 7-8, it represents a quarter or 1 term of content for either a semester-long or year-long class.
2. After reading through the course syllabus, complete the introductory module, and then in time, all assignments and assessments in each module. 
3. Once you are finished with the course, submit the "Course Completion Notification" assignment, so that your instructor knows to issue your final grade.
4. At the end of the school calendar term, a letter grade will be assigned on the report card and transcript.