CGS 2100C - Computer Applications: Syllabus

Updated August 2015

Table of Contents

Faculty Contact Information

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Course Description

This is an intermediate level course in computer applications software. Students will gain knowledge and experience in the use and capabilities of word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation graphics applications. Through case studies, students will learn to develop comprehensive solutions to various types of problems. Integration between applications will be emphasized.

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General Course Outcomes

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Course Prerequisites

To maximize your chances for success in this course, make sure that you meet the following course course prerequisites:

• Course Prerequisites and Co-requisites: CGS1060C or placement
• Computer Knowledge and Skills:

  Students in this course should be familiar with the following computer skills:

  • File Management - You should be familiar with finding and saving files on your computer.
  • The Internet - You should be familiar with connecting to the Internet through an Internet Service Provider or Network Connection.
  • Web Browser Software - You should be familiar with using web browser software to navigate the Internet and locate information.
  • Email - You should be familiar with sending and receiving email messages.
  • Discussions - You should be familiar with posting and reading discussion messages in a threaded format.
  • Attachments - You should be familiar with sending email messages with attached files.
  • Word Processing - You should be familiar with creating, editing, saving, and printing documents using Microsoft Word.

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Course Attendance and Participation Policy

Attendance/Withdrawal Policy:

Participation:

Regular, active, and meaningful participation is a critically important component of this course and is essential to your success. It is recommended that you log into the course several times during the week. Frequency and quality of participation may affect your success in the program.

• Active participation is expected of all students in this course.
• Check your email and course discussions regularly. Ask questions.
• Weekly follow up communication with your Academic Coach.

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Computer Requirements

To complete this course, you must have access to computer hardware and software that meets the standards listed below.

• Assignments that require word processing must be submitted in Microsoft Word format. Documents created using Microsoft Works, or files that have ".txt", ".pdf", or ".asci" extensions will not meet course requirements. If you do not have proper software on your computer, you can use the Microsoft Word program on any of the "open lab" computers at any BC Learning Resource Center or in public libraries. Please virus check documents before sending them. AVG offers a free online virus check.

Page Content

System and Software Requirements for this course
Operating System​	PC ​ Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 Windows 8 recommended	​Mac      Mac OS X
Browser​	​Firefox 20.0 or higher, latest recommended Internet Explorer 9.0 or higher Download version 10 (recommended)	Firefox 20.0 or higher, latest recommended
JAVA​	​Java 7.0.x update 21 Download version 7.0 update 21 (recommended)	​Java SE 6.0 update 26 Download 1.6.0_26 (recommended)
​
The following are true for both PC and Mac​ ​ ​
​Internet	​Cable modem or DSL
RAM	2 GB, 4 GB preferred​ ​
Processor	​2.0 GHz or higher ​ ​
Video​	​SVGA monitor with minimum resolution of 1024 x 768, with 1280 x 1024 or greater recommended
JavaScript ​	​Enabled
Cookies​	​Enabled

Software Requirements for successful completion of this course.
Word 2013	​Excel 2013	​PowerPoint 2013	​Access 2013

 

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Required Course Materials

Required Text:

Title: New Perspectives Office 2013, Second Course + SAM2013 Printed Access Card
ISBN: 9781133284772

Books for online courses are available at the Central Campus bookstore
A. Hugh Adams Central Campus Bookstore
Admissions & Student Service Center - Bldg. 19
Tel: (954) 201-6830
Fax: (954) 201-6895

In addition, this course utilizes the following required software or hardware tools:

1. SAM Student Learning Management System.
   Please click here to see instructions for setting up your SAM account.

*The book comes bundled with the SAM2013 access code when purchased at the central campus bookstore.

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Methods of Instruction

This is a 3-credit hour fully online course. Normally, a 3-credit hour on-campus course would meet two times each week (during a 16 week term) for a total of 3 hours per week or 48 hours per term. This is a self paced fully online course so students will have to guide themselves accordingly. There is a pace chart included below that will show you how to successfully complete this course in a 4 week period.

• Instructions for Quizzes: Quizzes can be accessed from within each module or directly from the Assessment tool in the navigation bar. Quizzes are a measure of your progress in each module and will help you prepare for the Course Evaluation. Each quiz can be taken twice.
• Instructions for Assignments: Each module contains Assignments from the book and/or SAM. These Assignemts will help you practice the skills part of the course. Each Tutorial (chapter) in the book has a training in SAM and a Project in SAM. The training can be done as many times as you like. The projects can be submitted up to 3 times.
• Instructions for Challenge and Evaluation Exams: Instructions are provided in each section based on the section requirements for the Challenge and Evaluation Exams. The Course Evaluation Exam must be taken at either the Broward College Central Campus eTesting Center or North Campus eTesting Center.

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Traditional Pace Chart - 4 week completion goal

Read and refer to this document regularly. It will tell you what assignments you should complete, and how to complete them.

Purpose

The purpose of this Pace Chart is to give students in this course an indication of how long they will on average spend to complete this course. This Pace Chart is only a guideline and depending on a students' proficiency with computers, learning style, prior knowledge of the subject and personal motivation, actual times may differ widely from the guidelines given.

Entire Course

The entire course should be completed within a six (6) week time frame. Students who can demonstrate competencies faster than the recommended time could complete the course in a four (4) week period.

Section 1

All modules in Section 1 should take at most two (2) weeks assuming at least twelve (12) hours per week are spent on each module.

Section 2

All modules in Section 2 should take at most two (2) weeks assuming at least twelve (12) hours per week are spent on each module.

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Course Progress and Evaluations Policies

• Assignment Submissions
  • Assignment suggested deadlines are posted in the Pace Charts. Assignments must be submitted through the course learning management system. No assignments will be accepted via email unless requested to do so.
  • If no assignments are submitted for a full week you may be contacted by your course instructor and/or advisor to make sure satisfactory progress is being made in this course.
• Proctored Evaluations
  • This course has one required proctored evaluation that must be taken at one of the campus e-Testing Centers or at an alternate pre-approved testing location.
  • BC e-Testing Centers are located on:
  • Central Campus Building 17 (library) Room 220, visit the Central Campus eTesting Center website to view their hours of operation.
  • North Campus Building 62 (Academic Success Center) Room 135, visit the North Campus eTesting Center website to view their hours of operation.
  • Proctor U - Online Proctored Testing.  You the opportunity to take your exams at home with online proctoring. Using a webcam and a reliable high-speed internet connection, you can take your exams anywhere. Here you will find information on utilizing this online testing application right from your work or home. YOU MUST COORDINATE THIS TEST WITH YOUR INSTRUCTOR.
  • Allow plenty of time to complete your Course Evaluation prior to the scheduled closing time of the eTesting Center. When the eTesting Centers close, tests must be submitted whether they have been completed or not. You will not be able to return to complete the test at a later date. Sundays are the busiest days so you may have to wait for a seat. Nothing is permitted in the eTesting Centers except a pen/pencil unless the instructor has provided a list of approved testing aids (i.e., textbook, calculator, headphones, etc.).  Lockers and scratch paper are provided.  See the testing center websites listed above for a complete list of rules.
  • You will need to show a BC identification card or picture ID in order to be able to take the test in the testing center.
  • Students who live outside Broward County can contact me for instructions on how to take proctored evaluations at an alternate authorized location or in an online proctored environment. There are added costs associated with these optional methods of testing and both must be pre-approved at the start of the term.
• Parking for Proctored Evaluations: Students who take only online courses (no on-campus ones) do not pay parking fees and therefore are not eligible to obtain a parking hang tag.
• Students on North can park for free at the library and make the short walk to Building 46.
• Students on both North and Central can email onlinecompdegree@broward.edu at least three days in advance of the evaluation to receive a temporary parking pass. The parking pass will be emailed to your BC email account, which you can print and place on your dashboard on the day of the evaluation.
• Online Practice Quizzes
  • These quizzes can be taken any time during the course, and may be taken via any computer with an Internet connection.
  • Collaboration between students and discussion of quiz answers are NOT acceptable.
  • You will initially only be able to attempt each quiz twice. Additional attempts will have to be released by the instructor after discussion with student. Make sure you have a solid Internet connection. If your ISP disconnects you during a quiz, that will count as an attempt.
• View your Progress
  • Online quiz and Curse Evaluation grades will be available after finishing the quiz or Course Evaluation. View "Grades" from the course homepage.
  • Feedback for assignments will be posted within 4 BC working days of the submission date of the assignment.
  • Feedback for discussion postings will be posted within 4 BC working days after completing posting to the discussion.
  • Final course grades may be obtained through students MyBC portal.
• How your Grade will be Determined

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Communication Policy

Expectations for Course Communication

• Email: Use the email tool only for private, personal, one-to-one communication with a specific individual or groups of individuals. Please do not send course related emails to the instructor's BC email address. Solicitations will not be tolerated. Assignments sent to the instructor's BC email will notbe accepted.
  • Alternate Communication: In the event that the course communication tools are unavailable for more than 24 hours, the instructor will communicate with students (if necessary) via their BC email addresses. Access your BC email account at http://www.outlook.com
• Discussions: Use the Course Cafė discussion thread to post questions that might be of general interest to all students such as questions about assignments, lessons, etc. Feel free to respond to other students if you think you can help them. Proofread the content of your posts before making them public; proper grammar and sentence structure are expected. Remember that the discussion tool is public - everyone will be able to view posts and responses. See the Netiquette section below for expectations regarding appropriate behavior in online discussions.
• Faculty Response Policy: Course emails and discussion posts will be answered within 48 hours. Emails sent on Saturday or Sunday may not be answered until Monday. It is recommended that you post course-related questions in the discussion area. If you need info related to the Course Evaluation or assignment, plan ahead and submit your questions well ahead of the date you intend to complete them. Your instructor is not online 24 hours per day, so please allow time for responses.
• Netiquette: In all online communication, it is expected that all students will follow rules of online "netiquette". Netiquette is a set of rules for polite online behavior that all members of this class are expected to follow. Read some general netiquette rules here. Basically, these rules say "be respectful and be polite to each other" and "be patient," etc. No one is perfect and we all have different approaches to life, work, and school.
  
  • Individuals who violate the netiquette policy or engage in disruptive online behaviors such as flaming (posting disrespectful or hostile comments), posting inappropriate comments, or shouting (posting messages using all capitals) may have their course access privileges revoked and/or they may be referred to the Student Dean. Students who continue to engage in unacceptable online behavior after being warned, may be permanently denied access to the course and/or may receive a U for the course.
  • Please don't use email shorthand like ROTFL (rolling on the floor laughing) or BTW (by the way) - not everyone knows what these abbreviations mean. If you want to use emoticons (smileys) to convey feelings, please stick with the basics happy :-) sad :-( or wink ;-). Others are less well known and are subject to different interpretations. The idea is to be clear in your communications.
• Privacy Notice: Course access records, email postings, discussion postings, and chat room conversations will be stored. This is one more reason to make sure that your communications adhere to the netiquette policy.

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Other Policies and Procedures

Special Needs - Students having special needs as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act should:

• Notify the Office of Disability Services as early in the term as possible. It is the student's responsibility to contact the Disability Support Office prior to receiving services.
• Notify the instructor after you have contacted the Office of Disability Services so that the instructor can consult with the Office of Disability Services to discuss what reasonable accommodations would be appropriate for your situation.

Academic Honesty

• When you are given access to D2L you are expected to keep confidential your username and password and to never allow anyone else to log-in to your account. Sharing access or passwords to D2L is considered a breach of the academic honesty policy and could result in you being removed from your class. When you log-in to D2L, you do so with the understanding and agreement that you will produce your own work, complete course assignments and discussions yourself, and to take course exams, tests or quizzes without the assistance of others.

• Each student's academic work must be the result of his or her own thought, research, or self-expression. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to the following: cheating, plagiarism, unacceptable collaboration, falsification of data, aiding and abetting dishonesty, unauthorized or malicious interference, hacking computer property or software, and online disturbances. Please refer to the Student Code of Conduct Policy and the Student Code of Conduct section located in the Student Handbook for more information.

• Academic honesty violations will be considered a breach of policy and may result in academic penalties (zero points on the assignment/test in question, a failing grade for the course), disciplinary action, and/or referral to the Dean of Student Affairs.

Changes to the Syllabus

• The instructor reserves the right to make changes to this syllabus. In the event that changes become necessary, students will be notified through course email.

24/7 Helpdesk Information

• For year-round, 24 hour technical assistance use the information below to reach the BConline Helpdesk.
  • Phone number: 1 866 468-0009
  • Chat: https://chat.perceptis.com/c/broward
  • You can also open your own ticket online and can track any of your open help desk tickets at the BConline Support Center.

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Student Success Tips

In order to be successful in this course, you need to be organized and manage your time well so that you can complete all assignments and assessments in a timely manner. Make sure that you do not allow yourself to procrastinate, and that you communicate with the instructor or your classmates via the Course Cafe if you have any questions on any course materials or need assistance completing any assignments.

Online Resources for Students

• Click here to access a wide variety of support resources for students enrolled in online courses, such as library services, advising and counseling, tutorials, tutoring services, disability services and more.

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U.S. Department of Labor Disclaimer

This product was funded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. This product  was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Academic Use of Textbook Material Disclaimer

The material contained in this course uses direct excerpts from the required textbook for this course: New Perspectives Office 2013, Second Course + SAM2013 Printed Access Card
ISBN: 9781133284772

The use of this material is authorized under the publisher's academic use license which requires the user to purchase the required textbook.