Class policies

Attendance/work

Learning how to create media requires practice, so attendance is required in both lab and lecture. You will be graded on participation exercises, quizzes and computer tutorials in addition to your major projects.

We will have 30 lectures in Morrison Hall (room 007) this semester, and 14 Friday labs in Franklin Hall. Your attendance is required for all of these. Attendance will have a direct influence on your grade for C250, in the following ways:

Please be aware, however, that excused absences will not count against your attendance record in C250. If you are absent because of any of the reasons listed below, we will excuse your attendance from lecture or lab. We ask that you communicate all attendance-related issues directly with your lab instructor. Lecture participation will be excused in the event of an excused absence, although for labs, we want you to complete the exercise and submit your work when you are able — your AI will work with you to establish an extended deadline for missed lab work.

Excused absences

Four situations count as excused absences:

In each case, you must notify us in advance and provide documentation. Typically, this will include a note from a physician, an instructor or coach, or an obituary of the deceased family member.

Late policy

Your weekly participation exercises must be submitted on time to receive credit. You can submit your first three major projects up to five days late. Each day it is late, it will be counted down five percent. Your last major assignment must be handed in by the deadline.

Professionalism

Virtually every professional media role requires cooperation and group effort. Following this logic, you will be expected to participate fully in class and in group work. While individual grades will be disseminated for the lab exercises, the four major assignments will be graded on a group basis. Every student will evaluate his/her teammates on their punctuality and contributions, and those peer scores will be weighted toward their major project grades. Failure to contribute anything substantial may result in you receiving a failing grade for the group assignment.

Use of phones and computers in class

Devices will be used only for classwork. Violation of that rule will result in points being lost in the professionalism category.

University mask policy

Currently, masks are optional in class. In the event that masks are required during the semester, if a student is present in class without a mask, the instructor will ask the student to put a mask on immediately or leave the class. If a student comes to class a second time without a mask, the student’s final grade will be reduced by one letter (e.g., from an A to a B, for instance), and the instructor will report the student to the Office of Student Conduct of the Division of Student Affairs. If a student refuses to put a mask on after being instructed to do so, the instructor may end the class, and report the student to the Office of Student Conduct. The student will be summarily suspended from the university pursuant to IU’s Summary Suspension Policy. If Student Conduct receives three cumulative reports from any combination of instructors or staff members that a student is not complying with the requirements of masking and physical distancing, the student will be summarily suspended from the university for the semester.

Support services for you

Writing Tutorial Services: https://wts.indiana.edu/
Knowledge base and UITS support center: https://uits.iu.edu/

Academic integrity

Regarding academic integrity, use basic common sense. On individual assignments, you must do your own work. You also must be present to receive participation credit unless you have cleared permission to do it remotely in advance. If we find out you tried to submit a participation assignment during class without attending, we will consider that academic misconduct. On group projects, we encourage you to help each other, and all assignments must be your team's own work. You all operate the cameras, you perform the software editing, you write your stories.

Academic misconduct: Academic misconduct is defined as any activity that tends to undermine the academic integrity of the institution. Violations include: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, interference, violation of course rules and facilitating academic dishonesty. When you submit an assignment with your name on it, you are signifying that the work contained therein is yours, unless otherwise cited or referenced. Any ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged. All suspected violations of the Code will be reported to the Dean of Students and handled according to University policies. Sanctions for academic misconduct may include a failing grade on the assignment, reduction in your final course grade, and a failing grade in the course, among other possibilities. If you are unsure about the expectations for completing an assignment or taking a test or exam, be sure to seek clarification beforehand.

Note Selling: Several commercial services have approached students regarding selling class notes/study guides to their classmates. Selling the instructor’s notes/study guides in this course is not permitted. Violations of this policy will be reported to the Dean of Students as academic misconduct (violation of course rules). Sanctions for academic misconduct may include a failing grade on the assignment for which the notes/study guides are being sold, a reduction in your final course grade, or a failing grade in the course, among other possibilities.

Additionally, you should know that selling a faculty member’s notes/study guides individually or on behalf of one of these services using IU email, or via Canvas may also constitute a violation of IU information technology and IU intellectual property policies and additional consequences may result.

Please read more in this section on academic integrity.

Sexual misconduct

As your instructor, one of my responsibilities is to create a positive learning environment for all students. Title IX and IU’s Sexual Misconduct Policy prohibit sexual misconduct in any form, including sexual harassment, sexual assault, stalking, and dating and domestic violence. If you have experienced sexual misconduct, or know someone who has, the University can help.

If you are seeking help and would like to speak to someone confidentially, you can make an appointment with:

It is also important that you know that Title IX and University policy require me to share any information brought to my attention about potential sexual misconduct, with the campus Deputy Title IX Coordinator or IU’s Title IX Coordinator. In that event, those individuals will work to ensure that appropriate measures are taken and resources are made available. Protecting student privacy is of utmost concern, and information will only be shared with those that need to know to ensure the University can respond and assist.

I encourage you to visit stopsexualviolence.iu.edu to learn more.

Equipment

The School will provide all the equipment you need to do the assignments. You may sign out digital cameras and tripods from the equipment checkout in Franklin Hall. You must first reserve your equipment at
https://mschoolcheckout.indiana.edu/

You are permitted to check out only equipment related to classes you are taking; in C250 this means the Canon DSLR cameras and tripods. If you prefer to use your own equipment, you may do so.

We will work extensively on computers, and you will need computers for all your projects. Franklin Hall’s Media Lab offers Macintosh computers with a wide variety of software. Be aware, however, that some software may not be available at other campus locations. Don't plan to be away from campus when major projects are due.