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 Ballantine 310 this semester, and 15 weekly labs in Franklin Hall. (One section will meet on Thursdays, and the others will meet on Fridays.) Your attendance is required for all of these sessions, both lecture and lab. And attendance will have a direct influence on your grade for C250, in the following ways:

Please be aware, however, that excused absences do 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 lab exercises must be submitted on time to receive full credit, but you can receive half credit for late submissions for up to one week. Do be sure to do everything you can to make your project deadlines, but your team can submit major projects up to five days late. Each day it is late, though, it will be counted down ten percent.

Teamwork

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 their teammates on their engagement, 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 — and to be removed from future groups, meaning you would have to complete later projects on your own.

Professionalism

We expect you to conduct yourself with decorum in lectures and labs. You must attend lectures in order to receive Participation points for them. You will not be penalized if you have an excused absence, but attempts to earn points without your attendance could result in your being reported to the Office of Student Conduct. Lectures will last 75 minutes, and we expect you to be in class for all of those minutes. If you arrive late, slip in quietly, and if you leave the room at any point during the lecture — this should be a rare occurence — please let your lab instructor know of this ahead of time, and try to sit in an aisle seat. Participation exercises will generally be at the end of the lecture, so leaving early may result in your being counted as absent. As well, leaving early is disruptive to other people in the class — especially as the Morrison Hall doors are old, heavy and loud.

Use of phones and computers in class

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

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. 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. Your team operates 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.

Generative AI:According to the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct, plagiarism is “presenting someone else’s work, including the work of other students, as the submitting student’s own. A student must not present ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use without fully acknowledging the source, unless the information is common knowledge.” Cheating is “using, providing, or attempting to use or provide unauthorized assistance, materials, information, or study aids in any form.” (II: Responsibilities B,4,a and c) Your use of anyone else’s (or any AI system’s) words, graphic images, calculations, or ideas should be properly cited. AI generators/programs such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, QuillBot, Spinbot, Dall-E, etc. should not be used for any work for this class without explicit permission of the instructor and appropriate attribution.

AI text generators should not be used for:

The use of generative AI platforms will be considered plagiarism and cheating and will be reported to the Dean of Students (Office of Student Conduct) and handled according to University policies. Sanctions for academic misconduct in this course may include a failing grade on the assignment, a reduction in your final course grade, or a failing grade in the course, among other possibilities. Contact your instructor if you have questions.

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 R7 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.