Dear Distance Education Student,

Hello and welcome to Introductory Psychology 201 for Fall 2018 (CRN: 73452)!

I’m Fionnuala (Fin-noo-la) Butler and I will be your instructor for this course.  Thank you for your interest in this course.  Introductory Psychology is a foundation course which lays the groundwork for the discipline as a whole.  Psychology is an extraordinary discipline and it is my great hope that after taking this course that you will find it as fascinating as I do.

This 18-week course is a 3-unit course that is conducted completely online.  There are NO face-to-face class meetings for this course.  Its start date is August 13^th and it finishes on December 14^th, 2018. 

I'm looking forward to getting to know you through the course.

Best,

Fionnuala

Who is a DE Intro Psych class for?

As a rule of thumb, you should expect to spend about 9 hours per week on this class alone. Because this class is completely online, you may find it more demanding than a face-to-face course.  There is a significant amount of reading in this class as the information that you will need to succeed is presented in written form via your textbook, and the Canvas pages.  If you have difficulty reading and understanding what you have read, this is not the class format for you.  However, if you consider yourself a good reader who retains information that you have read, you should not have a problem with Distance Education as a modality for Psychology.  Additionally, you will spend significant time viewing videos, contributing to class discussions and answering comprehension questions about your reading.  If this sounds like a challenge to you, I strongly recommend enrolling in a traditional face-to-face classroom section of this course.

Computer literate students who are self-motivated tend to perform well in distance education classes.  If you are unsure whether distance education is a fit for you, please try an online self-assessment at:

http://www.cuesta.edu/student/aboutacad/distance/forwhom.htmlLinks to an external site.

Additional student readiness resources may be found at: http://apps.3cmediasolutions.org/oei/Links to an external site.

For this course we will be using the Canvas Learning Management system, you can  Access Canvas and the course website at this address: https://auth.cuesta.edu/idp/Authn/UserPasswordLinks to an external site.

A quick reference guide for canvas may be found here:

http://www.cuesta.edu/student/documents/distance_ed_students/Canvas_Quick_Reference_Students.pdfLinks to an external site.

If you are unable to login, technical support may be found here: http://www.cuesta.edu/student/aboutacad/distance/technical_support.htmlLinks to an external site.

Contact Information

My office on the SLO campus is 6207 and my face-to-face (F2F) office hours there are Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:00am-12:30pm.  I also have an office at the Paso Robles campus where I will hold F2F office hours on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:30pm-2:30pm.  I accessible via email (Monday through Friday) at fionnuala_butler@cuesta.edu.  

Special accommodations

If you have a disability and need accommodations (support services) in this class, please contact DSPS at (805) 546-3148 or via email at dspsinfo@cuesta.edu. Once you obtain support, I will need a copy of your DSPS accommodation. Please pursue your accommodations through DSPS as soon as possible as they can be quite busy at the beginning of the semester. 

http://www.cuesta.edu/student/servs_classes/dsps/index.htmlLinks to an external site.

Required textbook

Grison, S., Heatherton, T. F., Gazzaniga, M. S., & Halpern, D. F. (2017). Psychology in your Life (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Norton. ISBN-13: 978-0393265156

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

1. Describe the basic concepts, theoretical perspectives and definitions of vocabulary necessary for the understanding of psychology.
2. Compare and contrast the different research methods utilized by psychologists in the analysis of behavior.
3. Apply the basic theoretical perspectives to the scientific analysis of their own and others’ behavior and personality, as well as psychological disorders and treatment methods.
4. Analyze the role of cognitive, physiological, heredity, social, multicultural, and emotional factors in determining the complexity and diversity of human behavior.

Distance education course policies

Attendance

This course has NO required on-campus meetings. You are expected to log-in on the first day of the class and log-in at least once per week until the end of the semester.  If you fail to log in on the first day of the course, you will be dropped from the course. 

Log-ins are counted through authentication via the Cuesta Canvas portal.  Access via the Canvas app will not record your login for the purposes of attendance.