Welcome to online education at Cuesta College and the online version of GEOL 210L—Physical Geology (CRN: 70544) for Fall 2020! This letter is to inform you of important details prior to the beginning of this online class. The full syllabus will be available in the first week of classes. Please read the contents of this letter carefully.

Introduction

My name is Jennifer Shellhorn, your instructor for this course. If you need to correspond with me before, during, and/or after the semester, the best way to reach me is by emailing jennifer_shellhorn@cuesta.edu. Note that our class does not start prior to August 17^th, 2020, but I will make our course available for student access on August 15^th, 2020 via Canvas, the campus Learning Management System (LMS). If you’re new to the Canvas LMS, Cuesta College has provided students a quick access guide to CanvasLinks to an external site. Anticipate effective contact between you and myself twice weekly, including weekly lab interactions and assignment feedback.

Course Description

Physical Geology is an introductory course that focuses on Earth’s materials and processes. My hope for you is that you will have a more informed understanding of how our planet, Earth, functions by the end of the semester. You will understand both the internal and external processes that created the majestic landscapes of Earth from peaks to valleys and everything in between. You’ll understand just how long these landforms can take to be made and how earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides can change these landforms in an instant.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Explain the scientific method and the doctrine of uniformity (actualism) and how geologists measure geologic time and the age of the Earth, minerals, rocks, and geologic events.
• Demonstrate an understanding of plate tectonic theory, and the formation and evolution of minerals, rocks, landforms, and the Earth’s interior.
• Explain the origin, measurement, and distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes, and the geophysical methods used to study the Earth’s interior.

Required Meetings

To help us better understand Earth’s materials and processes, this course also has an online laboratory component. To accommodate the laboratory component, there are synchronous virtual meetings every Tuesday from 2:00-4:50 p.m. PST, beginning August 18^th, 2020 until December 8^th, 2020 unless holidays or campus-wide suspensions fall on a laboratory day. These synchronous meets are where students will work in groups to complete weekly lab assignments, ask pertinent questions to the instructor and/or embedded tutor, and receive additional instruction. Students who cannot attend synchronous meetings are expected to watch the recorded meetings (available within 24 to 48-hours post-meeting to allow for closed captions) as content covered could be used in assessments and could provide activity clarification.

Additionally, note that lab activity deadlines will be constrained to Tuesdays, lecture activity or homework assignment deadlines will be constrained to Thursdays and/or Sundays, and lecture exam dates will only be for 24-hour windows on Fridays.

Course Materials

Lecture Materials

The textbook utilized in our course is an electronic textbook with integrated SmartBook technology via McGraw-Hill Connect. Your enrollment in this course automatically purchases access to Physical Geology, Plummer, Carson, and Hammersley; McGraw-Hill 16^th edition. On the first day of the semester, access the Navigation Panel in our course (GEOL 210) Canvas shell, select Course Materials (First Day Access), and finish any required setup. If you drop this course on or before the course drop date, August 30^th, you will receive a refund for this access, otherwise, you will be charged directly by the Bursar’s Office.

Lab Materials

There is no lab manual requirement. Your labs will be provided to you digitally, but they do require you have reliable access to technology which will allow you to write/draw by hand and submit a digital copy. The remainder of your laboratory materials will be kits provided to you. Kits will be shipped to your mailing address on or by the second week of classes. These kits are loans and are required to be returned by the end of the semester, either in-person if you are local to campus or via pre-paid shipping.

Additionally, you will need a ruler with both Imperial (inches) and Metric (centimeter) scales, access to a calculator (physical or web-based) with basic calculating functions plus exponential functions, a protractor, and colored pencils.

Technological Materials

You will need to be able to open portable document files (PDFs). Course materials will be provided to you digitally in PDF form, as such, they require you have reliable access to technology which will allow you to open the PDFs. There are numerous questions in labs and assessments which require you to annotate and/or draw by hand and submit a digital copy—this could be completed by printing the document, drawing by hand, and utilizing a free scanning app like Adobe Scan, or a device where you can open the file in Microsoft OneNote and save the image; any way works for you! Cuesta College has provided a resource with the computer requirements for online education students.

While I cannot require you to use a computer in this course, multiple programs we will utilize in lectures and in the lab will work best on a computer, instead of a tablet or smartphone. If you do not have reliable access to a computer, consider checking out a Chromebook from the Cuesta College LibraryLinks to an external site.

We may utilize Google Maps and/or Google Earth in this course. Any assignments or activities that utilize Google Maps or Google Earth will be designed to be completed using the web-based Google Earth program (which does not require any downloading); if interested, consider having the free Google Earth app downloaded and installed on your device, though this is not required and just a suggestion!

Suggested Materials

Geology uses a considerable amount of discipline-related terms students may not have heard of before. Thus, I suggest considering buying or renting the Dictionary of Technical Terms from the Cuesta College Bookstore, or externally if available (ISBN: 9780385181013) for the semester, though the dictionary is not required.

Student Readiness

Enrollment in GEOL 210L does not have any prerequisites, however, there is an advisory for MATH 123—we will be using basic algebra including, but not limited to, simple computations, fractions, and dimensional analysis.

This course is intensive in a face-to-face format and thus, it is intensive in an online learning environment which requires considerable self-discipline. You should anticipate spending ±15 hours a week on this course including three hours of lab, lecture instruction, homework, assignments, studying, and/or assessments. I suggest you should consider whether you are a good candidate for online learning by reviewing the informal online education readiness assessment provided by Cuesta College to determine if online education is for you. Please assess honestly, I would love for you to be enrolled in my course, but I want you to be prepared to meet my expectations.

Add/Drop Policy

Drop Policy

Students are required to complete both the Orientation Module and the first-course content module, Introduction to Physical Geology, by the end of the first week of classes (August 23^rd, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. PST) to keep their seat in the course. Otherwise, the instructor will drop the student. Also, students are expected to attend the first virtual lab meeting on August 18^th, 2020 from 2:00-4:50 p.m. PST.

As the semester progresses, you are expected to maintain an ongoing online presence in our course by participating in course-related activities. If you are not maintaining a weekly presence for 2 consecutive weeks without notifying me with an explanation, you can be dropped from the course.

Waitlist/Add Policy

If you are a student on the course waitlist, you must meet the same requirements as outlined in the first paragraph of the Drop Policy to receive an official add code. If you are on the waitlist I will manually add you to the Canvas course page so you may meet these requirements, if you are not on the waitlist you must email me with your credentials so I may add you to the Canvas page.

Be advised there are limited lab kits, and as such, I am limited to 32 students maximum in the course. Add codes will be provided in order (one to five) from students on the waitlist and then any students not on the waitlist with interest in adding the course. All students interested in adding the course must meet the requirements outlined in the first paragraph of the Drop Policy or they will not be considered for an add code. It is the responsibility of the student to complete the course adding process once administered an add code by the instructor.

Additional Policies and Resources

Academic Honesty and Student Conduct

Neither acts of cheating, plagiarism, and/or collusion, nor hateful or discriminatory behavior and/or language towards any backgrounds whether they are represented by the student or faculty population in the course will be tolerated as they are in violation of the Cuesta College Student Code of Conduct. Violations may result in but are not limited to a warning, automatic failure of the related assignment or the course, censure, or dismissal from the college. Academic honesty applies to online education, not just face-to-face learning! Additional student judicial and student conduct resources are available for you to understand your rights as a student.

Student Accommodations

This course has been designed to adhere to the Americans with Disabilities Act by meeting the minimum requirements. If further accommodations are needed, it is your responsibility to me so I can prepare accordingly. This statement is incredibly important regarding labs that are highly visible and require hands-on activities.

If this applies to you and you have not filed for accommodations with Cuesta College’s Disabled Students Programs and Services but think you may need accommodations or are unsure if you may need accommodations, contact DSPS via email or via phone at (805) 546-3148.