Revised: August 27, 2020
Northern Virginia Community College - Annandale Campus
ITE 140 - Spreadsheet Software I, Fall 2020 (3 credits) - TTh 9:35-10:55AM, synchronous remote via Zoom, Dr. William Pegram, wpegram@nvcc.edu, Office Hours Thursday 7-8pm, Friday 1-2pm
Web Site for Class: www.billpegram.com
Software
Microsoft Excel 2019 is the focus of this course. Although Excel 2019 is available in CT228 (the open lab at Annandale, and in the open labs at other campuses), because access to the open labs is limited this semester, you will want to get Excel on your home computer. Students can get Excel and other programs for free - see the section on Office 365 at www.nvcc.edu/ithd/students/software.html. Thus students will typically have Office 365 rather than Excel 2019. Because Office 365 is an evolving product, there are some very minor differences between Office 365 and Excel 2019. This was not a problem when I taught Excel 2016 a year ago, and it should be even less so with Excel 2019.
Textbooks
Required:Microsoft Office 365 Excel 2019 Comprehensive by Patrick Carey, Cengage, ISBN 978-0-357-025765. Homework will consist almost entirely of exercises and projects from this text, so other books will not be satisfactory for this course. I plan to cover virtually the entire book which is what I did when I taught this course in Spring 2019 and Fall 2019 using a similar textbook covering similar topics.
Although I will edit the textbook PowerPoints to make them as useful as possible, they are not a substitute for reading the text material.
Because MindTap is an essential part of this course, you will want to get a Cengage Unlimited subscription which comes with MindTap. If you are paying for this with financial aid, you will want to purchase this through the NVCC bookstore which provides for 1-semester access (4 months) to all Cengage eTextbooks and platforms (such as MindTap). If you are not paying with financial aid, you have three alternatives.
o 1-semester access (4 months) $119.99
o 1-year access (12 months) $179.99
o 2-year access (24 months) $239.99To assist you in making the choice among these three alternatives, you may want to consider what courses you are likely to take in the next year or two.
- Cengage has prepared a List of NVCC courses using Cengage. You can go to the NVCC bookstore website to confirm that the course you are interested in is using Cengage.
- NVCC has a general practice/policy of not changing textbooks for the spring or summer term so if the course is using the book this fall, it is very unlikely to change in the spring or summer.
You can purchase any of the above alternatives by doing the following steps:
- Go to cengage.com and login if you already have a cengage account or create one.
- Enter 978-0-357-025765 for your book
- You then will have a choice between a 14 day free trial or purchase a subscription. On the subscription page, if you want the 1 year or 2 year subscription, click the dropdown arrow to see these choices.
The 1-year and 2-year options are not available at the bookstore. If you have already purchased a Cengage subscription through the bookstore, you may be able to get a refund. Their refund policy is at https://www.nvcc.edu/bookstore/Textbook-Refunds-for-Bookstore.pdf
In addition to the e-Textbooks, you get four free hardcopy textbook rentals, just $7.99 shipping and handling each. To request this, when you have accessed MindTap, you will see a tool bar on the right hand side of the screen. You will be able to select “Print Options” and request the rental.
Homework
Late homework outside of MindTap and late MindTap assignments I grade will not be accepted but your two lowest homework grades will be dropped; this policy of dropping the two lowest two grades is designed to cover illness, computer problems, work or family responsibilities, etc. so exceptions to this policy will not be granted.
You must submit your homework so that the files can be read on a Windows machine. Thus if you are using a Mac, you must do any necessary conversion of the files. If you are required to submit a zipped folder, make sure that whatever you submit can be opened by WinZip.
There will be assignments in MindTap which are graded by MindTap; these will have a more flexible due date policy.
Grading
60% tests (two multiple choice and 2-3 "hands-on" tests), 40% homework.
Attendance:
If you miss class, please check the class website for any changes to the schedule, including new assignments. All class sessions will be recorded and will be posted on Canvas that afternoon. However, I strongly encourage you to attend the live presentation for several reasons: that way it gets done, rather than being on your to-do list, it gives you an opportunity to ask questions, and occasionally I may make errors in recording such as forgetting to click "record" after I have paused recording.
Canvas
Canvas will play a centrol role in this course. See https://www.nvcc.edu/canvas/index.html for information on Canvas
Office Hours
Office hours will be done through Zoom. The times will be posted in Canvas; they are not posted here since they may change due to student feedback. The advantage of meeting during regular office hours is that the Zoom sessions can be set up for weeks at a time. However, if the scheduled time is not convenient for you, email me and I can arrange a special Zoom session for that. If you wish to attend regular office hours on a particular day, email me and I will respond suggesting you show up at a particular time. That way it will avoid either of us waiting around.
VCCS Email Address
I will email you at the email address on my class list which is your VCCS email address. Please remember to include your name and class in all emails to me at wpegram@nvcc.edu. If you send messages to me from Canvas, this information is automatically supplied. I will respond to emails sent from another email address unless it relates to a grade.
Academic Integrity
On homework assignments and projects, students may ask for and receive some assistance from others, unless otherwise directed by the instructor. Yet those helping a student should avoid "doing the work" for the student.
Unless specifically stated in the assignment, students may work together to complete an assigment. However my experience is that students who turn in essentially identical work on an assignment tend not to do well on subsequent tests either because they have not learned the material or are too reliant on another person.
No assistance is permitted on the inclass midterms and final and your use of the computer may be monitored. The college policy on student conduct is found at www.nvcc.edu/students/handbook/conduct.html
Cheating on a test will result in a grade of 0 on the test. Cheating on a subsequent test will result in a grade of F for the course. Cheating may be reported to the Division Dean and the Annandale Judicial Affairs Officer.
Proctoring of Exams
For fall semeser, professors have been asked to specify their proctoring policy at the beginning of the course so that students can choose another course if they so desire. In the last few years, NVCC has had a policy of "on-time registration" which means that you cannot register for a full semester course after the semester begins. However, this semester you may register for a class during the first week of classes.
On multiple choice/true-false exams, I intend to use the Respondus Lockdown Browser and the Respondus Monitor. I have not used these before. The former limits you to the browser and the latter monitors you through your webcam. Several weeks before the test, we will do a practice session to identify any technology issues. Some tests will be "hands-on" where you will be asked to work in Excel. Monitoring you through a webcam is my intended approach for these. When monitoring is done through a webcam, I will disable student virtual backgrounds.
Dropping and Withdrawal from the Class:
Thursday, September 10th is the last day to drop a 15 week class and get a tuition refunds (use NovaConnect) or to switch to audit (which requires my signature). Friday, October 30th is the last day to withdraw without grade penalty in a 15 week course. The award of W after the last day to withdraw REQUIRES official documentation and the Dean's signature which is very difficult to get.
If a student does not attend at least one class meeting via Zoom by September 10, his/her class registration will be administratively deleted. This means that there will be no record of the class or any letter grade on the student’s transcript. Furthermore, the student’s class load will be reduced by the course credits, and this may affect his/her full-time or part-time student status. Tuition will not be refunded.
Disability Accommodation
Because the Testing Centers are not available this semester, accommodation has to be done in a different way this semester, so please email me your accommodation form as early as possible.
Student Success Tips
- Attend the synchronous Zoom sessions rather than accessing the recordings, for two reasons: 1) My experience since March is that if I'm interested in a Zoom session, watching it live gets it done whereas I rarely find time or the motivation to watch a recorded Zoom session. 2) If you watch it live, you are able to ask questions.
Although I do not grade on attendance, some of what I say isn't in the text and it may be easier for you to understand something if you hear me explain it, instead of just relying on other sources.- Don't fall behind - If you are having problems, let me know. Do the homework on time.
- Pay attention to the dates to drop and withdraw from the class.
- As long as you attend class once, I will not drop you from the class. It is therefore important that you check your email (various methods will be discussed the first day of class) from time to time. If you do poorly on early tests, you need to decide whether to withdraw from the class before the deadline or to continue in the class. If you continue in the class, you need to continue to come to class, to do homework and to take the final, otherwise you will likely fail the course.