Sarah L. Mabrouk's Rules of Engagement for Communication and Interaction.  Please left-click to go to the home page.

One cannot hope to learn, understand, or apply mathematics -- or integrate new information related to any discipline into one's knowledge base -- without practice.  To that end, every member of the class is expected to participate in discussion, analysis, and problem-solving related to course material.  To do this, we must interact -- share ideas and work together.

All class interaction and communication whether face-to-face, online, by phone, via email or text message, or written must conform to the Rules of Engagement: all interaction and communication between students and with the instructor must be respectful at all times. Keep in mind that your purpose at Framingham State University is to learn, and there is no such thing as a stupid question.

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Rules of Engagement: The purpose of this course, as with any course, is learning.  To that end, this must be a safe environment for learning.  Two important components of learning are asking questions and making mistakes.  To ensure that this will be a safe environment for learning, a safe environment for asking questions, and a safe environment for making the mistakes which are a natural part of the learning process, I created the Rules of Engagement that must be followed for all course interaction and communication whether face-to-face, online, by phone, via email or text message, or written.

  • The course environment is to be respectful and encouraging.  You are expected to be respectful and encouraging to all members of the class and to the instructor.  This course is to be a positive, supportive environment in which members can feel comfortable as they ask questions and make mistakes.  Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process and every member of the class should be able to make mistakes without criticism.  Please keep in mind that correction is not the same as criticism.  Before you make a comment, post online, make a call, send a text message or email, or give/send a written note, you should carefully consider your words as well as how you would feel if someone were to address you in such a manner or if you were to receive such a reply or comment.  If you are bothered by the words that you use then you should not make your comment or posting, send your text message or email, or leave/send your note:  if you offend yourself then you will offend others.

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  • You are a member of the class.  As a member of a class, you have the same goal as the other members of the class -- learning.   You must all work together.  In order to work together, you must get along:  be nice to each other.

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  • Be respectful of each other's time constraints.  You all have different schedules.  Some of you have full-time or part-time jobs, others may be taking multiple courses, and still others may do both of these in addition to having a family (having a family is a job by itself) and/or caring for ailing or elderly parents (this can be quite challenging and time consuming).  You need to be respectful of each other's time constraints as you work to complete online discussions.  Do not wait until the last moment to do readings, practice exercises, or assignments: what you have or have not done affects your contributions online and, thereby, affects other members of the class.  A lack of preparedness is evident in one's contributions to the discussion and analysis of course material:  being respectful of others includes doing coursework in a timely manner so that your contributions can be valuable and beneficial to every member of the class.

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  • Paying attention and participating are important.  You cannot learn mathematics or acquire knowledge for any discipline if you are not actively involved during class discussions, analysis, and problem solving.  So, all phones, iPods, tablets, laptops, and other electronic devices must be turned off and put away during course meetings.  Sending text messages or posting tweets, reading or updating Facebook, shopping on online, or doing assignments or writing the papers for another course, among other things, must be done on your time, NOT during course meetings; if you plan to do such things then you should not attend course meetings or student hours.

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  • Neither flaming nor bullying will not be tolerated.  What is flaming?  Flaming is the posting of disrespectful, offensive, hostile, and/or threatening materials online or the sending of disrespectful, offensive, hostile, and/or threatening materials by email, text message, or other means of communication.  You are expected to be respectful to all members of the class and to the instructor at all times.  Disrespectful, offensive, hostile, and/or threatening communication of any kind will NOT be tolerated.  All instances/occurrences of flaming or bullying whether online, via text message or email, in writing, by phone, or any other means will be reported to the Dean of the college, the Dean  of Students, and the Office of Community Standards accompanied by the supporting evidence.

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  • No disrespectful, offensive, hostile, and/or threatening scenarios, information or topics shall be used for any assignments or for class discussions.   When you are assigned to create examples or to select scenarios/information for an assignment, you are expected to select topics that are not disrespectful, offensive, hostile, and/or threatening to any member of the class or to the instructor.  Topics should never be chosen in order to offend others or to be divisive.   This is a course for a general audience and, as such, all material should be appropriate for everyone and abhorrent to no one.  Any disrespectful, offensive, hostile, and/or threatening materials used in assignments, discussions, or communication will be reported to the Dean of the college, the Dean of Students, and the Office of Community Standards  accompanied by the supporting evidence.   Use of disrespectful, offensive, hostile, and/or threatening materials in assignments or discussions will result in a grade of zero (0) for the assignment and/or discussion contributions; the individual who used the disrespectful, offensive, hostile, and/or threatening material will be expected to apologize to the class and to the instructor.

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You are here to learn:  as members of this learning community, you should be understanding, welcome the questions of others, be open to correction, and be supportive when members make mistakes.  We learn by asking questions and by making mistakes.  The learning community should be encouraging and no one should be put down or criticized for asking questions or for making mistakes.  There is no such thing as a stupid question!  You are a member of this learning community and, as such, you are expected to encourage and help each other to learn.  Work together to make this class an enjoyable experience for everyone, both student and instructor alike.
 

This stie was created and is maintained by Sarah L. Mabrouk.  Click to send email to Sarah Mabrouk about her Rules of Engagement page.
This site was created and is maintained by Sarah L. Mabrouk, Mathematics Department, Framingham State University.  If you notice any broken hyperlinks, please feel free to send email.