Catalog Name: College Algebra - 3 units

To access the Shasta College Catalog Course Description for Math 13, click on the button below:

Course Organization:

The MATH 13 (College Algebra) Internet course is entirely Internet based. It has been implemented for those students, who for reasons of work, family responsibilities, access difficulties, or residence location, find it impossible to take this class physically on campus.

Lectures, homework assignments, tests and office hours (where the student communicates on-line with the instructor) are entirely via the Internet. Once registered with the College (through the Administration Office), the student must contact the instructor, to obtain the instructions on how to purchase the access code for the class from the electronic-book publishers and on how to obtain an individual account within Shasta College's main Internet based distance education system (WebCT).

The student attendance is defined as regular weekly on-line work within the WebCT course environment. It is very important for the student to maintain a constant pace on learning the concepts and exercising the acquired knowledge by accessing the course, studying the online Lessons and actively engaging in practicing the newly acquired concepts several times per week. The lessons, assignments and evaluations have been designed and scheduled to enforce a gradual, consistent progress. A student who has not interacted in the course by the third day of class will be dropped for non-attendance. A student who has not interacted in the course for more than seven days runs the risk of failing the class for non-attendance.

Explicit directions on what material should be covered, the practice exercises and the homework to be submitted will be given regularly every week. The detailed weekly activity expected from the student can be accessed via the "Homepage" of the course, which is the first page the student sees when logging into his/her WebCT course account. The directions include a Message Box where the important messages and news for the course are given, followed by a list of Instructions on where to link to obtain the detailed activity for the week. The overall schedule of Lesson coverage and special dates when the tests should be taken is available to the student through a link from the homepage entitled: "Calendar".

The course must be completed within the duration of a semester. The lecture material is delivered in several main "Modules", subdivided in Lessons. The lecture material will be available through links to the different Modules' Lessons as the semester progresses:

These on-line lectures contain all the course topics the student needs to learn and include interactive step by step problem solving to help with the understanding of the different mathematical techniques. It is strongly suggested that the student prints the on-line Lessons to have a printed copy of the covered materials for future reference.

There are animations and "Examples" within each Lesson, which interactively guide the student through important concepts as well as through the techniques of problem solving. These are intended to prepare the student for the homework assignments to be completed and submitted on-line, and which are graded.

The student must meet a minimum grade of 70% on the homework assignments for a particular Module, to have access to the Test for that Module. The tests will be available to those students who have completed the assignments by the scheduled dates. At the instructor's discretion, proctored tests may be required.

The different content Modules, online calculator, tests, calendar, weekly planned activity, communication tools and the student's grades can be browsed via the WebCT basic web-page structure:

These will be gradually introduced during the semester. All instructions on how to access them and which information the student can obtain from them, will be given at the appropriate time in the "Homepage" of the course.

Each Lesson consists of several pages of easy access and navigation:

Grading Procedure:

• There will be: a "Readiness" self evaluation after the first week of class, four Module exams spread over the semester (each worth 100 points) and a cumulative Final Exam (worth 200 points) at the end of the semester.
• If it benefits the student, the lowest grade of one of the Module's test can be replaced by the 100 point equivalent of what the student scores in the Final examination. The grades from the Modules' tests and Final Exam will be averaged to give the final score.
• The letter grade will be based on a percentage of the total points as follows:
   

90% - 100% = A, 80% - 89% = B, 70% - 79% = C, 50% - 69% = D, below 50% = F.

Registration:

The registration for this course may be done online via the Shasta College webpage, at the College's main campus, at any of the Shasta College's Distance Education Centers, by telephone (530-225-4841) or by US mail (Admissions Office, Shasta College, P.O.Box 496006, Redding, CA 96049-6006)

 
   
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