Etiquette

Common-sense etiquette is expected in written communications:

• Try to keep your communication positive.  You're trying to learn stuff, your instructor is trying to help.

• Avoid profanity.  Your instructor understands profanity and isn't particularly offended by it, but profanity in writing stigmatizes the user as unprofessional, and should always be avoided.  You just don't want to put it in writing.

• Whatever you do, for your own sake don't say things that can be interpreted as hostile or threatening.  Your instructor understands and accepts occasional (and preferably positively focused) expressions of frustration, confusion, and the like.  But there are legal limits to what you can say or write, and you just don't want to push those limits.

• The instructor doesn't really mind it, but it's generally considered bad form to write in all capital letters.  Capital letters indicate strong emphasis, and you don't want to wear out your readers.  In a pure-text editor capitals are your only reasonable option for emphasis, but use capitalized letters appropriately and sparingly.

Institutional Policies:

Institutional policies are included in the VHCC Catalog

Academic Policies are of particular importance.

You should click on the link to the College Calendar and carefully note the dates for the following:

• Classes begin
• Last day to add a course with faculty permission.
• Last day to drop a course, change from audit to credit, and receive tuition refund. All tuition payments must be finalized or current enrollment will be subject to cancellation.
• Last day to withdraw from class without academic penalty.
• Last day of classes
• Final Exams for day & night classes

Technical requirements

Only basic technical skills are required.  Students should be able to do the following:

• Navigate the Web by clicking on links, or by entering URL's into the Address box of an Internet Browser.

• Copy and paste content from one document to another and into web forms.

• Use a text editor.

• Navigate the file structure of your computer.

• Download and install open-source software.

Etiquette

Common-sense etiquette is expected in written communications:

• Try to keep your communication positive.  You're trying to learn stuff, your instructor is trying to help.

• Avoid profanity.  Your instructor understands profanity and isn't particularly offended by it, but profanity in writing stigmatizes the user as unprofessional, and should always be avoided.  You just don't want to put it in writing.

• Whatever you do, for your own sake don't say things that can be interpreted as hostile or threatening.  Your instructor understands and accepts occasional (and preferably positively focused) expressions of frustration, confusion, and the like.  But there are legal limits to what you can say or write, and you just don't want to push those limits.

• The instructor doesn't really mind it, but it's generally considered bad form to write in all capital letters.  Capital letters indicate strong emphasis, and you don't want to wear out your readers.  In a pure-text editor capitals are your only reasonable option for emphasis, but use capitalized letters appropriately and sparingly.

Instructor Information:

Associate Professor of Mathematics David A. Smith  

Email dsmith@vhcc.edu Contacting the Instructor    contact instructor by email or using forms, as instructed Office Location Room 102 of ISC building on VHCC campus. Questions may be submitted using the form at the following link: Submit Question Form. The instructor's most important activity is to clarify content to students and supplement available information.  Instructional materials are designed to provide a structured stream of questions, activities and solutions/answers as the student engages the course content.  When you as a student have a question that isn't answered by the activity, you are encouraged to pose a question that documents what is and is not understood.  This provides the instructor with the information required to focus a specific response tailored to the specific need of the student.  It is recommended that you use the Submit Question Form for this purpose. The instructor normally responds as promptly as possible to routine submitted work, often on the same day and nearly always by the end of the day after the work is submitted, and does so seven days a week.

 

Instructor's educational background:

B.S. Mathematics, Case Western Reserve University

(undergraduate minors in Physics and Philosophy; mathematics specialties Rational Mechanics, Mathematical Physics)

M.S. Mathematics, Case Western Reserve University

(standard PhD qualifier-level courses in Abstract Algebra, Topology, Real Analysis, Complex Analysis.  Primary subsequent concentration in Complex Analysis)

Additional graduate work in Physics