Penn State E-mail Accounts
All official communications from the Penn State World Campus are sent to students' Penn State e-mail accounts. Be sure to check your Penn State account regularly, or forward your Penn State e-mail to your preferred e-mail account, so you don't miss any important information.
Academic Integrity
This course follows the guidelines for academic integrity of Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Penn State defines academic integrity as "the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner." Academic integrity includes "a commitment not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation, or deception." In particular, the University defines plagiarism as "the fabrication of information and citations; submitting other's work from professional journals, books, articles, and papers; submission of other student's papers, lab results or project reports and representing the work as one's own." Penalties for violations of academic integrity may include course failure. To learn more, see Penn State's "Plagiarism Tutorial for Students."
I cannot overemphasize the importance of academic integrity. DO NOT copy and paste from unreferenced sources. Without exception: if you use a direct quote from any source, as part of any submitted assignment, the quote must be clearly noted and properly referenced. (In-line references are fine.)
Violations of Academic Integrity Policy:
Violations of the University’s Academic Integrity Policy can include the following:
- Copying on tests or lesson assignments: looking at other students’ quizzes or lesson reports, copying with a plan with another student; exchanging quizzes or lesson reports with another student
- Plagiarism: fabricating information or citations; copying from the internet of submitting the work of others from journals, articles and papers, or books; submitting other students’ papers as one’s own. Any material, regardless of length, that is the work of somebody else and who is not given explicit credit by citation, submitted as one’s own, is plagiarized material.
- Acts of aiding and abetting: Facilitating academically dishonest work by others; unauthorized collaboration on work; permitting another to copy from one’s quizzes or lesson reports; writing a lesson report for another; inappropriately collaborating on assignments or exams without permission or when prohibited.
- Unauthorized possession: Buying or stealing of quizzes or lesson reports or other materials; selling quizzes or lesson reports; photocopying quizzes; any possession of an exam or lesson report without the instructor’s permission.
- Submitting previous work: Submitting a paper, case study, lesson report, or any assignment that had been submitted for credit in a prior class without the knowledge and permission of the instructor.
- Ghosting or misrepresenting: Taking a quiz or exam or performing a class assignment in place of another student; having another student do the same in one’s place; signing in as present in class for another student or having another student do the same in one’s place.
- Computer theft: Electronic theft of computer programs or other software, data, images, art, or text belonging to another.
Penn State awards academic credit, certificates, and degrees to individuals who successfully complete a course and program requirements. It almost goes without saying that "successful completion" involves doing one's own work. Unfortunately, some students attempt to pass off the work of other students or authors as their own. Academic integrity violations are avoided by scrupulously following the citation and reference guidelines published in the Academic Integrity Guide that appears in the Resources menu at the Nature of Geographic Information.
Citation and Reference Style
Academic Integrity and Citation Style Guide here.
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. Every Penn State campus has an office for students with disabilities. The Office for Disability Services (ODS) website provides contact information for every Penn State campus: Campus Disability Coordinators (equity.psu.edu/student-disability-resources/campus-disability-coordinators). For further information, please visit the Office for Disability Services website (http://equity.psu.edu/ods).
In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation based on the documentation guidelines (http://equity.psu.edu/ods/guidelines). If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus’s disability services office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.
Military Personnel
Veterans and currently serving military personnel and/or spouses with unique circumstances (e.g., upcoming deployments, drill/duty requirements, disabilities, VA appointments, etc.) are welcome and encouraged to communicate these, in advance if possible, to the instructor in the case that special arrangements need to be made.
Inclement Weather
In case of weather-related delays at the University, this online course will proceed as planned. Your instructor will inform you if there are any extenuating circumstances regarding content or activity due dates in the course due to weather delays. If you are affected by a weather-related emergency, please contact your instructor at the earliest possible time to make special arrangements.
Connect Online with Caution
Penn State is committed to educational access for all. Our students come from all walks of life and have diverse life experiences. As with any other online community, the lack of physical interaction in an online classroom can create a false sense of anonymity and security. While one can make new friends online, digital relationships can also be misleading. Good judgment and decision making are critical when choosing to disclose personal information with others whom you do not know.