COURSE SYLLABUS FOR COM 1250

INTRODUCTION TO INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

SECTION# WEB Fall 2017 3 CREDIT HOURS

Professor: Nikki Phillips

E-mail: Please use email in myLearning. If you are having issues, you may email nphillips@csmd.edu

Semester Dates:
Begins: 9/5/2017
Last date to withdraw: 11/10/17
Semester Break: 11/22-26/17
Last day of class: 12/18/17
Audits: The last day to change from credit to audit or audit to credit is November 10, 2017. In
order to change from audit to credit status, you must have completed all required assignments by
that date and have a grade of C or higher.

Prerequisites: ENG 0900 and RDG 0800, or placement. College-level writing skills are recommended.
Required Text: Interplay: The Process of Interpersonal Communication by Ronald Adler, Lawrence
Rosenfeld, and Russell Proctor II (Adler et al) 13th Ed
IBSN number: 978-0-19-939048-9
Required Materials: Aside from the text, I suggest you have a flash drive or other external storage
device for backing up documents. I STRONGLY encourage you to keep a copy of everything you submit,
complete with time stamp. The best way to do this is with a screen shot before you hit submit

Course Description: Students are able to combine theory and application of communication principles
involved in initiating, developing, and maintaining a relationship. Aspects of one-to-one and small group
communication are explored including perception, self-concept, listening, intercultural and gender
communication, and conflict management.

Course Objectives: By the end of the course, students should be able to:
1. Understand theories of interpersonal communication.
2. Analyze effectiveness of their communication strategies.
3. Recognize the nature and development of interpersonal relationships.
4. Improve proficiency in interpersonal communication.
5. Identify intercultural and gender similarities and differences in communication styles.

A Note about Online Courses:

Online courses are not for every student. If you are not sure if you are a good candidate for an online
course, please complete the READI (Readiness for Education at a Distance Indicator) at
http://csmd.readi.info User Name: csmd, Password: student

Minimum Technical Skills

The student should be familiar with certain components in myLearning. This course requires you to:

post and respond on a discussion board

send emails to communicate
attach files to emails and discussion posts
upload files for assignments being turned in
Course Requirements: To pass this course, you must complete all required assignments listed below.
Specific requirements for this course include:
Successful completion of all Chapter Skills Practices by the due date/time listed in the course
schedule (Which means Sunday night at midnight unless otherwise stated.)
Successful completion of the Personal Application Paper
Successful completion of 6 assessments (quizzes)
Successful completion of the Pillow Method assignment

All course assignments listed must be completed and submitted even if they will receive 0 points. If you
submit an assignment for 0 points in order to meet the course requirements, it must also meet the
requirements of the assignment. Therefore, if the assignment states that the paper must be a specific
length addressing specific areas, you must follow those requirements in order for me to count your
assignment as completed.

Communication General Education Core Competency Requirements

COM 1250 Introduction to Interpersonal Communication - satisfies one of CSMs general education core
competency requirements. This course addresses the Oral Communication outcome. The outcome states: Students
will demonstrate verbal and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of contexts.

Evaluation of work:
This class is graded on a points system. Grades will be assigned based on the points you have earned.
Therefore, final grades will be assigned according to this key:
A = (90-100%) B = (80-89%) C = (70-79%) D = (60-69%) F = (Below 59%)

Figuring out your FINAL grade: Divide the number of points you have earned by the number of *points
possible and you will get a decimal looking something like this .85233168. This will translate to a 85%
for the semester.

If you have a borderline grade as your final grade (89,79,69,59) I will give you the benefit of the
doubt and round you to the next grade, but I only look at the first two numbers after the
decimal. For example, if you do the division you end up with something that looks like this:
.8923476 you would end up with a 90% in the class. If you end up with .889231568 you will have
88% for the class. I only round your final grade.

HOWEVER, if you do not complete all of the required assignments and are a borderline grade, I will not
round your grade. In other words, if your final grade is a .892, but you did not complete the final major
assignment, I will not round you to a 90%.

FX= Students in online courses who never "attend" or cease participation (contact) in the course will earn
the FX grade. The grade will impact the GPA as an F.

Students who fail to maintain active participation in an online course as defined in the course syllabus
will be processed using the FX attendance policy.
FX Grade:

The FX grade and is designed to capture a more accurate picture of those students who earn Fs because
of attendance issues. The grade is issued at both midterm and final intervals and is given to those
students who stay enrolled in courses but simply quit attending. Students who have running absences of
two weeks or more will receive the designation of an FX. The grade will impact the GPA as an F. Students
in online courses who never "attend" or cease participation (contact) in the course will earn the FX
grade.

Incomplete Grades: Incompletes are not granted for reasons other than extreme hardship. These
situations will require a formal letter to me prior to the end of the semester indicating your reason for
requesting the incomplete and providing any back-up documentation necessary. Incompletes are only
given for work which has been qualitatively satisfactory, but which because of circumstances beyond the
students control, does not fulfill the requirements of the course. An incomplete requires a signed
contract, approved by the department chair that stipulates work must be completed by a specific date
(within three weeks of the end of the semester) or it will be converted to a final grade of F for the
course.

Name of assignment value each cumulative value

1. Chapter skills practice assignments (10) 15 points 150 points total
The skills practice for chapters 2 (20 points) and 10 (30 points) have longer deadlines
2. Personal Application Project 60 points
3. Short quizzes (10) 10 question quizzes, 100 total
4. Discussion Postings (12) 10 points 120 points total
5. Pillow Method assignment 40 points
Total Points: 430 points- Subject to change it is up to you to keep up with changes.

Description of Assignments:
1. Textbook Readings and/additional readings: Most readings will be assigned in advance and
are listed on the syllabus. Additional readings may be assigned for homework, and will be posted
a week in advance. Please be prepared to discuss any assigned material for that week.

2. Discussion Postings: All discussion posts are due by Sunday at midnight at the end of each module.
I recommend posting your initial post by Friday at midnight and responding to another students posting
will be due on Sunday at midnight.

The discussion board is intended to take the place of in class discussion. They cannot be made up. If you
miss a discussion, you miss the points. There are no exceptions to this rule. The good news, missing one
or two discussions, should not exclude you from passing the course if you have enough points in other
areas.

Your posting should include your own response to the question and then a second posting should
be your response to another members answer to the weekly question.

The weekly postings are worth a total of 15 points. Eight points are for your response to my
question, and seven points are for your response to a group member. Both responses should show
that you understand the material and that you have put effort into your answer. Your response to
others should show interest and comprehension as well as an effort on your part to formulate the
response. I agree. Or Great idea. Responses are not going to earn you any points.

Lastly, your initial post and response post, should contain back-up support from the text.

All back up support should be property cited with the authors last name and page number. All portions of
the weekly discussions will be evaluated against the Grading Rubric provided on Blackboard.

3. Chapter Skills Practice: All postings are due one week after they have been assigned on Monday at
midnight. While your discussion posts might be about a general topic in the chapter, the Chapter Skills
Practice will be about a specific concept and that chapter and how you have practiced it during that week.
The Chapter Skills Practices should include a summary of the activity/chapter and your analysis.

All Chapter Skills Practice assignments are within the Module week by midnight on Sunday. All portions
of the skills practice assignments will be evaluated against the Grading Rubric provided.

These should be formal, college level mini-essays consisting of 3-5 paragraphs. If your
experiences/examples are not supporting by the text through direct quotes, you will not be eligible for full
credit for that assignment.

4. Personal Application Project:

Overview: You will find 5 pieces of outside sources that can be connected to the chapter in the textbook.

Outside sources can be from any of the following categories: Credible news article, Advertisement, Song
lyrics, Poem, Movie transcript, Drawing, painting, or sketch, Short story- no more than 5 pages, Comic
strip

*If you have an idea for something that is not listed, let me know and we will discuss. You may use
something you have created as one of the five required items. If you wrote a poem or song that connects
to a chapter, you may include it, but all your other materials need to be from outside sources.

Requirements:

1. All of the items related to this project will need to be submitted in a folder. Loose papers will not
be accepted.
2. You will need to include a copy of each outside source in your folder.
3. You may pick any 5 chapters and any 5 types of sources you like.
4. You cannot duplicate chapters or types of sources.
5. For each source you will provide a two paragraph explanation of how the source connected to the
chapter specifically. You will also indicate what personal connection the source has for you.
6. You are required to use proper in text MLA formatting to make the connection clear between
your source and the chapter. This means using direct quotes, properly.

All portions of the Personal Application will be evaluated against the Grading Rubric provided.
5. Small quizzes:

You will have short quizzes throughout the semester. They will not be a surprise. Please check the
weekly announcements and the course calendar. The quizzes will cover that weeks chapter and cannot
be made up. The first one is related to the syllabus and only worth 5 points. The others are all related to
that modules chapter and are worth 10 points.

6. Pillow Method
This will take the place of the discussion for two chapters and you will have little longer to complete the
project.

Course Policies:
Attendance: Online courses are no different from traditional classroom courses in this regard. Online
students are subject to the same attendance policy and procedures as traditional students. For example, if a
student in a traditional class is absent two consecutive weeks without notifying your professor, he/she
will receive an FX in the course. The same premise is used for a distance learning course. However,
participation must be defined in a different manner. Online courses will, at a minimum, have weekly
mechanisms for student participation, which can be documented by any or all of the following methods:
Completion of tests.
Submission/completion of assignments
Submission/completion of discussions

This is a communication class. If something comes up or you are distracted or lose a sense of time, email
me and I will do my best to help you get back on track, while being fair to the rest of the students.

Assignments and Exams: Assignments and quizzes are due at the time specified on the assignment. I
will not accept an assignment without penalty after this time except in excused circumstances.

In order for me to accept an excused late assignment, or re-assign an exam, documentation must be
provided and the assignment must be submitted within 72 hours of the original deadline. Typical excuses
that will be granted for documented are: urgent or emergency medical treatment involving yourself, or
immediate family members; family funerals; or other emergency situations that are documented by
individuals outside of your household. I reserve the right to determine what constitutes an excused or
unexcused absence, and documentation may be required before an extension/make-up is granted.

In the case of late assignments, unless the tardiness is excused, late assignments will be penalized 10% for
24 hour period they are late. In the case of a missed exam, the exam cannot be made up if the absence is
not excused and the student will fail the course.
All major course assignments must be completed and submitted even if they will receive a failing grade.
Failure to turn any of these assignments in will result in failure of the course. I recommend that you post
your assignments a few hours before the deadline. Give yourself time for these technical difficulties to be
overcome.

There will be no credit for late discussion postings. They cannot be made up.

Assignment Format: These assignments are like mini-essays and should be formal, free of spelling and
grammatical errors. Items that do not follow this format will receive an automatic 10% deduction. All
typed work must be edited for spelling and grammar problems. Proper citations and MLA format
guidelines for references must also be included in your work. Additionally, all typed assignments must
follow the format listed below:

1. All assignments MUST be submitted through myLearning. Assignments that are e-mailed will not be
graded until they are correctly submitted.
2. All submissions must be typed with 1 margins. Font should be in a readable font.
3. The Personal Application Paper should be at least 3 pages in length in order to fully answer the
questions posed. (Please no more than 5 pages)
4. Include a reference page. All references should be cited in your paper. The reference page DOES NOT
could towards your page total.

Academic Honesty: Plagiarism is the use of someone elses words, written or oral, as your own. When
you use material from another source, you must quote or paraphrase accurately and properly cite the
information. Examples of plagiarism include:
1. Word-for-word copying without placing your statement in quotation marks;
2. Incomplete or missing citations;

3. Downloading or purchasing text from the internet or another person and claiming it as your own.

All cases of plagiarism will be reported through the judicial procedures outlined in the student handbook.
I check all of your work for spelling, grammar, critical thought and for plagiarism. Individuals who are
found in violation of this policy will fail this course as they will not be able to successfully complete all
assignments needed for the course. Additionally, I will report all cases of plagiarism to the appropriate
administration, following the procedures outlined in your CSM Student Handbook, in the CSM Catalog,
and in my Faculty Manual. The disciplinary action that results will be final. You can read more about
academic integrity the Student Code of Conduct in your Student Handbook

When citing a source (your text or otherwise) this is the format:

According to Johns Hopkins University people who smoke cigarettes are 85% more likely to be
diagnosed with Lung Cancer (jhu.edu).

OR

According to a research article published by Johns Hopkins University people who smoke cigarettes are
85% more likely to be diagnosed with Lung Cancer (Smith 25).

OR

Although, people who smoke cigarettes are 85% more likely to be diagnosed with Lung Cancer
(jhu.edu).

CSM Policies

Disruptive Behavior: If a students behavior repeatedly disrupts the educational process of COM 1250,
will submit a student judicial complaint, and the disciplinary actions that result will be final. You can read
more about the Student Code of Conduct in your Student Handbook.

Netiquetteonline jargon for Internet etiquetteis a series of customs or guidelines for maintaining
civilized and effective communications in online discussions and email exchanges. When composing a
message, it is important to carefully consider your audience and the message you want to convey because
you dont have the benefit of the facial expressions, voice inflections, and body gestures that accompany
face-to-face conversations. Students in this course will be expected to demonstrate netiquette when
interacting with classmates and instructors. Here are some netiquette techniques:

o Put a meaningful title in the subject line.

o Use uppercase and lowercase letters.
o Be careful what you send.
o Be polite.
o Quality matters!
o Use smileys and text messaging shorthand cautiously.

Disabled Student Services: If you are a student with a disability and believe you may need
accommodations for this class, you should contact Disabled Support Services (DSS) at (301)
934-7614. Or, you may stop by the Learning Assistance Department in LR 123. Please file your
information early in the semester with DSS to make sure all necessary arrangements are made in
time for this class.